Differentiation in a Mixed-Ability Classroom: A Practical Guide

A typical class of thirty contains children who are a year or two ahead and children who are a year or two behind, plus everyone in between. Teaching to the middle loses both ends; planning thirty separate lessons isn't possible. Practical differentiation sits between those extremes: one clear learning goal, a few well-chosen routes to it, and support that comes off as children get stronger. Here's how to do it with ordinary worksheets and without tripling your planning.

What differentiation is (and the version that burns teachers out)#

Differentiation means adjusting how children reach a learning goal so that more of them get there. It does not mean:

• Writing an individual plan for every child.
• Giving lower attainers easier content forever, so they fall further behind.
• Sorting children into "visual", "auditory" and "kinaesthetic" learners. That idea is popular, but there's no good evidence that matching teaching to a supposed learning style helps children learn.

The burnout version is the one where every lesson has five tiers of worksheets, colour-coded and laminated. It's impressive and unsustainable. The workable version has three levels at most, uses the same formats week after week, and puts most of the effort into the core task.

Start from one learning goal#

Everything starts with a single, clear goal that the whole class is working towards. For example:

• We are learning to add two-digit numbers where we need to regroup (carry).
• We are learning to find evidence in a text to explain how a character feels.

Writing the goal down stops differentiation turning into three different lessons. Every child is learning the same thing; what changes is the support they get and how far they go with it.

The three-level worksheet: same skill, three routes#

The simplest differentiated resource is a single sheet (or three short sheets) with the same skill at three levels. Label the levels with neutral symbols such as a circle, a triangle and a star, never "easy, medium, hard".

Here's an example for two-digit addition with regrouping, around age 7–8 (Year 3 in England, grade 2 in the US):

(The missing-digit answer is 45 + 37.)

Notice that everyone does regrouping. The circle level simply gives more support and a gentler start. A child who gets the first three right can move up to the triangle; a triangle child who finds it easy can do the star questions.

The same works in literacy. For a short text about a girl on her first day at a new school:

• Circle: "Find and copy two words that show Ada was nervous." A word bank of feeling words is printed on the side.
• Triangle: "How do you know Ada was nervous? Give two pieces of evidence."
• Star: "Was Ada more nervous at the start or the end of the day? Use evidence to explain how her feelings changed."

All three ask children to find evidence of feelings, so all three are working on the goal. Our post on reading comprehension strategies has more question types you can level this way.

Scaffolds that come off#

A scaffold is support that helps a child do something they couldn't yet do alone. The key word is yet. Good scaffolds are designed to be removed.

Useful scaffolds:

• A worked example at the top of the sheet, with each step shown.
• A half-done first question so the child sees how to begin.
• Number lines, hundred squares and place-value charts for maths.
• Word banks and sentence starters for writing: "I think Ada felt… because…"
• Graphic organisers such as story maps, Venn diagrams or "first, next, last" boxes. The Graphic Organizers Bundle has ready-made templates for most subjects.

Make scaffolds available to everyone, not handed out only to "the support table". Put scaffold cards in a pot on each table. Children who need them take them; children who don't, don't. This avoids labelling and lets children judge their own needs, which they're often better at than we expect.

Then fade them. If a child used a number line every day last week, try this week with a number line only for the first question. Removing support on purpose is as much a part of differentiation as adding it.

Grouping that stays flexible#

Grouping can help, but it's easy to get wrong. The research is limited, and the Education Endowment Foundation's review of attainment grouping notes that lower attainers appear most at risk from grouping practices, and that flexible groups that can be changed as children's needs change carry less risk of children getting stuck.

In practice:

• Regroup often. Base groups on the current unit, not on last year's levels. A child who struggles with fractions may fly through measurement.
• Use a quick check to decide. A three-question exit ticket at the end of a lesson tells you who needs a small-group session tomorrow.
• Mix it up for talk. Pair children of different attainment for discussion tasks, and same-level groups for focused practice.
• Avoid fixed labels. If a group is called "Lions" for the whole year and everyone knows the Lions are the strugglers, the name isn't hiding much.

Extension for the children who are ready#

For children who reach the goal quickly, the answer is depth, not more of the same. Instead of twenty more sums, ask them to:

• explain or prove their answer two different ways,
• create their own questions (with an answer key) for a classmate,
• find a pattern or rule ("Does adding two odd numbers always give an even number?"),
• apply the skill to a real problem ("Plan a class party for 28 children with a budget of 50 pounds").

Our guide to early-finisher activities has a full system for children who finish ahead of the class.

What to say: language that keeps levels low-key#

How you talk about levels matters as much as the levels themselves. Children work out quickly who's on "the easy sheet", and the way you introduce choices decides whether that becomes a label.

Frame levels as starting points, not ranks. "Today there are three starting places. I've put a sticker on your sheet to show where I'd start, but you can move up as soon as you're ready."

Praise moving, not being. "You started on the circle and you've moved to the triangle. That's exactly what I was hoping to see" works better than praising whoever is on the star.

Let children choose sometimes. "Pick the level that feels like a good challenge, not too easy, not impossible." Most children choose sensibly, and you learn a lot from the ones who don't.

Talk about effort and strategy. "What helped you with that one?" or "Which tool did you use?" shifts the conversation away from who is clever and towards what works.

Never announce levels publicly. No "the star group can start now" from the front. Sheets on desks, or a quiet word, keeps it private.

When a child says "This is the baby sheet", a calm reply helps: "It's the sheet with the number line on. Everyone's doing the same maths. Let's see if you need the number line by question four."

Making it manageable: a planning routine#

The biggest barrier to differentiation is time. This routine keeps it to about fifteen minutes per lesson.

Ready-made printables help a lot. You can take one worksheet from our classroom printables, use it as the core level, and adapt it up and down in a few minutes rather than writing everything from scratch.

Check that it's working#

Differentiation is only useful if more children reach the goal. A few quick checks:

• Exit tickets. One or two questions at the end of the lesson, on the core level. Sort them into three piles: got it, nearly, not yet.
• Movement between levels. Over a few weeks, children should move from circle to triangle, and triangle to star. If the same children are always on the circle, the support isn't fading.
• Look at the star level. If nobody ever does it, it's too hard or too hidden. If everyone does, the core is too easy.

Next week, try one three-level sheet in one subject. Keep the goal the same for all three levels, put scaffold cards on every table, and use an exit ticket to decide who joins you at the teacher table the following day. For more classroom-ready ideas, see the teachers' area.