What Differentiation is NOT

Well-meaning teachers often think they are differentiating instruction by asking students to...read a book when they finish early. Or help out another student who is still working. However, this does nothing to challenge a student's thinking, or in fancy education terms, put them into the zone of proximal development. The ZPD is where the real learning happens. Unfortunately, many gifted students rarely get to spend time there. Read more about differentiation anti-patterns here.