Instructional Strategies that Support Differentiation

♦ Acceleration: a strategy that allows a student to study material at a faster pace

♦ Complexity and challenge: the use of higher-order thinking skills
♦ Computer-based instruction: the use of technology to individualize instruction
♦ Curriculum compacting: a strategy that allows students who show on a pretest that
they already know part or all of the material to be studied to work on alternate activities
♦ Flexible grouping: a purposeful reordering of students into temporary working groups
to ensure that all students work with a wide variety of classmates and in a wide range of
contexts during a relatively short span of classroom time
♦ Group projects and investigations: activities in which students are grouped by
interest to investigate a topic related to something being studied in class
♦ Independent study: activities in which students use their unique abilities and talents to
explore areas of special interest on their own
♦ Intelligence preferences: modes that reflect different ways a student expresses
intelligence as indicated in systems described by Howard Gardner and Robert
Sternberg
♦ Learning centers or stations: collections of materials and activities designed to teach,
reinforce, or extend students’ knowledge, understanding, and skills
♦ Learning contracts: formalized agreements between the teacher and a student that
delineate the independent learning tasks a student will do during a unit of study
♦ Learning style: the way student learning is affected by personal and environmental
factors
♦ Mentorships: utilization of community and business resources, abilities, and talents to
support students in exploration of areas of special interest
♦ Multi-media presentations and projects: products that require the development of
21st century skills
♦ On-going formative assessments: varied and frequent opportunities for students to
demonstrate and teachers to evaluate progress towards a goal
♦ Open-ended activities: tasks which allow students to take content, process, and
product in non-prescribed directions and depth
♦ Scaffolding: any support system that enables students to succeed with tasks they find
genuinely challenging
♦ Student interest: a factor to consider in offering student choice
♦ Student self-assessment: a strategy that, in combination with teacher assessment,
enriches the picture of student performance
♦ Student choice: a strategy that strengthens performance by increasing student
ownership
♦ Tiered activities and assignments: assignments in which all students work toward
the same standards or objectives but at different levels of readiness or ability
♦ Varied questioning: a technique of forming questions with the goal of extending
student thinking
♦ Varied texts and materials: a method of matching materials to the needs and abilities
of differing learners
Many definitions were adapted from the following resources:
Carolyn Coil, Successful Teaching in the Differentiated Classroom and Teaching Tools for the 21st Century
Carol Ann Tomlinson, The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners
Carol Ann Tomlinson and Caroline Cunningham Eidson, Differentiation in Practice: A Resource Guide for Differentiating
Curriculum

WCPSS AG Program 2009 Toolbox for Planning Rigorous Instruction Section 3: Differentiation - 6