Differentiation...

Fellow teachers will agree with me that this is a term that is going to be used very regularly in the near future by all educational departments. It is however in my opinion a teaching practice that is not thoroughly understood by all teachers. I tutor a student and his assessment outlines indicate differentiation approaches for the task and they are not really alternate strategies the students can use. For example he had to do a speech and was told that if they needed to they could sit down. This was kind of ok, except that the marking criteria determined that to get an A band you had to use “performance” techniques in presenting your speech. Another example is that I have hear other teachers not at my school say  "I’ll give the lower class 3 questions and the top class 6 questions." How does this help if the lower class is not able to access the same amount of information through questioning?

I was lucky enough to attend a course outlining the idea of differentiation and what struck me, as a great metaphor for the teaching practice is that we can all be master chefs, we just use different ingredients. Every student can achieve the outcome we just need to find which pathway they need to take to get there.

So I thought I would share a few strategies, as this is a something that I truly believe in and have found very successful in my English class. Please comment and let me know how you go!

Strategy one: Choice activities.

Step 1 – What concept am I teaching?

If I want the students to think about the characters and be empathic to their plight, I think of different ways that can show empathy through a creative task. Think about the end result – what lesson do I want them to walk away with?

Step 2 – Giving them choice.

Once I know what outcome I want the students to have I think about how I can get them there.

·      *They can write about empathy. (diary entries, letters, blogs)

·      *They can draw about empathy. (storyboard, posters, comic strips)

·      *They can find pictures to represent empathy. (collages, taking photos)

·      *They can use questions to think about empathy. (interview questions, google search)

Select two or three activities and let the students choose which one they want to complete.

Step 3 – Ensuring a good standard.

The students I teach will always look for the “easiest” option so it’s up to you to determine that they do the best they can in every task they attempt.

· *Always have explicit instructions – I find inquiry questions are helpful. I title this section as “things to consider”.

· *List what you expect from each activity and make sure it feels like an even amount of work. For example - 10 storyboard panels with captions or a two diary entries, a page each. Make sure you state no stick figures!

· *Give the students a starting point. Once I have given them instructions, I put some ideas or examples on the board and after general discussion of the activities they have an idea on where to start.

· *Make sure you highlight it is one activity or the other. Students don’t always read instructions and can either freak out about the amount of work or hand in work that is rushed and not good quality.