Individualized Lesson Planning: A Differentiated Approach

In classrooms and homes across the United States, teachers are supplementing instruction with programs that allow students to practice their academic skills, offering teachers the ability to see how well or poorly the students perform on a given standard. These, often engaging programs, allow teachers to select topics for the class to practice at a whole group level. The eLearning format, which allows users to proceed at their own pace, gives the students the freedom to practice anywhere. These programs have been widely adopted, but what if we could take this a step further?

Does Practice Make Perfect?

These practice programs offer exactly that, practice. As the old adage goes, practice makes perfect; however, this is only true if the fundamentals of the skill being practiced are understood. Utilizing a practice-based methodology, though an excellent avenue to enhance proficiency, does not furnish the necessary tools to help the students that have not yet acquired competency in the concept being taught. For a program like this to be inclusively beneficial, it needs to provide a learning component option for those students that need assistance with comprehension. In this model, the students that have understood the concept being taught can practice to hone their skills, while the students that have not, are given an additional opportunity to learn that concept in a differentiated mode of instruction.

Promoting Equity

In accordance with differentiated instruction, courses that offer the class as a whole the same sequence of lessons, topics and skill builders, are failing to address the diverse needs of the individual student. Programs like this propagate the dangerous phenomenon of teaching to the middle, rather than appealing to the individual abilities of each student. An Edutopia Article, Equity vs. Equality: 6 Steps Toward Equity, calls to attention the difference between equity and equality in the classroom: “If equality means giving everyone the same resources, equity means giving each student access to the resources they need to learn and thrive.” In a program that promotes equity, students should be offered the ability to devote their time to learning topics specific to their needs without being forced to practice skills they do not yet understand or skills they have already mastered.

Data-Driven Achievement

One of the greatest arguments against differentiated instruction is the time it takes teachers to plan individualized lessons for each student, but what if there was a technological tool that could automate that based on the data derived from benchmark assessments? Though benchmark evaluations offer valuable insight into the areas in need of improvement, utilizing the data gained from those evaluations to personalize instruction allows each student his or her own individual learning plan. Data-driven instruction is not only beneficial for the students. An article by Jason Lange observes the benefits it has for the educators as well: Recent studies have shown that teachers in schools with data-focused programs find that data use improves instruction, revitalizes their eagerness to teach, and increases professional fulfillment. While lesson planning for a class is a starting point, consider the innumerable benefits of being able to tailor those plans for each student based on their individual strengths and weaknesses.

A Format for Success

Utilizing a tool like Planbook Plus is an innovative solution to restructure the purview of traditional lesson planning. Through the integration of other tools, Planbook Plus can renovate common classroom lesson plans into a transformative personal learning experience.  In a comprehensive format, students can begin with an assessment to evaluate their current knowledge. The data derived from these initial assessments can be utilized to develop personalized lesson plans targeting individual student needs. Using a program that provides the necessary instructional components, students will be remediated through a new means of instruction. As the learning process continues, students can be formatively evaluated, as teachers continue to augment instruction to optimize education for the individual. As the diverse needs of the classroom increase, technology can be leveraged to not only plan lessons more effectively, but to change the way lessons are planned altogether.

“If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.“ –Ignacio Estrada