What is differentiation?
Simply put by Carol Ann Tomlinson, differentiation is the process of tailoring your instruction to cater to learners' needs. Learners vary in different ways, for example interest, preferred classroom activities or what Tomlinson calls 'readiness' ('a student's entry point relative to particular knowledge, understanding, or skills'). As Tomlinson points out, 'readiness levels are not fixed, and so many students will struggle at some point and many will be advanced at one time or another' (2014: 18–19).
Some people might think differentiation is done purely through providing different learners with less or more challenging tasks, but it is much more than that. There are many ways to provide differentiation in classes – through content, process, products or even the learning environment.
How can teachers differentiate?
- Content: Consider what you want learners to learn and the materials they will use to achieve that goal. For example, you could assign different project topics to different groups (some topics being more challenging than others) or allow learners to choose from graded readers of different levels.
- Process: Consider the different types of learning activities that will help learners make sense of the content. For example, you could include listening, singing, discussion and debating activities, role playing, drawing, writing, reading, watching videos, playing games or working with images.
- Product: Consider how learners will demonstrate their learning. For example, you could give learners the option to choose their final task, for instance they choose between role playing a dialogue between characters in the story, writing a different ending for the story or reviewing the story.
- Learning environment: Consider how different personality types might prefer to interact with others during the lesson, for example giving learners the option to choose to work alone/with a partner/with a larger group, as appropriate. You could also assign quiet areas to accommodate learners' preferences and sensory needs.
Some best practices for differentiation
Below are some ideas that I have tried in my classes in a language school and that worked across a range of ages, from primary and secondary to adults. Most of these ideas were implemented with A2 level and above, and they require little or no preparation.
1. Through content
- A group research task: Within each group of three, name learners A, B and C, and give each one a different input about the same topic. For example, A watches a short video, B reads an article and C listens to an audio text. The different inputs could be of varying levels of challenge or chosen according to individual learners' preferred types of activity. Learners then read or watch individually and get ready to summarise what they learned for their group. Groups could then report back to a different group or create a mini presentation of their findings to the class.
- Provide a model or sentence starters: When writing or speaking, support learners by providing them with a written model. For example, referring to the transcript could help set expectations of the task they are supposed to complete. Additionally, you could provide sentence starters to support their language production. For example, if you are practising conditionals, you could provide the first part of the sentence and elicit which tenses learners need to use in the second part – e.g. If I were you, I ... You can then challenge more advanced learners to express themselves independently. Less ready learners could even be encouraged to use the model provided to assess if the more advanced learners used it. (This can be used with primary, secondary and adult learners.)
- Provide a selection of fast-finisher tasks with varying rewards. To ensure that all learners are occupied during the lesson, keep a bank of fast-finisher activities ready for learners who finish their tasks early. There is always the risk of learners feeling punished or demotivated when given extra work simply for finishing their tasks quickly. To navigate this, sell it to them as a way of earning extra points. Provide a selection of tasks of varying challenge level, where simpler tasks get lower points and more challenging tasks are worth more points. This offers choice to learners, and it is often a good indicator of how willing students are to challenge themselves with language production. Be sensitive when offering this kind of choice, as some learners may feel embarrassed choosing a less difficult task. You can gently encourage learners to choose more challenging tasks over time so that they can see their progress. (This can be used with primary and secondary learners).
2. Through process
- Provide learner autonomy with learner-chosen goals. Often learners are aware of the lesson aims, but they might lack a specific and personalised focus for that lesson. Encouraging them to choose their personal goal after understanding the lesson aims can help them feel a special sense of accomplishment after having worked on their goal. For example, if the lesson aim is 'Learners will improve their listening skills by understanding a dialogue', a personal aim might be 'I want to note down and learn one interesting phrase that I hear in the dialogue'. Learners can self-assess or peer assess to evaluate if they have achieved their goal. (This can be used with secondary and adult learners.)
- Alternatively, the teacher can provide a range of goals focused on different aims of the lesson while considering learners' needs and interests. These goals are worded as 'positive affirmations'. To do this, consider relevant positive adjectives that can be linked to different aims, for instance you need to be brave to do a role play in front of the class and you need to be creative to think of an original ending to a story. Thus, you can make a positive affirmation goal such as 'I will be brave and act with my friends in front of the class' and 'I will be creative and think of a nice ending for our story'. (This can be used with primary and secondary learners).
3. Through the product
- Differentiate through the success criteria checklist: Learners benefit from having a checklist of the lesson's success criteria to help them focus on producing relevant language and achieve the lesson aims. However, it is often more engaging for them to critically think about the contents of their checklist, rather than just reading one given by the teacher. For example, if the task is to write a restaurant review, learners can think about what type of language they need to include in their writing. For less ready learners, prepare a checklist for the task but blank out some of the words related to the aims, e.g. if they are doing the same restaurant review task, the criteria could be Did you use positive and negative a________?(adjectives). Here, learners would have to refer to what they studied and decide that they need to use adjectives they have learned to describe the restaurant, food and more. More advanced learners can refer back to the lesson contents and evaluate for themselves what would be expected in a well-executed final speaking/writing task and write their own checklist. To encourage collaboration between the two groups, the less ready group can then check the more advanced group's self-produced checklist against the teacher's gap-fill checklist. Any differences in the self-produced success criteria can then be negotiated between the learners and teacher before establishing the final criteria. (This can be used with secondary and adult learners.)
4. Through the learning environment
- Give extra spaces to do their learning: Learning does not only have to happen in the classroom. Learners (especially teenagers) always seem to brighten up when they are encouraged to use other learning spaces after having been confined in a classroom for a long period of time. This has to do with being able to move around, being able to practise English without the whole class watching, having a fun space to be with friends, and more. You can do this by exploiting the facilities in your school – library, empty classrooms, courtyard, etc. – Even the corners of a classroom would do. This can even be fashioned into a routine. If learners have to research a topic, they have the option of staying in the classroom or going to a specific learning space; or if they have to practise a presentation with their group, they can choose their classroom or an empty classroom to practise in. Creating learning spaces leaves a positive impact because learners return to the classrooms energised and more confident. (This is especially effective for secondary learners but could be used with primary or adult learners too, depending on the space you have.)
The above ideas are just an introduction to some differentiation strategies that should help teachers to cater to all their learners' readiness levels, even as these change over a course.
References
Tomlinson, CA. 2014. The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners, 2nd edn. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Jane Kailath has been teaching English for 10 years at the British Council in UAE. She is also the UAE SEND champion so she has been driven to find inclusive and fun ways of teaching and learning for all needs which can be implemented through thoughtful differentiation. She has not only spent her time teaching in the classroom, but also developing course materials for the British Council and delivering teacher training sessions.
Disclaimer: The views and recommendations given in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views, policy or position of the British Council.