to implement specific instruction and assessment plans for inclusive settings and other learning environments.
Foreword
When the author and publisher of this book discussed its title, there was a concern that the use of the word "inclusive" would lead potential readers to believe that its content offerings were only for special education teachers. Most certainly, the word "inclusion" has become linked with the movement to educate students with disabilities in general education classrooms - where there is an increasing amount of evidence that these students achieve better than in more segregated special classes. For some teachers and schools, however, the word "inclusion" has become a focal point of debate and concern as they struggle with the many local, state, and federal demands for accountability and improved student outcomes. The difference between "inclusion" and "inclusive" goes well beyond one being a noun and the other an adjective. "Inclusive" is exactly the descriptor we want every classroom to attain. Simply put, an inclusive classroom is one that is welcoming and pedagogically capable of educating the naturally diverse population of students who arrive at its door.
Differentiated instruction is the very foundation upon which teachers can create such classrooms. Developed with an appreciation that our nation's classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse, differentiated instruction provides teachers with a set of strategies to identify and teach to the unique combinations of individual strengths and needs that each child brings to learning. Educational strengths and needs arise from the child's ethnicity, culture, talents, family, disability(ies), prior learning opportunities, and/or community. As today's classroom is an amalgam of the individual strengths and needs of each enrolled child, today's teachers are in critical need of the very strategies that differentiated instruction provide.
Dr. Anne Moll has made a significant contribution to meeting this need. Grounded in her more than 20 years of teaching and serving as a teacher educator, Differentiated Instruction Guide for Inclusive Teaching, is a step-by-step, practical, how-to guide for teachers in developing and refining inclusive, high-performing classrooms. Throughout, Dr. Moll serves as a patient coach to her readers; offering case studies, reflective exercises, and tools that produce ready success and gratification. Through her Essential Curricular Questions and Essential Student Questions, Dr. Moll steers teachers in (1) determining the critical instructional requirements of the curriculum, (2) identifying strategies for engaging each child in the intended learning, and (3) implementing lesson plans that meaningfully engage all students - regardless of his/her individual strengths and needs - in effective learning. It is hard to imagine our nation's schools achieving the lofty purposes of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 without every teacher understanding and practicing the principles of differentiated instruction. This book makes the "gift of differentiated instruction" more accessible to every teacher.
David P. Riley, Ph.D.
Executive Director, Urban Special Education Leadership
Collaborative Education Development Center, Inc.
Newton, Massachusetts