Differentiated instruction for mixed-ability classes

Differentiation has a reputation for being impossible: forty children, forty plans. That version genuinely is impossible, and it is not what differentiation means. The workable version is narrower: one lesson, a small number of deliberate variations, chosen because you already know where this class splits.

Differentiate one thing, not everything

Pick a single axis per lesson:

• Input. Same task, different route in: a diagram for some, a worked example for others.
• Support. Same task for everyone, with scaffolds available rather than assigned. Let children take them.
• Output. Same understanding, demonstrated differently: a written answer, a spoken one, a labelled sketch.
• Pace. Same core, with genuine extension for those who finish. Extension means harder, not more of the same.

The trap of permanent groups

Fixed ability groups are convenient and they harden quickly. A child placed in the bottom group in October is often still there in May, having received a thinner curriculum all year. If you group, regroup often, and make the criterion the specific skill rather than the child.

Start from evidence, not impression

Differentiation guided by a sense of who is "strong" mostly reproduces last year's outcomes. A two-minute exit ticket tells you which children missed this concept, which is rarely the list you would have predicted.

A realistic target

One axis, one lesson, one class, for a term. That is enough to see whether the bottom third is closing any distance, and small enough that you will actually keep doing it.

Sources

• UNICEF — Education
• World Health Organization — Adolescent health