Teaching for Differentiation: It Begins With Planning

Essential Question: In a differentiated classroom, what planning decisions are made?

Educational experts are recognizing the power of connecting the principles of Understanding by Design, UbD, ("ensuring that educators identify and teach the essential knowledge, skills, and enduring understanding that shape each of the disciplines") with those of Differentiated Instruction, DI, ("making certain that each learner has maximum opportunity to benefit from high-quality experiences with those essentials"). quotes from Chapter 1.

Every single minute planning decisions are being made in the classroom.

DI is frequently referred to as "responsive teaching" in the book:
Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design, McTighe and Tomlinson.

Who is being taught? What do they already know? What are their learning styles, interests, experiences, and backgrounds?
What evidence of student learning (before and during) has been gathered?
(Step 2: Assessment)

How will it be taught? Which instructional activities, resources, and strategies will fit with the students and the learning goals? What will the implementation look like?
(Step 3: Learning Plan)