ABC’S OF DIFFERENTIATION

By Taylor Queen

A IS FOR Anchor activities can be completed independently by students when they finish an assignment before their classmates. They should be designed to extend students’ learning and connect to the curriculum.

B IS FOR Bloom’s Taxonomy should be considered when designing learning tasks with appropriate rigor for students. By using this tool, students will be matched with tasks in which they can be successful with effort.

C IS FOR Choice boards are collections of problems, questions, assignments, projects, or activities that students can choose from to complete. It is only considered a tool of differentiation if choice boards are designed with learning styles and differences in mind.

D IS FOR Descriptive feedback is a way to make student work relevant. Feedback should be specific in detail and pose questions to make students reflect on their own work. This can be oral or written.

E IS FOR English Language Learners should be differentiated for according to their stage of English development. Each of the three stages (preproduction, early production, and speech emergence) have different characteristics and teachers should respond accordingly.

F IS FOR Flexible grouping is used to manage tiered assignments. They are not random groups, rather they are based on instructional needs, interests, and learning styles.

G IS FOR Graphic organizers can be used to differentiate in the classroom. Provide students with a choice in what graphic organizer they use so that they can organize their thoughts in a way that best suits them.

H IS FOR Homework does not have to be the same for all students. Have students practice skills that they are in need of as homework. Sally may need more practice on addition, but John may need more practice with subtraction.

I IS FOR Instructional strategies can be differentiated to reach all students. Some students may need to see something modeled because they are visual learners, whereas other students might learn better by hearing because they are auditory learners.

J IS FOR Jigsaw activities can be created to help students learn large sums of information. Each student learns about a different topic or skill and then share what they have learned with their group.

K IS FOR KUDo’s is a great way to share learning goals with students in a way they can better understand. It communicates to students what students will know, understand and be able to do as a result of the lesson.

L IS FOR Learning goals can be modified for some students because of an IEP, need for support, or a need for more challenging goals.

M IS FOR The Multiple Intelligences consist of analytic, practical, creative, naturalistic, existential, visual, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, and logical. These should be considered when designing tasks for students.

N IS FOR Naturalistic learners enjoy the environment. They enjoy touching, feeling, holding, and doing. These students learn best from hands-on experiences, preferably outside.

O IS FOR One-on-one staged tasks involve students individually demonstrating a skill in front of the teacher. For example, the student might work out a math problem as the teacher observes.

P IS FOR Products can be differentiated to meet students’ learning needs. They can be completed individually, with a partner, or in a group. Products can be designed to reflect readiness, interests, and learning styles.

Q IS FOR Questions to use in a lesson can be differentiated based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. Knowledge questions may be used for struggling students, where as evaluative questions can be used for gifted students.

R IS FOR RAFT charts are a form of differentiation of product where the students choose a role, audience, format, and topic to create a writing prompt.

S IS FOR Scaffolding can be used to differentiate assessments for students. Struggling students may need more help and support than gifted students.

T IS FOR Tiered assignments are created by first diagnosing the needs of students, designing an activity to meet those needs, and then prescribing specific tasks to particular students. It is not simply designing high tasks to some students and low tasks to others.

U IS FOR Universal Design for Learning requires teachers to consider the needs of students from the very beginning instead of modifying plans later to accommodate those needs.

V IS FOR Visual organizers represent Verbal/linguistic and Visual/spatial Multiple Intelligences. Visual organizers, such as the Frayer diagrams, help students to create mental pictures of information.

W IS FOR Walkabout charts can be used as a form of preassessment. They are engaging ways to gather data as students walk around the room to locate students who know the answer to questions on their walkabout chart. Afterwards, have a class discussion about the various topics and/or collect the charts to find misunderstandings and misinformation.

Z IS FOR The zone of proximal development is a theory developed by Lev Vygotsky that suggests students be matched with tasks in which they can be successful with effort. Students need to be challenged, but not to the point of frustration. If a task is too easy, students will be bored and put forth little effort.