There’s a quotation that I love that I think is attributed to Carl Orff, who was a music educator. His approach was child centered and focused on the child learning by doing and learning by playing and exploring. Carl Orff quotes, “Tell me, I forget, show me, I remember, involve me, I understand”.
I bring this quotation up because I believe that people learn best by doing and by having meaningful experiences through purposeful connections. As a teacher, it can take a lot of energy to plan to differentiate instruction, even if we know how important it is to incorporate different strategies into our classrooms.
I feel lucky that in the band classroom, there are many opportunities to learn music in different ways. Music is hands-on, it allows for creativity, it uses many parts of the brain at once, it strengthens different learning styles, and there are opportunities for students to experience musical contexts outside of the classroom, like on tours, band trips, performances, and clinics. I think music can combine written theory assignments, to listening and watching performances, to practicing and rehearsing music. Also, if a student does not understand a concept, there are many ways to show that concept (aurally, visually, kinesthetically). If there are exceptional learners, the instructional method may need to be modified and different aspects of achievement need to be celebrated.
In other classrooms, I think it could be more difficult to differentiate instruction from more traditional ways of learning, like lecturing. I love field trips, place based learning opportunities, debates, projects, community service volunteering, simulations, discussions, making journals, acting, cross-curricular projects, and demonstrations. It is so important to make learning interesting to students and to do different fun things because these if students are involved with these experiences, they understand and they remember. If I think back to high school, I remember the chemistry experiment where the flame went so high it almost lit the flag on fire, not the actual chemistry lesson with note taking.
There are lots to consider when differentiating instruction. It depends on the subject that is being taught. Some methods work better than others in different contexts. I think it also depends on the personality of the classroom and the responsibility level. For example, a Grade 6 classroom might not be prepared to do a science experiment that a Grade 9 classroom could handle. It could also depend on motivation level of the students (which these interesting methods might help motivate students) and it could also depend on the budget that the school has or the teacher has. It is something that takes a lot of time and extra effort from the teacher but is an invaluable way of learning for the student!
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