Differentiation Tip: Cubing (Chapman & King, 2005)
Cubing activities are designed to offer students choices and add novelty to thinking.
Cubes are six-sided figures that have a different activity on each side of the cube.
Students roll the cube and do the activity that comes up. Different colored cubes can
be created for different groups of learners. Cubing activities can be created to help students
accomplish tasks at their readiness levels, in their preferred learning styles, and/or in areas of
personal interest. All students are working on activities dictated by their cubes; the activities
are differentiated for individual students or groups of students.
Creating Cubing Exercises
 Start by deciding which part of your unit lends itself to optional activities.
 What concepts can you create a cube for?
 Can you make cubes for different interests, levels or topics?
Step 1 Cubing
 Write 6 questions that ask for information in a selected unit
 Design different levels of questions using Bloom, intelligence levels, etc. that probe the unit
 Keep one question opinion based, no right or wrong
Step 2 Cubing
 Design the first cube as your “average”
 Design two more – one higher and one lower
 All cubes need to cover the same type of questions
 Label the cubes so you know the levels
 Ask a colleague if they can tell which is high, medium or low. If not, adjust.
Step 3 Cubing
 Remember to have one easy and one hard side for each cube
 Color code the cubes for easy identification
 Decide the rules in advance.
o Do the students have to do all six sides?
o Will they role and select four sides?
o Do any 2 questions on three cubes?
Suggestions for labels on face of cube
Side 1
Side 2
Side 3
Side 4
Side 5
Side 6
DESCRIBE IT, Recall, name, locate, list/How would you solve. . .
COMPARE IT, Contrast, Example, Explain, Write, what is it similar to? What is it different
from?/ Compare and contrast this problem to one on page
ASSOCIATE IT, Connect, Make, Design, What does it make you think of?/Create an
interesting and challenging word problem from the number problem
ANALYZE IT, Review, Discuss, Diagram, Tell how it is made. What are its traits and
attributes? How this problem helps us use mathematical thinking and problem solving
APPLY IT, Propose, Suggest, Prescribe, How can it be used?/ Demonstrate how this
problem could be useful in work or real life
ARGUE FOR/AGAINST IT, Debate, Formulate, Support, Take a stand. Use reasoning to
explain/Diagram or illustrate the solution to the problem. Interpret the visual so we
understand it.