In the Classroom: Differentiation

Tom Porta, senior school learning support, VET co-ordinator and teacher, demonstrates how to implement a differentiated instructional approach that caters to the diverse learning needs of Year 11/12 students in a business innovation lesson.

Tom unpacks this approach, referencing his collection of pre-assessment data to inform how he matches students with similar abilities and places them into tiered working groups for the purposes of achieving the lesson objectives. Tom’s instructional style changes; introducing the lesson intentions whilst mapping previously taught concepts at the start to the role of a facilitator, providing students with autonomy in their learning based upon the challenge and complexity of their specific group activity.

Tom’s strategic use of tiered student learning groups enables him to check for student understanding, determining the level of additional support required to re-emphasis the learning intentions that can lead to students completing the success criteria.

To understand whether the learning intentions of the lesson were successful, Tom employs the use of exit cards, a set of questions that students answer relevant to key concepts taught within the lesson. By gathering this form of assessment evidence, Tom can reflect on his teaching instruction, gauge student understanding and plan future lessons that support the learning needs of all students.