36 easy math differentiation strategies for middle school

When I began my journey as a science and math teacher, the idea of differentiating instruction seemed daunting. How could I possibly cater to the diverse needs of my students without drowning in multiple lesson plans?

The challenge was real, and panic set in.

How on earth was I meant to adjust all the different activities to meet all the different needs of my students? Did that mean I had to create 30 different lesson plans? How was I meant to do that as well as keep on top of my marking and assessment task writing and… you get the drift. I completely freaked out.

It wasn’t until later in my career that I grasped the true meaning of differentiation and discovered manageable strategies for daily implementation.

That’s where this post comes in!

I’ve created a list of easy math differentiation strategies that are easy to implement on a daily basis and don’t require multiple lesson plans!

So grab a coffee and sit back and relax while I give you a list of effective strategies to differentiate in your math classroom to make your job easier!

list of math differentiation strategies

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What are math differentiation strategies?

Carol Ann Tomlinson defines differentiation strategies as the practices of proactive planning and inclusivity to ensure the learning experiences are accessible to all learners to meet their individual learning needs.

I love this definition as it really encompasses the main point – that differentiation strategies are used to meet the learning needs of students.

Differentiation is an understanding of student learning needs and how to meet them. It requires successful incorporation of multiple strategies in order to meet the individual needs of those in your classroom. It is not individualised learning and does not require multiple lesson plans from you.

list of math differentiation strategies

4 types of math differentiation strategies?

According to Tomlinson (2000), there are 4 ways you can incorporate math differentiation strategies in the classroom to foster learning opportunities.

You can:

1. Differentiate the Content

Differentiating the content means ensuring each student starts where they need to. Some students may need to start at an introductory level, while others can jump in at the extension questions.

This can also include how students receive the content. For instance, whether they receive the content via the teacher, a video, visual resources, etc.

2. Differentiate the Product

Math differentiation strategies relating to the product can refer to either the end product students produce to demonstrate their learning, or the standard of that product.

3. Differentiate the Process

The process or method used is how students engage with the content. An example might be that you explicitly teach one group while having another do some research, or watch a video or do some hands-on modelling.

This also includes math differentiation strategies that make the learning accessible or achievable. An example may include providing more processing time for individual students. Another could be providing scaffolding that breaks down the concepts into manageable chunks.

4. Differentiate the Environment

The environment shapes how or where the activity is completed – this includes whether students complete the activity in groups or individually, and where they might complete that work in the classroom.

Now, let’s get onto the good stuff…

list of math differentiation strategies

The ultimate list of math differentiation strategies

36 EASY MATH DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES IN THE CLASSROOM

List of math differentiation strategies: Content

Here are a list of various instruction strategies for differentiating the content in a math classroom.

1. Provide various entry levels

Some students might need instruction from the foundations of the topic. Others might need to explore the concept on a deeper level. Allowing variety in the entry point allows students to access the content at their level.

Here are some easy, low prep ways to do this practically:

Divide your questions for a topic into sections so they gradually increase in difficulty. You can either let students choose which section they begin in or allocate those sections. Most math textbooks do this automatically.
Allow students to choose whether they listen to explicit instruction. After doing some pretesting it may become obvious that some students already have a good knowledge of the topic you are about to teach.
Provide the opportunity for peer teaching. If you have some students who already understand the concept then allow them to teach some of their peers.
In a textbook or worksheet with multiple questions, students have to get 3 answers correct in a row in each section before moving on to the next. This means those who have understood the content and are ready to move forward will be able to and it immediately differentiates the work for the entire class.
Change the grade level. Students may be studying shapes or equations, but perhaps you can assist those who aren’t ready by going back to the previous grade level content, or excelling by giving higher grade level examples.

2. Incorporate videos

Videos are a great resource to use for math differentiation if teaching a mixed ability class.

How?

Instead of having the class watch the video together, allow students to watch it individually with headphones. This allows those who need to rewind and rewatch certain parts to do this. Another positive of this method is that students can do this more secretively – not feeling that they are holding the whole class up or making it obvious they are needing to spend more time on the learning part than others.

Often I pair my videos with questions. My higher ability students are able to watch the whole video and then answer the questions. For my students needing more support, I give less questions and allow them to complete while watching the video and pausing when they understand the answer. Those needing even more support are provided with the approximate time in the video that the question is answered.

3. Jigsaw activities

Jigsaw is a way of grouping students. First, students are split into groups where, as a group, they are to research / investigate / learn about a specific part of the topic.

For example, for studying angles on parallel lines in math, one group might study corresponding angles, another co-interior, another alternate etc. Once they have become ‘experts’ at their given topic they then get split into mixed groups where each student is considered the ‘expert’ of their own topic. In this group each student takes a turn to teach the group about their area.

This can be done with random assignments of groups, or you can sort students into groups and provide the expert topic based on their learning needs. For example, alternate angles may be easier for students to grasp or calculate than co-interior.

4. Incorporate student interests

Being able to know your students well enough to incorporate their interests can sometimes be overwhelming – particularly at the beginning of the school year.

However, there are differentiation strategies you can use to do this without knowing all their individual likes, hobbies and sports.

For example, knowing a lot of the students in my class play soccer, I try to use soccer themed examples when I’m teaching math topics like speed.

5. Changing the context or application

The context or application of the learning can be differentiated. For example, one group of students may apply their learning to an everyday example, while another may apply it to an industrial example.

list of math differentiation strategies

6. Scaffolded notes

Scaffolded notes give students freedom to express their understanding while also being able to ‘doodle’ with diagrams, colouring or sketches. I like to use these super simple note-taking templates for topic summaries or while watching a video.

Click here to get them for FREE!

I actually find that my extension students often need this type of scaffolding to help become more concise in their notes.

7. Encourage cross-curricular application

Some students might be ready to apply their knowledge across subject areas. By incorporating this type of learning, your extension or gifted students will be able to engage in critical thinking and higher order thinking skills.

8. Less ‘drills’ and more problem solving

If your pretesting shows that students already have a good knowledge base, allow them to skip the drills and launch straight into the application and problem solving questions.

9. Have students write their own questions

Another way to extend students would be to ask them to write their own questions. This works well if you can pair up some of your extension students to work together. That way they can each write a question, have their peer complete it, then swap back again to mark their peer’s answer. The level of understanding and critical thinking required to write an appropriate question is far superior to that needed just to answer a question. However, all students can still engage at their own level.

Any math differentiation strategies that include students doing more of the work than you is a win!

10. Graphic organisers / visual representation

Graphic organisers allow for the visual processing of concepts and ideas, and more specifically how they connect to other concepts and ideas. A way to differentiate using these is providing students who need extra support with a graphic organiser or a scaffolded graphic organiser, while those who need extension could create a graphic organiser.

11. Task cards

Task cards are an easy activity to provide to the whole class. Why have I included it in my favourite differentiation strategies list?

Because they provide options of student choice. Choice in the order they complete the task cards and choice in how many they complete.

12. Add personification

Personification is my favourite of all math differentiation strategies for engaging higher order thinking skills for students. This can be so easily added to any worksheet, activity, or task and super easy to add into a lesson if some students finish their work early.

So what is it?

Personification is attributing human characteristics or personality to something that isn’t human.

Therefore, to incorporate personification into learning ask students to answer questions like these examples below:

Angles: what would a co-interior angle say to a corresponding angle?
Shapes: What would a square say to a triangle?
Order of operations: What would a division symbol say to an addition symbol?
Pythagoras: What would a hypotenuse say to a right angle?

list of math differentiation strategies

List of math differentiation strategies: Product

13. Offer choice for the type of activity or type of product

I used to think this was so much work as I didn’t want to have to make 4 different lessons for students to choose.

But you don’t have to do this!

For example, math summary tasks are easy to differentiate in this way as students could choose how their final product will look. Will it be a brochure? A poster? Video? Slideshow? You can still provide the same success criteria and have students cover the same key points, but give them choice in how they would like to present it.

For activities, rather than having students go through all stations set up around a room, give them a number to complete. If you set up 5 stations then ask students to choose three to complete. This also allows those who may finish sooner to have the opportunity to complete an extra station. It also means that for those students who need extra time you could easily differentiate and ask them to only choose two to complete.

list of math differentiation strategies

14. Differentiate the success criteria

While you might be providing students the same activity to complete, differentiation could come in with the success criteria you provide for students. Students who need some extension could have different levels of success criteria to meet. These could vary in terms of depth or breadth of understanding shown, or the quality of product produced.

For example: Pythagoras’ theorem – same worksheet of triangles:

Success Criteria Level 1: students can highlight the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle and state pythagoras’ theorem.

Success Crtieria Level 2: students can calculate the length of the hypotenuse when given the other two sides of a right angled triangle.

Success Crtieria Level 3: students can calculate the length of a shorter side when given the other two sides of a right angled triangle.

15. Change the verb

Differentiating the verb used can prompt students to deliver various products. E.g. design, create, evaluate, assess, compare etc. Blooms taxonomy can be a helpful reference for this.

16. Allow for the expression of creativity

Allow students to be creative with the end product. This could be done by offering choice for presenting information via a model, diorama, painting, sculpture, drama, song etc. This is also one of the low prep math differentiation strategies for you as it leans on student agency rather than your creation of new material.

17. Interview students

I’ve often come across student’s who struggle to express their level of understanding on paper, but can very clearly express it verbally. This is a great option for informal assessment and can be done during a regular class lesson. Math differentiation strategies within interviewing could include the types of questions asked, the phrasing of the questions, the format you want them to answer in, the length of time given for an answer.

list of math differentiation strategies

differentiation is the difference between busy work and learning#education #edchat #differentiation
— The Animated Teacher (@katrina_harte) November 2, 2021

List of math differentiation strategies: Process

18. Use technology

There are lots of different programs that promote easy math differentiation strategies by offering students choice. For example, Quizlet allows students to choose how to learn the content. Choices include flashcards, multiple-choice questions, typing an answer, practicing spelling, matching the correct term to definition, or playing a game.

Differentiation using technology could also be offering choice in the type of technology used. Students could choose whether to use a tablet, computer, phone or alternative.

19. Offer choice for the order they complete tasks

While there is often a need to have students complete tasks in a particular order, be aware of opportunities to change up that order. Allowing students to choose their own adventure allows students to learn the material in the order that makes sense for them.

20. Use stations

Stations allow for students to move around the room and often choose who they are working with and how long to spend on each activity. I will often use normal classroom activities, task cards or even just worksheets, and place them around the room and call them ‘stations’.

Students have a choice of where to start, who to work with, and how to stand / sit / group around the station.

This also allows you to tell students who might need extra time to complete less stations.

21. Cut and paste activities

Allowing for students to physically manipulate something can be so powerful for those needing math adjustments. It helps their brain to process the information in a new way. This can be easily done in class with simple worksheets. For example, if you are wanting students to match the term with the glossary definition then provide students with a printable version they could cut and paste.

This offers another opportunity to provide choice as students could choose to cut and paste, or use colour coding, or write the term in the box with the definition. Three different options for one activity and no extra prep from you!

In maths this could even be a worksheet of equations and the answers that students cut and paste or manipulate to match.

22. Hands-on learning

Providing students with the opportunity to explore learning in a hands-on way provides immediate differentiation as students will engage in a way that makes sense to them.

To differentiate you could provide multiple types of materials for students to choose from. For example, to learn about ratios in maths I provided both cordial and paint for students to explore.

I always try to use manipulatives as much as possible in my math lessons as it helps students visualise concepts in a way just reading or writing cannot.

23. Modelling

Modelling can be done in many different ways. It could involve going through step by step showing students exactly how you want them to go about solving a problem. This could be done while sending your extension students off to investigate the topic. Modelling a process could also be done by providing a scaffolded worksheet for students who need it.

list of math differentiation strategies

24. Provide written or printed instructions broken down into steps

This is one of those math differentiation strategies that you can do for the whole class rather than just a few students. It won’t hinder the rest of the class to have instructions broken down into steps. It is also important for students to have these visually represented to them so they can refer back as often as needed, whether it be printed or upon the board.

This is particularly helpful when getting to higher levels of math that require multiple steps to solve a problem or an equation. Breaking it down into steps and having it available to students who need it is a great way to differentiate in math.

25. Change the reading level

It is important that students are given the opportunity to engage in learning by being provided with resources that are at an appropriate reading level. Use programs such as ChatGPT to rewrite passages and activities at appropriate reading levels.

26. Provide extra processing time

This could be as simple as giving students fewer questions to complete in the same amount of time.

27. Provide class discussion questions before discussion time

This allows students who need extra processing time to have the opportunity to still be a part of a class discussion.

These could be a homework task or as simple as handing out the questions before marking the roll so the students have time to read the questions in advance. For some students, this could be the difference between being able to contribute to a class discussion, or not.

28. Give warning before being called upon in class

Following on from the previous point, students may freeze or shut down when being called upon in class if they haven’t had a chance to consider and process the question.

So, if the activity is to answer a few questions and then go through them as a class, you could go and quietly say to the student that you are going to ask their opinion about question #3. This gives them time to process it, time to ask you questions if they don’t understand, and time to make it an answer they are proud of.

list of math differentiation strategies

We need to keep students engaged, not busy.
— Brian Aspinall (@mraspinall) October 11, 2021

list of differentiation strategies

List of math differentiation strategies: Environment

29. Group work

Using multiple forms of grouping for students in a class provides differentiation as students take on different roles within their groups depending on who they are with. Some examples of flexible grouping could be:

Grouping students who need some extra support together. Ability groups allow you to provide this group with more explicit instruction as you move around the room.
Grouping students of mixed ability together. This allows those who need extension to take on a leadership role within the group and have the opportunity to share their understanding with their peers.
Groups based on choice. This could be student choice for who is in their group, or students could be grouped by their choice of activity. Both of these options allow for differentiated instruction and learning.
Group in different group sizes: some students might need small groups while others can work in larger groups to complete the same task.

30. Offer choice for how they work

Offering student choice leads to increased engagement as students feel they have ownership over their learning. Allowing students to choose how they work, whether it is individually, with a partner, as a small group, etc is an easy way to incorporate math differentiation strategies into your classroom without loads of preparation.

31. Where they complete the work

Allow students to choose whether to stand, use different chairs, sit on the floor, work outside etc. Taking a class outside for a lesson on the lawn is fantastic for this. Since there are no chairs, students can choose whether to sit, stand, lie on their stomachs, sit on a rock, choose to sit in the sun or the shade. So much choice!

32. Brain breaks

Brain breaks are so important for retaining high levels of student concentration when learning new concepts. Providing choice in how they have breaks enhances your differentiated classroom.

33. Allow to complete work in a small group

Allowing some students to work in a small group as opposed to completing a task individually can be a good differentiation option. This provides the support of their peers and together they may be able to accomplish something that individually they wouldn’t have been able to.

34. Change the learning environment

Changing the environment for students can be very powerful. This can include allowing for some students to sit in a more quiet space, while others can work in pairs. This could also include where the students’ desks are facing. One student may learn more effectively with their desk at the front of the room facing the board, while another can work opposite a peer.

35. Allow students to remove themselves from distraction

Similarly to above, this refers to allowing choice for students. For example, wearing noise-cancelling headphones or the freedom to move around the class if needed. Allowing this freedom can allow students to take ownership over their learning and concentration by being able to change their environment if needed.

36. Allow gifted students to work together or with students from higher grade levels

This isn’t always the easiest to organise but if there is an opportunity it can be an invaluable experience for students in both grades.

For instance, I once had a student in year 10 who was super passionate about biology and DNA. We organised for him to go and teach a lesson to the year 12 biology students. Needless to say, he was so chuffed and worked so hard to prepare for the lesson. The year 12 students were definitely taken aback by his depth of knowledge and understanding and it inspired them to take their learning beyond the curriculum too.

list of math differentiation strategies

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References

Tomlinson, C. A., 2000. Differentiation of Instruction in the Elementary Grades. ERIC Digest. ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education.