Differentiating instruction means creating multiple
paths so that students of different abilities, interests,
or learning needs experience equally appropriate
ways to learn.
The teacher’s first job is to ensure that the curriculum is coherent, inviting and thoughtful.
Multiple paths to boredom will only lead students to
an undesirable place. Multiple routes to trivia and irrelevance will never enhance learning
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Ongoing assessment
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Flexible Grouping
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This is students working in a variety of groups, based on different
elements of their learning.
Groups are both homogeneous and heterogeneous.
Vary groups frequently so there is no stigma.
Mini-lessons
A short, specific lesson with a group of students who are ready to learn
or practise a skill that is needed by all those in the group.
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Offering Choice—Order of tasks
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Offering Choice—Learning Contracts
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Open ended and tiered activities
An open-ended activity is where all students in the group
tackle the same assignment, but the end product will
differ for beginner, intermediate, and advanced clusters.
It’s a great technique because students will feel comfortable working within their level.
A tiered activity is when students are doing the same activity, but it’s tiered according to their difficulty level.
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Tiered Activity—simple
The content is the same but the process or the products are varied according to the level of skill or knowledge
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Tiered Activity—simple
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Tiered Activity—simple
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Open ended activity -simple
The content is the same but the process or the products are varied according to the level of skill or knowledge
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Offering choice –RAFT
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Choice Boards (also called Tic Tac Toe)
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Choice Boards (also called Tic Tac Toe)
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Choice Boards (also called Tic Tac Toe)
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Another example of a simple tiered activity
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Cubing
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Three Tiered Activities
1. Design the challenge
2. Scaffold the challenge
3. Extend the challenge
Teach up, not down!
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Learning Stations
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Teachers base differentiated stations on student assessment
data, whereas a traditional station is based on whole-group
instruction.
In a differentiated station, students work within multilevel resources, whereas traditional station resources are not differentiated.
Differentiated stations have tiered assignments, which include varied student responses, whereas a traditional learning station only has one level of response for all.
Differentiated stations have tiered activities, whereas traditional stations do not.
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More on tiered activities
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