In Part 4 of this series, we looked at Most Difficult First and Anchor Activities as tools for planning for the real world of students who learn at different paces. In this final post, we'll look at two more strategies: Choice Boards and Tiered Instruction.
Choice Boards
Giving students choice within an assignment is a great way to differentiate. It supports their ability to take ownership of their own learning and make decisions about how to set goals and achieve them. There are many varieties of choice boards depending on the lesson (or unit), the age of the students, and the objectives you are trying to achieve.
A simple choice board might look like a tic tac toe game where students choose three activities out of the nine options to complete in order to master the learning objective. More complex choice boards have variations in the level of difficulty in the task and you may either let students choose the options to complete or assign some structure to how they select their options.
Choices may be based on student learning style and how they best represent their learning or can vary in rigor (or both).
Keys to success:
Be creative in how you use these, and encourage your students to provide suggestions for choice boards as well.
Here are some sample choice boards.
A simple choice board might look like a tic tac toe game where students choose three activities out of the nine options to complete in order to master the learning objective. More complex choice boards have variations in the level of difficulty in the task and you may either let students choose the options to complete or assign some structure to how they select their options.
Choices may be based on student learning style and how they best represent their learning or can vary in rigor (or both).
Keys to success:
- clear expectations
- materials readily accessible
- choices explicitly tied to objectives and standards
Be creative in how you use these, and encourage your students to provide suggestions for choice boards as well.
Here are some sample choice boards.
Be creative in how you use these, and encourage your students to provide suggestions for choice boards as well.
Tiered Instruction
When you hear this term you may think it means designing different lesson plans for each student or for groups of students. While this strategy does take time to plan, the idea is to support multiple paths to reaching the same learning objectives.
You start by planning your lesson based on the standards as you normally would approach it for the whole class. Then think about students who have struggled with the tasks or concepts in the past and create a variation of the activity that will scaffold their learning appropriately. Also think about students who have achieved the goals you set easily and then appear to become disconnected with the learning. What might you do to add to the challenge for these students?
Keys to successful implementation of tiered activities:
Tiered instruction can be really useful when you have a wide variety of needs in the classroom. It can be as simple as some students using manipulatives while others work in the abstract, or using sentence stems for students who may benefit from this support and question starters for others that challenge them to add rigor to their responses. Centers, stations, or task cards can be incorporated into your tiered lesson as an option for student tasks.
You start by planning your lesson based on the standards as you normally would approach it for the whole class. Then think about students who have struggled with the tasks or concepts in the past and create a variation of the activity that will scaffold their learning appropriately. Also think about students who have achieved the goals you set easily and then appear to become disconnected with the learning. What might you do to add to the challenge for these students?
Keys to successful implementation of tiered activities:
- be clear up front about why students will be participating in different activities, focus on the goal of supporting all of their learning needs
- clear expectations
- effective classroom management
- materials readily accessible
- choices explicitly tied to objectives and standards
- use formative assessments
Tiered instruction can be really useful when you have a wide variety of needs in the classroom. It can be as simple as some students using manipulatives while others work in the abstract, or using sentence stems for students who may benefit from this support and question starters for others that challenge them to add rigor to their responses. Centers, stations, or task cards can be incorporated into your tiered lesson as an option for student tasks.
You can also create tiered activities based on student interests or in support of their best learning style. It’s the same concept, and supports differentiation to meet the learning needs of your students.
Follow us on Pinterest. We're TeachTransform, Inc. We've vetted some really good resources for you to use!
Reflection
Regardless of where your practice was when you started this series you have made the choice to read and study in support of your students. Thank you. You are what inspires us to continue creating resources for teachers.
As a reflective practitioner, you continue to study, revise, and add to the bag of tricks that help you meet the needs of your students. Each year is different, each class is different. You’ll always be looking for the best matched strategies, and continually adding to your strategy choices.
There are so many ways to differentiate. It is not possible to capture them all here. Our hope is that this series gave you a starting point from which to continue learning and sharing.
As a reflective practitioner, you continue to study, revise, and add to the bag of tricks that help you meet the needs of your students. Each year is different, each class is different. You’ll always be looking for the best matched strategies, and continually adding to your strategy choices.
There are so many ways to differentiate. It is not possible to capture them all here. Our hope is that this series gave you a starting point from which to continue learning and sharing.
RSS Feed