Your Questions Answered: How Can I Differentiate Learning?

We recently offered LONG + LIVE + MATHers the opportunity to share their questions with us so our cognitive scientists and master math practitioners can help find solutions. In this new series, we'll provide answers to those questions.

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Q: How can I challenge my above-level students who are ready to move ahead while still supporting my below-level students who need a lot of help?

Our MATHia software is ideal for differentiation because it adapts to each student exactly where they are and creates a personalized learning path just for them. As students work, MATHia provides customized just-in-time feedback and contextual hints designed to help them persevere and solve problems.

Here are some other great strategies for reaching all of your students across different skill levels.

Split students into groups. Don't teach your entire class of students all at the same time. Put students into groups so they have the opportunity to own their learning, share their thinking and build collaboration skills.

You can group students any way you like. For example, you can group students based on:

• In-classroom performance
• Test performance
• MATHia Standards Report data (who did or did not master a standard)
• MATHia Student Detail Report (who did or did not get promoted on a unit)

You can also use heterogeneous groupings to give your above-level and below-level students the opportunity to work together and co-present their work to the class. Why? Each one can utilize their individual strengths (e.g. the below-level student might be more comfortable presenting while the above-level student is stronger with the material).

Establish group roles and norms. Give your students the opportunity to take ownership of the group and their roles within it. A below-level student can be tasked with reading the directions or timing the activity while an above-level student can take ownership of the math. This allows everyone to participate and learn from each other, regardless of their skill level.

Give the groups different things to work on.

• Create a "split classroom." For example, if you have a class of 30 students, have 15 of them work on MATHia (or a self-paced individual activity) while you work with the other 15.
• Use station rotations to give students different assignments based on their skill level.

The goal is to act as a facilitator while the students essentially run the class by working through problems, discussing (and sometimes arguing about!) solutions, and demonstrating their learning to each other and to the rest of the class.