Readiness Groups

 

Grouping students by readiness is NOT the same thing as tracking. In tracking, students are put into a group and usually stay there all year.  With differentiated instructions, the groups are flexible.  Readiness is determined by comparing students with specific knowlege and skill objectives.  Those students who have already reached the learning objectives need to be challenged to go beyond the objectives.  Those students who do not have some of the basic pre-requisite knowlege and skills may need additional scaffolding.

 

A classroom might be grouped by readiness one day and then by interests for a different project.  Changing the grouping often helps to avoid the perception of being in the "top" or "bottom" group.

 

Larry Lewin has some great practical advice about flexibly grouping students.

Featured Tech Tool

 

Socrative is a free online student response system designed for teachers to collect data about what students know and understand quickly and to provide fast feedback to students about what they know and don't know.

 

The interface is user-friendly, and students do not have to have an account so there is no logging in with usernames and passwords for the students.  Since it is online, any device can be used to access it including smartphones and other mobile devices as well as laptops and desktop computers.

 

Socrative can be used for both formative and summative assessments. When used as a formative assessment tool, teachers can create readiness groups in order to provide targeted instruction for exactly what each group of students needs to know and be able to do.

Featured Strategy

 

Tiered Assignments are what Carol Ann Tomlinson, the leading expert on Differentiated Instruction, calls the "meat and potatoes" of differentiation. 

 

In a tiered assignment, a teacher takes an existing assignment and develops one or more additional versions of the assignment by providing scaffolding for students who might struggle or by providing additional challenge for students who might need it. 

 

Read about "Challenge by Choice", by Davie Suarez which gives you practical ideas on how to create a great tiered assignment along with some research that supports this strategy.

 

Important tips to keep in mind:  

 

When providing challenge, MORE is not BETTER.  Bright students quickly figure out that they are often "punished" for being smart by having to do more than others.  The same concept applies for students who are struggling--doing fewer problems is not really effective differentiation. 

 

Make sure all activities are equally respectful and engaging.  You shouldn't have some students using play dough while others are completing a worksheet.

 

 

Example Tiered Assignments:

Earthquakes and Volcanoes