How To Teach All Levels...In The Same Classroom!

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Do you have diverse learners in your classroom? Are some students way ahead of others? Maybe you have students with special needs or limited English. Now what?

Trying to accommodate different ability levels and individual student needs at the same time can seem overwhelming, but there are techniques that can make it more manageable.

In this post I’ll give you a few tips to handling a variety of needs in the same classroom. Here are a few tricks that helped me as an elementary special education teacher:


INCORPORATE CENTERS INTO YOUR ROUTINE



This is a no- brainer for teachers in the lower grades. If you teach pre-k through second grade, then chances are that you’re already using centers. But what if you teach older students? Is it appropriate to use centers with older students? My answer is…YES.

How you use centers will completely depend on what is appropriate for your group’s age, interests, and subjects being taught. If I was able to utilize centers while teaching a college course, then I’m confident that you can make it work in your classroom too!


What I mean by the word “centers” though is really just more than one activity going on at one time. Instead of completing tasks one by one as a whole group, try doing them in small rotating groups.


Your groups could look something like this:

Group 1: Direct instruction with the teacher
Group 2: Independent work at desks
Group 3:  Research for an upcoming project on computers in back of the room

Breaking the class down into smaller groups gives you the opportunity to more accurately tailor the assignment to their needs.


 USE FLEXIBLE GROUPING

Grouping students by ability level can help you to provide a lesson better suited to their needs, but it is important to switch up the groups often. Try periodically mixing the groups up by interest, learning style, personal choice, or even randomly so that no student feels “stuck” in any one group.

My groups changed weekly and were different according to subject level. In other words, whatever group students were in for reading had nothing to do with their math group. We switched it up regularly so there really wasn’t any one high or low group.

The students seemed to enjoy mixing it up and it kept things fresh and interesting for everyone. Give it a try… It isn’t as hard as you think!

OFFER CHOICES

Give students choices in how they want to learn. This allows them to become more motivated. A motivated student is an engaged student.

Provide a variety of assignments that meet the content standard you’re working on. Allow students to choose their lesson task.

Our job as teachers is to coach them in the right direction. We challenge them, provide assistance if necessary, and encourage them to push further in their learning.


DESIGN TIERED ASSIGNMENTS

Tiered instruction goes hand in hand with centers and student choice. A tiered assignment is basically the same lesson or standard taught with different tasks.

When working on the Days of the Week and Months of the Year with my self- contained students, I used different activities to address my objective. 

In addition to our daily circle time activities, I also had my students practice writing the Days and Months as a morning independent work task. Some students cut and paste the letters, some stamped, and some traced, while others were able to just copy the words without help.

All of the students were working on the same standard, but the lesson was modified for their individual needs.


These activities can be found in my TPT shop. These activities are no-prep and great to have on hand for morning work, early finishers, sub plans, and even homework. You can get my Days of the Week Sample for FREE and try them out!

       

I hope you’ve found my tips on differentiating instruction helpful. If you decide to try one out, I would love to hear how it went in the comments below. If you have any additional tips that might help a novice teacher, please share it with us!



Visit my blog at https://teachingexceptionalthinkers.com/ for more fun teaching ideas to use with diverse learners!

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by Christy from Exceptional Thinkers

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3 comments

  1. Great post!! I have so many different levels in my small group classes and it's definitely a challenge! I often use centers (even with just 5 kids in my groups!) so that I can give each student more individualized instruction.

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  2. Thank you! I think breaking the class into groups makes things so much easier. Once you get the routine in place, the centers practically run themselves and get to focus in on the students more closely. Thank you for sharing your ideas! It sounds like you're doing a wonderful job.

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  3. Hey… I loved the article, the above list truly has some really amazing tips and tricks I can personally use. I feel you should check out this app “PRETO3”, it’s an amazing app for classroom management which acts as a one stop for everything you need it has all the features required to manage a school/class. Visit http://www.preto3.com for more information. Its very easy to use and has all the features that teachers require in the daily routine

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