20 WAYS TO DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION IN YOUR

CLASSROOM

1. Include visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities in every lesson.

2. Use students as experts – choose two or more able students to go around the room

helping others with their work when they have finished.

3. Take a pro-active approach in lessons. Some students choose not to ask for the

teacher’s assistance. Go around the room and ask students if they understand the

activity and know what they are doing. Ask quiet students.

4. Give people tasks / activities which become increasingly more difficult as they

move into higher order questions.

5. Use your seating plan to seat people of different abilities next to each other.

6. Set a challenging task for a group of 4 to 5 students. Assign a different role in the

group to each student. This can include editing, research, timekeeping, reporting

through pictures or orally.

7. Make sure the instructions you give are available in different forms – tell them

orally, write them on the board or draw a flow diagram of steps.

8. When setting a written activity, offer a set of alternatives and let them choose which

they want.

9. Encourage students to answer questions using Point, Evidence, Explain (PEE).

For lower ability students make simple points using the text, for more able students

back it up using evidence or quotes, and higher ability students explain and

expand on the idea using their own words.

10. Adjust questions.

11. Anchoring activities – this may be a list of activities students can do at any time

when they have completed present task.

12. Ambassadors – students work in a groups of 4. One student in each group is

nominated as an ambassador.

13. Shared writing – each group write a different paragraph of an essay - the more

able students can write conclusion and students of lower ability can write an

introductory paragraph

14. Writing to a word count.

15. Whittle the words – for the more able students, ask them to swap their paragraphs

with a partner and whittle the words from 50 to 20.

16. Whole class reading – read and summarise.

17. Back to back – draw what is being described or write down key words.

18. Differentiation by content – different materials to be used within the same topic.

19. Differentiation by support – same materials, same activities, but receive different

amount of support

20. Differentiation by extension – extension work to be given to most able students.