3 Simple Differentiation Strategies: Maximise Learning with Minimal Effort!

"Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or the same way."

– George Evans

Differentiation involves tailoring a lesson to meet individual students' needs and strengths, making the learning more accessible and engaging for all students, regardless of their abilities or learning preferences. This form of personalised learning creates a more equitable, inclusive, and effective learning environment.

The good news is, you don't have to?rewrite?entire lesson plans, or create multiple sets of materials for every class. Small adjustments—like offering choice in assignments, varying supports, and incorporating visual or hands-on elements—can have a big impact without adding to a teacher’s workload.

Here are three simple, low-prep ways to get started!

#1 Vary the SUPPORT

Providing some students with additional support during an activity or assignment improves their motivation to complete the work, while stretching and challenging the more able students.

In Biology, there are several key definitions students need to learn, so I provide a glossary of these terms. For ESL?students, I encourage them to add translations to help them better understand and remember the key words.

Here are more examples:

• Provide selected students with a word bank of key terms they can use to answer an open-ended question, or to complete a cloze passage.??
• Give a checklist?or anchor chart?of key points, e.g.?when students have to describe?a complex processes, or perform a tricky mathematical calculation.
• Students who have trouble getting started on writing could benefit from sentence starters.
• Offer challenge?questions to high performers that stretches and challenges not just their understanding, but their critical thinking.

#2 Vary the CONTENT

Multimodal learning is not just a great differentiation strategy that caters to various learning preferences, as it has the potential to benefit all students. By presenting information in multiple formats—in diagrams, a video, or through a hands-on activity—students develop a deeper understanding, which?leads to improved learning outcomes.

Another way to vary the content is through using levelled texts, where a piece of text is adjusted for different reading levels. With technology and AI, this is no longer a tedious task:

• OneStopEnglish has a rich bank of articles that can be levelled for different reading abilities.
• MagicSchool.AI has a text leveler tool: simply copy and paste the desired text, and the tool will adjust it to suit different reading levels!

#3 Provide CHOICE

Students have better chance of showing what they’ve learned when they are given a choice on how to show it.

As my Year 11 students prepare for IGCSE Biology, it is important that while they continue to learn new material, that they constantly revise the content from Year 10. To encourage this, students have access to a bank of topical questions on each unit they have covered. Each unit has three sets of questions:

• Level 1 questions comprise simple multiple-choice questions covering the basics of what they need to know.
• Level 2 questions cover more complex concepts, with short-answer questions.
• Level 3 are full-on exam-style questions that challenge their understanding of the unit.

(Levels 1 and 2 are Google Form quizzes, which also saves on manual marking!)

My students' weekly homework assignment is to complete two sets of questions per week, regardless of unit or level—they can work up their confidence by starting with just Level 1 sets, or they can test themselves with the Level 3 questions.

Homework submission rates have improved since I introduced this program, compared to when I just assigned the same assignment to everyone! ??

Here are other ways to differentiate by offering choice:

• Allow students to answer a question?in multiple ways: they could write in prose, draw a picture, or record a voice note / video.
• Provide a menu of independent learning tasks. For example, they could learn by watching an assigned video, or by reading an assigned text; perform an organ dissection, or watch a simulation (good for the queasy kids!); answer a quiz, or write a short summary of their learning.

Offering varied support, content, and choice are practical ways to differentiate without burdening teachers with additional work,?and go a long way in ensuring every student is given the opportunity to realise their potential.?

Share YOUR top differentiation tip!