Differentiation

Last week, Dr Carol Ann Tomlinson presented a webinar on ways to create a culture that supports differentiation. 

In the PYP, and indeed all IB programmes, differentiation is most strongly linked to the approaches to teaching - particularly teaching that is designed to remove barriers to learning and is informed by assessment. 

Carol quoted herself with this slide below. It pushes us to think more critically about differentiation, and much like 'inquiry' and 'play', unpack the complexities and nuances of an approach that can be evidenced with visible actions, but is rooted in a deeper stance, mindset and culture. 


Throughout the webinar, I was reminded that play and playful learning support differentiation perfectly. Knowing our students well, we can't help but notice the diversity we have in our classes and the importance of responding to these differences. In the slide below, the importance of environment is highlighted - the physical and emotional space that can enhance or impede learning. In Kindergarten, I am very intentional in co-creating a space that nurtures curiosity and that supports children to be agents of their own learning. Specific examples include easy access to resources, scaffolds such as number lines and alphabet strips that are available to children if they choose, and picture books from a range of genres, developmental levels and topics of interest. Monitoring and documenting children's learning is key to being able to respond to what children are genuinely interested in, curious about and what they are ready for developmentally. 

I appreciate the wording of 'respectful tasks' - learning opportunities that position learners as capable beings and that honour their time. Kindergarten children are currently investigating fractions with play dough, folding paper, liquids, natural materials, pattern blocks and Numicon. Compare this approach to a worksheet asking children to colour in halves!

In Kindergarten, parents and educators sometimes become concerned about more academic learning such as reading. Each child is at a different starting point in their reading journey, so it is unfair to expect all children to get to the same end point at the same point in time. The model below refers to 'quality curriculum'. Reading is - or should be - part of a language-rich environment in which children learn to love and play with words. Diverse, quality literature is read aloud to model and inquire into text features of different genres, sentence structure, vocabulary, morphemes and phonemes. Children new to learning English or those with learning differences still access this quality curriculum, but perhaps engage in translanguaging, additional visuals, adult support, different (quality) texts or differentiated questioning. 

Differentiation is not about lowering expectations. It is about having fair expectations for all children based on evidence gathered. Kindergarten children take home books of their choice related to their interests. Based on their ability to decode, they also take home another reading book of their choice from boxes grouped by levels.


With the slide below, Carol shared her latest graphic to illustrate how instructional strategies are connected to different elements of differentiation. A phrase that struck me was using routines that balance predictability and flexibility. This connects beautifully to play and inquiry, and embraces spontaneous moments of surprise, unexpected connections and exciting sparks of confusion to lead learning. 


Carol shared two different self-assessment tools that give clear success criteria for us as educators to reflect on our own practices. Where are you?

Alongside opportunities to play and engage with units of inquiry, two big ideas we are developing in Kindergarten are number sense and phonemic awareness. Naturally, children are at quite different levels of understanding, skill level and knowledge. As well as open-ended "low floor, high ceiling" investigative tasks, I also differentiate by working with small groups, pairs and individuals to "nudge" learning forward from wherever children currently are (based on evidence I have gathered). Nudging all children's learning, not an effort to get all children to the same "level". This often means different manipulatives, multiple opportunities to have a concept or skill reinforced, adjusting questions, and modifying the complexity of the sounds or size of the numbers.

Learning cannot be simplified to linear continuums. I strongly believe that children should not be denied access to new, richer and perhaps more complex learning opportunities simply because they have not "mastered" or understood content that is from an earlier phase written on a curriculum document. For example, a group of children in Kindergarten still find numbers in the 'teens' difficult. I will continue to support their learning with these numbers, but I certainly didn't deny them the chance to explore 100 squares, number lines and go on scavenger hunts for larger numbers. For some children, the opportunities to see patterns and differences in larger numbers clarified elements of the number system they had been grappling with. 





Towards the end of the webinar, in response to my question about early years, Carol stated eloquently, "Let them be the best Kindergartener they can be. Our job is to know them the best we can."  

Reflection questions:
- How do you get to know your students as humans?
- How do you get to know how your students learn?
- How do you get to know what your children are interested in?

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