Heacox, Diane. (2002). Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners, Grades 3-12. Reviewed by Rhea Duncan, Portland, Oregon

Heacox, Diane. (2002). Differentiating Instruction in the Regular Classroom: How to Reach and Teach All Learners, Grades 3-12. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing. Pp. 163 ISBN 1-57542-105-4     $29.95 Reviewed by Rhea Duncan Portland, Oregon July 14, 2005 Today’s classrooms present a number of challenges to people in the field of education. It used to be that teachers would use the same teaching style and strategies for all students and not take into consideration that not all students learn the same. Over the years this approach and philosophy has greatly changed mainly because we all know that students are not all the same, nor do they learn the same. As I am approaching the end of my first year of teaching in a public high school and have more time to reflect, I ask myself the question of whether or not I reached all of my students to the best of my ability. I believe it takes many years for teachers to learn how to reach all levels and needs of learners in a classroom, which ultimately are the characteristics of a great teacher. About two months into my first year all of our staff members were given a book on differentiated instruction. As a first year teacher who was just trying to make it through each day, I glanced at it then pushed it to the side because I felt like as if I had no time to read through it all and make use of the ideas. Then as things slowed down this Spring I picked it up and began reading through it. I have recently finished reading the whole thing, and actually along the way implemented some of the strategies and ideas that were presented in the book. It was a great tool for me as a first year teacher and I will definitely be using it more as I move forward with my teaching career. Differentiating Instruction brings an informative and practical approach to making teaching student-oriented and not so teacher driven. It recognizes barriers that education is faced with today but provides extraordinary examples and strategies that can be used to overcome those barriers and provide support to help all students achieve within the classroom. The author of the book, Diane Heacox has been an educator both at the elementary and secondary levels in public education. She has served as a classroom teacher, administrator, instructional specialist and consultant. Her personal education includes a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction and a doctorate in educational leadership. She is currently an assistant professor at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN. Heacox was inducted into the University of St. Thomas’s Education Hall of Fame in 2001 for her work in the field of education. Differentiating Instruction contains ten chapters and three appendices. The beginning three chapters of the book prepare the reader by helping to identify background information that will be important later in the book to determine what strategies of differentiation might be used. It includes student profile worksheets, multiple intelligence tests, interest inventories, and many other tools to help identify the needs of the students in your class. They help to clarify what differentiation really is, what students you are differentiating for, and what the teacher will be teaching. Chapter four helps the teacher to identify what her/his style of teaching is, and how to incorporate challenging content that also has variety and can be used beyond the subject or unit being taught. It provides sample matrix layouts and lesson plans as well. Chapters five through seven focus directly on what students need, why, and how to incorporate strategies into the classroom. There are numerous strategies on tiering assignments, grouping students, and reproducible lesson plans. The bulk of the strategies and practices of differentiation lie within these chapters. Chapters eight through ten provide a final look into using differentiation in your classroom. It gives ideas on how create quality criteria so that the grading is fair and equitable and is based on learning progress and growth. It also provides strategies and insight on how to manage differentiating instruction without taking up a large amount of time. The last section focuses on meeting the needs of special populations such as students with physical or mental disabilities, behavior disorders, and students with IEP needs among others. The actual reading and understanding of the material presented in the book was very easy to follow. The layout was such that the book walked you through from the beginning to the end in an easy to follow step by step process. A majority of the tools and strategies can be used across disciplines as well as age groups. There were many different strategies and tools presented that can be used to determine the learning styles and intelligences of the students which I find important tools in the beginning of a year when a teacher may have a number of new students. Access to the matrixes, lists of assignments, lesson plans, and ideas for activities makes the information much easier to translate into a workable plan. The appendices provide additional information that Heacox feels useful to anyone who incorporates these strategies into their classroom. Appendix A is a personal letter to parents stating how the teacher plans to conduct the classroom and what the goals and expectations will be. Appendix B focuses on how to create dialogue amongst the students through creative questioning. It provides checklists and sample questions as support to the concept. Appendix C concludes with the CCPP toolkit, which is considered an alternative method to differentiating instruction using a menu-like approach to choosing activities. CCPP stands for content catalysts, processes, and products. The toolkit is considered to be a quicker way to differentiate activities that provide a challenge and variety. Differentiating Instruction provides a quick and informative look at important strategies and practices that can be used to create relevance in the content for all of the students in your class regardless of ability. I have found it very helpful to me, and feel that it could be a very useful resource for beginning teachers who may not have a lot of experience differentiating for students in the classroom. Heacox provides great samples of units, reproducible lesson plans, and strategies to help you start small and end big. I know many teachers in my building who make use of this book in many subject areas and feel any teacher at any level could have a stronger classroom if these strategies were implemented. Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.