The Seven T's of Practical Differentiation
This extract is part of the third section of my practical guide to differentiation, dealing with the use of targets to achieve differentiation. You can buy the book here.
The Third T: Targets
Just as timings help your students to focus on reaching a goal, so a well-chosen target will encourage them to aim for a specific objective. Ideally, you want a target that is just slightly difficult for the child to reach. Those students who are really able or well motivated can strive to achieve a high target. Those students who struggle to learn, or those who lack motivation, will also benefit from the careful and considered use of targets. The more personalised the targets, the better they work for differentiated learning. Encourage your students to participate in setting their own targets, and in reviewing the progress they have made towards reaching their goals.
Targets for the Teacher
We all respond well to targets, and that includes the teacher, as well as the students. Use personal targets to encourage yourself to differentiate more effectively for your students.
* When you are working out the learning objective for a lesson, consider whether it is (or should be) the same for everyone. If you are completely honest with yourself, have some of your students already achieved the objective you had planned to set? If they have, consider whether they need to revisit it or not, or whether you should be creating a different kind of learning goal for them.
* Consider setting several layers of learning objective in your lessons. Have one main objective that you want to ensure everyone achieves, then one or more others that you will try to achieve with the most able students. A good way to define this within your lesson plan is: all must … some may … a few might.
* Set yourself the goal of speaking to every single child in your class in every single lesson that you teach. You may be amazed at how difficult this actually is. Make a special effort to talk to those students who normally pass under your radar. Typically you will talk least to those students who are quiet or who never make a fuss. Interestingly, although we often teach to the middle of a class, we tend to talk most to those students at the top or the bottom of the ability range.
* If you are struggling to find time to differentiate every lesson, set yourself the target of three lessons a week where you will focus really strongly on creating differentiated learning activities. If you are a primary school teacher, choose a variety of subjects to target for full differentiation each week. If you are a secondary school teacher, focus on a variety of age groups or on different classes within each year group.
* Alternatively, nominate one or two students each week, as your 'differentiated learners'. When you plan an activity for the whole class, figure out one way to differentiate the learning so that it will particularly suit these particular learners. Use your mark book to keep a list of the ‘differentiated learners’ you have already targeted, so that over the course of a term every child gets a chunk of really high quality, personalised learning.
Targets for the Students
The timing techniques discussed previously are useful for creating short-term focus in lessons. Using targets with your students will help them focus both on short and long-term goals. As the teacher you must have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, and you must create a strong motivation within your students to reach those goals. You can create targets for a single activity, for the lesson as a whole, for the week, for the term or indeed, for the year. You can also set targets that encourage higher levels of motivation.
* At the start of a lesson, explain to your students how they can excel within that lesson. What can they do, say or show you that will make you believe they have really achieved their best?
* For those students who lack motivation, or who struggle with focus or behaviour, explain how they can prove themselves within the lesson. Again, what can they do, say or show you that will make you believe they are really trying their best?
* Use really specific targets to push students to work within set boundaries. For example, ask them to write a story with exactly 20 words (not 19 or 21, but exactly 20). Demonstrate your high expectations, by insisting that they meet their goals precisely.
* Share successful examples of learning with the class, to demonstrate a target towards which the students can work. Go through the example together, identifying the key features that made it a success. For their next activity, ask the students to set themselves one of these key features as a target. One useful way to find these sample pieces, that show specific skills, is to dig out some of your own exercise books or essays from when you were younger. Alternatively, I also like to write my own examples to use with students, so that they match the children’s learning needs exactly.
* Celebrate difference within your class, making it clear that we all have strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone is of equal value to you. Praise those children whose strengths lie in non-academic areas: those who are kind, or good friends, or who always cheer everyone up.
* Create a ‘Star of the Week’ award in a variety of different categories, not just in the academic fields. Your stars could include: the hardest worker, the most creative student, the student who has been the best friend to others, the student who has taken the most risks in their learning, and so on. You could create an ‘X Factor’ style learning display on which you include photos of your stars of the week. You could also involve your children in voting on who should win some of the awards.
* Use targets to control noise within your lessons. Set a target for the appropriate level of noise during each activity. Ask a student to be ‘noise monitor’, and to decide whether the class met your target. It can work well to choose a student who is normally very noisy to make this decision. This will encourage him or her to think about how noise impacts on the learning of the rest of the class.
* When you use praise, make it very specific. What exactly did the student do well? What previously agreed target did they achieve? Be fairly tricky to please, depending on your knowledge of the individual child. Ensure that praise keeps its value as a currency by having high expectations, and by making praise difficult to earn.
* Set a topic-based project, and ask the students to create their own targets for what they will do in each lesson when working on the project. Towards the end of the lesson, ask them to reflect on whether they met the target they set themselves, and if not, to think about why not. What could they do in future to make sure they achieve their targets?
* Set a variety of targets for assessment, depending on what you know about an individual child’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, when you come to mark, focus on these differing targets to see what has been achieved. For instance, some students might be set a target to do with the layout of the activity, other students might be asked to focus on using punctuation correctly, others on taking risks with their ideas and their learning.
This extract is part of the third section of my practical guide to differentiation, dealing with the use of targets to achieve differentiation. You can buy the book here.
The Third T: Targets
Just as timings help your students to focus on reaching a goal, so a well-chosen target will encourage them to aim for a specific objective. Ideally, you want a target that is just slightly difficult for the child to reach. Those students who are really able or well motivated can strive to achieve a high target. Those students who struggle to learn, or those who lack motivation, will also benefit from the careful and considered use of targets. The more personalised the targets, the better they work for differentiated learning. Encourage your students to participate in setting their own targets, and in reviewing the progress they have made towards reaching their goals.
Targets for the Teacher
We all respond well to targets, and that includes the teacher, as well as the students. Use personal targets to encourage yourself to differentiate more effectively for your students.
* When you are working out the learning objective for a lesson, consider whether it is (or should be) the same for everyone. If you are completely honest with yourself, have some of your students already achieved the objective you had planned to set? If they have, consider whether they need to revisit it or not, or whether you should be creating a different kind of learning goal for them.
* Consider setting several layers of learning objective in your lessons. Have one main objective that you want to ensure everyone achieves, then one or more others that you will try to achieve with the most able students. A good way to define this within your lesson plan is: all must … some may … a few might.
* Set yourself the goal of speaking to every single child in your class in every single lesson that you teach. You may be amazed at how difficult this actually is. Make a special effort to talk to those students who normally pass under your radar. Typically you will talk least to those students who are quiet or who never make a fuss. Interestingly, although we often teach to the middle of a class, we tend to talk most to those students at the top or the bottom of the ability range.
* If you are struggling to find time to differentiate every lesson, set yourself the target of three lessons a week where you will focus really strongly on creating differentiated learning activities. If you are a primary school teacher, choose a variety of subjects to target for full differentiation each week. If you are a secondary school teacher, focus on a variety of age groups or on different classes within each year group.
* Alternatively, nominate one or two students each week, as your 'differentiated learners'. When you plan an activity for the whole class, figure out one way to differentiate the learning so that it will particularly suit these particular learners. Use your mark book to keep a list of the ‘differentiated learners’ you have already targeted, so that over the course of a term every child gets a chunk of really high quality, personalised learning.
Targets for the Students
The timing techniques discussed previously are useful for creating short-term focus in lessons. Using targets with your students will help them focus both on short and long-term goals. As the teacher you must have a clear vision of what you want to achieve, and you must create a strong motivation within your students to reach those goals. You can create targets for a single activity, for the lesson as a whole, for the week, for the term or indeed, for the year. You can also set targets that encourage higher levels of motivation.
* At the start of a lesson, explain to your students how they can excel within that lesson. What can they do, say or show you that will make you believe they have really achieved their best?
* For those students who lack motivation, or who struggle with focus or behaviour, explain how they can prove themselves within the lesson. Again, what can they do, say or show you that will make you believe they are really trying their best?
* Use really specific targets to push students to work within set boundaries. For example, ask them to write a story with exactly 20 words (not 19 or 21, but exactly 20). Demonstrate your high expectations, by insisting that they meet their goals precisely.
* Share successful examples of learning with the class, to demonstrate a target towards which the students can work. Go through the example together, identifying the key features that made it a success. For their next activity, ask the students to set themselves one of these key features as a target. One useful way to find these sample pieces, that show specific skills, is to dig out some of your own exercise books or essays from when you were younger. Alternatively, I also like to write my own examples to use with students, so that they match the children’s learning needs exactly.
* Celebrate difference within your class, making it clear that we all have strengths and weaknesses, and that everyone is of equal value to you. Praise those children whose strengths lie in non-academic areas: those who are kind, or good friends, or who always cheer everyone up.
* Create a ‘Star of the Week’ award in a variety of different categories, not just in the academic fields. Your stars could include: the hardest worker, the most creative student, the student who has been the best friend to others, the student who has taken the most risks in their learning, and so on. You could create an ‘X Factor’ style learning display on which you include photos of your stars of the week. You could also involve your children in voting on who should win some of the awards.
* Use targets to control noise within your lessons. Set a target for the appropriate level of noise during each activity. Ask a student to be ‘noise monitor’, and to decide whether the class met your target. It can work well to choose a student who is normally very noisy to make this decision. This will encourage him or her to think about how noise impacts on the learning of the rest of the class.
* When you use praise, make it very specific. What exactly did the student do well? What previously agreed target did they achieve? Be fairly tricky to please, depending on your knowledge of the individual child. Ensure that praise keeps its value as a currency by having high expectations, and by making praise difficult to earn.
* Set a topic-based project, and ask the students to create their own targets for what they will do in each lesson when working on the project. Towards the end of the lesson, ask them to reflect on whether they met the target they set themselves, and if not, to think about why not. What could they do in future to make sure they achieve their targets?
* Set a variety of targets for assessment, depending on what you know about an individual child’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, when you come to mark, focus on these differing targets to see what has been achieved. For instance, some students might be set a target to do with the layout of the activity, other students might be asked to focus on using punctuation correctly, others on taking risks with their ideas and their learning.