Change the Objective

Differentiation isn’t always about creating lots of different activities or worksheets. It can be, and in an ideal world in my classroom at least, I love it when circumstances allow for that. But the reality is that sometimes that can’t happen, and sometimes it doesn’t need to happen. In fact, sometimes, it’s best if everyone does the same piece of work.

Most of my students find extended writing challenging, so much so that many come to me not being able or willing to even try them. So when I plan extended writing activities, I like it to be an all-singing, all-dancing kind of affair. I like to act things out, show films, read books, get out the Lego, make potions, or even throw Baby Corn in the air. And, yes as those of you who have been reading for a while will know – sometimes I even like to break the rules by standing on a chair on a table!

These kinds of lessons, the ones with the real ‘wow’ factor, work best if the whole class is engaged in the same kind of activity. Apart from anything else, the craziness I embark upon to get everyone interested and engaged with what we’re going to write about would make it far too distracting for anyone to concentrate on doing anything else!

So in these lessons, I have to think about differentiation in a different way. I have to think about outcomes rather than input. OK, so I want all of my students to produce an extended piece of writing, but what do I really want individuals to focus on? What do I want them to learn? For me, these learning outcomes are usually something different for everyone, but in a larger class, it may be that groups of students have the same objective.

For one of my students it might be, ‘I really want you to focus on using full stops and capital letters’, for another it may be ‘I want you to challenge yourself and see how many different connectives you can include’ and for another it may be content-based ‘I want you to really think how you could create a surprise for your reader within the story.’

So whilst my class are all essentially writing the same piece, which allows me to make sure my input has been as engaging as possible, their individual focus is different. What they are working on and learning is personalised. The key to the success of it; is to find a way that works for you, of letting your students know what you want them to focus on; what you want them to learn. I use post-it notes, but you could use stickers or even large pieces of paper in the middle of tables in larger classes.

This is really easy differentiation, but it’s differentiation that will make a difference. It will make a difference to how well your students learn but even more importantly it will make a difference to how they feel about themselves as learners. These small steps and an individual focus will make them realise that they can achieve. Go on, give it a go, personalise your objectives! What have you got to lose?

This is an extract of an article first published in the September 2015 Edition of UKEdMagazine. You can read the magazine freely online by clicking here.

Victoria Hatton @funASDteacher is an Autism Inclusion Co-Ordinator at a large mainstream secondary school in Yorkshire. Part of that role is being lead teacher in a unit within the school for students with ASC and extreme anxiety. She writes a blog differentiationiseasy.com to help mainstream staff differentiate for students with Autism.