53 EASY Differentiation Strategies for Your Classroom
Just after I started in my first teaching position, I remember sitting in a whole school staff meeting on differentiation strategies and feeling sooooo overwhelmed. 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 really started to understand what differentiating actually is and how it can be manageable on a daily basis if you have the right differentiation strategies.
That’s where this post comes in! I’ve created a list of 53 low prep differentiation strategies that are easy to implement on a daily basis and don’t require multiple lesson plans! If you’re a teacher leader who is looking for ways to differentiate professional development for teachers then see my blog post here.
So grab a coffee and sit back and relax while I give you a list of differentiation strategies in the classroom to make your job easier!
list of differentiation strategies in the classroom
Disclaimer: This blog post, ’53 easy differentiation strategies for your classroom’, may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something from these links I may get a small commission to help support this blog (with no extra cost to you). Read full disclaimer here.
What are 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 differentiation strategies
What areas can you use differentiation strategies for in the classroom?
According to Tomlinson (2000), there are 4 ways you can incorporate 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 also includes how students receive the content. For instance, whether they receive the content via the teacher, a video, visual resources, etc.
2. Differentiate the Product
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 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!
The ultimate list of differentiation strategies
53 EASY DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES IN THE CLASSROOM
List of differentiation strategies: Content
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.
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.
- 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.
2. Incorporate videos
Videos are a great resource to use for 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.
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. list of differentiation strategies list of differentiation strategies
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 renewable and non renewable resources in science, one group might study solar energy, another wind energy, another fossil fuels 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, solar energy may be easier for students to research than fossil fuels.
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, in teaching physics I like to have students choose one of Newton’s laws and write about how it applies in a sport or hobby of their choice.
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 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 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 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:
- English: What would a fictional book say to a non fictional book?
- Science: What would a conical flask say to a beaker?
- Shapes: What would a square say to a triangle?
- Chemistry: What hydrogen bond say to a dispersion force?
- English: What would a synonym say to a metaphor?
- Pythagoras: What would a hypotenuse say to a right angle?
list of differentiation strategies
List of 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, research 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 research 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.
14. Engage with their cultural background
Providing opportunity for students to engage with their cultural background can not only engage them but allows for differentiation in your classroom. This may be as simple as allowing them to research or apply the relevance of the topic to their cultural practices or traditions.
15. Incorporate technology
Technology provides a lot of options for choice for students to learn and demonstrate their learning. Students could choose whether the end product may be a short video, powtoon, infographic and so on.
16. 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.
17. Provide sophisticated language prompts
An example of this is providing sophisticated language examples to include in answers. For example, when explaining ask students to use words such as ‘consequently’ or ‘thereby’, rather than the words ‘and’ or ‘but’.
18. 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.
19. 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 differentiation strategies for you as it leans on student agency rather than your creation of new material.
20. 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. 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 differentiation strategies
differentiation is the difference between busy work and learning#education #edchat #differentiation
— The Animated Teacher (@katrina_harte) November 2, 2021
List of differentiation strategies: Process
21. Use technology
There are lots of different programs that allow for easy differentiation 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.
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. Cut and paste activities
Allowing for students to physically manipulate something can be so powerful for those needing 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!
25. Use virtual or augmented reality
As a science teacher, I find the hardest areas to support my students in are those concepts that are theoretical concepts or those which we cannot see physically. For example, teaching atoms and molecules. Virtual or augmented reality programs allow students to visualise things that usually wouldn’t be possible. My favourites to use in science are the Google AR periodic table and this 3D periodic table.
26. 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.
27. 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.
28. Inquiry-based learning and project-based learning
Inquiry-based learning is about students discovering the answer to a problem while project-based learning is about exploring the ‘why’ of an answer. Both of these options allow for varying levels of exploration by students and allow for choice in how they go about investigating.
29. Incorporating STEM or STEAM projects
Using STEM or STEAM in the classroom has the benefits of cross-curricular activities and project-based learning while also fostering student development in critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity. Often differentiation strategies for these kinds of activities happen organically as students are drawn towards their own interests and inquiry. list of differentiation strategies
30. Cloze passages
Cloze passages are easy to differentiate quickly by choosing what level of support you want to give your students. Here are some examples of varying levels of support you could provide:
- No word bank. This also provides students with the opportunity to use their choice of synonyms when filling in the blanks.
- Providing the first letter of each word with no word bank.
- Full word bank.
- Providing the first letter of each word with a full word bank.
list of differentiation strategies
31. Provide written or printed instructions broken down into steps
This is one of those 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.
32. 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 Choosito to find passages and activities at appropriate reading levels. Learning A-Z provide high quality differentiated learning materials that include various reading levels for multiple subject areas.
33. Try a self-paced classroom
I recently had a year 11 Earth & Environmental Science class in which I had students at both ends of the spectrum and everything in between. So I decided to try what I call a self-paced classroom.
I set up the learning for each week and students were to go to their assigned document and complete each activity at their own pace. If they came to a part that needed explicit instruction or an experiment then they would let me know and we would do it together. This allowed for more differentiation strategies to be used in class as I was able to tailor my instruction and be more hands-on during class.
While this initially took more planning at the beginning of each week, it absolutely made this class more manageable as each student could engage at their own pace and level.
34. Provide sentence starters
For a lot of students needing extra support, they get overwhelmed by a task because they don’t know where to start.
Therefore, providing sentence starters gets them moving and helps their brain start a train of thought.
35. Provide extra processing time
This could be as simple as giving students fewer questions to complete in the same amount of time.
36. 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.
37. 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 differentiation strategies
We need to keep students engaged, not busy.
— Brian Aspinall (@mraspinall) October 11, 2021
38. Provide a list of websites
Providing a list of reputable websites for students when asking them to do any type of research can be really helpful for steering them in the right direction. This is another time you could utilise Choosito to ensure students are able to access information at the appropriate reading level.
39. Scaffolding
Scaffolding is one of my favourite differentiation strategies and is useful in most topics to provide a model or structure to follow in order to solve a problem.
This could be as simple as providing boxes to write different thoughts in, or as intricate as providing step by step working out for solving complex mathematical problems.
Again this is something you could provide the whole class, and if extension students don’t feel they need it they can complete the same questions without the scaffold.
40. Use programs that allow instructions to be read to them
For some students, something as simple as having instructions read out loud to them can allow them to be able to access the learning. Depending on what device they may be using there are different apps or plugins students could install for this purpose.
41. Colour coding
Colour coding is a simple and effective strategy to implement in almost any class setting and provides a visual representation for the students who need it. This could be just highlighting keywords in green or adjectives in orange. I love to do this when teaching students how to ‘explain’ using colours to highlight the cause, effect and linking phrase in different colours. It could be using two different colours for showing opposites or grouping of information.
42. Larger text fonts
Of all the differentiation strategies this one has to be the most simple and easiest to implement. But so often I see worksheets with tiny text or a font that is too hard to read.
Therefore, keep the creativity to the clip art images and ensure you are only using really easy fonts to read such as Arial or Georgia.
43. More white space
Cramming as much as you can onto an A4 sheet for printing can be overwhelming for students trying to learn.
So simplify your handouts by allowing more white space.
44. Online programs
There are many different programs out there for different subjects that provide high-quality learning activities for students. These can provide accessibility to students by allowing personalisation of the interface. This includes enlarging reading text and having instructions read aloud. Often these programs include built in differentiation strategies in the content.
list of differentiation strategies
List of differentiation strategies: Environment
45. 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 for grouping could be:
- Grouping students who need some extra support together. This will also 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.
46. 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 differentiation strategies into your classroom without loads of preparation.
47. 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!
48. 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.
49. Pair students of varied abilities
Pairing a student who may need extra support with a student who needs a challenge can be a great learning experience for both of them.
50. 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.
51. Change the 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.
52. 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.
53. 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 differentiation strategies
Conclusion
Differentiating your instruction does not have to be onerous. Use a combination of the above differentiation strategies to help plan your lessons. Remember that differentiation is about meeting the learning needs of your students. Give yourself some time to try a few different differentiation strategies to find what works for your students.
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Teacher leaders check out my blog post ‘how to differentiate professional development for teachers‘.
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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.
Written by Katrina
13 Comments
13 Comments
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Great ideas that are so practical to implement!
Thank you so much!
So incredibly helpful! Thanks for giving teachers so many ideas to help differentiate for students. I’m sure we all do some of these without even thinking about it. Loved reading your blog!
You’re most welcome! I am so glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful.
You’re so right! We absolutely do many of these naturally. I think seeing it in black and white can help differentiation seem less intimidating for that exact reason.
What an amazing list of things any teacher can try to use. You have really helped me think about other strategies that I can use in class, Katrina. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much Liam. I am so glad you found it helpful!