Qualities of a supportive classroom environment for differentiation

1. Qualities of a supportive classroom environment for differentiation • Promotes acceptance of differences • Affirms that all students have learning strengths • Acknowledges that students learn at different rates and in different ways • Recognises that for work to be fair, it must sometimes be different • Acknowledges that success means different things to different people • Allows students to work with various people for various purposes • Recognises the key to motivation is interest, and all students have different interests

2. Qualities of a supportive classroom environment for differentiation (cont’d) • Promotes personal responsibility for learning • Builds feelings of personal competence & confidence in learning • Values effort and ‘personal best’ • Nurtures skills of independence • Supports and celebrates student success in challenging work • Encourages exploration of each student’s interests, strengths, and learning preferences • Nurtures the creative spirit in all students • Honours everyone’s work

3. Teacher questions when designing a tiered assignment • Are there points when some students need more time to work on content or a skill and other students are ready for more advanced work? - Tier by challenge or complexity • Is there an activity in which varied resources could be matched with student needs and readiness? - Tier by resources

4. Teacher questions when designinga tiered assignment (cont’d) • Is there an activity in which the same materials could be used to work on both basic and more advanced outcomes? - Tier by outcome • Is there an experience in which students benefit from doing different types of work to achieve the same outcome? - Tier by process • Is there an experience that could result in more than one way for students to show what they’ve learned? - Tier by product