Pat Quinn talks about the importance of maximizing full class instruction in his book called Maximum Tier One. In chapter five, he gives five different strategies for differentiating instruction. He stresses the idea that differentiating instruction could work by even splitting the class in half. Two leveled groups are better than whole class all the time. If you start small, you'll feel more comfortable to get into smaller, differentiated groups. These are strategies that you could apply right away in your classroom. Always remember to ask yourself when you're doing your lesson planning... Is there a strategy that I can use to help maximize the instruction for all students in my classroom?
His strategies include:
Assess and Adjust
Teach what you want the students to learn.
Assign practice.
When students finish it, assess to see how they did on it.
Then assign a unique practice to different students in the class, based on how they did on the assessment.
Begin and Branch
Teach your students the objective of the day. FAST. Faster than they might learn it.
Then, find a way to have students show you whether or not they understand or know/can do the objective of the day.
Then, break the class into two groups - those who have it and can begin practice, and those who need more instruction.
Then, continue opportunities for students to show you what they know. That way, after a few more minutes, the instruction group gets smaller and smaller until you are down to only a few students who need instruction.
Creative Choice
Teach the objective.
Do guided practice.
Then offer choices for students to choose from for independent practice.
These choices can be a packet, a report, a rap, an art project, etc.
For example, "If you don't want to do the packet, you could give a four minute presentation on _"
Quinn says, you don't have to worry about multiple intelligences, because students are going to choose how they like to learn the best.
Keyed Activity Assessment
Begin by asking your students a question or series of questions.
Based on how they do on the assessment, you determine what they do next.
If students answer correctly, they (group A) work on the next activity while the students who answered it incorrectly (group B) would get re-taught the original material
Then, as students are able to answer the question correctly, they are then to move onto the next activity. The activity that they do is based on how the students do on the question that is asked.
Work Down Bin
This is a series of activities your students do in order. There is no time frame to move on from one activity to another. When they complete an activity, they move onto the next. That means, that students are able to spend as much time on the activity that they need. As they work down, the activities get more enriched and in depth.
Quinn, P. (2012). Maximum Tier One. JulianJohn Publishing.
His strategies include:
Assess and Adjust
Begin and Branch
Creative Choice
Keyed Activity Assessment
Work Down Bin
This is a series of activities your students do in order. There is no time frame to move on from one activity to another. When they complete an activity, they move onto the next. That means, that students are able to spend as much time on the activity that they need. As they work down, the activities get more enriched and in depth.
Quinn, P. (2012). Maximum Tier One. JulianJohn Publishing.