D187: Differentiated Instruction

D187 is about teaching one class while meeting many different needs. It comes in the second term of WGU's MS Curriculum and Instruction standard path, before Standards-Based Assessment.

WGU's program guide describes how the classroom environment and students' readiness, interests and learning profiles influence learning. Teachers learn to differentiate curriculum, instruction and assessment, monitor and communicate progress toward standards, and act as catalysts for differentiation in their schools.

Differentiation is often misread as writing a separate lesson for every child. The course instead teaches targeted, manageable adjustments based on evidence about students.

What D187 Covers

1. Teacher and environment: the role each plays in supporting differentiation.
2. Know your students: analyze readiness, interests and learning profiles.
3. Modify instruction: adjust content, process and product for individual differences.
4. Track progress: plan how to evaluate and report each student's progress against standards.

Key Concepts Explained

Readiness, Interest and Learning Profile

Readiness is a student's current position relative to a goal. Interest is what engages them. Learning profile covers preferences and conditions that help them learn, such as working alone or in groups. Differentiation responds to evidence about each.

Content, Process and Product

Content is what students learn or how they access it. Process is how they make sense of it. Product is how they show what they learned. A teacher can adjust one, two or all three while keeping the same learning goal.

Flexible Grouping

Groups change with the task and the data. Fixed ability groups can lower expectations; flexible groups let students move as they learn.

Typical Assignments and How to Approach Them

Monitoring and Reporting Progress

The final competency asks how you will track each learner's development against standards and report it. Monitoring tells you whether differentiation is working and when to regroup.

Reporting should describe progress on standards in plain language for students and families. Show where the student is now, the next step and how home can support it. Regular, specific updates prevent surprises at report card time.

Where Students Get Stuck

• Lowering the goal. Differentiate the route, not the standard.
• No data behind groups. Show the evidence that placed each student.
• Too many versions. Two or three well-planned options are enough.
• Forgetting reporting. The final competency asks how progress is communicated.

Where D187 Fits in the MSCIN Program

Differentiated Instruction is a second-term course in WGU's standard path, alongside Standards-Based Assessment and Designing Curriculum and Instruction II. It builds on the first-term courses about how students learn and how teachers reflect.

The program guide also describes graduates of the course as catalysts for differentiation in their schools and districts. That leadership angle connects with The Collaborative Leader in the next term, where you plan professional learning for colleagues.

The Teacher and the Learning Environment

The first competency looks at the role of the teacher and the environment. Differentiation works best in a classroom where students accept that people need different things to reach the same goal, and where routines make several activities manageable at once.

• Clear routines for moving between groups, getting help and finishing early.
• Flexible space with areas for small-group teaching and independent work.
• A growth mindset culture where effort and progress are valued.
• Anchor activities students can do independently while you teach a group.

Describe these elements concretely for your own classroom when the task asks about the environment.

Study Tips for D187

• Build your examples around a real unit you are teaching.
• Use a quick pre-assessment and an interest survey early.
• Keep a planning grid: goal, readiness level, content, process, product.
• Remember D184 Standards-Based Assessment builds on this course.

How We Help with D187

Send the task, rubric, standard and a de-identified class profile. An education writer prepares a model differentiated lesson, helps you analyze student data, or edits your draft for clarity and alignment.

GradeEssays is independent of Western Governors University. Your class data and reflections must be your own; use our work as a reference and submit your own tasks under WGU's academic integrity rules.