General Introduction

This blog is part of my Differentiation and Adaptive Teaching Knowledge Base.

I use the terms differentiation and adaptive teaching synonymously. To me, they are the same, as genuine differentiation has always involved adapting your planning and your teaching to meet the needs of the learners in front of you.

For me, differentiation is all the practical strategies, activities and techniques teachers use to personalise learning.

For ease, we can break that down into my five categories of differentiation: Activities, Questioning, Words and Writing, Things the Teacher Can Do and Things You Can Ask Learners to Do or Use.

This blog falls into the category of things you can ask learners to do or use, also called self-scaffolding.

Expert’s Corner

Ask for a learner who feels they are an expert in the topic being studied.

This learner sits in a corner of the room.

They should be given their own table and two chairs (one for them, one for the learners who go up to them).

The class is set a task.

They are told that if anyone has any questions or concerns, they should head over to Expert’s Corner for help (this being the corner where the learner is sat).

While the activity is going on, you can direct your time toward helping learners who are most in need of support.

Other learners can make use of the learner-expert, should they need assistance.

You might develop the activity by having two or three experts in different parts of the room.

These could all be experts on the topic, or they could be experts on different areas of the topic.

It might be that the experts do not have many queries.

If this happens, you can direct them to do one of three different things:

• Create a set of questions they could use to test what the class knows at the end of the activity, or which could be used as extension questions by those learners who finish before their peers.
• Walk around the class and engage various learners in discussion. Conversations should centre on aspects of the task and aspects of the topic. The ‘expert’ starts the discussions off by asking the person to whom they are speaking to talk them through their work thus far.
• Choose a specific aspect of the topic and create a short presentation and teaching activity which can be used with the whole class when the main task has been completed.

How does Expert’s Corner help you to differentiate?

Learners have an alternative person to the teacher who they can call on for support.

Due to this person being a fellow learner, there is the likelihood of shared codes making information and ideas easier to access.

The learners who take on the role of expert are challenged to support their peers and to make use of their knowledge and understanding in a variety of different ways.

The teacher is afforded time in which to support learners who are having the greatest difficulty with the work.

A Team of Class Helpers

Learners work at different speeds.

Many factors influence how quickly a learner completes an activity.

These include the nature of the task, the learner’s prior knowledge and experience, their skills and their current ability level.

It is likely that in most cases, there will be at least one learner who finishes before their peers.

Such learners can be called on to act as helpers.

The teacher asks them to stand up and walk around the room, assisting learners who have not yet finished.

It may be that they take their work with them and use it to help explain ideas and to model what the finished product ought to look like.

As more learners complete their work so more helpers are created.

Eventually, you will reach a situation where every learner who is still striving to finish is being supported by one or more of their peers.

This creates a collaborative, positive atmosphere in which learners see themselves as part of a community that is learning together.

It also provides an opportunity for the teacher to circulate and to listen to the conversations that are going on around the room.

Through doing this, you can elicit information about where learners are at, how they are explaining the ideas and information to each other, and whether there are any misconceptions floating around.

On the face of it, this strategy looks best suited to primary classrooms.

It does work well there.

But I’ve also seen it work well with A Level classes.

Personally, I think you can use it anywhere.

The key is in pitching the explanation, and framing the purpose, in a way that is relevant for the age group you are teaching.

How does having class helpers help you to differentiate?

The learners who become helpers are challenged to support their peers.

They must think carefully about how best to convey the knowledge and understanding they have accrued through successfully completing the task.

Learners are supported by their peers to complete their work.

The help they receive is likely to be viewed differently to that which a teacher might give.

The learners who have completed their work and who then become helpers have a different perspective on the task learning to the teacher.

This is likely to be closer to the experience of those learners who they are being asked to help. What they explain and model may therefore be more accessible than a similar intervention made by the teacher.