More Musings about DI

Thanks to Mrs. Shea's presentation, my understanding of DI has become a bit clearer. First, the reason why a teacher uses DI is to get to know his/her students at a deeper level, both academically and relationally. The teacher will structure the lessons to be where students are at individually. Second, readiness should be determined for each unit. This made a lot of sense in class. A new student from out-of-town may never have read Shakespeare in his class, but he is a great reader. He might ace the poetry unit because he already learned how to read poetry last year and possibly be bored. I can see how DI almost inherently is based on engaged learning. Being bored is not an option. The expectations will not be too high. The academic level will be at an appropriate difficulty level that the student will want to take on the challenge. That interest in the challenge equals engagement!

One caveat should be mentioned. Mrs. Shea taught elementary grades. She has her thirty-odd students for the entire day and, understandably, gets to know them better. We high/middle school teachers will have probably four times as many students and will only see them for one period. Getting to know your students and incorporate DI on a regular basis just got a whole lot harder. I'm not throwing in the towel, but it's a different ball game at the secondary level. I'd like to know how we get to the place of knowing our students' academic levels and readiness before doing DI in full. I personally want to know my students well both academically and personally. We are trying to engage the "whole person," not just the "student." Kids are more than their grades. We have to act like we believe that. I think DI is one way to achieve that, may I say, deeper understanding of each student.