Differentiation of student practice no longer optional: instruction must be based on individual student needs.

The sound walked in the door In an effort to calm my mind after a pointless brainstorming session on "educational options" as well as a senseless rehashing of the day's problems, I slipped "Jazz Around Midnight" into my CD player. Perhaps it was my melancholy mood, the unusually rainy night or extreme exhaustion, but the chords took shape as they drifted across the bedroom. Middle C was a large orange cube while F# rode above it as a purple ovoid. The world seemed "oh so beautiful" and sensible. As I drifted off to sleep I remember telling myself to begin writing my column with these words: "The sound walked in the door."

It's not just students that walk through classroom doors each morning. It's their sounds, their dreams from the night before, their exuberance, their exhaustion, their fights with siblings, their lingering remembrances from a parental hug. Within seconds classrooms transform from tomb-like quiet to a slapdash of emotion -- not unlike musical chords with each note assuming a separate shape, color and rhythm. The most important thing about educational options is that it's ludicrous to think of education without options.

In my professional work with schools there is a frequent need to talk about differentiated instruction. Often the first thing to be differentiated is amount. "Bill, you do problems 1-10 and the rest of the class will do problems 1-23."

Content is also frequently differentiated: "The red group will read `On the Town' (Level 12) with me while the orange group will pair-read `Seeing Things at Night' (Level 22)."

Another kind of differentiation

There's another kind of differentiation that must happen if we are going to ensure that all students meet high standards. It's the kind of differentiation that will allow Sarah, who can listen to jazz and identify each note, and Nancy, who can't clap her hands in rhythm to a polka, to harmonize at the spring concert.

It's a differentiation of the way Stephen, who loves to recite the times tables, and Marilyn, who never knows anything until she has written about it, practice when they both learn to do long division.

In classrooms dominated by paper/pencil tasks and/or lectures, this differentiation of practice is missing. Educational options can provide opportunities for "regular" education to see beyond the desktop as the best place for practice. That is, it can if its stories are told. This edition of Leadership tells such stories.

Options in the way students practice

I've recently been taking courses to receive my Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development (CLAD) certification. Effective strategies for working with English learners involve instruction that is based on an individual's needs. I made that same discovery while earning my special education credential.

Through efforts to meet the needs of "special" learners we find our skills for working with all learners are increased. For example, techniques for working with a student with a low cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in Spanish and English are very similar to techniques for working with an English-only student with a low CALP. Time and again these techniques involve finding different ways for students to practice.

Walking through classrooms as an instructional leader, what options for practice do you observe? Differentiation of the standards students will meet is no longer an option. Differentiation of the ways students practice the same standard is necessary.

Remember that sounds may not be merely vibrations in the air; they might just walk through your door. When they do, don't think of them as a trip back to the `60s. Instead, let them lead you forward to a 21st century where students enjoy the educational options available to ensure that each one meets high standards. That will require options in the way students practice.

George Manthey, educational services executive for ACSA, coordinates the services of individuals who support II/USP schools through the California Curriculum Management Audit Center.