Why Not Teach To The Middle?

"You cannot possibly teach everything to every student, so you might as well get the majority of your students and teach to the middle."

I have always thought of this as a sound theory and it made sense to me. Now that I am more educated about what students are really like and how they learn, I am surprised that any teacher could believe that they are teaching to the middle.

There is no such thing!

All students have different ways of learning, different interests, and many different levels of where they are at with many different subjects. Getting input from your students about what they like, what interests them and how they would like to be taught is detrimental to creating a successful and differentiated classroom. Getting to know your students not only grants you the love and respect from them, but also allows you to discover how to teach to their needs and interests.