Differentiation

The British American School of Charlotte's differentiated instruction means that students are placed at the centre of teaching and learning and student needs drive instructional planning, rather than more traditional education methods of teachers, text materials, or curriculum determining what students should be learning. Differentiated instruction enhances learning for all students by engaging them in activities that respond to particular learning needs, strengths, and preferences and is effective in addressing the needs of the full range of ability levels in our classrooms.

BASC teachers tailor their instruction and adjust the curriculum to students' needs rather than expecting students to modify themselves for the curriculum.

The first and most important step in differentiated instruction is determining what students already know so as not to cover material students have mastered, or use methods that would be ineffective for students. The goals of differentiated instruction are to develop challenging and engaging tasks for each learner (from low-end learner to high-end learner). Instructional activities are flexible and based and evaluated on content, process and product.

The content of lessons may be differentiated based on what students already know. Particularly because of the diverse, international student population, it is expected that there is a range of familiarity with concepts in a lesson, and teachers are experts in differentiating the content by designing activities for different groups of students.

Students learn differently. Students have preferred learning styles, so BASC teachers present information in a variety of ways. Some students may prefer to read about a topic, and others may prefer to listen, while others prefer to acquire knowledge by manipulating objects associated with the content. BASC teachers provide content in a way that allows them to learn based either on what method is easiest for them to acquire knowledge, while also teaching them to develop other learning styles.

Assessment of student work must also be based on differentiation. What students produce is a reflection of their prior knowledge, their preferred learning style and their mastery of concepts. True assessment for learning means that the teacher is assessing both student learning and their own teaching and adjusting lessons accordingly.

Finally, in BASC differentiated classrooms, student groupings are flexible and change based on both lesson content and student progress.