Differentiation – a collaborative approach

What is differentiation? Apparently ‘Differentiation is simple’ (Mike Gershon) It involves planning and teaching in a way that takes account of all learners in the class. By working in this manner, teachers ensure that every student has the opportunity to make good progress, regardless of their starting point. From this definition, you will note that differentiation actually encompasses a whole range of strategies, activities and techniques. It goes from talking to students, to eliciting information, to encouraging independence, to providing extension tasks and much more besides.

What do we think of differentiation is? There is still an idea out there, that good differentiation requires a teacher to produce a worksheet or activity for every student in every class. This is not the case, and clearly unmanageable in a teachers workload. Our role today is to create a guide for the teachers of Harlington on ways to differentiate in the class room. Therefore we will work together to share the different strategies we all use in the class room.

Have you tried some of these? Hot seating Stepped activities – different starting points for students Giving pupils options and choices Group work/pair work Card sorts Match Group Rank Envoys Drama

The more common differentiation ideas Structure guidelines Sentence starters Writing frames Using data Plan for VAK (who still agrees with this) Humour!!!!!!!! Modelling AfL