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Differentiation in the Classroom

What does differentiation in the classroom really look like? Students who display characteristics of gifted children must have differentiated instructional activities - no excuses!


Differentiation is recognizing that students have a variety of background knowledge and experiences, interests, readiness and interests, and then reacting appropriately.

Educators who use differentiation recognize that some students really do display gifted characteristics. Teachers can change the content, process, expected outcomes and even the learning environment to meet a child's needs.


As well, many students display preferred learning styles which lend themselves to differentiated instruction.

Instruction should be adapted to the individual students in your classroom, not solely based on your grade-level criteria.



Adjust the Curriculum
to Meet Different Levels of Intelligence

While you cannot always change the content of what you are to teach (and you should always cover your standards and indicators), you do have complete control over the process you use to teach that content.

Teachers should always use Blooms Taxonomy Questions and other best teaching practices to help differentiate lessons.

children looking at a computer lapto

You can also extend the content by going more in-depth and providing alternative ways to evaluate learning.

Match the level and depth of your curriculum to the motivation and readiness of your students (Tomlinson, 1999).

Keeping in mind current studies about brain research and learning will also give teachers other ways of increasing their students' comprehension and deep understanding.

Be sure everybody learns something new everyday. You can do this through differentiation in the classroom.

What Works for Kids with Gifted Characteristics?

In Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement, McREL and Marzano identified nine effective differentiation strategies for any classroom.

Note-taking, nonlinguistic representation and providing feedback such as rubrics are three of the ways discussed. One that I particularly am aware of is the use of vocabulary - teaching it in a systematic way in every grade level.

These differentiated instructional activities can be applied in any learning environment. They will result in significantly increased student learning.

When implemented consistently and correctly, the strategies outlined can provide average percentile point gains as high as 45% on student achievement tests.


What Do Differentiated Instructional
Activities Look Like?

Teaching gifted students requires specific strategies that are geared towards raising their achievement.

  • You provide choices for the student to show their understanding. This will maximize their interest
  • Pre-test as often as you can - if they know it, why make them sit there and listen to it again? Let them move ahead or go deeper. You are likely to find that they already know the entire chapter of math!
  • Teach it once then check if they have it, because most likely they will. In a primary differentiation in the classroom setting, teach a concept if all kids need it, check to see if the gifted and/or high achieving students have it, then have another activity for them to move on to while re-teaching the lesson(s) to the other students
  • What they miss on a pre-test, teach it to them directly and then let them move on. Again, often they only need it taught one time and they have it
  • Let them show what they know with a few problems, not the whole page. Is that really necessary for a kid who already grasps the concept to do 25 math problems?
  • Give them ongoing problem solving activities that are mentally stimulating and challenging. These types of activities are a great way to go deeper into the curriculum instead of going wider
  • Have activities at different levels (think Bloom's Taxonomy).
Specific Differentiation in the Classroom Ideas

  • Compact the Curriculum: assess knowledge and provide alternative activities for content already mastered. You will need to provide a learning contract that lets the student choose what activities will be completed. Give credit for the knowledge already known.
  • Tiered Assignments: a series of related tasks that vary in their complexity. All the activities relate to the key skills the students need to have. I like to do a Tic-Tac-Toe board and the students choose 5 activities to complete.
  • Independent Study Projects: if you have a student who is truly interested in a topic and wants to work on it, let him do this research project. The amount of help you provide will vary between grade levels, but remember that all kids need a teacher to teach them (don't just ignore them).
  • Buddy Study: like an ISP, but with a few other like-minded students. This social aspect is very important for gifted kids, and you may need to help them work on those skills because many gifted students find it difficult to work with others.

Children with intellectual giftedness will be your biggest challenge to adequately differentiate for.

If you are a parent of a gifted child, a site with some must-read information is Gifted Journey.


When your students are all over the place with their reading levels, how to you reach them all successfully?

Get your students reading nearly 100 books at their individual levels from a variety of genres with Reading Karate. A slam-dunk winner with kids of all ages.


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