Teaching methods

Task

Differentiated instruction 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

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. You can facilitate this with a flexible seating plan.
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.
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 differentiated instruction strategy allows students to process your lesson content individually, in a small group and in a large group, it caters to your classroom’s range of 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 Exercis
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. 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.
Rather, this tactic allows like-minded students to support each other’s learning while 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.
10. 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 activities before, 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.
11. 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.

Practice Exercises