It is not easy to deal with students of different
abilities when they are in one large class. Teachers often face challenges in
dealing with situations like this, especially when they genuinely want to deliver
an effective lesson that will ensure students’ progress.
In such situations, delivering an effective lesson will not be possible without the differentiation of tasks and the
outcomes that the children are expected to achieve. Differentiation is a balancing
act to match work to ability, in order
to ensure that the children are working at a level that they can cope with, but
that also stretches them. Nevertheless, teachers need to do the following to
ensure that learning takes place in a way that no students are left behind :
Be realistic on how much differentiation is manageable
In most classrooms situations, it
is always manageable to develop differentiation strategies for three groups –
high, average and low achievers. This is doable and we as teachers will be
able to monitor the progress of students throughout the lesson. This idea may
not be perfect, but it will help us to avoid getting bound up too often in the
needs of small groups or even individuals.
Differentiate the activity; not the outcome
It is important to take note that
when we differentiate, it is not differentiating our learning outcome, but we
should actually work towards achieving one learning outcome by differentiating
the activity. We should not create three learning outcomes according to the number
of groups we have. It may not be easy but it is achievable. We can actually
work on one task but differentiate it according to different groups. By doing
this we can discuss concepts as a class but tailor the tasks to meet our
students’ learning needs. This helps to keep our planning simple and at the
same time, no students will be left behind feeling marginalised.
Keep your assessment tasks differentiated
If we set differentiated work it
makes sense to use differentiated assessments too. Making assessment tasks fit
the ways the children are able to work independently may make us to have more
work, but it will create a room for a more effective assessment for the
students.
Be prepared to change groupings
Rates of progress differ and it
may become apparent that some children are either facing ahead or getting left
behind. Changing their groups will help them cope better. It may also be prudent
to change groupings if behaviour gets out of hand, or if you’re concerned about
the effect that one child is having on another.
Challenge children
It is very important to challenge our students to prevent them from getting bored. Knowing how many challenges they
can take is very difficult, but setting them a challenge, one that you think
only the ablest will achieve, can be a good way of finding out how well
individual children can cope and persevere. We can try it as a class activity
and share ideas and possible solutions.
Do not let a lack of basic skills hold children in other ways
A child may have a poor pencil
control, or be unable to read without support, but these things do not indicate
a lack of ability in other areas, therefore, as teachers we need to provide
support for students like this where they need help the most so that they will
overcome their weakness and be able to develop themselves.
When putting children into groups, draw up a set of criteria for group formation
It may be difficult to decide who
is going to be in which group as students tend to sit with friends who they are
comfortable with and at the same time we should not label them openly as high,
average and weak learners as this may cause some of the students to be feeling
uncomfortable. Therefore, we can always create a set of criteria to decide
which group they belong to by listing down on aspects they are to achieve and
what they have achieved, this will give them more confident and will keep the class
in control. However, it is advised not to stick on to the criteria rigidly and we
may change the grouping from time to time based on students’ performance.
Differentiate whole-class teaching
Differentiate whole-class teaching
One of the appealing things about
whole-class teaching for some is that everyone is doing the same thing at the
same time. This style of teaching can still incorporate differentiated
elements. Even if it’s simply the expected outcome that’s differentiated, as
long as these expectations are recorded, it’s still a valuable way of enabling
children to work at levels at which they can succeed.
Differentiate the support offered
Another way of using similar
activities, but still ensuring that they’re tailored to meet different learner’s
needs is to differentiate the level of support that they will have in order to
complete the task.
The aforementioned techniques are
just the tip of the iceberg, there are actually many differentiation strategies
that can be used in classrooms.
I will share more ideas on differentiation very soon. Meanwhile, feel free to share more ideas in the comment section.
References
Heydon, R. (2003). Literature circles as a differentiated instructional strategy for including ESL students in mainstream classrooms. Canadian Modern Language Review, 59(3), 463-475.Baecher, L., Artigliere, M., Patterson, D. K., & Spatzer, A. (2012). Differentiated instruction for English language learners as “variations on a theme” teachers can differentiate instruction to support English language learners. Middle School Journal, 43(3), 14-21.
Baecher, L. H. (2011). Differentiated instruction for English language learners: Strategies for the secondary English teacher. The Wisconsin English Journal, 53(2), 64-73.
