A Little Bird Told Me: One Size Does Not Fit All

Carol Ann Tomlinson is a professor, author, and thought leader whose expertise involves helping educators understand the principles of differentiated instruction and develop competence in creating responsive classrooms that meet the diverse learning needs of today's students. According to Tomlinson, differentiated instruction means

shaking up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn. In other words, a differentiated classroom provides different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas, and to developing products so that each student can learn effectively.

In the tweet below, Sam Kary from the New EdTech Classroom offers a brief overview of how you can leverage technology tools, choice boards, and concepts that support Universal Design for Learning to help meet the needs of 21st century students. If you have 10 minutes, check out Sam's video to learn about some "First Steps Toward Classroom Transformation." 

One-size-fits-all education is a fundamental flaw in our current approach to teaching.

Learn an easy way to get started designing lessons optimized for learner variability.

The First Step Toward Classroom Transformation 📈
➡️ https://t.co/wahl98A2uM#TransformEducation #UDL pic.twitter.com/6bgeRLsmzD

— New EdTech Classroom (@NewEdTechClass) February 16, 2022

Sam's video is part of a 6-part series about building the classroom of tomorrow. If you have time, feel free to check out the entire series about engaging students today while building the classroom of tomorrow: 

1. Fixing What's Broken in Education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipnxE... 
2. The First Step Toward Classroom Transformation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha2jH... 
3. Make THIS Your Teacher Super Power: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWt39... 
4. What It Takes to Reach ALL Students: https://youtu.be/YDFoCYQrh0I 
5. How to Become a 21st Century Teacher: https://youtu.be/OqayVxDNx68 
6. Your Questions, Answered! : https://youtu.be/U9ky-RljLtY

source: Tomlinson, Carol Ann. "What Differentiated Instruction Is—and Isn’t." How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms, 3rd ed., ASCD, 2017, pp. 1-11. Gale eBooks, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX7330200009/GVRL?u=ocmboces_ascd&sid=bookmark-GVRL&xid=e7fbba34. Accessed 3 Feb. 2022.