Welcome to Differentiation 101: a starting point for thinking about differentiated learning, best for trainee or beginning teachers (NQTs), but hey, we are all learning, right?
Every child matters. All learners are different. There is no “one size fits all” model for classroom teaching. We all know these truths, and yet when it comes to differentiating our lessons, teachers often struggle to know how to engage with the different skills and abilities of their learners. Differentiated learning can feel overwhelming and off-putting. Finding ways to be more savvy and less overwhelmed by differentiation is within your grasp. Let’s talk about differentiation: what is it, why it matters, and share some lesson ideas to make it feel accessible and manageable for our day-to-day practice.
This post aims to push teachers to think about the importance of differentiated learning and give practical advice. My focus is always on the post-primary English classroom, but I hope there will be teaching strategies that can be adapted to all subjects and all age ranges.
What is differentiated learning?
Differentiation is the practice of adapting your teaching to suit the different needs and abilities of all learners in your class. This can mean changing the learning intentions, the teaching resources and the level of skill required to meet each student where they are and to take them further on their learning journey.
Why is differentiated learning important?
I don’t want to sound patronising here. If you have read this far, you are probably already invested enough in teaching to know how much our students’ abilities vary: every student is different from another, from subject to subject, and within one subject their ability can vary across the different skills required.
Pause for a moment to consider the range of skills needed in a typical GCSE English Language reading task. First, students must read the text, understand the vocabulary, the meaning and the nuances. Then they have to identify the methods used by the writer to achieve a purpose, understand the question, plan the response, structure that response to ensure the assessment objectives have been covered. We ask them to put that all together into the dreaded “PEE” paragraph. After this, they need to proof read to ensure the response flows clearly, makes sense and says what they want it to say. I mean … what are the chances that all the learners in your class can do all of those different skills to the same level as all of the others? Nada!
So let’s dive in to explore some starting strategies to support differentiated learning in your lessons.
5 Differentiated learning Strategies to Consider
1. Know your students
Get to know your students. This is step one in targeting learning for them. Marking their work and giving formative feedback (I like a ‘plus plus target’ format) is a great place to start. Once you see their strengths, you will find it easier to consolidate their skills and keep moving them on.
For example, I have just marked a set of personal writing tasks for my GCSE class. There is a huge spread of ability demonstrated in the marks, with the usual mix of accuracy issues in spelling, punctuation and sentence structure as well as a spread of ability in terms of their use of lively language devices. I have a better understanding of where to go next lesson having read and assessed each student individually. Next step is targeted group work.
2. Do targeted group work
Group students according to their formative feedback target. This allows their learning to be focused. I like to do group work on the back of returning marked work. For too many years, I would return work and assume that students would take note of my ideas and go off to work on self-improvement! I have since learned the error of my ways, after giving the same feedback to the same students month after month, year after year! Now, I will have a sentence structure group, or an apostrophes group, or a similes and metaphors group, etc.
Of course these are just examples, but the point is to group students together to work on the same aspect of their work to directly improve their work for next time. We know the benefit of group work in enabling peer teaching, cognition and confidence. So let’s also add to this the understanding that we are meeting students where they are and moving them on.
3. Differentiate the learning intentions
Decide in advance where you want to take students. This is important in stepping learning and monitoring progress. When we assess students in English, and I assume in other subjects too, we are deciding where their skills sit in terms of a mark scheme. When planning a lesson, choose the skill you are homing in on, and then decide the ability range in the class.
For example, the GCSE English Language Speaking and Listening mark scheme describes a Level 3 student as being able to effectively communicate information, ideas and feelings, and promote issues and points of view. At Level 4, students can confidently convey and interpret information, ideas and feelings, emphasising significant points and issues. At Level 5, students can highlight priorities and essential detail when communicating complex and demanding subject matter.
In GCSE classes, there is always a spread of ability, and our goal is to move students up through the levels of the mark scheme. These learning outcomes need to be planned for by bring students into the discussion. Encourage them to self-assess and know their starting point, then challenge them to move up.
Try This:
Cut out lists of sentence starters for group discussion, for example ‘In my opinion…’. ‘It is more important to… than to…’. ‘The three biggest issues in relation to this topic are…’. Ask students to sort these sentence starters into the levels described in the mark scheme. See if they can distinguish between the more complex ‘highlighting priorities’ and the more straightforward ‘promote a point of view’. Then, give them a topic to discuss using these sentence starters.
Side note: I think differentiated learning intentions need to be measured by outcome. The proof is in the pudding. This strategy has worked when you see a student who was previously achieving L4 move up to L5, etc.
4. Differentiate the content
This method of differentiation is the most challenging. If your classroom is a face-the-front, whole class approach, differentiating the content can feel contrived and limiting. For example, if you give a more straightforward reading passage, or more supportive questions to your lower ability students, are you pre-determining and capping their skill development, limiting their opportunities for in depth learning? (I’d love your thoughts on this in the comments below).
I keep my tables in groups, allowing much more flexibility and freedom to give different work to each group. These kids are perceptive though, right? When the tasks are too similar, they sense that they have been given the scaffolded task. Why not create entirely different tasks. I love a carousel lesson using the ‘expert’ strategy.
Try this ‘expert’ strategy:
I have seen this method referred to as jigsawing. When teaching persuasive writing, I like to set up 5 differentiated learning tasks, each at a different table. One task is to research the arguments for a topic, another is to research the arguments against the same topic. At two others, work on persuasive language devices split into more straightforward and more complex. Lastly, plan a task looking at the form and audience of the outcome task. At each station, students work with others of a similar ability and they become an expert in that topic. I send my weakest students to look at the straightforward language devices e.g. similes, adjectives, thesaurus work. Most able students go to the sophisticated devices station and work on metaphor and personification tasks. Middle ability students read up on the arguments for and against the topic.
Once they have completed activities to become the expert, I switch them to create groups made up of one person from each station, and give them time to write the persuasive piece together, with each person contributing from their expertise, ensuring every task has facts, statistics, similes, adjectives, personification etc.
The outcomes are always brilliant! Students love being an expert in something, and in this lesson, all experience that thrill of being essential to their group. It also builds skills and confidence for working independently next time.
This ‘expert’ strategy works with so many different topics and I have used it successfully in PRSD lesson observations and have talked about it in interviews … it’s a winner! If you have used it, comment below to share your ideas.
5. Differentiate the groupings
Put your most able students into the same group. This can encourage them to share their collective ability and really soar through the mark bands. Put your less able students together as this also allows them to soar; in my experience, they feel much less intimidated in a group with similar ability peers. They get the ‘right’ answers without the more able students jumping in first, and they feel less awkward about asking for help. These differentiated ability groups encourage discussion of like-minded ability which is a great incentive for all.
Another option is grouping around tables with an intentional spread of ability. A ‘natural leader’ can form, which is no bad thing, but bad habits can form. For example, that ‘natural leader’ can end up doing the bulk of the work. Students who feel less confident or less skilled or less motivated can sit back and therefore not engage well with their own learning. The hope is that there is wonderful peer teaching happening in these groups. The more able can teach the others, and by teaching them, consolidate their own learning. The less able can rise to new challenges and can thrive in an environment which is more challenging than their norm. I love this!
6. Assign roles in group work
I think the best outcomes are most likely to happen when there are roles assigned. You could consider giving weaker students a leadership role, or a feedback role which encourages the whole group to support them throughout the task and encourages them to take a very active role in the group.
If you are in primary teaching, your strategies might be different. Read this article from Twinkl which is full of useful advice, or this in-depth study of the pitfalls of differentiation and how to avoid unintentionally widening the attainment gap.
What are some of your own best differentiated learning and teaching ideas? Comment below or use the contact form to get in touch. I would love to have a chat!