The Differentiated Classroom:

Responding to the Needs of All Learners

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A young teacher tried her hand at developing her first differentiated lesson plan. “Could you give it a look and see if I’m on the right track?” she asked me.

Her 4th graders were all reading the same novel. She had fashioned five tasks, which she was going to assign to students based on what she perceived to be their readiness levels. The tasks were to

• create a new jacket for the book,• build a set for a scene in the book,• draw one of the characters,• rewrite the novel’s ending, or • develop a conversation between a character

in this novel and one from another novel they

had read in class that year.

Differentiation story, p.2

After I looked at the tasks, I asked a question I wish someone had insisted I answer daily in the first decade of my teaching: “What do you want each student to come away with as a result of this activity?”

She squinted and answered, “I don’t understand.”

I tried again: “What common insight or understanding should all kids get because they successfully complete their assigned task?”

She shook her head: “I still don’t get it.”

“Okay. Let me try another way.” I paused. “Do you want each child to know that an author actually builds a character? Do you want them all to understand why the author took the time to write the book? Do you want them to think about how the main character’s life is like their own? Just what is it that the activities should cause the students to make sense of?”

Her face flushed, and she waved her hand as if shooing away a bug.“Oh my gosh!” she exclaimed. “I thought all they were supposed to do was read the story and do something with it!”

Carol Ann Tomlinson2

Novice

Function (s):

Accuracy:

Explain where and why hunger exists in the world

Prepositions with continents and countries

expressing preferences and opinions

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Working memory is limited and can deal with items for only a limited time. For focus to continue, there must be some change in the way the individual is dealing with the item.

Age # of items* Time Span

5 – 14 3 - 7 10 minutes

14+ 5 – 9 20 minutes

*An item is an individual piece of information – the ending of a verb, a new vocabulary word, etc. Only “chunking” pieces of information allows the learner to work with multiple items.

Working Memory Capacity

4

Degree of Retention

Time in Minutes

Primacy-Recency

5Adapted from Sousa

Gain Attention

I do.

You do.

We do.

Lesson Transitions

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The teacher says…

Learners:

While I take attendance… write two questions to find out how if your

partner is hungry, what he/she ate recently

While I pass out the graphic organizer….

think of ways to complete the following sentence, “Hunger exists because…

While I answer this student’s question…

role-play a (30 second) conversation with your partner. If you run out of things to say, start over.

While I find the picture… tweet a thought about hunger in the world.

We have one minute left….

use circumlocution to see how many of the following words/phrases you can get your partner to say.

SAY TO YOURSELFIn this type of sponge, you ask the student to think quietly. This type of quiet activity is good for settling things down at the beginning of class, after a fire drill or an announcement, while you are erasing the board, while they are moving into their groups, or after a test while a few slower students are still finishing. Here are some examples of this type of sponge:

• Describe to yourself ... • Tell yourself .. .• Think of ...• Picture to yourself ...• Read the poem and locate the main idea.• Read and decide the appropriate title.

S.P.O.N.G.E

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SAY TO OTHERS

• Take turns describing ...• Tell each other most important thing you learned in

this class. • Ask your partner a question.• Draw a picture of ... describe it to your partner.

S.P.O.N.G.E

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WRITTEN RESPONSE

• List ...• Write a five-word description of the story.• Complete this sentence:• List four famous people and qualities to describe

them.• Write a question I could ask on tomorrow’s test/could

have asked on yesterday’s test but didn’t.• Write a two-sentence description of the poster.• Write what I just said on a piece of scrap paper, in

your own words.• Draw a star next to the most important item in your

notes.

S.P.O.N.G.E

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SIGNALING

• Show if a sentence is true or false.• Stand up if you know the answer.• Hold your thumb up, down, or sideways: up for

yes/agree, down for no/disagree, sideways for don’t know.

• Point to the picture of a _______________.• Write the word for ___________ in the air with

your finger.• Show me with your face how this character

felt.

S.P.O.N.G.E

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“Give me five” means 2 eyes on me, 2 hands on your desk that are not doing anything and one closed mouth. (2+2+1=5) After explaining a few times in the target language, just say “Dame cinco” or “Donne-moi cinq”.

or

Address the issue quietly by:a. asking “Do you know what you are supposed

to be doing?”b. asking “Do you know how to do it?”c. requesting “Show me.”

When students are off task…

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Homework

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Type of Homework

Learners might

Pre-learning watch a video or read an article on hunger issues in English.

Checking for understanding

create a visual or find visuals for key vocabulary related to hunger. Post to in class word wall.

Practicingwork with graphic organizer and write sentences by completing various sentence starters.

Processingwrite questions they might ask to identify hunger issues in their community.

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