Meeting Students’ Diverse Needs: Differentiation

When my children were young, they had a shape-sorting toy. It was a bucket with a lid that had different openings of various shapes, such as triangle, square, and circle. My children would sit on the carpet and try to sort each plastic block into the corresponding hole of the same shape. As they familiarized themselves with the toy, they would occasionally try to push a block into an opening that was not made for it and quickly realized that it would not fit. The lesson they learned through this was akin to the old saying, “You can’t fit a square peg into a round hole.”

Children learn in different ways and have vastly different needs.

We can easily recognize the root of this mismatch in something simple like a children’s toy; however, it’s much more difficult to recognize a similar relationship in education. Just like a square peg can’t fit into a round hole, if there’s a mismatch between how someone is teaching and what will enable a student to learn the material, then the student will most likely struggle to understand. Decades of educational research and practice have found that children learn in different ways and have vastly different needs, so we can’t expect just one curriculum, teaching style, or approach to be the best fit for every child.

From a biblical worldview, the uniqueness of every child should be no surprise. God the Creator made each of us in his image, knitting us together in our mothers’ wombs (Genesis 1:27; Psalm 139:13). Every person has various giftings, talents, and abilities that he or she can use as part of the body of Christ to point others to God and glorify him (1 Corinthian 12:17–18). Because of the uniqueness inherent in every individual, it is important for teachers to recognize their students’ differing strengths, abilities, and needs and to adjust their instruction accordingly. But how do teachers do this in a classroom full of learners?

Differentiation is adjusting how you teach to meet students’ individual needs.

One way is by differentiating instruction. Differentiation is adjusting how you teach to meet students’ individual needs. If a teacher understands a student’s learning preferences, interests, and readiness related to a particular instructional concept, they can then differentiate their lessons appropriately to meet that student’s needs. Educational researchers have found that teachers can differentiate the following areas of instruction to better respond to students’ varying needs:1

• Content: the information students need to learn and how it is presented to them
• Process: the activities students participate in to help them understand the content
• Product: how students “show what they know” or apply their knowledge
• Environment: the conditions in which students engage in the learning process

So, practically, how does this look in a classroom? Let’s say a teacher plans a history lesson during which students read from a textbook and then answer written questions. For some students who learn best through reading and writing, this lesson may be very effective; however, for students who learn best in other ways or need more support to understand the content, this approach may not allow them to fully take in and process the lesson concepts. For a lesson like this, a teacher could differentiate the four areas of instruction in a variety of ways, as illustrated below.

Content

• Providing audiobooks for students to listen to if they have difficulty reading or processing written language
• Pre-teaching important vocabulary words to students who may be English-language learners or need support in understanding advanced academic vocabulary
• Providing visual aids (e.g., pictures, illustrations, models, videos) that help clarify the information in the textbook

Process

• Having students complete graphic organizers while reading to help organize the information they are learning
• Giving students smaller “chunks” of information to read in the selected text and then having them discuss each “chunk” with a peer before moving on

Product

• Providing options for how students may answer the lesson questions (e.g., verbal answers, drawing, creating a digital presentation)
• Allowing students to create their own project to “show what they know” (e.g., drawing a comic, designing an infographic, writing and performing a play)
• Giving students the option to work in pairs or small groups

Environment

• Providing a quiet area for students to read and/or an area where students may choose to read aloud together
• Allowing students to customize their environment by sitting or working in various positions (e.g., sitting on an exercise ball, standing, working on the floor)

Any teacher can differentiate their instruction.

Regardless of the grade level or content area, any teacher can differentiate their instruction. To effectively do this, it simply requires the teacher to (1) know their students’ strengths, needs, and learning preferences, (2) plan for options within a lesson that meet various students’ needs, (3) assess the effectiveness, and (4) further adjust instruction if necessary.

As you plan your next lesson, consider challenging yourself to identify and incorporate ways to differentiate the content, process, product, and environment to better support each unique learner in your classroom!