Differentiation seems to be an area that teachers, often regardless of their subject, find challenging. One of the most obvious reasons behind this, I believe, is because there is seemingy so much to consider. Mentors and sub-mentors, quite rightly, will ask to see evidence of how trainees have differentiated for their more able students, less able students, SEND and EAL students, PP students, FSM students - perhaps not all in one lesson! Some common post- lesson questions might be: - How did you stretch your most able students? - What support did you provide X and Y this lesson? - How much progress did Z make this lesson? How do you know? Often, teachers assume that the only way to provide personalised learning that caters for the individual needs of their students is by creating individualised tasks for each group of learners. In fact, I remember one lesson where I created a typed resource for each student with a target and carefully tailored tasks for them to complete by the end of the lesson. Was the lesson a success? Not particularly. I had spent hours essentially creating 29 different worksheets that demonstrated to my observer that I was great at showing evidence of differentiation but, in fact, it didn't really help the students in the way I wanted. With the less able, I had mainly completed the task for them by taking most of the thinking and challenge out of the activities I has set. With the middle ability students, I decided that I knew exactly what each of them could and couldn't do so allowed no scope for them to tackle anything more challenging than what they had been given. Unsurprisingly, several of these students finished their tasks quickly. With the most able, I set them tasks that were almost impossible to achieve as I had read time and time again that more able students love open- ended activities. The difficulty here is that these students were nowhere near finished their mini- Mensa type tasks when I was ready to move on, especially since 90% of the class were starting to chat about their weekend plans and who was prettier - Kendall or Kylie... I found the feedback from this lesson hard to take. Not because it wasn't fair and totally accurate but because I had put in so much effort and it didn't enable my students to make the progress I wanted. It was more about showing off for my observer than supporting my students to do improve. It has taken me some time to understand that strong differentiation doesn't always have to be pre-planned. To start with, differentiation often comes in the form of differentiated pre-planned learning objectives e.g. all, most, some or must, should, could but I struggle with this. What if you are a student who is always in the 'all' category? Plus, isn't that implying to your students that you have already decided what they can or cannot achieve? How is the 'could' objective ever going to motivate already disengaged students? Some of the most impressive and successful forms of differentiation I have tried and have observed are evidenced when the teacher demonstrates their knowledge of their students' abilities within the lesson. Examples include: 1. Time spent. Simply spend more time with the students who need you the most. 2. Verbal feedback. Provide formative feedback to students on what they have achieved in order to improve. This might seem like an impossible task to achieve throughout the lesson but sometimes it's just a sentence or two that points them in the right direction: That's excellent, Tom. You've identified that tension increases in this part of the text. Could you now explain some of the ways Miller achieves this? Consider how this line might make the audience feel. There are plenty of other ways to differentiate before the lesson too: 1. Seating plan. This only works really well when you know your students. Put them in the area of the room that you know works best for them. 2. Marking. Set targets for students that reflect their individual needs. Also, David Didau (@LearningSpy on Twitter) said 'marking is planning'. You'll be far better equipped to plan for the differences in your classroom after you've marked a set of books or an assessment! I'm still learning how to differentiate because every year I have new classes which contain students who cannot be categorised as the same 'more able' or 'less able' group the year before. It definitely seems to come down to knowing your students. Fiona
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