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 the teacher can do.

What is AFL?

AfL stands for Assessment for Learning.

This refers to the way in which teachers can use the process of assessment to help learners to learn.

It differs from assessment of learning.

That is a summative process in which learners are tested to see what they have learned.

A good way to understand the difference is to think about a driving lesson and a driving test.

In a driving lesson, assessment for learning is used.

The instructor looks at what you are doing and helps you to improve.

In a driving test the instructor assesses whether or not you meet a set of pre-defined criteria.

At the end of the test, they tell you if you have passed or failed.

Assessment for learning consists of three things:

• Eliciting and using information about student learning.
• Opening up success criteria.
• Providing formative feedback.

We’ll briefly consider each in turn.

(For more on this, visit my Assessment for Learning Knowledge Base.)

Eliciting and using information can take many forms

Listening to learners, reading their work and observing them in class are all basic ways of eliciting information.

Other methods include asking open questions, requesting justification and setting up activities in which learners are doing things that you can observe.

In addition, there are whole-class feedback techniques.

These include getting learners to write answers on mini-whiteboards, showing with their thumbs how happy or confident they are with the learning, and collecting exit passes from learners as they leave your lesson (on which they will have written an answer to a question).

One you have useful information about where your learners are at, you can use it to tailor and adapt your teaching and your future planning.

This, by necessity, creates personalisation.

Which is another name for … differentiation.

Opening up success criteria involves building peer- and self-assessment into your lessons as well as sharing success criteria (formally or informally) with your learners and, when relevant, mark-schemes.

If learners know what they need to do to be successful, it is much easier for them to target their efforts effectively.

This is what opening up success criteria is all about.

And if everyone in your class understands what they need to do to be successful, they all have a better chance of making great progress.

Which is one of the fundamental goals of … effective differentiation.

Giving formative feedback involves assessing what learners have done well and why, explaining what learners need to do next if they are to improve, and giving this information to learners in such a way that they can understand it.

Implementation then follows.

It must.

Formative feedback gives access to your expertise.

Learners then need the opportunity to act on what you’ve given them.

We can’t leave it to chance, as it may or may not happen.

Whether verbal or written, formative feedback is personal.

It’s specific to the learner in question.

And, once again, this is differentiation in action.

How does using assessment for learning help you to differentiate?

Eliciting information from learners differentiates because it means the teacher can adapt their teaching, and future planning, to meet the needs of their learners.

This might involve a single learner, a group, or the whole class.

Opening up success criteria differentiates because it helps learners understand what is expected of them, and what they need to do to be successful in your lessons.

(Therefore, it is a way of helping all learners to make progress.)

Formative feedback differentiates because, no matter where a learner is at, the teacher can explain to them what they have done well (building their confidence and increasing their motivation) and how they can get better (ensuring progress).

Verbal and written formative feedback are, by necessity, personalised.

And personalisation is differentiation in action.

Giving Formative Feedback

Let’s now look at formative feedback in a bit more depth.

Formative feedback involves providing learners with information about what they have done well and what they need to do to improve.

Here is an example.

Strengths

• You have explained your reasoning in detail. This has made you argument clear.
• You have used technical vocabulary throughout your work, showing your knowledge and understanding of the subject.
• Your conclusion is unexpected but supported by the evidence you have outlined. This makes your essay memorable while maintaining coherence.

Target

• Provide criticisms of the arguments you personally agree with, as well those with which you disagree. This will demonstrate consistent evaluation and a critical mind-set – one that is not biased in favour of a single viewpoint. Such an approach is preferable as it more closely matches the scientific nature of the discipline.

Of course, this example is extensive and tied to an older age group.

Verbal feedback, or feedback for younger learners, may well be briefer.

But it does illustrate the point.

That formative feedback is all about the sharing of information.

Information you have access to as the expert, and which learners can use to make swifter progress than might otherwise be the case.

Again, this is personalisation in action.

And a clear demonstration of why formative feedback is an essential feature of effective differentiation.

Looking at the example above, you’ll note that the concept of coaching could be used to describe what’s happening.

The teacher is giving the learner a means by which to move on a little bit, by which to get better and through which to learn some more about the subject and the skills that it demands.

This is what a coach does.

They assess performance and give advice on how to get better.

Formative feedback – viewing assessment as a form of coaching – is a means to differentiate.

Learners in any class will all be at different stages in their learning.

Assessing their work formatively (whether verbal, written or a combination) helps them all to make progress, regardless of where they are starting from.

How does formative feedback help you to differentiate?

Seeing marking as akin to coaching helps teacher and learner to view the process as supportive and learning-centred.

This increases motivation and engagement for two reasons.

First, learners recognise they are being helped.

Second, learners do not experience the sense of failure that summative assessment can sometimes induce.

Formative marking is, by definition, closely tailored to the needs of individual learners.

Verbal formative feedback achieves the same goal, while the lesson is in progress

In short, one approach to effective differentiation involves focussing on continual provision of personalised, formative feedback, written and/or verbal, to all learners, in every lesson.

It’s a great way to ensure your teaching is continually adapted to the needs of your learners.

Open Up Success Criteria by Photocopying and Sharing Good Work

I’ll finish off by giving an easy method you can use to help learners better understand what they need to do to be successful in your lessons.

Photocopying good work and then developing tasks around this means that all learners in your class can see what success looks like.

They can take elements of what you’ve defined as good and use it in their own work.

Here are three ways you can get learners thinking critically about the exemplar work you photocopy.

Learners work in pairs

Give each pair a copy of the good work.

Display the relevant success criteria or mark-scheme on the board or provide handouts.

Pairs go through the work and identify where different elements of the success criteria have been met.

The task concludes with a short sharing session in which various pairs talk through different things they have identified.

While this is happening, the teacher displays the good work on the board and highlights the things pairs are talking about.

Learners work in groups. Each group is given a copy of the good work.

If appropriate, this is blown up onto A3 paper.

Groups discuss the work with the intention of identifying three reasons why it is good.

Once they have settled on their three reasons, they must produce a rationale explaining why each of these means the work is good.

The task concludes with groups pairing up and taking it in turns to advocate to each other for their respective reasons and seeing whether they have reached similar conclusions as their peers.

Learners work in groups. Each group is given a different aspect of the work to discuss.

If there are a lot of groups, some will need to look at the same aspect.

When sufficient time has elapsed, groups pair up and take it in turns to share what they have found out.

The process is repeated three times in total, so learners get to hear from three different groups.

The task is concluded with the whole-class developing a short bullet-point list of the key features of the work that mean it can be classed as good.

How does using examples of good work help you to differentiate?

Giving learners the opportunity to analyse, examine and discuss work that you have defined as good means giving them the opportunity to see what they ought to be aiming for.

This makes it clearer to them what success looks like.

Learners who are less-able are provided with a model they can use to help them improve their work.

This goes some way to bridging the gap between where they are at and where you want them to be.

All learners benefit from discussing what makes a piece of work good.

This is because, no matter where any individual learner is at, they must think carefully about what their work is being judged against.

Achieving highly and making good progress becomes simpler and more accessible as a result.