You Gotta Differentiate, Smarty Pants!

A “How To” for Mixed-ability Classrooms Instruction

Students of all academic levels such as gifted and talented, require appropriate strategies for instructional learning.  It’s up to the teacher to implement and challenge these students by offering strategies, materials, and resources that make use of their advanced interest and readiness.

The challenge that comes in differentiating is helping students make sense of ideas, what material is taught, and how students show what they have learned. Using open-ended and productive learning are the most beneficial ways of challenging the gifted.

Goal setting and planning: involving students in their individual goal setting and the planning of learning activities, one to one with the teacher.

Group investigation: students working in cooperative mixed-ability groups on open-ended tasks or in like-ability groups working on appropriately challenging tasks. Usually the focus is on the process and thinking skills.

Attention to social issues, real world experiences, and community projects: performance assessment tasks, role-plays, simulations, etc. based on authentic situations of interest to students

Emphasis on Thinking skills: giving students the opportunity to think aloud, discuss their thinking with their peers, and reflect on their thinking in journals.

High-level questions: questions that draw on advanced levels of information, requiring leaps of understanding and challenging thinking.

Long term projects: an enrichment opportunity in which students investigate concepts, issues, topics or individuals. 

I wonder if teachers really are prepared to keep gifted and talented students engaged during most lesson. I feel like these students are often overlooked and given extra time to read in order for the other students to finish the assignments that come too easy for them. As an new teacher, my goal is to really plan ahead for students who are fast finishers by providing them with extensions of the lesson that help them stay involved, and feel like what they do and say matters. I feel that if all the students are continually moving up on the learning ladder, we are all headed in the right direction. No student should stay still during the learning cycle. All students should be improving and gaining a new understanding of material taught as the year goes on. I want to be the type of teacher who is mindful of all my students abilities and who keeps them interested and constantly asking questions! Go US!