The concept of “differentiation” can be a controversial one. And it drives me crazy! Differentiation is so important to give every student the quality education that they deserve; especially now more than ever with how disrupted kids’ education has been over the last few years. I have heard a number of thoughts on the topic, but I’ll just tell you this: differentiating for your students can be done, and can be done easily, with the right systems in place. 

You also just need to go for it! Easier said than done, I know.  

 We all know that we get a classroom full of varying abilities each year. We get a range from non-readers to way above grade level and beyond. What do we do with them? How do we meet the needs of all our students without increasing our workload immensely? 

I’ll say that again because I know it’s at the top of your mind: How do we meet the needs of all our students without increasing our workload immensely?

Believe me: I am the first one to tell you that teachers should not be working outside their contract hours. So I know this sounds impossible. How are we supposed to differentiate for each individual student without working over contract hours? 

Easy: Don’t differentiate for each individual student. 

“But what?! You just said we need to differentiate!” 

Hear me out. Differentiating for student needs doesn’t mean you are creating 20+ lesson plans (like I know so many people think). It means you are taking what you are ALREADY teaching, and adapting it to meet your students needs. Let’s go ahead and start with an example: sight words. 

In primary classrooms, sight words are taught universally. Fry, Dolch, whatever you’re using, there are sight words being taught. But did you know there are A LOT of sight words out there? Fry’s sight words go up to 600, typically grade 6. So who’s to say your students have to stop when they can read the first 100? 

What I do: I give my students an assessment at the beginning of the year starting with the first 100 sight words. If they miss more than 10 (or what was decided in my grade or building level PLC), then that is their list. They get their flashcards and let me know when they are ready to test to move onto the next list. Students typically practice these at home. While I don’t usually assign homework, (see my post about how I feel about homework here), this is great when parents want to help, they just don’t know what to do. I let students have control over this process. If they test and still miss a bunch they just need to keep practicing. If students seem to have forgotten, aren’t growing or seem insecure about their sight words, I pull them over to test when I have time. This is when you really need to know your students. 

If they pass that list, they go to the next. Then repeat the process. This gives your students 6 possible levels to be at for sight words, and all you have to do is print out the flashcards (I’m a “lazy teacher” and make them cut them out too, but that’s a bonus skill of honing those fine motor skills!). This can easily be tracked with a checklist or excel spreadsheet. BUT to give even more power to the kids, they can graph it themselves. Each time they test or if you choose to do it when they aren’t ready, they can graph how many sight words they know. That way they are also not asking “how many words do I have?” And I’d say that’s a teacher win. 

*Quick break for a Science of Reading chat- since I’m discussing sight words, PLEASE DO NOT just give your students a list of words and make them memorize. Most sight words can be sounded out. Make them actually learn the words by sounding them out and you will have a lot more success with sight words. Check out the list of games for in the classroom and to send home that are a fun way for students to learn sight words.

What makes differentiation powerful is giving students the power over their own learning. You can tell them this is THEIR learning and THEIR plan. You let them work at their own pace, giving them control over something they’ve never had control over. This is a powerful teaching tool because now they are fully invested in their own learning. 

“Okay this is great, but I need more examples!”

Don’t worry, I’ve got you. 

•  Shorten assignments for students that struggle with getting everything done. And no- they don’t have to complete the same amount as their classmates. It took me a long time to get over that. For example: for math, a student really needs to just show that they understand the material. Make them do 1-2 problems and move on. Some kids just take a long time! Basically, if there are multiple questions on the same skill on an assignment they really only need 1 to prove they know the material. 

• Have fast finishers available for the students who get done early. I like to have some sort of project based learning available for them to work on whenever they get done. 

• There are A LOT of apps now that meet students at their level based on an assessment or your assignments. Some of my favorites are; Khan Academy Kids (or the website Khan Academy for older grades, see my student trackers here), iReady, Teach Your Monster to Read, RAZ, Zearn (student trackers for this as well). 
• Centers (this can be more time consuming, but so worth it if you can get the systems in place). 
• Teach your core content in small groups instead of whole group. Sometimes some kids just need the material presented a little slower or faster. That’s easily done in smaller groups. Again, you really need to know your students. These can be based on content area, or even student personality. Do they need to build their confidence? Do they need just slower instruction? Some students are at a higher ability but need it explained a few times in different ways so they would fit with a lower group. Do your assessments,  but don’t just sort on ability only. You teach kids not robots.

There are a lot of options for differentiating without pulling your hair out. The biggest takeaway I hope you get from this post is to just do it. Jump right in. Start with one small thing like sight words, math groups, or even just picking out some apps. Start with one thing then build as you figure it out. The more you do it the easier it will get.