Practical techniques for using differentiation to support outstanding Learning & Teaching
Peter Anstee Author of the Differentiation Pocketbook
www.teacherspocketbooks.co.uk
Traditions
Children sat at desks in rows
6-week Summer holidays
Silence
The standard curriculum
The educated child as an end product
Discipline
Dependence
Teaching, not learning
Rigid control of time
Class dominance
Testing
Seriousness educo = I lead forth
Systems and Structures
• Avoid streaming: flexible setting sensitive to subjects is best
• Where setting is used, stress that it is “for now”
• Alter setting to suit different units/ lessons
o Do your classroom layout and furniture maximise the learning of all of your students?
o Is silence golden?
o How can we bridge the 6-week gap?
o How can we reduce the constraints of the curriculum and the timetable?
o Is a classroom full of distractions the best place to learn?
Different Learners
• Bandler and Grinder - VAK • Gardner – Multiple Intelligences • Gregorc – concrete/ abstract; sequential/ random • Kolb – diverging/ assimilating; converging/ accommodating
Which Super Saturday winner are you?
And what was your route to gold?
Potential
+
Opportunity
+
Support
+
Motivation
+
Effort
Progress
Achievement
Success
=
Principles of Differentiation
• Learning is an emotional experience
• It is also a mental experience
• No two students will ever be emotionally and mentally the same.
• Differentiation is vitally important to students’ emotional wellbeing
• Differentiation should be integrated, not added on
• Effective differentiation is planned and planned for
Each child is different; each learner is different Learners come to us with different: • Life experiences • Language skills • Talents • Attitudes • Learning skills • Confidence levels • Prior knowledge • Commitment • Ways of learning • Degrees of home support • Social skills • Likes and dislikes Thus, students have different starting points and different skills in relation to a task and will learn in varied styles and at varied paces. Differentiation aims to take account of these differences and provide the best way forward for each child. Copyright protected – Teachers’ Pocketbooks
A little bit of theory
Lev Vygotsky
• Zone of Proximal Development
• Judge development prospectively
• Balancing challenge and support; success and failure
• Dynamic developmental states
Carol Dweck
• Ability is complex and variable
• Growth mindset
• Effort and motivation
• Provision, not identification
Differentiate for ability, not by ability
Learning and Progress
• Progress is the distance travelled by each student from their individual staring point
• Learning is the vehicle that facilitates that progress
TICKETS PLEASE!
• Different groups should be identified on lesson plan and in
mark book, with evidence of differentiated provision as appropriate
• Can students explain their current skill levels, their targets/ learning objectives and how they will reach them and how they will know when they get there??
Independence and choice • Independent learners make differentiation easier
• Choice gives status to students
Choice of: • Task • Elements of the task • The route through the learning • How to approach the learning
• Start/ finish points • How to present the learning • Learning objective • Level of challenge
Build choice over time Beware the assumption that high performing students are more independent learners
Schemes of Work
“The learning objectives for a lesson should follow from the last assessment of the students’ learning and progress.”
• Focus on differentiated skills progress, not coverage
• A set of learning opportunities to plan from
National Strategy – “The learning objective(s) for a lesson will come from the scheme of work.”
v
Putting Learning Objectives to Work
• Objectives need to relate to what students are learning, not what they are doing
• Set to deliver desired, differentiated learning outcomes
• Layered – ignore key stage constraints
• Avoid “know” in objectives
• Discuss them, open them out to fit the students and create success criteria – then create success
• Get students to personalise learning objectives and take ownership of them
Starting Points
Students group themselves as red/ amber/ green at a particular skill and build from there
Learning objectives/ assessment criteria from several levels > students choose
Get students to place themselves on a continuum in response to a question/ issue
5 questions on the board at the start of the lesson to establish prior knowledge and who should start where
Starters
Students are most receptive at the beginning of the lesson – engage them in differentiated learning
Starter games – odd one out, just a minute, puzzles, millionaire
Set the big question you are working towards
Set layered objectives and assessment criteria
Structure and delivery of learning
1. Single or multi-part tasks 2. Different levels of structure
given for a task 3. Stimulating materials for all 4. Real questions, big
questions 5. Intervention in the
classroom 6. Differentiate for inclusion –
SEN, EAL, G&T, etc. 7. Differentiate via the
sequence of activities 8. By pace
9. Variety of stations developing different skills
10. Activities within lesson cover different styles
11. By outcome – same task, different results
12. By task – qualitatively different
13. By resource – an open task that can be accessed at different levels via different resources
14. Project work – large element of choice.
Questioning • Targeted questions
• Deeper, more open questions
• Reduce whole class discussion/ Q&A – pair or group better, as they take less time
• Hinge questions
• Follow-up questions
• Objectives as questions
• Think time
Use different levels of question to reflect the different levels of thinking in Bloom’s Taxonomy
Knowledge
Who created …?
How many …?
What happened at …?
Comprehension
What was the main idea?
Can you write a précis of …?
What does this mean?
Application
Can you think of another instance where …?
Can you use this to develop a set of instructions for …?
Can you group these by …?
Analysis
How is this similar to …?
Why did … occur?
What problem is there with…?
Synthesis
How could you design a … to …?
What would happen if …?
Can you devise a way to …?
Evaluation
Is … a good or bad thing?
How effective are …?
Is there a better way to …?
How would you feel if …?
Group work
• Group work – fix different learning groups
• Assigned roles/ responsibilities
• Different tasks
• Vary group work
• Jigsaws
• Envoys
• Reporting back
• Question time
Support/ challenge
• Every student should need guidance/ time
• Pre-teaching
• Students can provide support
• Use display to support learning
• Guided groups for intensive support
• Seat students with a learning buddy
• Presentation of work sheets – reading age?
• Use of TAs – need to be pro-active; issues with getting TA feedback
Assessment Assessment is an integral part of learning, not a measure of it.
Assessment should lead planning and learning.
• Plan to build from assessment • Early marking • Intervention marking • Focused marking • Quality guidance a. reinforces positive features
and progress b. identifies precise next steps
and how to make them c. is followed by opportunity/
support.
• Most important part is from student to teacher
• Get students to self- or peer-assess before you assess
• Get students to annotate their work
• Different forms of assessment • Different levels of assessment • Personal targets
Plenaries/ Mini-plenaries
• Set target for next lesson at end of lesson
• Progress stop – not just for review, but to refocus minds: play a game, review, move on
• Traffic lights/ thumbs up too simplistic
• Pair/ group to ensure involvement
• 3 golden rules, newspaper headline, etc.
• 5 key words/ images, in order of priority
• Assess exemplar answer • 2 things you learnt, 2
questions • Students review teaching
Meta-cognitive plenaries
How can you use what you have learnt today in other subjects? What can you improve next lesson? How will you do this? How did today’s learning relate to previous lessons? How effectively did you learn today and why? What did you do today that helped your learning? What was important about today’s learning? Where do you think that our learning will go next? How does it fit into the big picture? How do you know that you have made progress today?
Extension and Enrichment
• Move on!
• HOTS not MOTS
• Enrichment for all?
• Depth and breadth in the curriculum
• Access to VLE
• Emphasis on what happens in the classroom – access for all
• What should we do when students get things right easily?
Homework
• Research x
• Complete y
• Write z
• Fill in a
• Read b
• Do c
Use homework for truly independent, differentiated learning
CPD
Follow the principles of differentiated learning
Share good practice
Speed dating
Follow-up
“All that is valuable in human society depends on the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
Albert Einstein
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