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.

We want learners to be independent.

We want them to self-scaffold.

We want them to work things out on their own.

Or, at least, to try first, before coming to us for help.

There’s lots of ways you can promote this in your classroom.

Three before me is a classic example, where we ask learners to try three things before asking the teacher for help (usually, something like brain, buddy and book).

Here, I’ll take a slightly different angle.

We’ll look at two methods in which you can train learners:

• Questions to Ask Yourself
• Ask Your Partner

Both of which can help them to solve problems either on their own or with one of their peers.

Questions to Ask Yourself

Give learners a list of questions they can ask themselves whenever they encounter a task.

These could be a set of general questions appropriate for any activity, or they could be specific to a particular type of activity that comes up repeatedly in your lessons.

An example of the latter would be source analysis in History lessons.

When learners begin an activity, they can use the list of questions to structure their work.

In addition, cycling through a list of questions each time you work on a task helps to promote focussed and methodical thinking.

Which is always of benefit.

Plus, repetition aids memorisation which, in turn, makes it easier for learners to solve problems on their own, without even needing to reference the list of questions you initially provided.

Let’s illustrate with a couple of examples.

First, here’s an example of a list of general questions:

• What is the task asking you to do?
• What information will you need to be successful?
• Can you break the task down into smaller sections?
• What are the success criteria for the task?
• How will you know that you have successfully completed the task?

Second, here’s an example list of specific questions, based on source analysis in History lessons:

• Who created the source?
• What might have been the purpose of the source?
• How does the source compare to other sources you know about?
• What key information can you get from the source?
• Is the source biased?

You’ll note from these two examples that a list of questions works to bridge the gap between where a learner is at and where you want them to get to by completing the activity.

The questions assist the learner by channelling their thinking in certain directions.

Helping them to solve the problem of successfully completing the task.

(A problem every learner must solve multiple times every day they are in school.)

The questions are more than a prompt but less than a guide.

They direct the learner, without doing the work for them.

They are a tool the learner can use to be independent, and to problem-solve on their own – without having to ask you for help.

Depending on the age of your learners, you can have a question list that is more or less complex, or which uses more or less sophisticated language.

How does doing this help you to differentiate?

You can choose to give a question list to certain learners who you feel need more support than others.

This means differentiating for those who are less able.

Alternatively, you can create different question lists with different levels of challenge and give these to different groups of learners.

Another option is to have a set of five questions that get progressively more challenging.

You can then encourage learners to use whichever questions they find most useful.

Overall, the strategy promotes learner independence, provides a scaffold through which learners can solve problems on their own, and encourages a metacognitive engagement with the learning.

Ask Your Partner

In every classroom, learners sit next to each other.

This gives an opportunity for learners to use their peers to help them understand the work.

To solve the problem of how to successfully complete the task.

You can cultivate an atmosphere in your classroom where learners are encouraged to speak to their partner if they are unsure about what they need to do or if they are uncertain about some aspect of the learning.

The risk with this method is that it has the potential to be used by learners as cover for a social chat.

Two ways to mitigate this are through the development of a seating plan that makes such opportunities less likely and by keeping a close eye on the conversations that take place.

Discussions concerning the work tend to look visibly different from social discussions, after all.

Another option is to provide a structure within which learners can ask their partners for help.

Here are three alternatives.

Three-Minute Partner Talk

Having outlined the task you want learners to complete, explain that there will be a three-minute period in which partners can discuss what the task involves and how to approach it.

When the time is up, indicate that learners should now focus on completing the task.

Whether that is individually, in pairs, or in groups.

Here, we are defining a specific period of time in which we expect everyone to talk about the task.

This focuses minds.

You can use three minutes, as I have suggested, or you can choose a different amount of time.

Either way, the goal is the same.

To create a short period before the task begins, during which learners discuss in pairs what they need to do and how they will try to solve the problem of successfully completing the task.

Specialist Partners

Appoint specialists who are happy to partner with anyone who is struggling to make sense of a task.

These specialists should be learners who are confident that they know what they are doing, and happy to help their peers.

Often, these will be more-able learners, though not always.

You can appoint permanent specialists or have a rotation across weeks.

This works particularly well in a primary context.

In a secondary context, you might ask for a volunteer at the start of task:

• Who is happy they know what they’re doing, and doesn’t mind helping anyone who’s unsure?

The learner who volunteers can either stay in their seat and help anyone who comes over to them, or they can go out in the class and roam around, finding any peers who need assistance.

Mid-Activity Pause

Part-way through an activity, invite learners to spend a couple of minutes sharing what they have done with their partners.

This gives everyone in the class an opportunity to see how someone else is approaching the task.

In addition, it facilitates a discussion about the demands of the task and the possible ways in which these might be met.

If you notice that some learners are struggling before you get to the middle of your activity, bring this forward.

For example, a geography teacher might see that a few learners are struggling with a map reading task.

They stop the activity after a couple of minutes and say:

• OK, I want everyone to have a chat with the person next to them. How are you finding it? Does it make sense? Are you having any problems? If you are, see if you can solve them together.

How does this help you to differentiate?

Learners can explain things in a different way from what we can do, as teachers.

Learners share social codes and ways of talking, which can make peer explanations more accessible.

There is also the opportunity for learners to model what success looks like for each other.

Encouraging learners to look to their peers for support helps create a collaborative learning environment in which everyone can succeed. Those learners who are asked for support by their peers are challenged to accurately explain what they have come to understand.