An Introduction to Differentiation
Presented by Kathy Marks, M.Ed.
Does this sound like your class?
“Mrs. Johnson walks into her fifth-grade classroom on the first day of
school to meet the twenty-five children she will teach for the next ten months.
She has read their files, examined their standardized test scores, and met with
their fourth-grade teachers. However, it is only when she has spent time with her
class that she gets to know each of them as a child and learner. One student
loves hamsters; another is an avid fisherman. One student is a writer beyond her
years; another has trouble stringing two sentences together but can solve
complex math problems. One student would like to be invisible and another
wants to be noticed every minute of the day. Several students race through their
work to be the first one finished, but one child wears out erasers in an effort to
make every letter perfect and needs extra time to complete an assignment. Four
students receive support for their learning disabilities, three are English language
learners, one child has Asperger’s syndrome, and one has attention deficit
disorder.
Mrs. Johnson’s class is not unusual, and the mountain she has to climb
is not insurmountable. Mrs. Johnson’s mission is to teach this varied group so
each student successfully meets the standards set forth by the state in which she
teaches. More important, the greater challenge is to meet each child where he
or she is and move each forward in his or her learning as far as possible” (Levy,
2008, p.161).
What is Differentiation?
• Allows all students to access the same
classroom curriculum by providing entry points,
learning tasks, and outcomes tailored to
students’ learning needs
• Not a single strategy, but rather an approach to
instruction that incorporates a variety of
strategies
What is Differentiation?
• A process to maximize each student’s growth
and individual success by meeting each
student where he or she is
• Integration of constructivist learning theory,
learning styles, and brain development with
learner readiness, interest, and intelligence
preferences
• A learning environment and opportunities
that excludes no child
What is Differentiation?
• Every teacher has differentiated instruction in
one way or another
• But we can make our classrooms more
responsive to student needs by being more
systematic in our approach to differentiation
• Differentiated instruction is a set of strategies
that will help teachers meet each child where
they are when they enter class and move
them forward as far as possible on their
educational path
Why Differentiate?
We all have diverse classrooms with a
range of student knowledge, abilities and
disabilities, interests, experiences,
language, culture, motivation, learning
preferences, etc.
In response to this, effective teachers
learn to develop classroom routines that
attend to learner variance in readiness,
interest, and learning profile
Why Differentiate?
Is differentiation fair?
Think of teachers as doctors:
3 children come to you
• One has a bruise
• One has a broken leg
• One has a cut
Should they all receive equal treatment?
Or should they be treated equitably
based on their needs?
What Research Shows…
Differentiating for Student Readiness
• Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development”:
where a child can succeed with scaffolding or
support” and “new learning will take place”
• Current brain research: “students should work at
a level of ‘moderate challenge’ for learning to
occur”
• Research on multiage classes (differentiated by
intent and necessity): achievement test results
favor multiage classrooms versus single-grade
classrooms on 75% of the measures used”
(Tomlinson et al., 2003)
What Research Shows…
Differentiating for Student Interest
• “Interest-based study is linked to motivation and
appears to promote positive impacts on learning
in both the short and long term.” It is “a means of
enhancing motivation, productivity, and
achievement” as well as creativity
• “Interest contributes to a sense of competence
and self-determination in learners and to positive
learning behaviors, such as willingness to accept
challenge and persist in it”
(Tomlinson et al., 2003)
What Research Shows…
Differentiating for Student Learning Profile
• “Addressing a student's learning style through flexible
teaching….results in improved achievement and
attitude gains in students from a wide range of cultural
groups” (Tomlinson et al., 2003)
• “Learners at primary, middle, and high school levels
achieve better when instruction matches their
preference” (Tomlinson et al., 2003)
• “A growing body of research shows positive results for
full implementation of differentiated instruction in
mixed-ability classrooms.” Studies have found that
differentiated instruction benefits students with
disabilities and high-ability students (Huebner, 2010)
Components of Differentiation
On-going assessment
Flexibility
Choice
Creativity
These help to differentiate:
• Content being taught
• Processing of information
• Products to show learning
Differentiation of content, process, and
product should be guided by student
characteristics of readiness, interest,
and learning styles.
On-Going Assessment
• Not just at the end of a unit
• A means of understanding how to modify
tomorrow’s instruction based on students’
readiness for particular ideas and skills, their
interests, and their learning profiles
– Diagnostic – pre-assess knowledge and skills
– Formative – assess in order to adjust instruction
– Summative – final assessment of mastery
Flexibility
• Teachers and students should work together in
a variety of ways:
– Kind and use of materials
– Pacing
– Grouping (can be based on readiness, interest, or
learning profiles)
– Instructional strategies
Choice and Creativity
• Teachers can provide students choices of
– Content
– Process
– Products
based on their readiness, interests, and learning
profiles.
• This will require teacher creativity to design
instruction and student creativity in their thinking
and work.
Differentiation of Content
• Content is what we want students to learn
• Content can be differentiated by:
– adapting what is taught
– modifying how students access learning
(independence, partner work, teacher aid)
• Content can be differentiated in response to
student readiness, interest, or learning
profiles.
Differentiation of Process
• Process is making sense of information and
skills through application, analysis, practice, etc.
• Process is easiest when activities are interesting
and ask for high-level thinking.
• Process can be differentiated by
– offering multiple ways to make sense of
information
• Process can be differentiated in response to
student readiness, interest, or learning profiles.
Differentiation of Product
• Product is a way to show long-term learning
through thinking, applying, demonstrating
• Product can be differentiated by:
– adapting the format
– modifying the amount of scaffolding needed
• Product can be differentiated in response to
student readiness, interest, or learning
profiles.
Differentiation
Guided by on-going assessment, flexibility, choice, and
creativity, teachers can differentiate by
Content
Process
Product
according to
Readiness
Interest
Learning Profile
(Tomlinson, 1999)
Resources
Anderson, K. M. (2007). Tips for teaching: Differentiating instruction to include
all students. Preventing School Failure, 51(3), 49-54.
Hall, T., Strangman, N., & Meyer, A. (2003). Differentiated instruction and
implications for UDL implementation. Wakefield, MA: National Center on
Accessing the General Curriculum.
Huebner, T. A. (2010). Differentiated instruction. Educational Leadership, 67(5),
79-81.
Levy, H. M. (2008). Meeting the needs of all students through differentiated
instruction: Helping every child reach and exceed standards. Clearing House,
81(4), 161-164.
Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs
of all learners. Alexandria, VA.: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Tomlinson, C.A. & Imbeau, M.B. (2010). Leading and managing a differentiated
classroom. Alexandria, VA: ASDC.
Resources
Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability
classrooms (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C. A., Brighton, C., Hertberg, H., Callahan, C. M., Moon, T. R.,
Brimijoin, K., . . . Reynolds, T. (2003). Differentiating instruction in response to
student readiness, interest, and learning profile in academically diverse
classrooms: A review of literature. Journal for the Education of the Gfted,
27(2/3), 119-145.
Watts-Taffe, S., Laster, B. P. (., Broach, L., Marinak, B., McDonald Connor, C., &
Walker-Dalhouse, D. (2012). Differentiated instruction: Making informed
teacher decisions. Reading Teacher, 66(4), 303-314. doi: 10.1002/TRTR.01126