What is Differentiation?

Differentiation is not an easy concept to master. It takes teachers years to get the concept. The first step to becoming a teacher who can differentiate is to learn what it is/what it is not. A good book to start with is "How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed Ability Classrooms" by Carol Ann Tomlinson. This book breaks down what it looks and ideas you can incorporate in your classroom.
Differentiation is not teaching every student something different or homogeneous grouping; placing students in ability groups and keeping students in that group even when they have mastered a subject. Another misconception about differentiation is that if you give students complex questions or advanced topics on the same subject every one else is working on you are differentiating. This is not true.
Differentiation is providing students with different learning options and expressing learning so that it meets the needs of the various types of learners in your classroom. Students can learn information linguistically, logic-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal and intrapersonal. When differentiating the teacher but must have knowledge of the learners needs. Students will succeed if the instruction fits different kinds of learners.
Teachers must also remember that instruction for each learner should be qualitative, based on assessments, provides various approaches to students understanding the content (what is learned), process (how students make sense of ideas), and product (how the show what they know), is student centered, not a cookie cutter lesson (found/based on a norm classroom), and includes whole class, group and individual instruction. I know a lot of people are thinking that it can't be done or it might be chaotic. It is not though. It takes a while to master but once the teacher masters the concept their classroom runs very smoothly. I used Carol Ann Tomlinson book and the idea of Differentiation in my classroom last year and 100 percent of my students reached their individual grade level target.