Differentiated Instruction in a Language Arts Classroom

To help myself understand what Differentiated Instruction will mean in a secondary English Literature or Language Arts class, I read an article written by Rebecca Adler, "Defining Differentiated Instruction".  She touched on the reality of students with, at times, vastly different educational needs in a single classroom and how teachers face the challenge of meeting those different needs.  

For the last ten to fifteen years, kids that would have once been in a special education class have been mainstreamed into the general population of classrooms.  Although this certainly presents an additional level of challenges for the teachers, the result may benefit the special needs students as well as the other students in the classroom -- but only if all of the students are having their educational needs met.  One of the first steps Adler suggests is simply reading each student's file.  Finding out the history of their education, their home life, their interests, etc., will provide the teacher with needed information when forming appropriate individual learning for a student.  

As a classroom example Adler describes a secondary English class during a unit of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men.  Adler assigns most of the students in the class a short essay on their predictions of what a character will do next, including textural references to back up their predictions.  However she assigns for a student who reads below grade level, to list five adjectives describing the character and to provide one quote from the character to demonstrate the characteristic of one of the adjectives she has listed.  There may also be something additional or more in depth for more advanced learners. 

The idea of different assignments for different students is fairly overwhelming.  Adler makes the suggestion to have on file, different levels of assignments or evaluations for different level of learners.  Not only that, there will be students who may simply have a different style of learning and, again, being prepared with various material for instruction or evaluation would be extremely helpful.  

As I stated, this sounds a bit overwhelming right now.  However, with a lot of foresight, obviously a lot of work, and the experience I will eventually have, I feel confident I will rise to the challenge.  We will have rooms full of various styles and levels of learners in our classrooms.  It will be up to us to teach all of them.  Any suggestions of how to accomplish this is highly valuable and worth trying.