Differentiating to Reach More Broadly

by Andy Bell

In my classroom, we try to build as many flex days in to our schedule as possible.  These are days when we can catch up on things we've missed in previous lessons and help students who are struggling catch up as well. Part of making flex days effective involves differentiating the lesson so students with different backgrounds and abilities can all benefit academically.

The above picture is my drawing of our Google Slide that we use to break the students into ability groups on flex days. All of the students do the same type of activities, an EdPuzzle and a Pixel Art drawing in this case, but the required cognitive abilities vary. This way students don't necessarily know where they "rank" compared to their peers since they all work on the same platforms.

We track the progress of each of the ability groups separately by reviewing the results of their work. We look at how much work they completed and for cues that tell us where their level of understanding is. It's worked great, helping us catch many students up by giving them more personalized instruction. The students have also enjoyed the activities.

Thanks for reading.