How Do You Differentiate?

Differentiation can be such a tricky thing to accomplish in a classroom of thirty students with varying needs.  You need to make sure everyone is appropriately challenged, without being so overwhelmed that they give up.  Legally, you must meet all of the IEP, 504, and ELL modifications.  And, on top of all this, in order to keep peace in the classroom, you need to do all of this in an inconspicuous way to prevent the cries of "that's not fair!"  It can seem like a puzzle with no solution.

A Few Tips That May Make the Impossible Task Somewhat More Attainable:

Flexible Student Grouping in the Classroom
We've all heard that we shouldn't ability-group students (bluebirds and robins).  We're told it hurts the self-esteem of the lower-performing students and does nothing to help the higher-performing students.  I'm not proposing that anyone divide their class into rigid high, middle and low groups which can never intermix.  But, I have found that when I am giving differentiated assignments it helps to have the students that sit together working on the same version of the assignment for three reasons.  (1)  Even if it is an independent assignment, they are going to notice if their neighbor has something that looks different.  And, if a student thinks they have something "different," everyone is going to hear about it.  (2) In the case of most classwork, I encourage students to collaborate.  It's harder to collaborate if they have different sets of directions.  (3) When I circulate to help students, it's more efficient if I can help the entire table with the same thing at once.

The following is an example of a review assignment with two versions that are essentially the same, but just different enough that problems would arise if neighboring classmates were working on the different levels.  (You can find this worksheet in my TpT store.)

In this version, students identify the parts of the atom and
then match different types of matter to a definition and example.

In this higher version, students identify the parts of the atom and
determine which element it is based on it's number of protons,
and then match different types of matter to a definition and
produce their own examples.

Flexible grouping doesn't have to be a "high-drama" issue if students are accustomed to seats changing frequently.  I'm always rearranging students to meet the needs of that day's particular lesson, so my students automatically check the seating chart posted on the door daily.  With seats changing so frequently, I don't think it is obvious to students whether they are homogeneously or heterogeneously grouped on that particular day.  They only know that they work with a variety of other students.

Using Technology to Deliver Instruction and Assess
My school is a 1-to-1 student-to-device school, with each of my 6th graders issued their own Chromebook.  We use the Haiku LMS platform, so my experience is exclusively with Haiku, although I imagine other platforms such as Moodle have similar settings.  In my class rosters, I have divided each class into high, middle and low sections (the students do not see which section they are assigned to, only that they are assigned to my class.)  As I said earlier about being flexible, I frequently change a student's assigned section based on their current level of performance.  A student who struggled with the matter unit might excel when it comes to biomes, for example.

Having students assigned to different sections makes it so much simpler to give them different resources, assignments, and/or assessments.  My main class page looks the same for everyone but then I have the option of making subpages only visible to certain roster sections.  When I create an assessment, I make copies of it and then modify it to meet the needs of my IEP and AIG students.  I assign each version to the appropriate roster section.  All three versions have the same name, but only one (the one I have assigned to their section) shows up on the student's page.  It's not necessary to tell each student which version they should take because only the individualized version is available to them.  I see all three versions but they only see one.

The following screenshots show a part of the instructions that I gave students for a "plant book" assignment.  Each level had slightly different directions for the same activities.  When students went on our Haiku class page, they only saw the directions that were specifically assigned to them because I had published three separate pages to my three roster sections.

The "regular" version.

The "higher" version; students are asked to summarize their diagram.

The "lower" version; students are provided a structure for their chart.

Allowing Student Choice
You don't have to differentiate based on ability level alone.  You can differentiate based on a number of different factors, including student interests.  I love to give projects where students have the opportunity to choose how they will show what they have learned about a particular topic.  The rubric must be specific about the content that must be presented, or the quality of student work can vary widely.

Some students love to draw, others may enjoy writing stories, some prefer to act things out and still others like to create things with their hands.  Instead of assigning all students a poster project about the water cycle, why not give them options?  They could draw and label a poster if they prefer, but there could be a multitude of ways for them to demonstrate their knowledge.  Students could choose to write a short story about the life of a single water droplet, moving throughout all of the stages of the water cycle.  Other options might include writing and performing a song or skit, creating a model, conducting and reporting on an experiment, giving a slideshow presentation, writing and illustrating a children's book, creating a board game, or creating a Kahoot quiz for the class to play (if you've never used Kahoot in the classroom, be sure to check it out).

Being able to choose an assignment that matches a student's own interest helps improve engagement. As we all know, when students are more engaged, they produce higher quality work.  The greater importance they place on the product they are creating and the greater sense of ownership of their own learning leads to a deeper understanding of the content.

And isn't that why we differentiate, after all, to increase students' understanding of the content? To level the playing field?  To make sure all students have the opportunity to be successful?

Please feel free to leave a comment below to share your ideas on differentiation.
Best practices? Successes? Setbacks?