Differentiation Strategies

I have used a variety of differentiation strategies over my career, but the simplest way to start is to treat every student as an individual who needs as much customized instruction as possible. So the question becomes, how do you do that and have enough time to do everything you grade papers, design lessons, etc.? Here are some ideas:

Tiered Assignments: The idea behind tiered assignments is that you have different levels of scaffolding for different levels of learners in the classroom. I have assigned my students two scores: high/low literacy and high/low focus. When I present them with labs, I have a background written for high literacy and one for low, and a set of instructions listed for high focus and one for low focus. This creates four natural groups, and if those groups are too large, then I split into multiple homogenous groups.

Compacting: This involves meeting students exactly where they are, high or low. You can give students the same credit for different assignments that teach about the same concept, just on different levels.

Interest Centers: Also known as stations, these can be very helpful to maintain students' engagement if a wide variety of granular information needs to be introduced. I like combining this with peer instruction, having students leaving one station teach the incoming students how to perform the station. This can create lags in the station cycle, so I often intervene in order to even things out.

Flexible Grouping: I think most of us use a variety of groups for a variety of tasks, but this formalizes that practice. It can help to dig out of entrenched groups as students start to rely on their partners instead of themselves.

Learning Contracts: Learning contracts can be very complex or very simple. I've done them for 4-minute bellwork assignments before just for that class period, and it works well alongside objectives.

Choice Boards: These tend to rely too heavily upon (mostly debunked) learning styles, but if they are actually of the same difficulty and elicit the same amount of evaluative data, then it allows students to choose what's easiest for them. They are time-consuming to put together, so I only do one or two of these per year for major concepts.

Sidebar Investigations: Sidebars can be especially helpful for those students who just want to know more about a particular concept, but can be an impediment if too many students opt to do them. It's best to assign students to the sidebars and to emphasize that they are optional.