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How a fourth grade teacher used differentiated instruction to build student self-confidence

Differentiation is simply a teacher serving the learning needs of an individual student or small groups of students, rather than teaching a class as if all individuals are basically the same. -Carol Ann Tomlinson

Imagine a nine-year-old boy who gets up super early on a Wednesday morning in May to put the finishing touches on his end-of-year school project. It’s a project he’s been working on and researching for months, and it all culminates in a presentation in front of his professor and all of his classmates. He is pale with anxiety and has faint dark circles under his eyes from a restless night’s sleep. You can see him already starting to fall apart at the kitchen table when he can’t seem to get his Prezi presentation path to render correctly.

This nine year old boy was actually my stepson just two months ago. This is a little boy who cares deeply about many things: Legos, his family, protecting wild animals, playing baseball, and what his friends and teachers think of him. We had seen his steady work on this project and knew that he was well prepared for that morning’s final presentation. But I remember the knot in my stomach that morning when I saw him put on a brave face and leave for school, like a soldier walking toward a threat he couldn’t yet see.

His presentation was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. that day, and I can only imagine what those hours leading up to were like for him. His teacher had scheduled several students to perform that afternoon, and the rest of the kids were huddled around clustered desks in a sweltering late-May classroom. Everyone seemed to be leaning forward, engaged, and supporting their fellow presenters.

A fourth grade girl was finishing up her project overview and the teacher asked her several good, probing questions that required her to think on her feet. Then it was my stepson’s turn to present. After a few agonizing minutes of technical haggling to get the Prezi from her, it was game time.

I could see from his face and body language that he was still nervous and could hardly breathe. As he began to speak cautiously, his teacher very naturally engaged him in an almost conversational introduction to his project, asking one or two leading questions about why he loved Legos and what motivated him to do the project in the first place. It couldn’t last more than 45 seconds, but the impact of it on my stepson was profound.

His entire demeanor was transformed and he delivered in an easy and articulate manner, with a smile on his face the entire time. When he got to the questions and answers, he received many questions from the class and answered them all like a professional. His teacher suggested a few and although they sounded almost spontaneous, I could tell that each one was tapping into knowledge retrieval that was specific to him and his Lego project.

I can only imagine that if we had seen all of the other students’ presentations, we would have continued to capture their teacher’s ability to personalize their communication and strategy for each student, to extract their knowledge and self-confidence. I know that the beaming boy who came home from school was nothing like the tired soldier I’d seen walking out the door earlier that morning.

One thing she hoped to see from him was relief, relief that all the stressful business was over and she could now sail smoothly into summer. But relief wasn’t the feeling he came home with at all. Instead, he brought home a new sense of pride and self-confidence because he realized:

• He really, REALLY knew what he was doing about Legos and was able to share it with his friends.

• And he had actually had fun doing it.

It was the light bulb that illuminated his scaffolding of self-confidence, which he will lean on to face the new challenges that await him around the corner in fifth grade.

References:

Tomlinson, Carol Ann. 2014.The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Students, 2nd edition. ASCD Press.