Standards Based Instruction and Differentiation

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires that we stick to our state standards while reaching all students. Differentiation must begin with strong lesson plans based on the standards. We must acquire a large menu of instructional strategies so that we can connect all of the students with all of the content. As teachers, we have to acquire a broad knowledge base and skillfulness in presenting our content and strategies. It is a challenge to keep the creativity and freshness in our lessons, while simultaneously keeping achievement data and timelines for completion in our heads. It is for that very reason that we must be purposeful in our strategy selection so that we can accomplish our goals of reaching all students. This being said, we must still identify concepts that go beyond the facts in the state standards guides. I will be doing additional blogs which will include a sample of strategies and lesson plans.