Differentiation...Let me count the ways!!

Differentiation is a district goal that we are strongly committed to.  We use the language to make sure that ALL of our students are learning, but how does that look in a classroom.  What are some ways that I can differentiate without having to rewrite everything I do?  I don't need one more thing to do! Differentiation does not have to be difficult or another thing added to your list.  There are 9 different variables that could be used to tweak the lessons you are already doing in your room.

We will think of 3 boxes with 3 different ways to differentiate.  

The first set of boxes are really looking at the "what" of our teaching.  First, is our sources.  How does this look?? You have different levels of students working on researching Prairie animals, but some of the students are more proficient with reading than others.  You may decide to change the sources in which your students research the topics.  One group may use books with clear headings and right there facts.  Another group of students may use websites directed by the teacher to find facts from.  These are two routes that have been altered or differentiated for your students.  What is the process you use to instruct your students? How do differentiate processes?  Think about the many ways that you can explain a topic to a student.  When you are teaching social studies, most times you are changing the process throughout the lesson.  You may read aloud the text to the students, you may have them read together and answer questions, you may have them read independently.  All three of these processes allow for our students to comprehend the material.  Finding which students work best with each process can sometimes be the more daunting task.  Differentiating your lesson by the process allows the students to learn in a style that either they prefer or that is helpful to them in comprehension.  The final "what" deals with the product that is created to demonstrate understanding.  Perhaps in your culmination activity, some of your students will write reports, some will make a poster, and some will make up a slide presentation.  This type of differentiation allows the students to show you what they have learned in a way that makes sense to them.

The middle set of the boxes deals with "how" are we teaching.  The three ways are in whole group, small group, or individually.  I think the clearest example of this is in our guided reading lessons.  First, we may start the lesson with a whole group introduction to the comprehension skill of visualizing.  Some students may need another dose of that instruction and meet in a small group with the teacher to possibly have it explained in a different process.  Finally, those that are really struggling will need another individual session with the teacher. This middle set of boxes is the easiest way to differentiate and is what we most commonly see in the classrooms.  

The final set of boxes really refers to the students that we are teaching.  We may need to differentiate lessons based on their readiness, interests, and information processing styles.  Often when we group our students for reading groups, we are looking at their readiness level.  At what level are they reading and who else is reading at that level?  Well, this same kind of process can be used to differentiate students in any lesson.  One thing to remember is that you don't just show readiness skills in reading and math!  Are your students at different levels in their communication skills, organization, attention, persistence, and academic background knowledge?  These may be other ways that you group your students when you are instructing in other content areas as well as in reading.  How do you differentiate by interest?  Have there been projects that you have given to students where you have allowed them to choose their topic?  This choice is often based on their interest in a topic.  Choice and interest often go hand in hand.  Choice and/or interest cannot always be a choice for differentiating.  However, have you ever tried looking at a math skill like measurement and ask students to think of a topic that they love and find ways that measurement relates to that topic.  For instance, my nephew LOVES dinosaurs, so he may choose to talk about how measurement could help scientist classify dinosaurs by their height.  Or maybe the length of their teeth would be helpful to know whether the dinosaur is a carnivore or herbivore.  Interests can be woven into subjects and can help create an interest in another topic when they see how it relates to something they love.  Finally, how do I differentiate by their information processing style?  Many of us have heard about multiple intelligences and how they can impact how a student learns.  This is a fun way to differentiate for students.  Again let's go back to having a project, but this time it is about Presidents.  To differentiate this project, we may give the choice of writing an essay for those linguistic students, create a song for musical students, create a collage for the artistic students, and possibly a game for those kinesthetic students.  In my mind, this third box really helps with differentiate for the needs of the students, but it also may effect one of the other boxes.  If we think of my last example with the presidents, we have differentiated by their information processing style, their interest, and their product.  Sometimes tasks lend themselves well to differentiating in more than one variable, but it does not need to.  I challenge you with your next activity, think of a way that you could alter one variable to differentiate to meet the needs of all your students.