As an English minor, I will be focusing on the English curriculum and how I am able to create differentiated learning instruction. In the English curriculum, there is the freedom to lead the students in many directions. There is also the freedom to focus on and dive into different topics. Specifically looking at the English 30 curriculum and the outcome of CRA 30.1 “Viewing, listen to, read, comprehend, and respond to a variety of grade-appropriate First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, and Canadian texts that address: identity, social responsibility, and social action” (Saskatchewan Curriculum 2013). In this curriculum that is multiple ways of differentiated learning including adjusting assessments, adjusting the pace, as well as the freedom to change the process and content.
In teaching this curriculum the key components are viewing, listening, and reading to comprehend. This for different students can present itself in diverse ways. With the broadness of this outcome teachers and students are able to focus on and express this learning in many ways. For viewing, listening and reading teachers can show videos, read in class, and have individual readings. This leaves students with the freedom to learn how they learn best, and to discover what form of comprehension helps them understand topics the best and most productively. This curriculum also allows students to choose resources that will be most effective at engaging in. Because of the broadness of the English curriculum teachers have the freedom to choose novels, articles, and resources that they believe with motivate and engage their students the most. In doing so I as a teacher hope to broaden my collection of novels for students to analyze and reflect on.
In English, teachers can also slow down or speed up the pace of the course. In doing so teachers are able to see where students are at in comprehension and completion of tasks and adjust the pace to benefit one or all students. In English one of the best feelings is having a teacher give you extra time on an assignment that feels impossible to finish in the initial time frame that was given. When teachers do this, it allows the best outcome for students that may be struggling as well as benefits students who are not as they are able to spend more time mastering said topics.
In English teachers also have the ability to differentiate the way that they teach and present the information and lessons that they are to be giving. By getting to know the ways students best learn and using this to the teacher’s advantage we can craft a lesson that caters to our individual students. English presents the ability to change lessons easier than Math and sciences as its outcomes are more broadly focused. As a teacher, I hope to be able to acknowledge these abilities to adapt and implement them to help students who may be struggling and to continue to push students who are exceeding.