According to Tomlinson, teachers can differentiate instruction through four ways: 1)

content, 2) process, 3) product, and 4) learning environment.

1. Content
Fundamental lesson content should cover the standards of learning set by the school
district or state educational standards. Some students in a class may be completely
unfamiliar with the concepts in a lesson, some students may have partial mastery, and
some students may already be familiar with the content before the lesson begins.

The teacher may differentiate the content by designing activities for groups of students
that cover various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (a classification of levels of intellectual
behavior going from lower-order thinking skills to higher-order thinking skills). The six
levels are: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating.

Students who are unfamiliar with a lesson may be required to complete tasks on the
lower levels: remembering and understanding. Students with some mastery may be
asked to apply and analyze the content, and students who have high levels of mastery
may be asked to complete tasks in the areas of evaluating and creating.

Examples of differentiating activities:

 Match vocabulary words to definitions.

 Read a passage of text and answer related questions.
 Think of a situation that happened to a character in the story and a different
outcome.
 Differentiate fact from opinion in the story.
 Identify an author’s position and provide evidence to support this viewpoint.
 Create a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the lesson.

2. Process
Each student has a preferred learning style, and successful differentiation includes
delivering the material to each style: visual, auditory and kinesthetic and through words.
Not all students require the same amount of support from the teacher, and students
could choose to work in pairs, small groups or individually. While some students may
benefit from one-on-one interaction with a teacher or classroom aide, others may be
able to progress by themselves. Teachers can enhance student learning by offering
support based on individual needs.

Examples of differentiating the process:

 Provide textbooks for visual and word learners.

 Allow auditory learners to listen to audio books.
 Give kinesthetic learners the opportunity to complete an interactive assignment
online.

3. Product
The product is what the student creates at the end of the lesson to demonstrate the
mastery of the content. This can be in the form of tests, projects, reports or other
activities. Teachers may assign students to complete activities that show mastery of an
educational concept in a way the student prefers, based on learning style.

Examples of differentiating the end product:

 Read and write learners write a book report.

 Visual learners create a graphic organizer of the story.
 Auditory learners give an oral report.
 Kinesthetic learners build a diorama illustrating the story.

4. Learning environment
The conditions for optimal learning include both physical and psychological elements. A
flexible classroom layout is key, incorporating various types of furniture and
arrangements to support both individual and group work. Psychologically speaking,
teachers should use classroom management techniques that support a safe and
supportive learning environment.

Examples of differentiating the environment:

 Break some students into reading groups to discuss the assignment.

 Allow students to read individually if preferred.
 Research shows differentiated instruction is effective for high-ability students as
well as students with mild to severe disabilities.
  When students are given more options on how they can learn material, they take
on more responsibility for their own learning.
 Students appear to be more engaged in learning, and there are reportedly fewer
discipline problems in classrooms where teachers provide differentiated lessons.
 Differentiated instruction requires more work during lesson planning, and many
teachers struggle to find the extra time in their schedule.
 The learning curve can be steep and some schools lack professional
development resources.

Pros and cons of differentiated instruction

The benefits of differentiation in the classroom are often accompanied by the drawback
of an ever-increasing workload. Here are factors to keep in mind:

Pros

 Research shows differentiated instruction is effective for high-ability students as

well as students with mild to severe disabilities.
 When students are given more options on how they can learn material, they take
on more responsibility for their own learning.
 Students appear to be more engaged in learning, and there are reportedly fewer
discipline problems in classrooms where teachers provide differentiated lessons.

Cons

 Differentiated instruction requires more work during lesson planning, and many
teachers struggle to find the extra time in their schedule.
 The learning curve can be steep and some schools lack professional
development resources.
 Critics argue there isn’t enough research to support the benefits of differentiated
instruction outweighing the added prep time.
20 Differentiated Instruction Strategies and Examples [+ Downloadable List]

October 12, 2016 Marcus Guido Game-Based Learning, Teaching Strategies

As students with diverse learning styles fill the classroom, many teachers don’t always have the
time to plan lessons that use differentiated instruction (DI) to suit their distinct aptitudes.

This can involve adjusting:

 Content — The media and methods teachers use to impart and instruct skills, ideas and
information

 Processes — The exercises and practices students perform to better understand

content

 Products — The materials, such as tests and projects, students complete to

demonstrate understanding

To help create lessons that engage and resonate with a diverse classroom, below are 20
differentiated instruction strategies and examples. Available in a condensed and printable
list for your desk, you can use 16 in most classes and the last four for math lessons.

Try the ones that best apply to you, depending on factors such as student age.

1. Create Learning Stations

Provide different types of content by setting up learning stations — divided sections of your
classroom through which groups of students rotate.

Each station should use a unique method of teaching a skill or concept related to your lesson.

For example, students can rotate between stations that involve:

 Watching a video
 Creating artwork
 Reading an article
 Completing puzzles
 Listening to you teach

To help students process the content after they’ve been through the stations, you can hold a
class discussion or assign questions to answer.

2. Use Task Cards

Like learning stations, task cards allow you to give students a range of content. Answering task
cards can also be a small-group activity, adding variety to classes that normally focus on
solo or large-group learning.

First, make or identify tasks and questions that you’d typically find on worksheets or in
textbooks.

Second, print and laminate cards that each contain a single task or question. Or, use Teachers
Pay Teachers to buy pre-made cards.

Finally, set up stations around your classroom and pair students together to rotate through
them.

You can individualize instruction by monitoring the pairs, addressing knowledge gaps when
needed.

3. Interview Students

Asking questions about learning and studying styles can help you pinpoint the kinds of content
that will meet your class’s needs.

While running learning stations or a large-group activity, pull each student aside for a few
minutes. Ask about:

 Their favourite types of lessons

 Their favourite in-class activities
 Which projects they’re most proud of
 Which kinds of exercises help them remember key lesson points

Track your results to identify themes and students with uncommon preferences, helping you
determine which methods of instruction suit their abilities.

4. Target Different Senses Within Lessons

A lesson should resonate with more students if it targets visual, tactile, auditory and kinesthetic
senses, instead of only one.

When applicable, appeal to a range of learning styles by:

 Playing videos
 Using infographics
 Providing audiobooks
 Getting students to act out a scene
 Incorporating charts and illustrations within texts
  Giving both spoken and written directions to tasks
 Using relevant physical objects, such as money when teaching math skills
 Allotting time for students to create artistic reflections and interpretations of lessons

Not only will these tactics help more students grasp the core concepts of lessons, but make
class more engaging.

5. Share Your Own Strengths and Weaknesses

To familiarize students with the idea of differentiated learning, you may find it beneficial
to explain that not everyone builds skills and processes information the same way.

Talking about your own strengths and weaknesses is one way of doing this.

Explain — on a personal level — how you study and review lessons. Share tactics that do and
don’t work for you, encouraging students to try them.

Not only should this help them understand that people naturally learn differently, but
give them insight into improving how they process information.

6. Use the Think-Pair-Share Strategy

The think-pair-share strategy exposes students to three lesson-processing experiences

within one activity. It’s also easy to monitor and support students as they complete each step.

As the strategy’s name implies, start by asking students to individually think about a given topic
or answer a specific question.

Next, pair students together to discuss their results and findings.

Finally, have each pair share their ideas with the rest of the class, and open the floor for further
discussion.

Because the strategy allows students to process your lesson content individually, in a small
group and in a large group, it caters to your classroom’s different learning and personality
types.

7. Make Time for Journaling

A journal can be a tool for students to reflect on the lessons you’ve taught and activities you’ve
run, helping them process new information.
When possible at the end of class, give students a chance to make a journal entry by:

 Summarizing key points they’ve learned

 Attempting to answer or make sense of lingering questions
 Explaining how they can use the lessons in real-life scenarios
 Illustrating new concepts, which can be especially helpful for data-focused math lessons

As they continue to make entries, they should figure out which ones effectively allow them to
process fresh content.

8. Implement Reflection and Goal-Setting Exercises

An extension of journaling, have students reflect on important lessons and set goals for further
learning at pre-determined points of the year.

During these points, ask students to write about their favourite topics, as well as the most
interesting concepts and information they’ve learned.

They should also identify skills to improve and topics to explore.

Based on the results, you can target lessons to help meet these goals. For example, if the bulk
of students discuss a certain aspect of the science curriculum, you can design more activities
around it.

9. Run Literature Circles

Organizing students into literature circles not only encourages students to shape and inform
each other’s understanding of readings, but helps auditory and participatory learners retain
more information.

This also gives you an opportunity to listen to each circle’s discussion, asking questions and
filling in gaps in understanding.

As a bonus, some students may develop leadership skills by running the discussion.

This activity makes written content — which, at times, may only be accessible to individual
learners with strong reading retention — easier to process for more students.

10. Offer Different Types of Free Study Time

Free study time will generally benefit students who prefer to learn individually, but can
be slightly altered to also help their classmates process your lessons.
This can be done by dividing your class into clearly-sectioned solo and team activities.

Consider the following free study exercises to also meet the preferences of visual,
auditory and kinesthetic learners:

 Provide audiobooks, which play material relevant to your lessons

 Create a station for challenging group games that teach skills involved in the curriculum

 Maintain a designated quiet space for students to take notes and complete work

 Allow students to work in groups while taking notes and completing work, away from the
quiet space

By running these sorts of activities, free study time will begin to benefit diverse learners —
not just students who easily process information through quiet, individual work.

11. Group Students with Similar Learning Styles

Heterogenous grouping is a common practice, but grouping students based on similar learning
style can encourage collaboration through common work and thinking practices.

This is not to be confused with grouping students based on similar level of ability or
understanding.

In some cases, doing so conflicts with the “Teach Up” principle, which is discussed below.

Rather, this tactic allows like-minded students to support each other’s learningwhile giving
you to time to spend with each group. You can then offer the optimal kind of instruction to
suit each group’s common needs and preferences.

12. Give Different Sets of Reading Comprehension Activities

Instead of focusing on written products, consider evaluating reading comprehension through

questions and activities that test different aptitudes.

Although written answers may still appeal to many students, others may thrive and best
challenge themselves during artistic or kinesthetic tasks.

For example, allow students to choose between some of the following activitiesbefore,
during and after an important reading:

 Participating in more literature circles

 Delivering a presentation
  Writing a traditional report
 Creating visual art to illustrate key events
 Creating and performing a monologue as a main character or figure

Offering structured options can help students demonstrate their understanding of content as
effectively as possible, giving you more insight into their abilities.

13. Assign Open-Ended Projects

Similar to evaluating reading comprehension, give students a list of projects to find one that lets
them effectively demonstrate their knowledge.

Include a clear rubric for each type of project, which clearly defines expectations. Doing so will
keep it challenging and help students meet specific criteria.

By both enticing and challenging students, this approach encourages them to:

 Work and learn at their own paces

 Engage actively with content they must understand
 Demonstrate their knowledge as effectively as possible

As well as benefiting students, this differentiated instruction strategy will clearly showcase
distinct work and learning styles.

14. Encourage Students to Propose Ideas for Their Projects

As well as offering set options, encourage students to take their projects from concept to
completion by pitching you ideas.

A student must show how the product will meet academic standards, and be open to your
revisions. If the pitch doesn’t meet your standards, tell the student to refine the idea until it does.
If it doesn’t by a predetermined date, assign one of your set options.

You may be pleasantly surprised by some pitches.

After all, students themselves are the focus of differentiated instruction — they likely have
somewhat of a grasp on their learning styles and abilities.

15. Analyze Your Differentiated Instruction Strategy on a Regular Basis

Even if you’re confident in your overall approach to differentiated instruction, Carol Ann
Tomlinson — one of the most reputable topic thought-leaders — recommends analyzing your
strategy:
 Frequently reflect on the match between your classroom and the philosophy of teaching and
learning you want to practice. Look for matches and mismatches, and use both to guide you.
Analyze your strategy by reflecting on:

 Content — Are you using diverse materials and teaching methods in class?

 Processes — Are you providing solo, small-group and large-group activities that best
allow different learners to absorb your content?

 Products — Are you letting and helping students demonstrate their understanding of
content in a variety of ways on tests, projects and assignments?

In doing so, you’ll refine your approach to appropriately accommodate the multiple intelligences
of students.

16. “Teach Up”

Teaching at a level that’s too easily accessible to each student can harm your differentiated
instruction efforts, according to Tomlinson.

Instead, she recommends “teaching up.” This eliminates the pitfall being stuck on low-level
ideas, seldom reaching advanced concepts:

We do much better if we start with what we consider to be high-end curriculum and expectations
— and then differentiate to provide scaffolding, to lift the kids up.

The usual tendency is to start with what we perceive to be grade-level material and then dumb it
down for some and raise it up for others. But we don’t usually raise it up very much from that
starting point, and dumbing down just sets lower expectations for some kids.
Keeping this concept in mind should focus your differentiated teaching strategy, helping
you bring each student up to “high-end curriculum and expectations.”

Differentiated Math Instruction Strategies and Examples

17. Use Math EdTech that Adjusts Itself to Each Student

Some EdTech tools — such as certain educational math video games — can deliver
differentiated content, while providing unique ways to process it.

For example, Prodigy Game adjusts questions to tackle student trouble spots and offers
math problems that use words, charts and pictures, as well as numbers.
To the benefit of teachers, the game is free and aligned with CCSS, TEKS, MAFS and Ontario
curricula for grades 1 to 8. You can adjust the focus of questions to supplement lessons and
homework, running reports to examine each student’s progress.

Create and sign into your free teacher account here:

18. Relate Math to Personal Interests and Everyday Examples

Clearly linking math to personal interests and real-world examples can help some learners
understand key concepts.

Working with 41 grade 7 students throughout an academic year, a 2015 study published by the
Canadian Center of Science and Education used contextual learning strategies to teach
integers and increase test scores by more than 44%.

Striving for similar benefits may be ambitious, but you can start by surveying students. Ask
about their interests and how they use math outside of school.

Using your findings, you should find that contextualization helps some students grasp new or
unfamiliar math concepts.

19. Play a Math-Focused Version of Tic-Tac-Toe

Help students practice different math skills by playing a game that’s a take on tic-tac-toe.

Prepare by dividing a sheet into squares — three vertical by three horizontal. Don’t leave them
blank. Instead, fill the boxes with questions that test different abilities.

For example:

 “Complete question X in page Y of your textbook”

 “Draw a picture to show how to add fraction X and fraction Y”
 “Describe a real-life situation in which you would use cross-multiplication, providing an
example and solution”
You can hand out sheets to students for solo practice, or divide them into pairs and encourage
friendly competition. The first one to link three Xs or Os — by correctly completing questions —
wins.

So, depending on your preferences, this game will challenge diverse learners through
either individual or small-group practice.

20. Create Learning Stations, without Mandatory Rotations

Provide differentiated math learning opportunities for your students by setting up unique
learning stations across your classrooms, but forgoing mandatory rotations.

The idea comes from a grade 9 teacher in Ontario, who recommends creating three stations
to solve similar mathematical problems using either:

 Data — Provide spreadsheets, requiring students to manipulate data through trial and
error

 People — Group students into pairs or triads to tackle a range of problems together,
supporting each other’s learning

 Things — Offer a hands-on option by giving each student objects to use when solving
questions

Only allow students to switch stations if they feel the need. If they do, consult them about
their decision. In each case, you and the student will likely learn more about his or her learning
style.

Supplemented by your circulation between stations to address gaps in prior knowledge, this
activity exposes students to exercises that appeal to diverse abilities.