What makes differentiation successful

Students can also learn to self-regulate and forge ahead or use the recorded materials to revise content that needs revision or clarification. Effective teachers use evidence of student learning readiness, learning progress, and knowledge of individual student learning profiles, to make adjustments for individuals so that all students experience challenge, success and improved learning. Our website uses a free tool to translate into other languages. This tool is a guide and may not be accurate.

For more, see: Information in your language. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Please enable scripts and reload this page. Skip to content. Page Content. Differentiating a lesson by adjusting the process When you adjust the process of a lesson, you are changing the methods you use to teach and how you expect students to learn.

Differentiating a lesson by adjusting the product When you adjust the product of a lesson, you are changing the specific success criteria for students to demonstrate what they have learned. An example is: What are the characteristics of a hero? For example: For a unit on the solar system - the study of rotation and revolution of the earth. As you construct the tiers make sure that in order for students to accomplish a higher level, they must also have an understanding of the lower levels.

Compacting is the process of eliminating teaching or student practice if students have already mastered a concept or skill.

For example, a year 3 class is learning to identify the parts of fractions, and diagnostics indicate that 2 students already know the parts of fractions. These students are excused from completing the identifying activities and are taught to add and subtract fractions.

The layered curriculum approach features a 3 layer model like a pyramid where students start with basic learning and skills layer C and move to using higher level thinking skills layer B and then layer A as they work through the layers.

Developed by educator and author Kathie Nunley the approach came as a response to her classroom experiences with high school students. The base level of competency, layer C, is basic learning and skills. This layer reflects what every student must be able to know, understand, and do.

At this level students gather information and add to their bank of knowledge. Layer C reflects what all students must do and the activities ask students to collect factual information.

The middle level of competency, layer B, is application. This is where students apply and manipulate the information. Layer B provides students with the opportunity to apply, manipulate and play with the information they gathered while completing C layer activities. Typically, this layer requires students to apply, manipulate, discover, hypothesise and prove, demonstrate or problem solve. The top level of competency, layer A is critical thinking. This is where students evaluate and think critically about an issue.

Nunley says the purpose of layer A is to teach students critical thinking skills and to apply their classroom learning into their daily lives. Layer A consists of questions that ask students to analyse a topic. Frequently, no right or wrong answer exists. Nunley emphasizes that all layers should provide students with some control over their learning. She suggests a menu-like approach to the tasks in each layer.

The approach allows students to pick and choose from the available options provided by the teacher. A menu offers students a way to make decisions about what they will do in order to meet class requirements. A menu could be for a single lesson, a week-long lesson or even a month-long period of study. He suggests the following format. Cubing requires students to look at a topic from 6 different angles. Teachers often create a visual cube that serves as a starting point when they want students to analyse or consider various aspects of a topic.

Cubes can be used as an after-reading strategy that requires students to think critically about a topic. When students work with cubes they apply information in new ways. Cubes can be differentiated by interest and readiness.

One of the best ways to introduce cubing is to apply the activity to a common or familiar object. Select an object appropriate to the age and interests of the students, distribute the object to students and then assign groups to look or study the object from several angles. Students work in assigned pairs or groups. If desired, the groups can be created by readiness levels since the cubing perspectives below begin at the least complex level and become increasingly complex.

Using the object as the topic, ask students to:. Give students about 10 minutes to build a mini-presentation, then one student in each group presents to the class. Step 1. Select a topic, for example, World War 1 WW1. Decide in advance how much time you want to devote to the cubing process. Informal cubing activities can easily be accomplished within a class period. However, activities can be extended if research is required.

Step 4. After the designated amount of time, ask representatives from each group to present their perspectives. From the board students either choose or are assigned 3 adjacent or diagonal tasks to complete. Choice boards address student readiness, interest or learning preferences - and are easily adapted to a subject area. An interesting discussion starts about something you do not know. As you listen, you get more and more interested - and what do you most want to know? Students who choose the first question fall into the analytic intelligence, the second correspond to the practical and those who choose the final question are the creative learners.

Analyse how landforms produce economic advantages that establish settlements. After students have read and taken notes on the chapter, the teacher reviews, with the whole class, the basic information on landforms. Share article Remove Save to favorites Save to favorites. Katie Hull Sypnieski, Larry Ferlazzo. Opinion Contributor. They are members of the Teacher Leaders Network. More From the Authors on Differentiated Instruction.

Related Tags: Differentiated Instruction. Thank you for subscribing. Nov 12 Fri. This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff. These data points help you. Content provided by ACT. Nov 15 Mon. Help every student belong in school with these practices for school climate. Content provided by Panorama. Nov 16 Tue. And while most students in special. Data enables teachers to plan well-scaffolded learning pathways so that all students have a point of entry.

Student data can also identify gaps in knowledge and skills that can be used for learning intervention. Some examples of potential data sources include observations in the classroom including the observations of other teachers , formative assessment, and feedback from students and their parents or carers.

Teachers can draw upon existing sources of evidence to assess student learning needs and strengths. The questions below offer conversation starters for discussions in Professional Learning Communities, teaching teams, or individual conversations with learning specialists and other teachers:. A practice note has been developed to support you and your teachers in implementing differentiated teaching strategies:.

For more information, or to share your feedback, email: professional. Our website uses a free tool to translate into other languages. This tool is a guide and may not be accurate.

For more, see: Information in your language.