Definition: Active planning for student differences in a classroom. 

Differentiation is essential in a classroom. As we keep becoming more and more diverse as a society differentiation is going to becoming more and more essential in our classrooms.  

This image really puts differentiation into perspective for me.  All of our students are going to be different.  Some good at math, some struggle with math, some will have bigger hands, some will have different colors that will stand out, and some that have many strengths, some that have many struggles with academics.  This image leads me into what Carol Tomlinson says in the textbook, "Teachers must take into account WHO they are teaching as well as WHAT they are teaching."What teachers may have thought previously is not going to work anymore.  Teaching to the "middle" of the class is not enough.  The one size fits all motto is not going to work in our classrooms today.  

Just like this shirt doesn't fit this boy, some of the ways that we teach, or the content that we teach won't fit all of our students so we will need to make our classroom differentiated so that we can "FIT" all the needs of our students.  

To create a classroom of differentiation there are some things that us as teachers can do, Responsive instruction is when teachers become increasingly proficient in understanding their students as individuals, increasingly comfortable with the meaning and structure with the disciplines they teach, and increasingly expert at teaching flexibly.  

Our students will be on a variety of levels in academics, and our classroom will have academic diversity.  It is our job as teachers to embrace those diversities and be flexible in our instruction, and learn as many strategies as we can so that we can help ALL of our students in growing and becoming successful in their educational career!