These 4 differentiated instruction strategies will help you meet all of your students’ needs without a ton of prep or planning time! Talk about easy peasy lemon squeezy!
1. Use Task Cards
Task cards make differentiating for your students SO EASY!! Why? Because different students can complete different levels of task cards at the same time!
You can tape different levels of task cards around the room for your students to solve. That’s what I did when I wanted my students to practice addition. Some of my students were still working on two-digit addition while other students were ready for a challenge. So I had those students practicing three-digit addition.
All of my students were practicing addition but at different levels!! And, I only had to explain the directions once because they were all doing the same activity! I LOVE not having to go over a gazillion directions!!
The task cards I used have 8 different levels of differentiation!! So it’s super easy to meet your students’ needs… Just print, cut and use! Click the picture below to shop for them in my TpT store!
I said I love task cards, so my TpT shop is full of them! Click HERE to check out all of my task cards resources!!
Read even more about how I run math centers in my classroom in THIS BLOG POST!
2. Color-Code Your Worksheets
This is another one of my favorite differentiated instruction strategies!! Not only does color-coding your worksheets help you differentiate your instruction for different groups, but colorful paper makes everything prettier!!
These phonics word lists are PERFECT for differentiating because you can copy the different lists onto different colors of paper. Your lower spellers can work on skills like word families while your more advanced spellers can work on long vowels!
Again, all of my students can be working on the same activity, like stamping their words or building their spelling words with magnet letters!
This phonics word lists resource actually comes with 102 different word lists so the differentiation possibilities are endless!! Click the picture below to shop for it in my TpT store!
I have a blog post all about these phonics word lists that you can read HERE!
3. Give Your Students Choices
This is one of the most powerful tools for differentiating your instruction! Not only does it help you meet their needs, it also increases student motivation! A win-win!
Students Can Choose Their Activities
Out of all of these differentiated instruction strategies, I use this one all. the. time! Giving your students choices about the activities they participate in gives them the power to choose the things that cater to their strengths and interests. And when your students are interested in what they’re doing, they’re more likely to be engaged and learn!
Whenever we do literacy centers, my students have a choice. They can choose which center they do and in which order. I use some of the Daily 5 centers in the classroom, so their choices are:
- Read to Self (basically, independent reading)
- Listen to Reading (listening to books on the Kids A-Z app on the iPad)
- Word Work (practicing their spelling words)
- Writing (I don’t think I need to explain this one…)
On any given day, my students will choose to complete 2-3 of the literacy centers. The only center they don’t get to choose is meeting with me for small group guided reading.
My students have to participate in each center at least once throughout the week, so this helps insure that everyone is practicing all of the skills I want them to practice.
You could also use this method with math centers! Just let the students choose which activities they complete in which order! Here are some ideas for math centers they could choose from:
- Math Games
- Technology (math apps or websites)
- Independent Seat Work
Again, you would choose when your students meet with you during math centers, but they could choose the rest!
Students Can Choose Their Materials
Similar to how letting students choose the activities they do allows them to choose things that cater to their strengths, the same goes for letting them choose the materials they use!
Having a variety of materials available for students to use when they practice their spelling words lets them choose the ways that work best for them. Some ideas for materials to have available are:
- magnetic letters
- stamps
- white boards and dry erase markers
- magnetic boards (like Magnadoodle)
- Scrabble letters
- different kinds of writing tools (pens, markers, colored pencils, etc.)
For writing, give your students different types of writing paper to choose from!
4. Use Open-Ended Problems
This differentiated instruction strategy lets your students challenge themselves by using open-ended problems!
One of my favorite ways to do this is by using a NUMBER OF THE DAY! The kids use the “number of the day” to complete several different math activities.
What I like about this is that the kids can challenge themselves at a level that they’re comfortable with.
In the picture above, the students use the number 32 to practice tallies, base-10, and coins.
With the coins, the kids can choose to use any combination of coins to make 32 cents, so if they feel comfortable using quarters, they can do that. But if they only feel comfortable counting dimes and pennies, they can do that too.
Each student has the opportunity to challenge themself! If you like how I use the number of the day, click HERE to see my Math Morning Work for Kinder and 1st Grade! Or click HERE to see my Math Morning Work for 2nd and 3rd Grade!
Here are some more examples of ways to incorporate open-ended problems to give your students the chance to challenge themselves. These could easily be used as a warm-up in the morning or before beginning a lesson!
- The answer is 14. What is the question?
- How many ways can you make the number 21?
- How many words can you make that begin with “ch”?
- What words can you make with the letters in the word _______________?
- The beginning of the story is, “It was a stormy day…” Finish the story.
With each of those examples, the students can access the problem at whatever level they are currently at!
I would LOVE to hear how these strategies help you differentiate your instruction!! Either leave a comment below and let me know how you’re using these differentiated instruction strategies in your classroom!!
