Equality v. Equity
In the previous lesson, we established how important it is to have a caring community in your classroom. This community helps students feel safe and that they belong in the classroom. But developing the kind of classroom community needed for effective differentiation is not a simple thing. We must consider things such as:
- Teacher-student relationships: We need ways to develop a comfortable balance between responsibilities and high standards with student needs for relationships of warmth, kindness, and mutual respect indness, and mutual respect les.
- Language we use to communicate efforts to differentiate - equality versus equity.
- Class routines and procedures: classroom communities of trust and caring are best nurtured in classrooms where trust is built and where risk-takings is safe, encouraged and supported.
- The language we use to communicate our efforts to differentiate: Classroom language must evolve around “we” rather than “me,” because differentiation will be a natural outgrowth of a community/culture of trust, safety, belonging, caring and sharing.
Much of this lesson is dedicated to finding an effective way for you to develop routines and procedures that help develop teacher-student and student-student relationships. Let’s take a moment right now to address the final point above. How do you communicate your efforts to differentiate instruction to your students and their parents? Why do the words we choose to use matter?
Consider the difference between these two terms: equality and equity.
Watch the video below to gain some insight into the distinction:
Equality Vs Equity from Khalid Albegamy on Vimeo.
So, when we differentiate instruction, we are making our instruction equitable, not equal. This makes sense because we know in our hearts that fair is not everyone getting the same things. Fair is everyone getting what they need. The way this plays out in the classroom can be hard for some students and parents to understand. They might think that we are being unfair by offering some students extra or different support or by allowing some students to submit their work in a different format.
Based on what you have learned so far in this course, how might you explain the role of differentiation in making instruction equitable to your students’ parents? Post explanations in the Padlet below.
It will also be important to help the students in your classroom to understand the concept of equity and why we differentiate.
Follow this link Building Community and scroll down to the "Building Community" drop-down menu to watch both videos of teachers explaining how they introduce equity and differentiation to their students.
As you can see from these videos, it is very important to help students really understand what “fair” means in the classroom. This is best done through both direct teaching about the terms fairness and equity and through the development of a strong classroom community in which every student feels like they are valued.