Differentiation

Differentiation is giving all students the best chance of learning so that they can learn and grow. That might look differently for each student. Think about the Goldilocks principle, we want learning to be just right for each student. 

Low performing students need additional support to fill in the gaps they have in their knowledge. They tend to benefit from hands-on learning,  multi-sensory activities, and guided modeling. It is important to support and guide them because they need to Lower students can lack self esteem so be sure to praise the little things. Accommodate the students during the assessments. It doesn’t always matter how the students show they understand something only that they understand it. Allow students to compete tests orally or with pictures.

Middle performing students need reinforcements of strategies. These students are often overlooked because they need less support than the low students but they are not able to complete the same tasks as the advanced students. Don’t forget to meet their needs as well. These students need to be supported and challenged. Give them projects and activities that allow them to showcase their strengths and creativity. 

High students need to be challenged further. These are the students who tend to get bored in a traditional class because they understand the content and the activities are not challenging them. One thing that can really benefit these students is giving them open ended activities. Give them time to ask questions and explore. Don’t just have the higher students be peer tutors, let them collaborate with other high students to research a topic and create. 

Creating a classroom community with all the students is important because all students need to know that their voice is being heard. One way to ensure this is by giving students ‘chips’ at the beginning of a class discussion.  Each time a student makes a comment or gives an answer they put one of their chips back in the bucket. This gives all students a chance to talk because once a student has used all of their ‘chips’ they have to be the listeners. This management technique stops the higher more talkative students from dominating the discussion and gives the middle and lower students a chance to share their thoughts.