Within a classroom, every student brings their own personality, background and diverse life experience which may have an impact on their learning (Ewing et al. 2019). This may impact factors such as their interests, values, beliefs, abilities or simply just their style of learning. To support each individual students’ ability to participate in learning, it is essential to consider these diversities and plan accordingly to create an inclusive learning environment (Ewing et al. 2019).

For students with additional needs, it is essential that they are provided with achievable learning goals aligning to their own abilities in order to increase their engagement and allow for them to actively participate within their classroom. Within my first few days of placement, I focused on observing individual student’s abilities and learning styles in order to identify areas of learning which may need to be differentiated for certain students.By the time I reached week 3 of my placement, I developed an understanding of exactly which children would need differentiation in which learning areas. When planning my rhyming words activity, I was aware of two students in particular who may struggle to reach the desired learning outcomes if they were expected to follow the same processes as their peers. I was aware that if I could not come up with a suitable differentiated activity which suited the children’s needs and abilities, the students were both at risk of becoming disengaged due to frustration and thus may have been left behind in the learning experience (Hattie, 2012). Rather than expecting the children to write the words immediately by themselves, I provided rhyming words on cut out pieces of paper which they could then stick in what they believed to be the correct space and attempt to copy if feeling confident. By providing this differentiation for the students, they were included in the learning experience with their peers whilst simultaneously being provided with adequate support to assist them in reaching the same learning goals as the rest of the class (Ewing et al. 2019).

Ewing, R, Kervin, L, Glass, C, Gobby, B, Le Cornu, R, & Groundwater-Smith, S 2019, Teaching : dilemmas, challenges and opportunities (6th ed.). Cengage

Hattie, J 2012, Visible Learning for Teachers: Maximizing Impact on Learning, Routledge.