Not Every Student Should Do Everything
One of the biggest roadblocks preventing teachers from differentiating is the concern that every student needs to do every task. Folks will write me:
Not all of my students will be able to get to all six of these steps.
Exactly! That’s differentiation. Some students will do different things from other students.
So, when you build a beautiful sequence of questions, do so with these expectations:
- most students will not get all the way through the sequence
- in many years, no one will get to the final step
- some students will not even get to the second half of the sequence
But this is how you differentiate! You plan ahead for a very high ceiling. Then, when you do have a handful of mega-geniuses in your class, you’re not stuck wondering what to do with those early finishers!
PS: The next common roadblock is always, “But how do I grade all of that!” Oh, that’s easy. Stop grading everything, silly!