Differentiated instruction is a method of teaching in which a teacher adapts lesson plans in order to reach several different learning levels that exist within the same classroom. This requires some flexibility as the teacher adjusts the standard curriculum so students who struggle with reading and learning -- as well as those who are advanced readers and learners -- can all succeed in the same classroom.
Differentiated instruction can help the student who struggles with reading to succeed. For example, students who struggle to read at their current grade level may have trouble reading to understand their assignments because they're still at the level where they're reading to learn how to read. If this is the case, the teacher may offer for these students to read text that is less difficult while still focusing on the same concepts, or he can offer handouts such as graphic organizers and sentence starters to accompany the reading assignment.
High-achieving students can succeed when assignments are modified in a way that gives these students a little more of a challenge. A teacher can give more advanced reading material to these students. Teachers can also challenge students with different reading concepts, such as inference and making predictions with given assignments.
Differentiated instruction can benefit the student who does better with non-traditional learning styles. If students aren't visual learners, reading may be an area they struggle with. Differentiating reading assignments so that students can read aloud in groups, or be read to while they follow along, is a way to adapt the reading assignment to meet the auditory learner at his current level. For the hands-on learner, reading a play that can be acted out or illustrating the passage that was just read is a way of differentiating the reading lesson.