Differentiation in Heterogeneous Classrooms

by Ilana Rembelinsky

I have the good fortune to teach Humanities for Summa, a magnet middle school for highly gifted students in the Beaverton School District. When I helped start the program eight years ago, I thought I had it made in shade. Rooms full of high flyers, rip raring to challenge themselves and reach the heights of their full potential. With standardized test scores in the 99th percentile, the rationale was that even in a highly differentiated classroom, these students' needs would be difficult to meet. Coupled with the social stigma of high intelligence that is at its peak in the middle school years, the District created a program where students could have mind-alike peers, could engage in high levels of discourse, and could complete rigorous academic tasks.

I quickly learned that when you get to the higher end of the IQ continuum, you find a lot of idiosyncracies, not just in personalities, but in academic abilities across subjects, types of tasks, learning styles, communication skills, organizational skills, etc. The diverse needs of these students drove me back to school, first to learn more about Aspergers Syndrome and then on to Gifted Education and the Twice Exceptional Learner (students who are both exceptionally smart and exceptionally challenged in one or more areas).

Which puts me back in the position of creating a differentiated classroom. I know a few principles that drive my classroom culture:

1. If you don't plan for differentiation up front, it will not happen.
2. If you aren't clear on what skill or target you are assessing, you will not be able to provide differentiated options for assessing the skill or target.
3. Even in high ability classrooms, there are students who need additional instruction and support.
4. There are many, many ways students can demonstrate their learning and proficiency.
5. Written expression is one of the hardest modes for many students. If you are assessing content knowledge rather than writing as a skill, provide alternative means. Incorporate technology such as speech recognition or dictation.
6. Provide alternate means of presenting information, especially visual media such as graphic organizers, video clips, illustrated materials, etc.
7. Students (most of them anyway) want to be successful. If they aren't, be a detective and help figure out the obstacles and how you can help overcome them through differentiation in your classroom.
8. You set the tone that lets students know they can ask for alternate assessments, for help, for extensions, and for challenges.