Differentiation Programming Is--

• Providing multiple assignments within each unit, tailored for students of different levels of achievement.
• Allowing students to choose, with the teacher's guidance, ways to learn and how to demonstrate what they have learned.
• Permitting students to opt out of material they already know and progress at their own pace through new material.
• Structuring class assignments so they require high levels of critical thinking but permit a range of responses.
• Having high expectations for all students.
• Creating learning centers with activities geared to different learning styles, readiness and levels of interest.
• Providing students with opportunities to explore topics in which they have strong interest and find personal meaning.

Differentiation Programming Is Not--

• Assigning more work at the same level to high-achieving students.
• Requiring students to teach material they have mastered to others who have not mastered it.
• Giving all students the same work most of the time.
• Grouping students into cooperative learning groups that do not provide for individual accountability or do not focus on work that is new to all students.
• Focusing on student weaknesses and ignoring student strengths.
• Using only the differences in student responses to the same class assignment to provide differentiation

Copyright of Susan D. Allan