Differentiate Like A Playground

This park by my house knows how to differentiate on a budget. “Designed for ages 5 – 12.” The play set scales to fit abilities, not ages.

And, yes, I absolutely see kids aged 5-12 enjoying the same playset.

Natural Differentiation

This play set has room for natural differentiation.

• A 5-year-old who is a great climber can go up high.
• A 10-year-old who’s scared of heights will play on the lower areas.
• A child who’s almost ready to climb to the top can watch other children and copy them.
• Kids who like swings can swing.
• Those who want shade can sit in the shade.

And the best part? There’s actually a sticker above that sticker! The playground is for ages 2 – 12!!

And yep I’ve seen 2 year olds on the same darn playground equipment as the 12 year olds. YES I’ve even seen teenagers on that play set. Gosh, I guess I’ve even played on it while chasing my kid. And I am not 12!

One play set works across so many ages and abilities. It naturally scales up and down.

Imagine An “Above-Level Age 5 Play Set”

Now, how ridiculous would be if the playground had different equipment for every age?

“Oh, Jimmy, you use the Age 5 equipment. Linda, go play on the Age 7 play set!”

And then, since you need to “differentiate,” you’d have to build:

• A below-level, age 5 playset
• An on-level, age 5 playset
• A high-ability, age 5 playset

Three play sets for every single age!? Obviously silly.

Who on earth would do such a thing?

👀

Three of Every Lesson

Yep. That’s EXACTLY how I approached my classroom! Three versions of each lesson. (No wonder I burned out.)

And the 5th grade teacher made three versions of their lessons. And the 4th grade teacher made three versions of their lessons.

Heck, my grade-level partners both made three different versions of the same lessons I was teaching!

And none of our stuff was very high-quality because we had too much to do. Everything was rushed. It was quantity over quality.

Why was the 4th grade teacher trying to make an “advanced 4th grade fraction project” when she could have just gone to the next level? 4th grade math is just a scaffolded version of 5th grade math, after all. It’s not some isolated island.

(Plus a huge chunk of 4th grade students are already ready for 5th and 6th grade material (and beyond). You can read more about that here!)

Content Is A Continuum

So, rather than make three different versions of each lesson, look at your content as a continuum.

It starts highly-scaffolded in kindergarten and loses scaffolds as you move towards 12th grade.

But those scaffolds are arbitrary. Someone just had to say, “ok this is 4th grade math.” But there’s obviously no such thing as “4th grade math.” That’s as silly as an “On-Level 4th Grade Play Set.”

I should have understood how to naturally move students along the continuum. When you aim high, and then scaffold down, you don’t need to make so many darn things. You can just remove scaffolds!

Differentiation does not mean “create three versions of everything.”