How the simple act of explaining is the key to a huge amount of easy, no-planning differentiation you can weave through your lessons

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.

Explaining and Exemplifying

Never underestimate the importance of explanation and exemplification in the classroom.

The teacher’s job consists of two things: teaching and helping learners to learn.

To be successful in these elements, you must communicate with clarity, accuracy and precision.

There may be more than thirty learners in front of you, all of whom need to understand what it is that you are trying to convey to them.

The better you communicate, the more likely it is that they will.

This, in turn, increases learners’ confidence and decreases the amount of time you have to spend going over what you have already said.

Here are a range of methods you can use when explaining things:

Examples
Analogies
Evidence
Modelling
Reasoning
Images
Diagrams
Flow Charts
Stories
Anecdotes

The first of these – examples – is one of the most important tools a teacher has at their disposal.

Examples give a specific case that demonstrates or supports an abstract or general statement. In so doing, they contextualise that statement.

This has three major consequences.

First, it provides supporting evidence that the statement is true.

Second, it provides an indirect explanation of the statement.

Third, it gives the reader or listener purchase – a means by which they can fix onto the statement and connect it to their existing experience or knowledge of the world.

Here is an example (which is itself an example in reference to the previous paragraph).

Democracy is rule by the people. (General and abstract statement)
For example, voters can elect their representatives every five years. (Example that contextualises the initial statement.)

Examples are of great use in the classroom.

They help to clarify, demonstrate and support abstract and general statements, giving learners purchase on what are often new and sometimes unusual ideas or concepts.

Any time you think there is uncertainty in your classroom, use an example.

This could be with an individual learner, a group, or the whole class.

Remind yourself that the process of exemplification is also a process of contextualisation.

And that this helps create certainty in learners’ minds.

These points are relevant to the exemplification of ideas, keywords and information.

And they are also relevant to the exemplification of tasks.

We often do this through modelling, like when we model what it is that we want learners to do.

Often overlooked is the fact that, in these scenarios, modelling is a form of exemplification.

A visual model of how to get started on a task, provided by the teacher, is also a visual example.

One that is brought to life, providing context and certainty in the mind of the learner.

How does explaining and exemplifying help you to differentiate?

Thinking carefully about how to explain and exemplify what you say in the classroom means that you are thinking carefully about how to communicate.

The better you communicate, the more likely it is that all your learners will understand what is being taught and what it is you are asking them to do.

This, in turn, leads to greater engagement, motivation and progress across the board.

Giving examples provides learners with a means to contextualise abstract and general statements.

If you choose your examples carefully, you will be able to use them to engage learners and to help all learners access the work.

Clear explanations minimise ambiguity.

This makes it more likely that all learners will understand what is expected of them.

Less-able learners will benefit from this.

It is they who are often low on confidence and more likely to have concerns over getting things wrong.

Minimising ambiguity helps them to feel more confident and clearer about what it is they need to do.

Using Re-Explaining to Differentiate in the Lesson

This is a specific method of explaining that helps all learners to access the learning.

It works as follows.

First, explain using technical and subject-specific terminology.

Then, simplify your explanation, replacing some of these words with language with which learners are more familiar.

Finally, explain a third time, using simple and non-technical language.

You might like to visualise the approach as a spiral, with your explanation moving from a technical, abstract and challenging start, down to a simpler, concrete, more grounded finish.

The major advantages of this method are:

All learners are exposed to correct terminology and technical vocabulary. This is challenging for the whole class and meets the needs of those learners who are most able.
Learners who struggle to grasp the technical and subject-specific language are given an opportunity to come to terms with these words by comparing them to the simpler explanations they hear. Through this process they can deduce the meaning of the first set of words, or, at the very least, develop their understanding of them.
Learners who have the greatest difficulty in your lessons are catered for. They also have an opportunity to develop their vocabulary and understanding by making comparisons between the different levels of explanation you give.

When overused, this method can become repetitive.

A better option is to use it periodically, focussing on those times when you are teaching something that is of high importance; something it is vital that all learners comprehend.

Specifically, this is likely to involve concepts you are introducing for the first time, and which learners must grasp if they are to make progress with the rest of the topic.

How does re-explaining help you to differentiate?

Multiple explanations are aimed at a range of ability levels you are likely to find in any mixed-ability class.

By using technical vocabulary and subject-specific terminology in the first explanation, you can challenge all learners and give them the opportunity to engage with the key content.

Combining the first explanation with the second and third gives learners the opportunity to deduce the meaning of words with which they are not familiar. Learners are helped to use what they already know to come to terms with that which is unknown.