Confidence: The Key to Differentiated Instruction

Most individual growth, whether it be in knowledge or skill, begins and ends with confidence. The confidence required to attempt. The confidence gained with success. Last weekend I watched my eleven year old daughter make an advancement in two important skill sets, at least for our family: canoeing and fishing. Before that afternoon she spent many hours in the bow of our canoe fishing for bass while I paddled and coached, but that afternoon she made it clear she was ready to pilot alone.

There were risks she had to weigh, the most likely drifting to the far side and being forced to walk home through brush and tall grass, but she had just enough confidence to try. 

There were factors in place that buoyed her confidence: getting the opportunity on a calm night when the water lay like glass, a heavy rock placed in the empty stern to counter balance, a voice of encouragement from the bank. The accommodations gave her confidence, which led to her success, which in turn led to greater confidence.

And so it is with differentiated instruction. Students need to be challenged in environments where they feel influences they know will contribute to their success. This is what I see everyday in classrooms. Teachers allowing the counterbalance of a calculator, so a student, still working toward automaticity with math facts, can begin learning the concepts of an equation. Teachers requiring, not just allowing, a test to be retaken on a day when the waters of a student's life are more still. Teachers encouraging, always encouraging in a voice with the perfect mix of challenge and support. The result of meeting students where they are, a tough task even for talented teachers, is greater student confidence.

Differentiated instruction begins and ends with confidence.

Troy