FIAE: Chapter 1

The first chapter of Fair is Not Always Equally spends a lot of time discussing the logistics of differentiated instruction. It talks about how differentiated instruction can start with something as simple as how you set up the room, and how you can seat students in a way that makes help from fellow students more readily available, and other forms of help more readily accessible. It also talks a lot about the difference between differentiated instruction and allowing gateways for students to be assigned work that is too easy, or that which doesn't present as much as a challenge as the rest of class, therefore leaving these students dissatisfied and uninterested.
I think the difference between these two things are really important today. In a world where standardized testing is forcing teachers to force information quickly onto their students, just giving easier work to those struggling seems much easier than taking the time to help them gain the tactics to actually understand and apply the information. I also would worry that using tactics that were too obvious would make the student in question uncomfortable in my classroom. Regardless of whether the rest of the class understood that things were the way the were because that student needed extra help, the student would most likely be hyper aware enough to believe that their struggles were obvious to the rest of the class. This would definitely inhibit their learning, and their trust in the teacher.