Differentiated instruction is  meeting the needs of different types of learners. You can differentiate by intelligences, content, process or the product. When planning your lesson depending on your goal/objective, you can choose which way you would like to differentiate.

The prerequisite for differentiation is that you know your students. You can get to know your students in several different ways:

• Parent/Student survey: Send surveys to find out students likes, dislikes and interests
• Observation: I think this an underrated tool in a lot of classrooms. A teacher can learn a lot about students by observing them during class time, recess and other activities. You get to see your students’ personalities and how they handle different situations.
• Have conversations with your students about things their everyday lives.  Usually when a child opens up to his or her teacher , it’s a big deal for that child, so don’t take it for granted and listen!

TYPES OF LEARNERS/INSTRUCTIONAL EXAMPLES

Based on my experience,  I’ve  found that most students, not all, learn visually, kinesthetically, orally/auditory, musically, language/linguistic and mathematically. Yes, there are other types but most student will fall into one of these categories.

So when planning your lessons you will need to think about how you can address these types of intelligences.

For example if you’re doing a math lesson on adding and subtracting, a song about addition and subtraction will help kids to remember what each operation does.

• Orally-have students work together in pairs to talk about when to use each operation.
• Kinesthetically-have students use their bodies to form an equation with the symbols.
• Linguistic-have students write a story problem that includes addition or subtraction.

I have actually done these types of activities in my classroom and students are not only more engaged, but are excited about the content when they otherwise wouldn’t be.

Some teachers may be afraid to do things like this in their classroom but your students will learn because you’re meeting them where they are and addressing how they learn.

DIFFERENTIATION-CONTENT, PROCESS, PRODUCT

Differentiating the content means that you are adjusting the content to meet that learner’s level. For example, with Newsela the teacher is able to adjust the reading level of the article so that student is able to access the article on their level.

However, it is still the same content just differentiated for that learner. Readworks also does this by using Step Reads. It’s a great website with lots of resources and its free.

When differentiating process, you’re differentiating how the student does something or the activities they do to understand the concept. For example, if you have a student that learns best in small groups then when planning your lesson, you would include a small group activity for that lesson.

Another example, if a student has trouble completing a math problem, the teacher can bring in manipulatives to help the student complete the problem.

When differentiating the product, it could be adjusting the length of the paragraphs written in an essay or allowing students to create a short scene instead of an essay.

Differentiating the product is great because as the teacher you’re able to see what the student understands in their means of expression.

You can also differentiate by grade level, I would not suggest this as a long term strategy, but it is useful because all students need to have access to grade and above level content.

As an example, once you have you looked at your data. You can form student groups based on that data. You may have a group that is below grade level, at grade level, above grade level.

You can then tailor your lesson plan to include guided instruction at these levels. For example, if you’re teaching sequencing:

• Below grade level: Have students tell, write or draw what they remember from the text.
• On grade level: Students can tell and write what happened only at the beginning or only at the middle and end.
• Above grade level:  You can have students change the sequence of events and then determine a new outcome.

Differentiated instruction may seem complicated but it doesn’t have to be. You just have to make a commitment that you will differentiate, learn how to do it and keep tweaking as you learn more and more.

If you’re not ready for differentiation and need help with classroom management check out:

Classroom Management Plan Template or the new Mini Training on Classroom Management