What is Differentiated Instruction?

High School Example

As students enter Cory Berg's 90-minute high school pre-calculus class in Fort Defiance, Va., they immediately go over to shelves full of colorful plastic containers and select activity folders they feel they need to work on to enhance their understandings and skills. They can select from folders that allow them to review homework problems or correct their own quiz from the previous day, packets of file cards with problems at varied levels of difficulty that help them prepare for the upcoming SAT test, a skill review packet with math puzzles directly related to the current unit, a graphing calculator sheet with problems, and a mini-project folder where they create relevant puzzles and problems to be used in the skill review packet. These 11th and 12th grade students work intently on their folder activities for about 15 minutes. During this time, Cory works individually with students -- assisting them with problems, monitoring their progress, and challenging them with questions that make them stretch.

Cory often uses whole-class instruction to initiate or close a lesson, but most of the class period involves group work, with small clusters of three or four students working together to grasp a concept or refine a skill. Students are assigned to a group by the teacher based on their current level of readiness for what they are studying, or, on occasion, by their interest in a particular application for the math skill they're studying. Regardless of what the class is covering, all students are focused on the same concept -- but the set of problems each group works on is adjusted to challenge the group. Typically, Cory uses a tiered assignment with two, three, or four activities at different levels of readiness. There is usually more than one small group working at the same readiness level. Members of each group have their own activity sheet with problems, directions, and additional information as needed. Students work together, helping each other to understand and correct their work. The teacher monitors the students' work, answering questions only if the group members can't figure something out. Cory changes the membership of the groups almost weekly, based on her observations of each student's readiness based on whole-class, small-group, and one-on-one discussions, as well as performance on quizzes.

Students take a quiz and have a homework assignment every day. Quiz and homework problems are at varying levels of difficulty. All the problems are on a single handout, but Cory differentiates them by assigning specific problems to each group. At the same time, students are encouraged to try more challenging problems if they wish. This flexibility allows students to move ahead at their own pace and allows Cory to better monitor their individual progress. Cory also differentiates for the pace at which students work. During the quiz, students who work at a faster pace can turn in their work and go back to working on the folder activities from the start of class, as other students continue working on the quiz problems. Using the practice folders as anchoring activities, students are never waiting for others to "catch up," and slower working students are never "penalized" by having to rush through their work.

Carol Ann Tomlinson
Associate Professor of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy
The Curry School of Education, University of Virginia
From an interview with Leslie J. Kiernan, 1996

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If you have questions related to this website please contact:

Dr. Peggy Schimmoeller, Associate Professor of Education
Director of Education
Randolph College
2500 Rivermont Ave.
Lynchburg, Va. 24503