Differentiation without Workload: Strategies for Catering to Different Abilities

2. Differentiation without workload: how do we cater for different abilities without having to plan many different lessons? Oakham School Festival of Learning 4 June 2019

3. What does differentiation mean? Why does it matter in your classroom?

4. Anstee (2017) - Differentiation “It takes energy to achieve optimal experiences” Csikszentmihalyi (1997) – Finding Flow

5. Planning for teaching pupils of differing abilities: The teacher-directed model (as the sole pedagogical strategy) is going to be limited If every learning activity is book-ended by teacher talk / exposition, what happens if groups work at a different pace? Planning for longer, more flexible learning phases is necessary Differentiation relies on effective (and creative) planning

6. Differentiation through group work It frees up the teacher to circulate and offer extra support Pupils with challenging behaviour or issues with concentration can be monitored and supported more easily in a small group situation It can empower shyer students who find a voice Group work reinforces other skills such as team work, mutual support, motivation and competitiveness to get the best out of different children

7. Differentiation through group work Mixed ability grouping: great for peer modelling, pupil leadership, and collaboration Similar ability grouping: works well for challenge and scaffolding, differentiating by task, running concurrent learning paths through the lesson

8. Differentiation by task: using a menu of options

9. Differentiating prep tasks

10. Differentiation by questioning • Using Bloom / 5 star questions • Socratic follow-up questions • Clarify  assumptions  evidence  perspective  implication  ‘meta’ • Right is right: not accepting anything but the most rigourous of explanations • No opt out: not knowing / not attempting to work out is prohibited • Dynamic discussion: encouraging pupil-pupil responses in Q&A not just teacher-pupil-teacher

11. Questioning: easy extension These took 30 seconds of planning but gave 5-10 mins of challenging thinking…

12. Differentiating by starting point Very pertinent at this time of year for F6! Helpful when pupils are re-set near the start of the school year Involves having an extension activity (for group 1) to use alongside a summary of previous material for (group 2) James Nottingham’s Learning Pit task design is great for this type of extension task as it builds flexibility of thinking on previous material – and encouraged pupil collaboration so free the teacher up to work with group 2

14. What strategies do you use in your own classroom to cater for pupils of differing abilities?

15. Further reading… • https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2018/03/05/what-is-differentiation/ • http://www.suecowley.co.uk • Feldman and Denti. 2004. High-Access Instruction: Practical Strategies to Increase Active Learning in Diverse Classrooms • https://www.teachertoolkit.co.uk/2014/01/28/takeawayhmk-2/ • https://www.prodigygame.com/blog/gamify-your-classroom/ • https://teacherhead.com/2014/02/01/dealing-with-day-to-day-differentiation/