How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms by Carol Ann Tomlinson.

2/5 rating. 165 pages.

Book #61 of 2021. Read October 22, 2021.

This book had some great ideas but just had so much discussion that was unnecessary.

The idea of differentiating in a classroom is obviously needed. Students are often at varied places in their knowledge of content, their interests, and the ways in which they learn best. Unfortunately, there is just so much of this book that could be summed up under the banner of learning about the individual students and trying to work to engage each of them.

I especially was troubled by a whole chapter on learning profile that spends half of the chapter saying that there is little to no evidence that this idea even exists. The book explicitly says: “It would be wiser to encourage students to learn in more ways rather than steering them toward one mode or another.” Then decides to talk more about the ideas of steering students towards different ways. I just didn’t understand this!

While teaching, it’s important to take in as much evidence and knowledge as possible in order to be able to apply this to our students. There just was plenty in this book that I felt was completely superfluous.

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