21 (and a few more) Ideas for Differentiation

1 Differentiation by outcome Does NOT mean leaving pupils to their own devices – you must PLAN to have different outcomes. ALL/MOST/SOME ? COULD/MUST/SHOULD ? Make sure you include the high end stuff. When to do the difficult parts?

2 Blooming heck, guv! Use Bloom’s taxonomy to set your outcomes. Higher level thinking tasks will require questions from the synthesis and evaluation areas.

Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge

DO IT NOW!

3 Differentiation by task Plan tasks that allow pupils to do what you want them to do. Higher order tasks are often abstract. Higher ability pupils might not need as much direct instruction but still need attention.

Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge

DO IT NOW!

4 Differentiation by questioning The questions you use in everyday assessment can be used to push top end pupils. Use Bloom’s for ideas of question stems Socratic questioning (meta questions)

Evaluation Synthesis Analysis Application Comprehension Knowledge

DO IT NOW!

Students Asking Questions Fat Question Starters Skinny Question Starters How might…? How many…? Who should…? Who was…? When might…? When did…? Predict…? What is…? Why do you think…? Can…? Where might…? Where did…? In what ways…? Did…? What do you think about…? Will…? Why do you agree/disagree with…? Do you agree/disagree with…? What advice would you give…? How did…? What else could…? What did…?

5 Differentiation by role Can some pupils take on a leader’s role? Can you make use of specific skills (warm ups, music, IT skills)?

6 Differentiation by group Group by ability (makes differentiation easier). Group by support – opportunity to develop explanation skills Group by mixed skills – allows a group to assign roles themselves

7 Puzzlemaker.com Pupil develops their own quiz. Wordsearch alone is not demanding enough. Get the pupil to write their own questions; give them the knowledge of how questions are structured.

8 Extra reading Do you have books/magazines related to your subject in the room? Could pupils read these as extension activities? Are any A level tasks appropriate? Doesn’t have to be formal.

9 PC world Specific tasks that require research. Opportunity to use IT skills to produce something (hyperlink, citations, references, digital imaging…)

10 Journey to the Dark side… Pupil extends the work using a different area of the curriculum. They relate what has been studied to something they have an interest in. Difficult to assess accurately…does that matter?

DO IT NOW!

11 Resourceful solutions Can different resources be available to higher level students? Could be materials/tools/equipment that can be evaluated and compared to other equipment. Don’t have to be ‘better’ resources, but may be more difficult/challenging/open to interpretation.

12 Pre-assessment Student/Teacher Conversation - as short as a 2 minute talk K-N-W Chart - What do I Know, Need to know & Want to know Journal - Write what you know about... List - If I say ... What does X make you think of? Concept Map... Observation and listening

13 Get involved Allow able students to be a major part of the lesson. Get them to lead debates, presentations, performance.

14 Structured research Pupil’s can find research difficult because they do not know how to structure tasks. DATE NAME ACTION HOW LONG? REAL TIME

15 Individual outcomes Each student given a unique outcome according to their own targets. Students select their own outcomes from a series of generic levelled outcomes. Encourages pupils to be responsible for their learning.

16 Critical importance Critical thinking is self-directed, self- disciplined, self-monitored, self- corrective thinking It can be used in every subject area, although you may have to go slightly “off the path” with some topics (i.e. venturing into politics or ethics in some areas that don’t usually come into contact with them).

Cont… These could be a political cartoon, an ethical dilemma, a current political debate, a historical president (what if? questions), a plot point for an additional reading selection, evaluation of statistical evidence…

17 Dictionary corner Use of reference books (dictionary, thesaurus, specific reference books) to identify key terms/words. A level texts?

19 Key word prose Use of specific terms and words to develop prose. Write on board, highlight use of important terms.

20 Kevin Bacon Use stimuli words to get from one idea to another, explaining each step. Ready? Wolf to triangle

21 Carousel activities Which activities will naturally lend themselves to higher order/open ended/cross-curricular work?

Students need to have the opportunity to: Act like junior practicing professionals Solve real-world problems Confront situations that do not have one right answer

Investigating real problems… “We don’t expect little children to do Great things; but we expect them to do little things in a great way…even if at a more junior level than adult scientists, writers, filmmakers, etc.” Joseph Renzulli