I did want to take some time to reflect upon my experience differentiating instruction for my students this semester. I always joke around with my classmates about this topic of differentiation. During my college courses, we were always told to differentiate instruction because this is how to make differences in the academic lives of many of your students rather than just targeting a single student. However, the word differentiation is so easy to say. The actual act of providing differentation is what is difficult. 

      I was lucky during my second grade experience in the sense that I had students from a variety of different backgrounds. Thus, differentiation was a part of my everyday routine. Like driving a car, the more you practice, the better you get at it. The hardest subject for me to differentiate was definitely math. I think this was partly because in math concepts are rather concrete. In other words, you either know your math facts like the back of your hand, or you do not. My very first math lesson I differentiated felt like a run at the circus. I was teaching a small group of six children how to write the addition equations for an array. At the same time, the other students in my classroom who did not need extra reinforcement were playing a "brownie" array game with their partner. Despite the fact that this particular lesson felt chaotic, it was a "good kind" of chaos. In other words, at the end of the lesson I felt accomplished but exhausted. 

       Differentiation is not easy. In fact, it is sometimes downright frustrating. However, it is necessary if you want to reach every student that exists in your classroom. As I learned this semester, chaos can be productive.