Differentiated Instruction in Math

When discussing differentiation in the classroom, people usually discuss four areas that can be differentiated 1) content, 2) process, 3) product, and 4) learning environment.

Content

When differentiating content, it does not mean that you are changing what you teach, rather it means you are changing the difficulty of what you teach. Some students are farther ahead and get bored by what other students still need to learn or master. For these higher-level students, you can give tasks or activities that address some of the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy, such as analyzing, evaluating, and creating. For the students who are at a lower-level, you can give them activities that are on the lower end of Bloom’s Taxonomy, such as remembering and understanding. In my future math classroom, if we are learning about converting fractions to decimals, I might have the students who are struggling with the concept practice long division in general and then move on to converting decimals using long division. For the students who aren’t struggling but haven’t yet mastered the skill, I would have them converting fractions in a real-life context, such as a word problem. For the students who have mastered it, I would challenge them to make their own problems or scenarios in which they need to convert fractions to decimals, or I might even give them a project to work on.

Process

When differentiating the process, it is important to know the different learning styles and to know how  your students learn best. When I teach the lesson on converting fractions to decimals, there are a few ways that I can differentiate the process. One way is by showing a video or playing a song describing the steps. Another way is by allowing students to work with manipulatives or draw pictures when justifying their answer. I could also have a class discussion regarding the relevancy of the topic.

Product

The product is how the student proves they have mastered the content. When thinking about the product, it is important to allow students to have a variety of options to pick from. At the end of the fraction and decimal unit, I could give students the following options to prove mastery:

• Design a portfolio showing work and activities from throughout the unit.
• Create a video or podcast discussing one of the topics learned.
• Design a “how-to” book for fraction and decimal relation.
• Write and give a persuasive or informative speech on fractions vs. decimals.

Learning Environment