‘Differentiation is the process whereby teachers meet the need for progress through the curriculum by selecting appropriate teaching methods to match the individual student’s learning strategies within a group situation.’
Visser J, Differentiation and the Curriculum, Birmingham, 1993, University of Birmingham
Differentiation is the responsibility of every teacher and should be a routine part of planning. Only the teacher can differentiate their lessons – it can not be delegated to a teaching assistant. Differentiation isn’t having three tiers of activity for every lesson (thankfully schools that adopted this approach are now seen as being dated and generating unnecessary workload for their staff). Pitch to the top and work out what extra help some of your learners need to get there (or as far as possible)
But what about Ofsted? (your senior leaders are more likely to say this than you are!)
Look what senior figures within Ofsted are saying (Tweets, right) Consider if you could have a common departmental approach to differentiation (which makes planning easier too!)
Ideas for differentiation
Differentiation by outcome
Giving all students the same task (and any supporting resources) and letting students attempt it at their level. E.g. create a poster to show…
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Differentiation by support
Giving all students the same task and teacher directing more attention to specific students/groups of students. Could also be giving weaker students supporting materials for a task or specialist apparatus (e.g. a digital thermometer)
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Differentiation by grouping
Putting students in groups chosen by the teacher. Could be grouping by ability, gender, interests, social/behavioural groups or mixed ability. I used to group students when doing a practical lesson involving taking temperature readings so that every group had at least one person who could read a thermometer scale.
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Differentiation by resources
Giving all students a similar task but giving different or additional resources. For example for a group of students doing an experiment, one group of students might be given a scaffold to support their investigation whilst another group might only get a list of equipment. Structure strips are an amazing tool that builds self-confidence and self-esteem as well as providing a scaffolding (you could also view this as providing differentiation by support)
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Differentiation by task
Giving students a different task to do based on their ability, interests or aptitude.
Could be as simple as getting each group to present the same information in different ways e.g. a scene in Shakespeare – a poster, a comic strip, a story, a play or an essay
Could be setting a different task for students – e.g. working on different sets of maths problems, working on different texts, reading different stories/plays etc.
Be careful of this technique as the teacher could be limiting what a student can achieve by restricting them to easy worksheets.
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Where to start?
- Knowing your students – subject assessment data, reading ages, prior attainment data etc
- Consider the relevance of what you are learning – do all students need to know the same things in the same level of depth? Are there parts of the curriculum you might want to spend less time on (and parts you want to spend more on)
- How will you get learners to remember what they have learned in lessons? Look for strategies like retrieval practice
- Build in praise when students get things right, and support and encouragement (with more praise) when they get it wrong to build resilience
- Be organised – teachers need a work-life balance. Throw in activities etc that require little marking, use peer marking & self-assessment
Is there anything you’ve done that you’d like to add – if so I’d love to receive your feedback.
Thank you for yet more clear thinking. You cut through to the essentials and have saved hours of precious time. TAS