How will you figure out if you should differentiate something for readiness or interest?
I believe that a teacher should differentiate for both readiness and interest in the classroom. I mean to say that a teacher should understand each and every student to the point that he or she may know a student's readiness to learn each objective and show understanding about what is being taught. If the student is ready to learn, they will have interest to learn a subject. If the student has interest in the subject, they will be ready to learn and will do what they need to do to have a good learning experience. Our goal as teachers is to show interest in the subject we are teaching and also the students we are teaching. If we are able to model our interest and show trust in our students' abilities, I feel that learning will be produced and differentiated by the students themselves with little work from the teacher. I think that by fueling interest, students will fuel their own readiness even if they don't feel they are unable to do it. The effort is shown and effective learning is taking place in the classroom with each student in the classroom.
I see the relationships you are talking about. Great thinking! Just be sure that you understand how differentiating for interest should motivate kids to do their very best, to dig in and go "deep" into something, or to show you exactly how well they understand something. But, you're right... that will affect their readiness for things, and show you the way you should differentiate the next tasks. 4 points
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