A Manageable Strategy for Impactful Differentiation

A common challenge in education is that students do not learn at the same pace. They process at different rates, often influenced by teaching style and a multitude of other factors that can make differentiated instruction seem difficult.

While the challenges vary, teachers can control their planning process. Differentiating instruction with intention happens through reviewing and revising lessons based on student data. This reflection and revision process boils down to three actions, which directly affect lesson planning and implementation:

1. Identifying students’ learning gaps based on the lesson objectives.
2. Adapting one or two lesson steps to address the identified gaps.
3. Providing advanced learners with personalized support.

1. Identifying Learning Gaps

The foundation of an effective lesson consists of clear learning objectives that break out the knowledge, skills, and concepts that students need to achieve.

The students before you in a classroom have different levels of knowledge and skills. Some have all the prerequisite understanding for the focus lesson, while others may have already mastered the learning objectives. Then there are the students whose knowledge and skill gaps make them likely to struggle and fall behind in achievement.

Examples include gaps in vocabulary or other areas of their content background, or below-grade-level skills in reading or math.

Taking time to review each student’s level of preparedness for a lesson or unit saves time in the long run. It allows the teacher to anticipate learner needs and create or adapt an activity that specifically addresses the gaps. Likely, there will be groups of students who share common needs.

Adapted activities can be experienced in groups or individually. For example, a writing activity might include three versions of a prompt that can be assigned to students based on their support needs. Other general examples include using centers or stations.

2. Adapting One to Two Lesson Steps

It’s a common misunderstanding among many teachers that entire lessons must be differentiated. It’s not surprising then that differentiation can be viewed as too time-consuming to accomplish on a regular basis. The truth is that only one or two lesson steps need to be differentiated, not the entire lesson. This makes differentiation a manageable and efficient approach.

Lessons are made of a series of activity steps, like a meeting agenda. Activity steps can be adapted to serve the whole class, small groups, or individuals. For example:

Whole class: “My Favorite No”

The teacher reviews a formative assessment, such as answers on index cards. They share some with the class that have partially correct answers. Through inquiry, students explore the accurate and inaccurate parts of an answer to build better understanding.

Small groups: Centers and stations

Students rotate through different stations. Each location includes two or more sets of tasks. Students complete the tasks according to what group they are in or based on their symbol, such as red squares, blue circles, and green triangles. One station may consist of the teacher working with groups based on their individual needs.

Individuals: Tiered or leveled tasks

The teacher creates two or more versions of an assignment or series of questions. Students are given the task that best aligns with their achievement gap to review or practice. Such activities can also be done in small groups if the teacher wants students to support each other through collaboration.

3. Providing Personalized Support to Advanced Learners

Teachers often prioritize support for students with gaps in their learning. This makes sense—without support, these students will likely fall further behind in their education. However, students who achieve above and beyond the standard curriculum objectives also deserve to continue their upward trajectory. Yes, students who are ahead of the curriculum schedule will do fine in the grade book. They also risk becoming bored and, worse, plateauing with achievement and not continuing to grow.

Advanced learners deserve personalized activities that stretch their knowledge and skills for greater depth and complexity. These students can get the support they deserve at the same time that other students are closing learning gaps. The examples shared in the previous action can support advanced learners as well:

Whole class: “My Favorite No”

The teacher challenges students to unpack their reflections by asking appropriately complex questions.

Small groups: Centers and stations

Students are assigned to complete tasks that reflect their extended learning needs.

Individuals: Tiered or leveled tasks

Students complete tasks that are personalized to their level of learning.

These examples show how teachers can revise the same activities to meet the needs of learners needing enriched experiences that stretch their skills and understanding beyond the level of objective focus.

Differentiation is the Obvious Response

What if student data could show us gaps in skills and knowledge? What if this same data could tell us which students have already mastered the focus skills before the start of a lesson or unit? What if all that intentional differentiation required was using this student data to revise or adapt only one or two lesson steps?

These actions are not difficult to do. They are in the current wheelhouse of educators in every school. My favorite definition of differentiation is by an assessment expert, Lorna Earl, who said, “Differentiation is making sure that the right students get the right learning tasks at the right time. Once you have a sense of what each student holds as ‘given’ or ‘known’ and what he or she needs in order to learn, differentiation is no longer an option; it is an obvious response.”

How will you include these three simple actions into your practice, individually and as part of a team? To meet the needs of each student, what will be your obvious response?