Managing a Grades K–8

Differentiated
Classroom A Practical Guide
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Carol Ann Tomlinson & Marcia B. Imbeau

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 40 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
 Contents
Introduction . .................................................................4

Chapter 1
Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics ..........................8
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Chapter 2
Preparing for Differentiation . .....................................24

Chapter 3
Establishing the Routines of Differentiation...............40

Chapter 4
Frequently Asked Questions . ....................................60

Chapter 5
Ideas Into Action.........................................................76

References...................................................................96

Additional Resources..................................................96
 Introduction

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

“What would happen if we all always had to learn the
same thing, at the same time, in the same way? Certain
things would be way too hard for some of us and way
too easy for others. I think a better thing is to be able to
be myself and work in ways that work for me.”
Danyk, age 9, a student in a
differentiated elementary classroom

A
colleague used to quip in presentations that he thought the only time there was
such a thing as a homogeneous classroom was when he was in a room by himself.
 After an inevitable pause for audience laughter, he’d look quizzical and continue,
“And come to think of it, I’m not even sure about that!”

He had a point, of course. A single individual may learn one subject easily and another
with great difficulty, or approach unfamiliar content quite differently than content with
which the person is comfortable.

4 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 As novice educators, some of us may have harbored an image of a classroom
as a place in which our students would arrive as a matched set of learners, in
sync with school, and ready to progress according to teacher plans. Most of us
who entered the classroom with that image returned home without it by the
end of our first day as a teacher. The idea of learner homogeneity has always
been more a myth than an actuality. Nonetheless, we have clung to the myth in
terms of classroom practice. It just seems “right” somehow that teachers should
be able to create a single lesson, deliver it in a single way, adhere to a prescribed
pace, and feel assured that our job is done.
Today’s classrooms, however, reflect a degree of academic diversity that
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

makes it nearly impossible for even the most habit-bound teacher to argue
that student differences are insignificant in the learning process. Teachers
may still teach as though all students in the classroom were essentially the
same, but if learning is the measure of teacher success, one-size-fits-all
instructional approaches are failing us. Too many students still can’t read in
fourth grade, and eighth grade, and twelfth grade. Too few students can reason
mathematically. Too many students sit in uniformly taught classrooms and wait
while the teacher re-teaches content to the whole group that a portion of the
class mastered long ago. Too many students feel disconnected from learning or
from the teacher or from their classroom peers—or all of the above. Too many
students find school irrelevant to their interests.
It’s not that teachers don’t work hard. Most unquestionably do. It’s that too
many of us teach too often without a careful attention to the readiness range of
the individuals before us, that we teach as though students’ lives and interests
are somehow outside the scope of our responsibility, that we too often teach in
ways that are awkward for too many students. We need to learn to extend our
instructional reach.
The good news is that the attitudes and skills necessary to develop a
classroom that balances teacher responsibility for content and responsibility
for young lives are not different from the skills of high quality teaching. They
are the skills of high quality teaching! And they are skills well within the reach
of most teachers. It’s also good news that there has been vigorous and growing
interest in developing what we’ve come to call “differentiated instruction” for
well over a decade.
Still, too few classrooms are designed to make room for the very obvious
differences students bring to school with them. Too few teachers consistently
and proactively plan with students’ varied learning needs in mind.

Introduction 5
 Research and experience in schools suggest clearly that many
teachers who want to become more effective in differentiating
instruction and who even understand with some precision what
they could do to make their classrooms more responsive to student
needs are reluctant to translate their desire and understanding into
classroom practice because they feel uncertain about how to manage
a classroom in which students are sometimes working with different
tasks, materials, and timelines.
For anyone who has been a teacher, that apprehension is easy to
understand. We recall the early-career fears that we would not be
able to “handle” the students—that the classroom might suddenly
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

erupt into chaos and that we would be totally inept in restoring order.
For many of us, those fears emerged from nerve-taxing moments
in the classroom that we don’t care to remember or to repeat. The
idea of a student-focused, flexibly managed, differentiated classroom
seems an invitation to return to those novice days. In the absence of
a clear sense of how to ensure the smooth operation of such a setting,
it’s easy to decline the invitation!
This is not a book on how to differentiate instruction. While the
first chapter does provide a brief overview of differentiation, it is
beyond the scope of this relatively short publication to address that
whole topic. Rather, the goal of this book is to provide for teachers
and other educators a tool for thinking systematically about what
it means to guide and manage a differentiated classroom. To that
end, Chapters 2, 3, and 4 describe both the goals of management
in a differentiated classroom as well as nuts-and-bolts suggestions
for directing a classroom that functions smoothly while providing
flexibility for the students in it. The final chapter provides specific
illustrations and resources to assist with translating the first four
chapters into classroom practice.
The authors of the book are longtime educators who have taught
in differentiated public school classrooms—one elementary and the
other preschool, middle school, and high school—for a combined
total of over three decades. Now at universities, we teach about and
model differentiation for our adult students. Our experience brings
us repeatedly to the dual conclusion that (1) effective attention to

6 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 student variance is an imperative in contemporary classrooms if we
concede that the only acceptable outcome of teaching is student
learning, and (2) teachers of all levels of experience can—generally
more easily than they think—become competent and confident in
developing and leading a classroom that offers “learning room” for
the young people they teach.
Another thought from a colleague is worth considering as we
begin an exploration of what it means to “manage” a differentiated
classroom. She cautioned, “Be careful not to confuse the edge of your
rut with the horizon.” Read and think along with us. Be willing to
look further than yesterday’s teaching practices. The horizon offers
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

all sorts of possibilities.

Introduction 7
 Chapter 1
Differentiation: Reviewing

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

the Basics

“This class taught me I have a choice about how I use my

abilities. When I make the right choices, I can succeed and
I feel better about myself. There’s always another way to do
things better if I’m willing to work with my teacher to find it.
I never used to feel like I could be a success.”
John, a student in a 6th grade
differentiated classroom

T
 he idea of differentiation must be at least as old as parenting. Few parents find
they can raise multiple children in exactly the same way. Some children require
more sleep and some less. Some eat everything put before them and some are
finicky eaters. Some have even temperaments and some are more volatile. If one child
develops a passion for music or for reading, it seems likely that the next one will find a
niche in athletics or drama. Some children seem pre-programmed to do the right thing.
Others seem to arrive with mischief in tow. Early on, parents learn that kids come into

8 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 the world with their own agendas. Good parenting stems more often from helping
one’s children use those agendas wisely and well more than it arises from trying to
formulate or re-formulate a child’s agenda or nature.

It’s much the same in teaching—except, of course, teachers don’t have just two
or three or four young agendas in the classroom. In today’s classrooms, teachers are
likely to work with students who
• learn rapidly and those who require much more time to learn;

• speak the language of the classroom and those whose first language is not the
language of the teacher, the textbook, or of most peers;
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

• are compliant and students whose frustration with school or life or both results
in negative behaviors;

• can sit and concentrate for extended periods of time and those who find it
difficult to sit and listen for even a few minutes;

• have learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, cognitive handicaps,

physical challenges, visual impairments, or some combination of
those difficulties;

• come to school from privileged backgrounds with broad-ranging experiences

and students from low-income backgrounds whose opportunities are few and
whose challenges are many;

• represent many different cultures—often ones with which the teacher has little
or no experience;

• learn as the teacher prefers to teach and those who find it nearly impossible
to learn as the teacher prefers to teach;

• bring to the classroom widely differing strengths, interests and dreams; or

• represent several of these categories at once.

While most parents tend to quickly relinquish the idea that there is a single
template for raising multiple children, teachers may be more inclined to cling
to the hope that a single lesson plan, a single approach to teaching and learning,
and a single timeline will somehow work for a classroom full of very distinctive
young people. The result is too often a collection of disparate students who find
learning awkward, distasteful, and even alienating rather than realizing its inherent
satisfaction and power.

Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics 9

 “
Differentiation is simply an approach to teaching and learning that
Teachers are
more effective recognizes the inevitability of academic diversity in contemporary
when they teach classrooms and guides teachers in making decisions that attend to
with student student differences rather than ignoring them. It suggests that teachers
“
differences
are more effective when they teach with student differences in mind
in mind.
and that students are the beneficiaries of such teachers.

What Differentiation Is NOT

There are many misconceptions about differentiation. It’s helpful
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

to consider some of them at the outset of an exploration of what

it means to guide or manage a differentiated classroom. Figure 1.1
notes and addresses a few key misconceptions about differentiation.
As you continue to think about the concept of differentiation
as it is presented in this book, think about other ideas that may be
misconceptions. As is the case with students, teachers often have to
address their own misconceptions before it’s possible to accurately
understand a concept.

Differentiation Is NOT... Misconception Correction

The philosophy of differentiation is reflected in the

New writings of most of the world’s major religions. It
was standard practice in the one-room schoolhouse.

For a particular category of All students have specific interests, strengths, needs,
students (for example, special points of entry, paces of learning, culture- and gender-
education, English learners, influenced ways of learning. There is likely no student
gifted education) who won’t benefit from focused teacher attention.

Differentiation is not something a teacher does on

Something extra that teachers top of “regular” classroom planning. Rather, it’s
have to do in addition to their a proactive approach to instruction that plans for
“normal” plans student needs from the outset. It’s not more planning.
It’s different planning.

Figure 1.1

10 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Differentiation Is NOT... Misconception Correction

Content standards are a curricular concern.

Differentiation is an instructional approach. It
suggests that whatever standards are determined to
be essential, students will learn them better when the
Oppositional to content standards classroom makes room for their readiness, interest,
and learning profile differences. Differentiation does
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

not suggest different standards for different students,

but rather provides different routes to achieving the
required standards.

Good differentiation always teaches a bit above a

student’s current reach and then provides support
A way to “mollycoddle” students to enable the student to extend his/her reach. Good
differentiation stretches students. It never waters
down; rather it always “teaches up.”

Differentiation is a way of thinking about the

classroom, not a specified set of tools. There are many
A particular set of
ways a teacher can attend to varied learner needs,
instructional strategies
and those can be responsive to student age, required
content, and teacher personality.

The principles of differentiation are described as

good practice or best practice by a broad range of
Extreme teaching—something professional organizations such as The National Board
only an occasional teacher can for Professional Teaching Standards, The National
be expected to do Association for the Education of Young Children,
The National Middle School Association, and The
National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Most teachers do attend to some student differences

Something teachers already do some of the time. Few teachers develop robustly and
proactively differentiated classrooms.

Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics 11

 What Differentiation IS
After studying differentiation for several months, Adam Hoppe, a
pre-service teacher at the University of Virginia, proposed his own
definition of the concept. He prefaced it by saying that he was sure
there must be more to differentiation than he was seeing. His
definition, he said, just seemed too “easy” to be correct. The definition
he developed began, “Differentiation is a series of common-sense
decisions made by teachers with a student-first orientation.”
In fact, Adam’s definition is absolutely correct. There’s a common-
sense logic to differentiation that seems so evident that it’s difficult
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

to contest. At its core, differentiation poses four questions to guide

teacher thinking.

Core Questions About Differentiation

1. Is the environment in this classroom one in which every student will feel
welcomed, safe, appreciated, challenged, and supported? Is this a place that
invites learning?
2. Is it clear to both the teacher and students precisely what students should know,
understand, and be able to do as the result of each segment of learning? Does
the curriculum support both student engagement and student understanding?
3. Is the teacher consistently aware of each student’s proximity to essential
knowledge, understanding, and skill? Is he or she knowledgeable about
students’ interests and learning preferences? Do students increasingly
know these things about themselves?
4. Does the teacher consistently use knowledge of student needs to plan
instruction that addresses those needs?

While all this seem like the things that any good teacher would
do, the truth is, of course, that consistently accomplishing the goals
implied in the four questions is devilishly difficult. It’s highly likely
that even the most accomplished teacher falls short of the mark the
questions imply on an almost daily basis. The goal of differentiation
isn’t perfection. Rather, it is to guide teachers who have the active
intent to get better each day in connecting content and kids—in
making sure each student learns as effectively and efficiently as possible.

12 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 How Differentiation Works

DIFFERENTIATION
is a teacher’s response Shaped by mindset and
to a student’s needs guided by core principles
of differentiation
p Building Community
p Quality Curriculum
p Respectful Tasks
p Teaching Up
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p Ongoing Assessment
p Flexible Grouping
p Flexible Classroom Management

Teachers can differentiate through

p Content p Product
p Process p Learning Environment

According to students’
p Readiness
p Interest
p Learning Profile

Through a variety of
instructional strategies
p Complex Instruction
p Learning Centers
p Learning Contracts
p RAFT Assignments
p Sternberg Intelligence Preferences
p Tiered Activities
p Varied Homework
p WebQuests
p And other strategies…

Figure 1.2

Figure 1.2 shows the elements in a model of differentiated

instruction and provides a line of logic for thinking about what
differentiation is. The graphic begins with the assertion that

Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics 13

 differentiation occurs, at least to some degree, any time a teacher
reaches out to address the particular needs of particular learners.
It then shows how that might happen, introducing key principles,
vocabulary and practices of differentiation. The rest of this chapter
explores what is summarized in this graphic: core principles,
classroom elements, and student needs and interests.

Core Principles of Differentiation

There are at least seven pivotal principles of effective differentiation.
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The list is not arbitrary, but rather reflects the philosophy behind
differentiation, research that supports the model, and practices
necessary for differentiation to work in a real classroom with
real kids.
1 A strong classroom community supports learning for each
of its members. Students learn better in a place where they feel
respected and appreciated, where there is a sense of mutual
trust among all members of the group, and where each student
consistently encounters both high challenge and high support
for accomplishing the challenge. Great classrooms function
like the best athletic teams in that they come together around a
common challenge, developing a sense of purpose, excitement,
connectedness, and shared culture as they do so.
2 Quality curriculum belongs at the heart of every classroom.
Such curriculum exhibits at least five characteristics. First,
the teacher and students alike are absolutely clear on learning
targets—precisely what students should know, understand, and be
able to do as the result of any segment of learning. Second, quality
curriculum focuses on what matters most in the content rather
than accepting that the goal of learning is to absorb a maximum
amount of data in minimum time. Third, quality curriculum helps
students understand how content and the disciplines make sense,
how they are organized, and how they relate to students’ own lives
and experiences. Fourth, quality curriculum asks students to use,
apply, and transfer what they learn—in other words, to function
at a high level of thought. Finally, quality curriculum is designed
to engage students—to capture their imaginations, tap into their
interests, help them realize a purpose in learning.

14 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 3 Respectful tasks for all students indicate respect for the capacity
of all students. In other words, every student should have work
that looks equally interesting and inviting. Every student’s
work should be understanding-focused. Every student should be
expected to think (and be supported in thinking) at high levels.
By giving these sorts of tasks to all students on a regular basis,
teachers send clear signals that they believe all students can be
achievers and productive thinkers.
4 “Teaching up” raises the ceiling for all students. The most
promising differentiation occurs in classrooms where the teacher
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first plans for his/her most advanced students and then asks, “Now,
how can I support other learners in achieving those complex
goals?” Differentiation will inevitably yield the best results when
teachers pay students the compliment of expecting more of them
than they themselves believe they can achieve—simultaneously
providing scaffolding, encouragement, and partnership necessary
for students to accomplish what they once believed was beyond
their reach.
All students, of course, will have some days when they simply
need to practice a new skill or work with new information.
No student, however, should be seen as only capable of drill
and practice. The old approach of differentiation by Bloom’s
Taxonomy with some students working consistently at “low
levels” of thought and some at “high levels” not only suggests a
misunderstanding of the taxonomy, but a misunderstanding of
how people learn.
5 Ongoing assessment informs responsive teaching. Once a
teacher can specify what students should know, understand,
and be able to do as the result of a unit, and can identify critical
prerequisite knowledge, understanding, and skill that he/she
assumes students bring to class with them, it’s a short step to
creating a pre-assessment designed to give the teacher a good
sense of students with learning gaps that must be addressed,
students who have advanced levels of mastery of the topic, and
students who may have misconceptions that will interfere with
learning. In addition, pre-assessment of student interests and

Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics 15

 preferred ways of learning contribute to a teacher’s evolving
understanding of instructional approaches that will be most
effective for the variety of learners in the classroom. Similarly,
the presence of clear learning goals for each segment of learning
makes it easy for teachers to use a variety of quick but effective
formative assessment tools throughout a unit of study to keep
a close watch for students who are ready to move ahead with
learning, those who require additional practice, and those who
need additional instruction individually or in small groups in order
to progress appropriately.
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Pre-assessments, of course, should never be graded. Formative

assessments should rarely be graded. The purpose of both is to help
the teacher and individual students chart and understand a successful
learning journey. Assessments that are more summative in nature
and with which students work at relevant points in a unit of study are
appropriate for assigning grades. (Even summative assessments can
be effectively differentiated in format and/or working conditions as
long as the criteria for success remain constant and are tightly aligned
with the unit’s specified essential knowledge, understanding, and
skill.) Students in classrooms with an effective formative assessment
cycle should perform better on summative assessments because
the formative information helps both the teacher and students
understand students’ learning trajectories and make adjustments
necessary to push forward the learning of each student. For some
classroom examples of pre-assessments and formative assessments,
see Chapter 5.
6 Flexible grouping contributes to community and academic
success. There are times in a differentiated classroom when
students need to work with peers of a similar readiness level on
tasks designed for their particular needs. There should also be
frequent days when students work with tasks tailored to their
interests and with peers who share those interests, regardless of
readiness needs. There should be days when students work with
tasks and peers that target similar learning preferences. On the
other hand, there should be days when tasks are designed to bring
together students of unlike readiness levels, dissimilar interests,
or varied learning preferences. In these latter instances, tasks
should be designed to ensure that each student can be a contributing

16 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 member of the group. In mixed readiness groups, for example,
providing materials at varied readability levels may be important.
In mixed interest and learning profile groups, tasks should be
written so that particular strengths of each learner are necessary
to complete the task effectively.
Differentiation should not become tracking inside the general
classroom rather than externally. In other words, no bluebird,
buzzard, and wombat groups! Students should regularly see
themselves and one another in varied contexts. Flexible grouping
also allows the teacher to “audition” students in a variety of
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settings and frequently spotlights previously hidden student

strengths and interests.

7 Flexible classroom management allows the balance of structure

and openness necessary for differentiation and for effective
learning for the full range of students in a class. This principle,
of course, reflects the purpose of this book. We’ll explore the
meaning and implementation of this principle throughout the
remainder of the book. It’s sufficient to note here that an effective
differentiated classroom is well-managed using specific routines
designed to ensure that there is “room” for each student in the
class to learn in ways that match the student’s needs while still
attending to the needs of the class as a whole. Some educators
reject differentiation based on the belief that differentiated
classrooms are disorderly, if not chaotic. We trust you’ll see as
the book progresses that this is another misconception about
differentiation, and that an effectively differentiated classroom
is planned to ensure both order and flexibility that result in
opportunity to learn.

Differentiating Classroom Elements

To the observant and reflective teacher, student needs emerge
over the course of time through ongoing assessment, classroom
observation, and conversations with and among students. The
teacher’s tools for addressing those needs are the elements in
curriculum, instruction, and classroom environment. Those
elements are typically called content, process, product, and
learning environment.

Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics 17

 Content
Content refers both to what students are expected to learn—what
they should come to know, understand, and be able to do—and
how students access the essential knowledge, understanding, and
skill. Most of the time, in a differentiated classroom, teachers use
the latter of those two options to differentiate content. Examples of
differentiating how students access essential content include

• using materials in a student’s first language;

• teaching or re-teaching in small groups;

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• teaching in a variety of modes rather than in a single mode; and

• using resources matched to students’ reading levels.

In at least three instances, however, teachers do differentiate the

actual content. One of those occurs when a student’s Individual
Education Plan (IEP) indicates that he or she should work with a
different set of goals than most of the class.
The second occurs when pre-assessments and formative
assessments indicate that a student has critical gaps in content or
when those measures indicate that a student has mastered content
that the class as a whole is still studying. In the first of those
instances, a teacher finds time in the day or week to systematically
teach “backward,” allowing a struggling student to accrue knowledge
or skills that were prescribed for earlier years at the same time the
teacher also moves the class ahead with new knowledge and skills.
A third instance in which it is appropriate for teachers to
differentiate the actual content (vs. only access to the content)
for students occurs when students already show mastery of content
that the teacher has yet to teach, or again when a student masters
new content much more rapidly than most classmates. A teacher who
differentiates instruction should always plan to extend such students’
proficiency with and use of essential content so that advanced
learners can expect to grow throughout the year just as other
students do.
In language arts or English, for example, a teacher may assign
spelling or vocabulary words just beyond a student’s current level
of performance. Therefore, while all students work with spelling

18 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 or vocabulary at the same time, some may be working with words
at a primary level, some with words at an intermediate level, and
some with words at a secondary level or even beyond. In a science
class, a teacher may pre-teach critical vocabulary to a group of
learners who struggle with academic vocabulary so that they are
better prepared to deal with new content ahead. While a teacher
should feel comfortable differentiating knowledge and skills when
ongoing assessment indicates that some students would benefit
from such adjustments, the big ideas, principles, or understandings
that form the framework of meaning for the content should remain
the same for virtually all students. Students may work with an
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understanding at different degrees of difficulty, challenge, or support,

but understandings or big ideas make content meaningful and thus
should be central to the work of virtually all learners.

Process
Process is sometimes used as a synonym for activities. Art Costa
suggests using the term “sense-making activities.” Early and
often in the process stage of learning, students should stop being
receptacles for information and begin to “own” the ideas by trying
them out, applying them, transferring them, or connecting them
to their lives, interests, or experiences. When students process
information, skills, or understandings, they make those things their
own. Processing should be the centerpiece of what takes place in the
classroom because of its importance in learning. For that reason,
much differentiation takes place during the process phase of an
instructional cycle.

Products
Products might also be called summative assessments. They occur
not at the end of a lesson or of a couple of days in the classroom,
but rather after extended cycles of encountering new material
(content) and working with the content (process). The term product
appropriately suggests student output, or student demonstration of
mastery of the essential knowledge, understanding, and skill specified
for a period of weeks or even months. While there is a place for
straightforward tests of content, products that have the most power

Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics 19

 to both extend and demonstrate student proficiency with essential
content are “authentic.” That is, they ask the students to use essential
knowledge, understanding, and skill to address important issues or
suggest solutions to meaningful problems.

Learning Environment
Learning environment refers to both the concrete and less tangible
elements of the classroom. A teacher might make adjustments in the
classroom environment itself in response to a student’s affective or
cognitive needs. For example, some students work more comfortably
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with peers than alone. Some students need supports to help them
with organization. Some students need more structure in their
day while other students would benefit from greater autonomy in
decision-making. Some students might benefit from working in an
area of the classroom where there are no visual stimuli that could
be distracting. Learning environment adjustments can include time,
space, materials, and room arrangement as well.

Differentiating in Response
to Student Needs
Both research and classroom experience affirm that students
come to school with differences in at least three key areas that can
significantly impact learning—readiness, interest, and learning
profile. Teachers in a differentiated classroom use ongoing
assessment to construct an understanding of how all three areas affect
their students. Then they adapt the classroom elements (content,
process, product, and learning environment) to address the three
areas of student variance (readiness, interest, and learning profile).
It is possible to modify each classroom element in response to each
area of student variance. For example, a teacher can modify process
or activities to respond to student readiness needs, to student
interests, and/or to student learning profiles.
Readiness is not a synonym for ability. It refers to a student’s
current proximity to specific learning goals, targets, or outcomes.
It is possible for a student to be a very quick learner and still struggle
with a specific aspect of math or to be behind for a time in Spanish

20 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 because the student was out of school for a week with the flu. In
trying to understand student readiness, a teacher simply asks the “ Students come
to school with
differences in at
question, “Given what students should know, understand, and be
least three key
able to do at the end of today (or the end of this week), where is this areas that can
student now and what will he or she need in order to succeed with significantly impact
the goals?” There is ample evidence that students cannot learn—they learning—readiness,

cannot grow academically—when work is consistently too hard or

interest, and
“
learning profile.
too easy for their entry points into the work. Quite literally, only
when tasks are in an appropriate challenge range for a particular
student can that student progress and achieve.
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Interest has to do with a student’s proclivity for a particular topic

or endeavor. Once again, both research and classroom experience
indicate that interest ignites motivation to learn. There are a number
of ways teachers can tap into student interest. One, of course, is
to make lessons generally interesting. Another is to show students
how required content links to their unique interests. For example,
a student who may not care for poetry might change his mind if a
teacher allows the student to find poetry at work in a kind of music
the student loves. A student who has difficulty with math may be
encouraged to use important mathematical concepts if they show her
how she might get a better deal on a cell phone bill. A student who
is talented in art may be more inclined to invest heavily in a social
studies project if he can use some techniques and tools of art that he
aspires to master. It’s also possible to have students select from a list
of required topics in a unit the one in which he or she would like to
specialize. By using strategies like expert groups or Jigsaw, students
explore the topic of their choice in greater depth. This can often
open the door to deeper interest in the topic as a whole.
Learning profile is an umbrella term related to several factors
that shape individuals’ preferences for how to approach learning.
The term reflects our current knowledge about learning styles (for
example, preferences for learning through hearing or reading, in a
darker or lighter room, beginning with parts and moving to wholes
or vice versa), intelligence preferences (based on the work of Howard
Gardner and Robert Sternberg, who suggest the brain is hard-wired
to learn better in some ways than others), culture (which shapes ways
in which individuals see and respond to the world around them),

Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics 21

 and gender (which again tends to shape individuals as learners). In
attending to student learning profile, it is wise to steer clear of hard-
and-fast approaches. For example, while there are certain learning
preferences that are typical of males, it is not the case that all males
learn in the same way or that females don’t learn in those ways. It
is the case that members of some cultural groups are reflective, for
example, and value thinking at some length before they speak or act.
That is not true of all members of those groups and is a characteristic
of many learners who do not belong to those cultural groups.
A student may appear to be a visual learner much of the time, but
may, in fact, learn new things best by hearing rather than reading
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

about them.
In short, differentiating instruction in response to student
learning profile is not about labeling and assigning students to certain
learning “categories” or “styles.” Rather, it’s about creating a range
of learning opportunities in the classroom from which students may
select. The teacher then helps students reflect on their choices with
an eye to consistently understanding themselves better as learners
and making increasingly better choices about learning for themselves.

Instructional Strategies for Differentiation

There are an infinite number of instructional strategies a teacher
can use to reach out to a variety of student needs in the classroom.
(Within the scope of this book we cannot provide comprehensive
descriptions of such strategies, but we have provided a list of
recommended additional resources on page 96.) Some of the
strategies are especially well suited to addressing readiness needs.
Among those are tiering, small group instruction, learning contracts,
learning centers, and resources at varied readability levels. Other
strategies work especially well in addressing student interests. Among
those are Jigsaw, independent studies, WebQuests and web inquiries,
and orbitals. Likewise, there are a number of approaches that lend
themselves well to addressing student learning preferences, including
designing tasks that offer analytical, practical and creative options
(based on Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence),
providing multiple options for expressing learning
in project or product assignments (as long as the learning goals

22 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 remain constant across the options), and giving students the choice
of working alone or with peers.
It’s possible, of course, for a teacher to develop tasks for students
that attend to readiness, interest, and learning profile simultaneously.
One example of an instructional strategy that attends to all three
student needs is RAFT assignments. RAFT assignments are writing
projects designed to help students understand their Role as a writer,
the Audience for whom they are writing, the Format in which
they will write, and the Topic they will write about. An example of
a RAFT assignment differentiated to address student variance in
readiness, interest, and learning profile is included in Chapter 5.
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

In fact, a number of the strategies noted above can be useful

in addressing more than one type of student need. For example,
learning contracts can be used to attend to readiness, interest,
and learning profile needs. Centers can be constructed to address
readiness and/or interest. Often the most effective strategies are
not ones that have been created and named by others, but rather
strategies developed by teachers to match both the requirements of
content and the needs of students who, at a given moment and in a
particular setting, are expected to learn that content.
You may have noticed that there is one item in Figure 1.2
that we omitted from this brief overview of differentiation. Near
the top of the diagram is the suggestion that differentiation begins
with a teacher’s mindset. We’ll examine that idea in Chapter 2
as we begin to explore the specifics of leading and managing a
differentiated classroom.

Differentiation: Reviewing the Basics 23

 Chapter 2
Preparing for Differentiation

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

“If everybody had to learn the same thing in the same way
at the same time, it would be too easy or too hard, because
everybody is different, not the same. Thank goodness it’s not
like that in our classroom!”
David, age 10, a student in a
differentiated elementary classroom

T
 here’s actually nothing particularly complex in guiding a differentiated
classroom—as long as a teacher is willing to plan thoughtfully. In some ways,
making a differentiated classroom work is a bit like playing chess or checkers.
You need to have a clear goal in mind, develop strategies for achieving the goal, be
observant and reflective as you go to ensure that the game plan is working as it should
and adjust when it’s not.

24 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 This chapter will examine three aspects of planning to guide a
differentiated classroom.
1 Preparing the teacher
2 Preparing students
3 Preparing the classroom
Brief surveys at the beginning of the three sections should help you think about
your current status in each area as you read and think about how to move ahead
with differentiation in your classroom.
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Planning to Prepare Yourself for Differentiation

Before you read further in this section, take a look at Figure 2.1 and mark
the column you believe best reflects your current status or position for each
statement. That should help orient you to the discussion that follows.

I’m really I’m moving I haven’t This could be

Survey 1 solid in
this area
in the right thought about a problem
direction it much

My students would say I believe they

are all capable of academic success.

I understand the principles of

differentiation.

It’s my job to make sure every

student learns what matters most in
our content.

My belief in the worth and dignity

of each student shapes my thinking
and actions in the classroom.

I can explain my beliefs about

why differentiation is important.

I see myself as a leader of my students.

I see myself as a team builder in

the classroom.

I’m an effective manager of details

in the classroom.

Figure 2.1

Preparing for Differentiation 25

 The most important element in a differentiated classroom is not

“
the nature of the room, the quality of materials and supplies, the class
Most students size, or the schedule. It’s a teacher who continues to hone his or her
can learn most
things if they are craft until the classroom works for each of the learners in it. Such
willing to work teachers are likely to have two core convictions that propel their work.
hard and if they The first is a belief in the value of each student they teach. They
“
are supported in
understand the potential of the teacher to shape young lives and
doing so.
accept the teacher’s obligation to ensure that all aspects of their work
contribute to positive development for each student.
The second is an abiding belief in the potential of each student
they teach. They have what psychologist Carol Dweck calls a “fluid”
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

or “growth” mindset. That is, they believe that most students can
learn most things if they are willing to work hard and if they are
supported in doing so.
These two bedrock principles lead teachers to a series of
conclusions that guide their actions in the classroom.

Guiding Principles for the

Differentiated Classroom
• It is impossible to respect an individual another’s growth, celebrate one another’s
while simultaneously seeing the accomplishments, and share responsibility
person’s differences as problematic. with the teacher for the success of
Therefore, these teachers seek to create classroom operations.
classrooms in which student differences are • A teacher must know students as
viewed as both natural and desirable. individuals in order to understand how
• Learners of any age are inspired by to teach them most effectively.
adults who believe in them. Therefore, these teachers study their students
Therefore, these teachers see themselves as as enthusiastically as they study the content
mentors of the young people they teach. they teach.
They invite students to do important things • A teacher’s hard work on behalf of
and provide a context in which students each student and the teacher’s
see themselves rise to challenges they insistence on hard work from each
once believed were beyond their reach. student will result in highly positive
• Learning happens most effectively in a outcomes for each student.
setting where every student feels safe, Therefore, they work hard to make instruction
known, and valued. a good fit for each student and insist that their
Therefore, these teachers teach young students work just as hard on their own behalf
people to respect one another, support one

26 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 In reality, of course, few teachers have perfect days—ones
in which everything goes absolutely as planned and all students
experience maximum growth. Differentiation and teachers who
practice it simply subscribe to the premise that there is always
another way to think about teaching and learning that just might
be more effective in helping a student succeed, and that it’s the
teacher’s role to continue to grow in order to benefit the young
people they teach. If that’s the case, the teacher should have or
be developing

• a belief system that suggests attending to learner differences

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

is important for student success;

• the intent to create a classroom environment that invites

each student to learn and supports each student in doing so;

• clarity about curricular goals that ensure student engagement

with and understanding of essential content;

• a variety of ways to get to understand students better;

• an understanding of differentiation as an instructional

model that will support fidelity of implementation; and
• a desire to design classroom routines and structures that
balance predictability and flexibility.

It’s important to note again that you need not have mastery or
certainty in each of these areas before beginning to differentiate.
Rather, it’s necessary that you see the importance of each of
these areas in reaching the full range of students and that you
are a willing learner in each of them.

Preparing Your Students

for Differentiation
It’s time for your second survey. To help yourself think about
what you may need to do to help your students prepare for a
differentiated classroom, look at the survey on the next page.
Consider each statement and mark the appropriate box.

Preparing for Differentiation 27

 I’m really I’m moving I haven’t This could
Survey 2 solid in
this area
in the right thought
direction about it much
be a problem

I talk with my students regularly

about why we are doing what we
are doing in the classroom.

I explain to my students my beliefs

about teaching and learning.
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

My students would say they help

me create the kind of classroom
we want to have.

I regularly seek input from my

students on how the classroom
is working for them and act on
what I hear.

My students see themselves as my

partners in making the classroom
work effectively and efficiently.

My students are comfortable in

helping one another appropriately
when someone needs assistance.

I have some good ideas about

how to explain differentiation
to my students.

Figure 2.2

Most of us have had the experience of playing a game like

Scrabble or Monopoly with someone whose understanding of
the directions for the game is different from our own. The game
becomes punctuated with comments like, “That’s not how you do it,”
or, “That’s not right.” It doesn’t take long for the game to go bad and
feelings to go sour.
With the possible exception of preschoolers, most students also
enter classrooms with a clear set of internalized rules about how to
“do school.” Those rules are typically artifacts of one-size-fits-all
classrooms and include beliefs like the following:

28 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 1 Everybody starts and stops work at exactly the same time.
2 Everybody uses the same book, does the same homework,
and has the same projects and tests.
3 When kids have questions, they should ask the teacher for help.
4 Fair means everybody is treated just alike.
“ If a teacher
wants to make
significant progress
in terms of creating
If a teacher uses an occasional, modest differentiation strategy a differentiated
in a classroom, that’s not likely to create a major problem for classroom, the
rules of the game
students in terms of their perception of the rules of the “school
will necessarily be
game.” However, if a teacher wants to make significant progress different than the
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

in terms of creating a differentiated classroom, the rules of the rules the student
game will necessarily be different than the rules the student may
“
may have brought to
the classroom.
have brought to the classroom.
For example, in a differentiated classroom, students will not
always start and stop tasks at the same moment. They will not
always use the same book or do the same homework, or have the
same project or test. They will need to learn to help one another
appropriately when they need assistance rather than only relying
on the teacher.
In order to avoid the problem of different conceptions of rules
for the same game, it’s important for a teacher to prepare students
for what may be a new set of rules. That begins with helping them
understand not only what the new rules will be, but also why they
matter. To accomplish this, it’s helpful for teachers to plan a three-
part discussion in which students consider the following ideas.

Three-Part Discussion Plan

Introducing Differentiation to Students
Part 1: Understand that the students in their class are both
alike and different as learners—and that a good class will
take into account both the similarities and differences.

Part 2: Think about how a classroom that honored all the

students in it would look and function.

Part 3: Begin to consider the roles and responsibilities of

teachers and students in such a class.

Preparing for Differentiation 29

 Discussion Part 1
Who We Are
As the teacher begins to learn about students in the very earliest days
of the school year, it’s helpful to develop a way to have students reflect
individually and as a group on themselves as learners. Simple activities
like the following two can be woven into everyday classroom instruction
to accomplish this.

Appreciating and Learning About Our Differences

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Elementary Example

A teacher of elementary students put stars on square 2 if they were really

who were about to study geometric good at kickball, check marks if they
shapes decided to use the concept of were pretty good at kickball, and X
squares and cubes in order to help marks if they found kickball to be hard
her students understand how unique for them. (See Chapter 5, page 83, for
they were. She began by giving each instructions and another example.)
student a set of six one dimensional
When students completed their
squares that were attached in a
squares and assembled them into
template that could be folded into
cubes, the teacher asked them to find
a three-dimensional cube.
all the other cubes of other students
Each square had a number from one that were just like their own so they
to six printed on it. Students were could collaborate to make mobiles that
given a set of directions. They were contained identical cubes. It didn’t take
told, for instance, to color square 1 the students long to figure out that the
light blue if they thought they were mobile project wasn’t going to work.
really good with spelling, lavender if There were no two cubes in the class
they were pretty good with spelling, with the same colors and markings on
and dark blue if spelling was hard for six facets.
them. Likewise, they were asked to

A
30 Managing a Differentiated Classroom
 Appreciating and Learning About Our Differences

Middle School Example

A teacher asked her students to stand

on a masking tape line on the floor to
next question and asking students to
reflect their individual agreement with
move based on their response to the
statements she made. Statement 1,
question. (See Chapter 5, page 81, for
for instance, was, “I am really quick
the full list of questions.) The teacher
at solving word problems.” Statement
posted the continuum photos by class
2 was, “I’m very confident of my
period and asked students in each class
skills in converting decimals into
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

to study the photos and jot down any

fractions.” Statement 3 was, “I learn
conclusions they could draw about
best when I work in a small group
sixth graders and math based on the
with other classmates.” Students who
photos. Their responses included
strongly agreed with the statement
things such as, “Some sixth graders
stood toward the left of the line, those
will probably do really well with
who strongly disagreed stood toward
fractions and some will probably have
the right of the line, and others
trouble with them at first,” “Some
distributed themselves along the line
sixth graders really like working in
as they thought appropriate.
small groups and some don’t,” “Sixth
The teacher took a digital photo of graders have very different strengths
each continuum prior to posing the and weaknesses in math,” and so on.

In both activities, the teacher’s goal was to have students conclude

that there were many differences among them as learners, and also
some similarities. See Chapter 5 for more detailed explanations of
these and other activities to help you get to know your students.

Discussion Part 2
A Classroom That Works for Everyone
The teacher’s next step is to engage the students in a conversation about
how a teacher should teach when students have different strengths,
different weak points, different interests, and different ways of learning.
With very young students, you may simply say, “Because every one of
us is different, we will sometimes need to have different ways to learn
things. Let’s talk about how that might work.”
With slightly older students, you might ask, “What are some things
I need to do when I’m planning lessons to make sure everyone has a

Preparing for Differentiation 31

 chance to learn in a way that works for them?” With upper elementary and middle
school students, you might ask, “How should I teach when your strengths and
interests, and needs, and ways of learning are so varied? Who should I be thinking
about when I plan?”
Students will nearly always be clear that if a teacher is just thinking about
and planning for one kind of learner, the class won’t work well for others. They
will often suggest, for example, that a teacher should help students develop their
individual strengths and work on their particular weaknesses, or that a teacher
might need to teach in more than one way.
As the conversation evolves, you can guide students in talking about what
the classroom might look like if it were designed to help each student learn as
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

much as possible and in the best way possible. Some typical student responses
might include:

• “We might be reading different books.”

• “We might meet with the teacher in small groups to work on something that’s
important for those of us in the group.”

• “We might show what we are learning in different ways.”

It’s fine to contribute to the discussion. For example, you might ask, “Can you
think of times when it might be helpful for students to be able to move on to new
work when they’ve finished learning what we’re working on instead of waiting to
move on when everyone else does?”

Discussion Part 3
About How to Make the Classroom Work
Ultimately, it’s wise to begin having students consider how everyone
would have to be part of making the classroom work smoothly when different
things are going on at the same time. Among common student responses are

• “We would have to be sure to listen to our directions instead of somebody

else’s or we’ll get confused and never finish anything.”

• “We couldn’t interrupt the teacher if she was working with other students, so
we would have to help one another.”

• “We’d have to be sure that we were working quietly enough for other people
to think about their work.”

32 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Middle schoolers might suggest, “We’d need to make sure the room is straight
when the bell rings to go to our next class.”
It is useful for you to point out some ways in which you will need students as
partners in making the classroom work well for everyone. Depending on particular
student, content, and teacher needs, student help might include such basic tasks as:
passing out and collecting materials, checking in homework, making sure materials
and supplies go back where they belong when students finish using them, moving
furniture quietly and quickly, carefully following directions in centers, and helping
you think of ways to make the classroom more effective for everyone.
All three parts of this discussion should begin at the outset of the year and
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

continue throughout the year. Discussions early in the year will likely take
longer than ones later in the year that will generally serve as reminders of class
purpose and goals, checks on how well various aspects of the class are working,
or opportunities to extend or refine earlier understandings. In all instances, some
messages will remain constant:

• Everyone in our class is important.

• It’s important for every person in our class to be a strong learner.

• Our goal is for everyone to learn as much as possible as quickly as possible.

• We all sometimes need to learn in different ways.

• We can create a class that allows students to work in ways that work best for
them it as long as we work as a team to make that happen.

No matter when the conversations occur—but particularly early in the year

when students are extra-vigilant in establishing how the teacher relates to
them—it’s critical to

• demonstrate respect for every student;

• ensure that every student has a voice in the conversations;

• take each student seriously and be sure that students take each other seriously;
• be a good listener;

• remind students of their shared goal of a class that works for everyone;

• be a celebrant when things go well; and

• be clear about the need to do better when they do not.

Preparing for Differentiation 33

 Preparing the Room for Differentiation
As you begin to consider the role your classroom space might play
in differentiation, take a look at Figure 2.3. Where is your thinking
currently in regard to the items on the checklist? Given what you
understand to be the goals of differentiation, can you anticipate why
your answers to the individual questions might be important as you
move ahead?
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

I’m really I’m moving I haven’t This could

Survey 3 solid in
this area
in the right
direction
thought
about it much
be a problem

The room has designated spaces

for materials and supplies so
students can access them and
return them easily.

I use space and furniture flexibly in

the classroom.

There is space for me to meet

with individuals and small groups
of students.

I use wall and bulletin board space

to display student work.

There are places in the room

dedicated to providing guidance
for quality student work.

There are places that help students

know assignments, schedules, and
seating arrangements.

I use classroom space to help

build community or a sense
of team.

Figure 2.3

34 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 A classroom is really just a box—four walls, a floor, a ceiling,
some furniture, and some supplies—but there is considerable power
“ A classroom is really
just a box—four walls,
a floor, a ceiling, some
in what we decide to do with the box. As is the case with a room in furniture, and some
supplies—but there is
a house, we can design a classroom in many different ways. Some
considerable power in
encourage flexibility in addressing learner variance and developing “
what we decide to do
student autonomy, others less so. with the box.
Among “design decisions” that can be quite useful in supporting
differentiation are the following.

Furniture
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

• It will likely work better to have a single-student desks and

some tables or clusters of individual desks rather than all
of one or the other. This allows space for students who
need to work alone some of the time. It also allows space
for collaboration, which is an important feature in a
differentiated classroom.

• Develop floor plans or seating plans for several different

furniture arrangements—for example: an arrangement for a
whole class discussion in which students sit in a square or circle
so that everyone can be seen and heard, an arrangement for
working in pairs or triads, and an arrangement that provides
some seating for small groups and some for individuals.

Classroom Arrangement Options

Individual Work
Stations
Collaboration
Stations

Teacher-Led
Presentation
Computer
Stations

Preparing for Differentiation 35

 • For young learners, it’s especially important that there is a space
in the room where students can sit on the floor as a whole class
to talk together, listen to stories, plan the day, and so on.

• In elementary classrooms, strongly consider “permanent” spaces

for learning and/or interest centers. In middle school, consider a
furniture arrangement for “stations.” You might assign students
to stations on a rotating basis for varying lengths of time during
portions of a unit in which different learners would benefit from
different practice tasks, application tasks, skills practice, and/or
small-group instruction.

• Be sure to have a space in the room where small groups can

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

meet with the teacher while other students work on assigned

tasks at their desks. The space should allow students who are
working with the teacher to sit with their backs to the rest of the
class and allow the teacher to easily see everyone in the room.

• Create a space in the classroom where desks can be turned away

from visual stimuli (including movement of other students)
to help students who need to work without visual distraction.
Providing earphones or ear plugs for students who are
significantly distracted by sound can also be quite helpful.
Supplies and Materials
•  Use easy-to-reach “organizers” such as stack trays, bins, crates,
shelves, or boxes that students can access as needed. The goal is
to enable students to submit work, retrieve papers, and remain
organized with minimal direction from you once routines are
in place.

36 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 •  Think about color-coding or using icons to designate subjects
or class periods. For example, in middle school, first period has
blue folders or manila folders with student names written in blue
marker and stored in a blue crate. In elementary school, students
might turn in science work to the yellow tray, math work to the
green tray, and so on. Using colors and icons can be helpful to
young students, English learners, and a variety of students with
reading difficulties.
• In all grades, provide subject- and age-appropriate materials that
allow students to explore and express what they are learning in
a variety of ways. These might include reading and reference
materials, art supplies, videos, and writing materials, for
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

example. While the materials may vary during the year, it’s good
to designate space where materials are predictably available and
can be retrieved and returned in an orderly way.
• It’s important to have one or more areas of the room for reading
materials (as well as audio and Internet content) that address a
range of reading levels and interests. Again, the materials may
change to supplement various units of study, but students should
know that there will always be things they can read or listen to
in order to support their learning.

• Plan spaces for technologies students will use. These might

include digital recorders, computers, Braille readers, cameras,
or tablet computers. This area should balance a need for security
and for student access.

• It’s often extremely useful to have a permanent “anchor activity”

station in the room. Anchor activities are tasks to which a
student moves when an initial task is completed. They will be
discussed further in Chapters 4 and 5.

• Plan spaces for materials and supplies that only you should be
able to access. These should be out of the way of student traffic,
less noticeable to students, and clearly designated “for the
teacher only.”

Wall and Other Display Space

Use available wall space and other display areas for two purposes:
building community and supporting learning.
• Consider using some wall or display space to spotlight
students throughout the year. Let students work with you to
bring in or create artifacts that share their interests, strengths,

Preparing for Differentiation 37

 accomplishments, and goals. Use the space as a way for the you
and your students to get to know and appreciate one
another better.

• Use some wall space to display student work that demonstrates

noteworthy effort, growth, and/or quality. This helps students
understand that their work leads to growth, and to new levels
of success.

• Use a designated section of wall and/or table space to post

rubrics or checklists for quality as well as student work that
exemplifies the specified criteria at various levels of challenge
or sophistication. You might then ask some students to
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

1 Do I understand the model of differentiation?

• Do I know what it is and is not?

2 Do I know why it matters to create a differentiated classroom?

• Why will it be worth the effort?

• Why is it necessary to the success of my students as learners and my

success as a teacher?

3 Do I see myself as a leader of my students?

• Am I prepared to inspire, encourage, and support them more than
to “manage” them?

4 Am I prepared to enlist the partnership of my students in creating

a class that works for everyone?

• Do I know what that partnership means and am I prepared to

help my students understand what it means?

5 Have I made the best possible use of space to support community,

flexible teaching and learning, organization, and escalating
student autonomy?

• Will the classroom set-up and structures work for or against the
goal of maximizing the success of each learner?

38 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 examine the work mounted on orange paper, and some to
examine the work mounted on yellow paper, for example, to
see how quality student work looks in a unit on which they are
currently working.

• Consider having a “first aid station” or “life saving station” in

the room. In this area, you (or the students themselves) would
post reminders that could enable students to work successfully
on a current task if they have forgotten certain skills from earlier
lessons. For example, a help poster might remind students how
to convert a Word file to a PDF file on the computer or how to
write a lab report. The idea is to enable students to do related
tasks successfully and with minimal assistance.
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In preparing for a differentiated classroom, you should be confident

in answering the questions on the preceding checklist affirmatively.
Once again, there is a difference between being ready to begin
a process and being perfect. Thoughtful teachers will not only
continually find better ways go about their work because they learn
from experience, but they will draw energy from their capacity to
grow as professionals. The goal at this point is not absolute certainty
about how each detail will play out, but a sense of preparedness to
approach the starting gate.
In addition to preparing the teacher and students to understand
the principles of differentiation and preparing the room to facilitate
enacting those principles, it’s important to develop routines that
enable students to work with the right balance of structure and
flexibility. Chapter 3 will explore some routines found in many
effectively differentiated classrooms as well as the thinking behind
those routines.

Preparing for Differentiation 39

 Chapter 3
Establishing the Routines

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of Differentiation

“In my class, our teacher says we have to work hard so we

can be smart and we all have to help each other be smart too.
We try to help our teacher make sure the classroom runs right
so it helps us all be smart.”
Maria, a student in a
3rd grade differentiated classroom

M
any categories of people are charged with “leading and managing” the work
of others. When they are successful, their success stems from a number of
common attributes. Certainly part of successful management stems from the
kinds of ideas we’ve explored in earlier chapters—such as having and communicating
a vision of a quality outcome, operating from a clear sense of direction, respecting and
believing in those whom they direct, working hard, and establishing an ethic of hard work
among the group.

40 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Beyond those crucial if somewhat abstract attributes, good leaders and
mangers are attentive to detail. They plan assiduously. They don’t leave
much to chance.
Think about a school football coach who starts the season with a group
of disparate adolescents and forges them into a team on which everyone knows
the game, understands the game plan, knows his role in executing the plan,
and learns when to focus on his own role and when to support others in doing
their jobs. Or consider the orchestra conductor who brings together players of
significantly different instruments, helping each member become more attuned
to his or her instrument while simultaneously directing them in playing shared,
sectional, and solo parts.
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

The successful coach and conductor have knowledge of and enthusiasm for
their craft. They lead. They encourage, exhort, and demand.
They also plan doggedly with the intent to effectively focus on the myriad
of seemingly insignificant details that ultimately yield a potent opponent on
the field, a powerful listening experience in the concert hall, or a riveting
drama. The devil is in the details! Success is in the persistent execution of
those details.
This chapter will center on six important elements that, if carefully
planned and thoughtfully executed, enable teachers to focus on both the needs
of individual learners and the needs of the class as a whole. More to the point,
when these elements work for teacher and students, both are more likely to
succeed! These are the elements, which form the framework for this chapter:

1 Setting an effective classroom tone

2 Getting to know students
3 Using anchor activities
4 Establishing ground rules and routines
5 Using small groups
6 Staying organized
Some teachers may already feel confident and competent in some of these
areas. Others may require additional thought, planning, and practice to lead
as effectively as they would like in these areas. Most teachers have room to
grow in most of the areas. As we do grow, we become better stewards of the
responsibility of teaching students who need us in different ways.

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 41

 Setting an Effective Classroom Tone
Students typically enter classrooms that are new to them with their
antennae primed. Well before they ask what the content will be, they
are seeking an answer to a question that is typically more important
to them: “What’s it going to be like in here for me?”
Classrooms that harness the imaginations and energies of young
people reflect a dynamic tone that is first established through a series
of messages, evolving customs or rules, and teacher modeling. The
messages begin with the teacher and should convey the sense that
this classroom is a happening place where people matter, ideas are
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

important, hard work is necessary, and success is expected.

Figure 3.1 displays some of the critical messages students should
receive early and often about their classroom, what the messages
mean, why the messages matter, and how teachers might convey
them. Ensuring clarity about these messages over time helps students
develop an understanding of how differentiation works and why it
matters. It also paves the path toward a classroom that maximizes the
potential of each student.

Some Ways Teachers Can

The Message What It Means Why It Matters
Convey the Message

You matter • You’re on the • Students need • Making small segments of

to me, radar here. to feel valued by time available for teacher/
individually • You have a voice. important adults student conversation.
and as I hear you and in their lives. • Being at the door as
a group. want to hear you. • They need students come and go.
• There will be a sense of • Referring to student
no anonymous affiliation with comments, suggestions
people in a group. during instruction.
this class. • They need to • Going to student events.
know that what
• Calling on students
they bring to
randomly rather than
the classroom
responding to raised/
is valuable.
waving hands.

Figure 3.1

42 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Some Ways Teachers Can
The Message What It Means Why It Matters
Convey the Message

What we learn • We’re going • Young people • Showing students how

here is very to think about rally behind people beyond the
important. ideas the way things that seem classroom use the ideas
experts do. important and skills they learn.
• We’re going to and purposeful. • Connecting content with
learn things in • People learn best students’ varied interests
ways that help you when ideas are and experiences.
see their value in relevant to • Showing students how
the world. their experiences. the ideas and skills make
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

• There are so many people’s lives better.

important ideas • Making sure students use
that we’ll have to what they learn to act on
use our time well. problems and issues.
• You’re going to • Sharing stories of experts
see yourself in in the content areas from
what we learn. different cultures and
both genders.

Every person • The class belongs • Responsibility • Giving students

in the class to all of us, not builds responsibility to facilitate
has a key role just to the teacher. self-confidence. classroom operation.
to play in the • The teacher is • Pulling together • Talking with students
success of all more effective as a team fulfills regularly about why you
of us. when the students a need for do what you do in
are her partners both affiliation the classroom.
in making the (belonging) and • Seeking student input on
classroom work. agency (making how to make the classroom
• You can count a difference). work better.
on me, and I’m • The teacher • Acknowledging and
counting on you. cannot do celebrating things that
• Every student everything are working well.
has strengths that without help.
benefit us all.

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 43

 Some Ways Teachers Can
The Message What It Means Why It Matters
Convey the Message

Everyone will • The teacher works • An emphasis • Being sure students see
work hard in hard to support on hard work you hold high standards
here because your success. rather than for yourself and for them.
that’s what • You will work hard ability increases • Talking frequently about
makes us to support your the likelihood of student effort and seldom
all successful. own success. student success. about ability.
• Stay busy. • Students develop • Using models of quality
greater respect student work.
• No shortcuts.
for themselves
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• Quality work is • Writing directions that

when they
an expectation. emphasize quality.
work toward
high expectations. • Making sure rubrics
emphasize quality
• Developing pride
vs. quantity or
in craftsmanship
baseline expectations.
benefits all
students.

Growth • Incremental • Persistent • Emphasizing personal

is a non- growth is the route effort leads to growth rather than
negotiable. to meaningful growth, and interpersonal competition.
achievement. growth enables • Teaching students to
• Everyone has their students to set personal goals and
own next steps to master and exceed establish plans to
take in learning expectations. achieve them.
every day. • Competing • Acknowledging and
• You will be against oneself celebrating growth in
expected to take is the fairest and each student.
your next steps most important
• Discussing students’
every day. contest in life.
mastery of essential goals,
• In life and in class, • We fare best habits of mind and work,
there is always the when we accept and progress toward
opportunity responsibility for mastery when talking
for growth. being the best we to parents.
can be.

44 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 A second part of setting a classroom tone that is conducive to
differentiation—and to effective teaching in general—is establishing
rules or guidelines or agreements for classroom behavior. The rules
and the process of arriving at them becomes a sort of shorthand for
what will follow. Consider the following:

• The rules are for teacher and students. Students should not
be asked to act in ways that do not consistently reflect the
teacher’s attitude and behavior.
• Involve the students in developing the rules that will
govern them.
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• Work to make the list of rules as short as possible. For example,

four very terse guidelines that cover just about everything are:
1 Respect yourself
2 Respect one another
3 Respect this place
4 Work hard
If a teacher and his or her students consistently aspired to those
standards, the classroom would model the world most of us
would like to live in.
• Be sure students have an opportunity to talk about why
particular rules or guidelines are important for their individual
success and the success of the class as a whole. Rules should exist
to support success, not as arbitrary demands.
• Review the rules with students every once in a while. Join them
in reflecting on how well they are working for individuals and
the class and in deciding how to make sure the rules are working
as they should to support the success of each student.

A third element in establishing a classroom tone that supports

academic success is a teacher who consistently models what he or she
asks of students. The teacher is continually aware that he or she must
be for the students what he or she wants the students to be for one
another. Here are some examples.

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 45

 • If you expect students to be respectful of one another, you must
be respectful of every student all the time—in class and out.
Your humor must be positive. It must be evident that you enjoy,
value, and listen to each student. The students cannot conclude
that you see some students as winners and others as losers. If
you hold students to standards of hard work, persistence, and
craftsmanship, the students must see those attributes in you
every day.

• If you tell students that effort and solid habits of mind are more
important than getting everything right all the time, you must
exemplify that mode of operation—and must pay more attention
to those characteristics in students than you do to points on a
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

test or rank in class.

• If you make a case that the talents, strengths, and experiences

of each student are valuable, you must make instructional plans
that draw on a full range of abilities and experiences in ways that
make them visible and valuable to the class.

In many organizations, both commercial and professional, there is

much talk about “branding.” They ask the questions such as these:

• What do we really stand for?

• How can we convey that in a memorable and clear way?
• How can we be sure we deliver on our promise—that we are
who we say we are?
Establishing a classroom tone that speaks of, promotes, and supports
the academic success of each member of the class rests in large part
on those same questions and on the ability of the teacher to answer
them appropriately on a personal, professional, and practitioner level.

Getting to Know the Students

A genuinely daunting aspect of teaching is getting to know students
as individuals. It seems overwhelming to try to understand a group
of 25 or 30 elementary students. It seems impossible to know 125
or 150 secondary students. Nonetheless, there may be no more
important challenge for a teacher. It is difficult to connect with
students who feel anonymous. It’s nearly impossible for students to
trust a teacher in whose classroom they feel faceless and unknown.

46 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 A teacher’s investment in knowing and understanding students
as individuals yields big dividends. Students feel acknowledged,
significant. They draw the conclusion that this teacher is a person
who has their best interest at heart—someone who will make the risk
of learning less daunting. As students see the teacher reach out with
interest and respect to their peers as well, they begin to build trust
and respect among themselves as well. The result is the beginning of
a sense of community in the classroom—the weaving of a fabric that
supports learning.
If working to know students as individuals fosters trust, working
to know them as learners enables better teaching. Noted educator
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Hilda Taba once said that teaching in the dark is questionable

business. Nonetheless, we often do that. We assume a student can “ There are three
words that describe
the process of
read the material we provide, or that she knows vocabulary or math
teachers who get
skills that were taught in past years, or that our upcoming lessons to know their
will provide him with new information. Too often, however, some students as people
students can’t read the materials, don’t have prerequisite knowledge and as learners:

and skills, or have already learned what we are about to teach.

“
purposeful, planned,
and persistent.
We forge ahead with our plans as though those issues didn’t exist.
The result is not only an academic misfit, but the erosion of trust
with our students. As one middle school student noted, “That teacher
doesn’t have any idea what my life is like. She doesn’t even know that
I don’t have a clue what she’s talking about in class. Why should I
care when she doesn’t?”
There are three words that describe the process of teachers who
get to know their students as people and as learners: purposeful,
planned, and persistent. They intend to know the people they teach
for the purpose of teaching them more effectively. They see the
process as personally and professionally rewarding. Because the
individuals are many and time is short, these teachers plan ways to
learn about their students. They also understand that the process of
getting to know students will necessarily be evolutionary, and so they
begin the process as the year begins and stick with it until students
leave at year’s end.

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 47

 How to Be Students of Your Students

• Learn Their Names • Gather Information About Them

 earn students’ names as quickly as
L Develop surveys so students can share
possible as the year begins. You could interests, strengths, talents, preferred
play name games, ask students to ways of learning, and hopes for the year.
decorate name tents to place on their Ask students to update the information
desks for a week, or take their pictures later in the year. (See Chapter 5.)
and create a visual seating chart that
you can study even when you’re not in • Greet Them Individually
the classroom.  tand at the door every day as students
S
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enter and leave the room and make

• Let Them Know You Want to contact with them individually.
Know Them
 n the first day of school make it
O • Observe Their Work
evident to your students that you are  alk around the classroom as students
W
actively learning about them. This work independently or in small groups.
could be as simple as going around the Make notes of problems students may
classroom and asking students to share be having and of students whose rapid
“one interesting thing about you or and accurate performance may indicate
what you like to do.” Comment on their that they are being under-challenged.
responses and take notes on what they Again, use what you see to shape
say. Use what you learn to shape your instruction, and let students know you
instruction, and let students know you are doing so. (See Chapter 5, page 93,
are doing that. For example, you might for an example of a mini-lesson in
say, “I know a lot of you like graphic response to a classroom observation.)
novels, so why don’t we make our own?”
• Have Quick Chats
• Meet With Them
 ave brief, informal conversations with
H
 ith young students, use morning
W individual students about extracurricular
or afternoon meetings to encourage topics to help you understand them
students to share with you and with beyond the classroom.
one another. With older students, take
a minute or two as class begins or ends • Track Their Progress
to talk with students about things that  evelop ways of keeping track of
D
matter to you, and invite them to do student progress, such as skills sequence
the same. charts, sticky note folders, and bio-
• Have Them Write to You checks. (See Chapter 5.) This process
allows you to keep track of student
 onsider using journals in which
C status on essential content goals even
students can write to you informally when they engage in varied activities. It
about interests, needs or concerns. can also be very helpful in preparing for
• Reach Out Beyond the Classroom parent conferences and conversations
with students about their work.
 o to students’ extracurricular activities.
G
Invite parents to share their insights
about their sons and daughters.

48 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Getting to know students isn’t about becoming a social worker or
a counselor, and it isn’t an accessory to the role of the teacher. Your
facility in getting to know students in a three-dimensional way is the
first step in building a community of learners; it allows more precise
and targeted instruction; and it develops the your long-term
understanding of how to connect content and kids.

Using Anchor Activities

It’s rare in any classroom that all students complete an activity or
an assessment at precisely the same moment. In a differentiated
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classroom, the idea of “ragged time,” or students completing work

at different points, is a given. Anchor activities are tasks to which
students move automatically when they are finished with assigned
work. These activities enable teachers to use time flexibly by ensuring
that students have productive work to do when they complete a task.

What Is An Anchor Activity?

Anchor activities should have the following characteristics:
1. The work is significant in enhancing the students’ knowledge,
understanding, and/or skills related to the year’s content.
2. The work is interesting and appealing to students of a particular
grade and age.
3. Students can complete the work without help from the teacher.

One of the most familiar types of anchor activities is a journal.

Students are told that whenever they have “down time,” they should
add an entry—something they’ve learned, a song lyric they heard,
a question they want answered. You can also put intriguing journal
prompts on the board each day such as a question, a sentence starter,
or a story starter.
• What would happen if there were no television?
• If I had a superpower, it would be _____.
• One night, a tiny spaceship appeared over the roof of the house next door.
For more anchor activity ideas, see pages 87–89 in Chapter 5.

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 49

 While introducing anchor activities to students, it’s important for
them to understand the nature and purpose of the activities as
well as procedures and expectations for working with anchor
tasks. It’s helpful to convey the following ideas at appropriate times.
• Anchor activities are designed to be interesting to students.
They provide an opportunity for students to learn things they
might not otherwise have the chance to know about the subjects
they are studying.

• Some anchor activities may stay constant through the year (for
example, books, magazines, or websites to read about a topic the
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

students are studying). Others will change after a period of days

or weeks.

• You will be happy to hear suggestions from students of anchor

activities that seem useful and interesting.

• There are so many important things to learn that there’s never

a reason to say, “I’m finished with my work and I don’t have
anything else to do.” A student should automatically move to an
anchor activity when they finish assigned work.

• Anchor activities won’t be graded, but you will be observing how

effectively students work with them. This information will be
part of your conversation with students and parents about habits
of mind and work. Be sure to let students know if they should
keep a record of their anchor work or respond to it in any way.
(See Chapter 5, page 90, for an example of an anchor log.)

• If a student feels “stuck” in trying to complete an anchor activity,

he or she should read accompanying directions carefully, see
if there are samples or models of student work at the anchor
activity station, see if a peer can help, or select a different anchor
activity until you are available to help.
• Anchor materials should not go home (not leave the classroom)
with students unless the teacher gives permission.
• Students will need to return anchor materials to the anchor
activity station when you announces that it’s time for
a transition to new work or a new class.

Different teachers will begin anchor activity routines in different

ways, depending on their own comfort with a flexible classroom and

50 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 the age and nature of the students with whom they work. Some
teachers may be more comfortable offering only one anchor
activity when they are introduced, and may want the activity
to be one that students do with little or no movement or
conversation. Other teachers may prefer to have two or more
choices from the outset so that students learn to manage choices
as the year begins. Similarly, these teachers may be comfortable
with students moving around the room quietly to access varied
materials and working with a partner on anchor tasks. What
matters is that students understand the purpose of anchor activities
and how to succeed with anchor routines—whatever they are in a
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particular teacher’s classroom.

Establishing Ground Rules and Routines

One key to the success of a flexible classroom is a set of routines
that students understand well and execute with consistency
and confidence. To ensure that these routines are effective and
efficient, establish a set of ground rules that apply to most or all of
them. Soon the routines will simply become “the way we do things
in here.”
There is no single set of ground rules for all settings. Rather,
teachers should reflect on how they feel their particular classroom
should operate. Among areas for consideration are the following,
several of which will be explored further in Chapter 4.

GUIDING QUESTIONS FOR ESTABLISHING ROUTINES

How will you start and stop class, or segments of lessons?

• Y
 ou may decide that the school bell signals the start of class, or you could
devise a special signal to indicate that students should be in place and ready
to begin work. This signal can be a word or phrase from you, a specific
time on the clock, or a humorous sound from a noisemaker.
• W
 hen the bell rings or the signal is given, what should that mean? Should
students already be seated with work materials in place, or does the signal
indicate that they have a specified length of time to move to their seats and
get ready?

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 51

 • Think
  about how you will conclude class or a segment of class. You may
want to give a signal a few minutes before the end so that students have
time to take care of certain tasks or activities. For example, you can
establish that this time is used to wrap up or turn in work, or to return
materials and supplies to their proper places in the room. Or, you may
choose to use the last few minutes for a quick formative assessment and/
or a brief conversation with students.

Will there be times you are “off limits” to students?

• Decide
 when students should feel free to talk to you, and when they
should know that you are “off limits.” For example, is it okay for
students to interrupt you when you’re working with small groups or
individuals, or should they wait?
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• When class is beginning, or when students are moving from one activity
to another, do you want to be able to move freely around the classroom
to make sure students settle in well, or is this a good time for students to
come to you with questions and comments?

What should students do when they need help and you are busy?
It is a given that students will have questions or need help when you are
occupied with another individual or group. What routines can you establish
that will help them get that help on their own? You could
• emphasize listening to or reading directions carefully so that students are
more likely to understand what they need to do at a given point from the
outset of the task;
• have examples of student work available in the classroom to serve as
models students can consult;
• have recorded directions so students can go to a digital recorder and
re-play instructions, or assign an “Expert of the Day” who can assist
students with particular aspects of their work when you are unavailable
to help them.
If a student has made every effort to understand a task and is still unable to
move forward, is there a way that student should indicate a need for help?
(See Chapter 5, page 94, for examples of color-coded help signals). Should
the student move automatically to an anchor activity, or is there a different
alternative for productive use of time?

How should students get help from their peers?

• Asking
 classmates for support is a helpful strategy for almost every
student. But you probably don’t want unrestricted conversation all the
time. Consider these questions, and make sure students know the ground
rules you decide on.
• Are there times when you really want students to help one another
and times when it’s not appropriate (for example, during informal
assessments)?
• When is it okay for one student to decline helping another student, and
how can he or she do so in a respectful way?

52 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 • Do you prefer that students seek help only from students seated near
them, or is it okay for them to go across the room for help?
• How long can a student continue to sit and work with another student,
and when should a help-seeking or help-giving student return to his or
her initial seat?
• What level of voice is appropriate when asking for help or working
together? Note that these rules may change depending on the activity
or context.
• When should students decide on their own whom to ask for help,
and when should they only go to certain individuals like the Expert
of the Day?

What are the rules for using materials?

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• Are
 there materials, supplies, or areas of the room that students are free
to access at any time?
• Are
 there resources students should not use unless instructed to do so
by you?
• How
 should students care for materials, supplies, and the room itself?

What do you expect of students in terms of

movement around the classroom?

• When are students free to get out of their seats to get materials, turn in
work, or to consult with a peer or with you? When should they remain
in their seats?
• When students are up and moving around the room, do you expect them
to go directly to their destination, or is it acceptable to stop along the
way to chat with others or look at things?
• If a group of students need materials or have a question, can multiple
group members get up to handle the need, or would you prefer to that
one student from the group obtain what’s needed?

For collaborative tasks, how will students know

where to sit or whom to work with?

Assignment charts, pocket charts, and classroom maps are all useful tools.
Other options are color coded-lists of student names posted on chart paper
or projected on the wall via projector, or colored slips of paper that are given
to students with the direction that they find teammates with the same color.
Consider these questions as well:
• How often will groups change?
• When should students check the charts?
• Will you signal when it’s time to move to the designated areas
and tasks?
• What should students carry to their new location and what should
they leave at their initial seats?

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 53

 Addressing all of these categories at once, of course, would
be overwhelming you and your students alike. Students would
be confused, and the class would seem like a rule factory. Rather
the goal is for you to deal with the details the way an effective coach,
conductor, or director would—thinking about the desired outcome
(from your perspective, what a smoothly functioning, student-
focused classroom should look like), and introducing and attending
to the details as necessary to achieve that outcome.

Using Small Groups

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Using small instructional groups is not an imperative for

differentiation per se, but it probably is for effective instruction in
general. Most students are motivated by working with peers. They
need the sounding boards their peers can offer. Some students really
only learn well when they can talk out their ideas with a classmate.
Working with peers helps student take stock of their work
and work habits relative to that of others. Certainly, in today’s
increasingly diverse society, it’s important for students to be aware of
the perspectives of others and to learn to work with and appreciate
the contributions of all kinds of people. Further, the capacity to work
and solve problems collaboratively is a skill most young people will
need in the world that will belong to them. In addition, it’s much
easier to think about planning tasks for a few groups than to plan for
30 or so individuals.
Despite the potential power of small-group instruction in the
classroom, effective group functioning is clearly not automatic.
Students generally don’t come to school knowing how to be an
effective group member or how to deal with issues that can arise
when students work together. The same might be said of teachers,
of course.
Groups are most likely to work effectively when the teacher
develops tasks and gives directions for those tasks with group needs
in mind, and when the teacher actively teaches students the skills of
collaboration as those skills are called for in student work.

54 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Considerations for Group Success
• Task goals, expectations, and working • All students in a group should have a
parameters are clear to students. worthwhile academic contribution to
make to a quality outcome.
• Students understand the teacher’s
expectations in terms of quality work. • The task requires genuine collaboration
for successful completion.
• Students understand fundamental
practices of group behavior, such as • Timelines for the task are brisk, but
listening, taking turns, explaining one’s not rigid.
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

perspective, setting goals, making plans,

• Individuals are accountable for their own
summarizing, monitoring progress,
work, but also for explaining all facets
blending several ideas into a solution,
of the task and the work of others in
and encouraging one another.
completing the task.
• Students know how to get help if they
• There is an escape hatch or a way out
need it along the way—both individually
of a group for a student who cannot
and as a group, and both in terms of
succeed with the group. This may be
group process and the task at hand.
pre-arranged with the teacher and
• When there are group roles (for students who have difficulty with peer
example: time keeper, materials monitor, interactions or it may be presented
note taker, etc.) students understand by the teacher as needed. (Often, the
their role and how it relates to other solution is simply having the student
roles as well as to accomplishing the work on the task independently in a
group’s task. spot in the room that allows the student
mental and physical space to regroup.)
• The task is interesting to the students
The alternative should always preserve
who are asked to complete it.
the dignity of the student who is leaving
• The task is designed in such a way that
the group and should be handled with
it calls on the strengths of each member
the expectation that it is a temporary
of the group in order to complete the
solution. It should not be punitive.
task well. Tasks should not be crafted
in such a way that some students can • Students know what to do when the
complete them with little effort and group’s work is finished, including next
others have little hope of completing steps (perhaps an anchor activity to be
them or contributing to them. completed individually), and where/how
to turn in their work.

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 55

 Often as teachers we err in expecting that we will need to
teach students content, but not processes. That rarely turns out to
be a helpful assumption. In designing and using group work in a
differentiated classroom, plan to teach both. Be as clear in coaching
students in group membership as you are in science, math, art, or
other content areas students will use in the group. Observe students
as they work in groups. Take notes on what you see. Point out to
students what you see them doing effectively in groups and help
them understand why their behaviors were beneficial to the group’s
success. When their group work is less effective than it needs to
be, be clear about that as well. Ask students to help you analyze the
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

problems and pose solutions. Always take time to have students

reflect on both their work and their process when they work in
groups. Like most other aspects of classroom success, there is a
direct connection between a thoughtful and thorough teacher and
positive outcomes.

Staying Organized
A significant part of organization stems from the kind of pre-
planning suggested in this book. When teaching is grounded in a
carefully considered philosophy and model, when a teacher has well-
defined learning goals in mind and has clear mental images of how
the classroom should be working to enable each student to succeed,
organization is far more likely than when teaching is a fly-by-the-
seat-of-the-pants proposition. In the former instance, teaching is
largely proactively planned. In the latter, teaching is a largely reacting
to the moment. There are, however, additional steps you may want to
take in a differentiated classroom to support organization.

Consider Home Base Seats

In many elementary classrooms, students have assigned or home
base seats. They begin and end the day in these seats, but move to
other seats during the day as necessary for particular assignments.
In middle school, it is probably less often the case that students have
assigned or home base seats. Middle school teachers sometimes
feel that allowing students to choose where to sit is respectful of
or helpful in supporting students’ increasing independence. In a
differentiated classroom at any grade level, home base seats can

56 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 be a great organizational tool. When students begin and end class in
assigned seats, you see the following benefits:

• It’s easier to learn student names early in the year and to

systematically study their students as the year begins.

• You can develop seating arrangements that are conducive

to focus, concentration and support for each student.

• You can take attendance while students work rather than taking
time each day to “call the roll.”

• It’s easier for you or designated students to distribute materials

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

or supplies as class is beginning.

• It’s easier to monitor clean-up at the end of a class segment.

• There is a structure and predictability about how class will

work that benefits many students.
Explain to students that they will not spend a great deal of time in
their home base seats because they will often need to work at other
places in the room. Help them understand why home base seats
should make the class work better. Encourage them to talk with you
if they feel their home base seat is not working well for them.

Assign Roles for Classroom Responsibilities

There are many roles students can play in effective classroom
functioning. For example, they can

• check in student work;

• move furniture to allow flexible use of classroom space;

• distribute and collect student work folders, materials, and

supplies;

• straighten areas of the room at the end of a class segment or at

the end of the day;

• assist with classroom displays or setting up for labs or other

student tasks; and

• make sure equipment is working effectively.

Role charts that specify tasks and match students to them are an
efficient way to assign roles. It generally makes sense for a student
to keep the same role for at least a week or longer.

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 57

 Consider Using Pre-assigned Groups
Some instructional groups will need to change almost daily in an
effectively differentiated classroom. However, there may be some
student groupings that should remain constant for a month or even
a marking period. In those instances, it’s a time-saver to assign the
groups at the outset of the time span and let students know who
the group members will be. (Always note that you may make a few
adjustments in the groups as student needs evolve.) Here are three
examples of groups that may be effectively pre-assigned.

1 Synthesis or Summary Groups These are groups of three

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or four students who meet together briefly at key points in

a learning sequence to review key ideas or check comfort
with important skills. In many instances, it’s helpful to use
heterogeneous readiness groups for this purpose.

2 Brainstorming Groups These groups of three or four might

meet periodically as students work on complex products or
writing assignments. They serve the purpose of generating initial
ideas for student work, helping peers troubleshoot when they
get bogged down with carrying out their ideas, and helping one
another look at ways to enhance the quality of their work. It’s
important that each group includes at least one student who
is effective in generating original ideas and at least one who
understands how to work for quality. It might be useful at some
points to use groups that are homogeneous by student interest.
3 Literature Circles These groups, which often have five or
more members, stay together through the reading of a shared
novel. Roles of group members may revolve or remain constant
as the group discusses what they are reading. Membership in
these groups is typically based on reading level and/or shared
interest in a novel. Such groups can easily be adapted for use in
discussing readings from any subject.
The point of organizational structures in a classroom is not to create
rigidity; rather, organization should lead to flexibility. When both
teacher and students understand with precision how things work in
the classroom, routines become automatic and working with content
moves to the foreground where it should be.

58 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Guidelines for Establishing Routines
in a Differentiated Classroom
• Focus on the vision and rationale for • Teach students the skills they
differentiation. Most of us as humans, need to succeed with routines and
students included, are willing to follow procedures. It would be stellar if
procedures and engage in routines students all came to school knowing
that make sense to us—that serve a how to listen, plan, ask helpful
common good. We are less inclined to questions, keep track of their work,
follow a set of rules because “somebody move furniture, be respectful, and so
in charge said so.” Present procedures on. Young people have to learn those
and routines as a method of supporting things as they go. Any time a teacher
student success. Procedures and notes that some students lack those
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

routines that don’t serve that purpose critical competencies, the only sensible
should likely be jettisoned. response is to teach them.

• Give students a big voice in making • Hold high standards of quality

the classroom work. The classroom for execution of routines and
needs to be a place that belongs to procedures. If the classroom culture is
everyone in it. For that reason, everyone to be one of excellence (and that should
in it should have a consistent voice in always be the case for all students),
making it work as well as it possibly can. teachers need to persist in helping
students achieve quality performance in
• Don’t overload students with classroom routines and procedures—as
procedures and rules. Do begin the well as in math, music, history, reading,
process of establishing routines on the and so on.
first day of school, but teach them at a
pace that enables students to master a • Be specific and reflective. Make sure
few of them before moving on to others. students know exactly what is expected,
Your goal should be able to honestly why you’re asking it of them, and how
say to students at the end of a day or a all of you will know whether something
week, “You did this really well. I’m proud is working well. Review expectations
of you.” Asking too much too fast makes and standards of quality periodically
that goal difficult to achieve. (more often early in the year, less often
later). Take time to discuss with students
• Practice routines. Most of us learn their perceptions about how particular
better what we do than what we hear. processes are working and to get their
Have students walk through—or at the ideas for improvement. Be specific in
very least explain to one another—how both praise and correction regarding
a particular routine should work. routines and procedures.

A teacher who takes the time to understand the nature and intent of differentiation
and to invite students to contribute to a classroom that works for everyone,
establishes a physical environment that supports attention to individuals as well
as increasing student ownership of learning. In addition, a teacher who develops
thoughtful routines to ensure smooth classroom functioning, generally feels
comfortable and confident with beginning to manage a responsive classroom.
However, there are still some questions commonly asked by teachers new
to differentiation. Chapter 4 will provide some of the answers.

Establishing the Routines of Differentiation 59

 Chapter 4
Frequently Asked Questions

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“If it weren’t for differentiation, we would have no challenge
at all. Lots of people have lots of different learning abilities.
Without differentiation, we would be frustrated...”
Shaun, age 9, a student in a
differentiated elementary classroom

A
teacher who learns to manage a flexible or differentiated classroom is, in many
ways, an educator who learns to balance. For example, such classrooms reflect  
 a balance between: structure and freedom, teacher voice and student voice,
requirements and student needs, whole class and small group instruction, the needs of
the group and the needs of the individual, planning and flexibility, common goals and
individual goals, and so on.

60 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Because of a fundamental fear of “losing control” in the classroom, it’s
easy to favor structure, teacher voice, requirements, whole-class instruction,
the needs of the group, planning, and common goals. In shifting toward a
classroom that is geared to success for a full range of learners rather than
success for “generic” learners—in other words, in learning to strike a balance—
it’s necessary to relinquish more familiar classroom processes characterized
by teacher frontal control and student absorption in favor of greater student
participation and meaning-making. It is not, however, necessary to give up a
classroom that functions in a smooth, purposeful, and productive manner.
This chapter will focus on questions teachers often ask as they seek to
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

move their management style to one that is more responsive to the needs of
a full range of learners. As teachers develop clarity around these issues, they
are increasingly able to collaborate with students to develop a classroom that
makes room for all kinds of learners. The questions that follow are common
among teachers new to the concept of differentiation. The answers provided
to those questions are ones that would likely be given by teachers for whom
differentiation has become a comfortable and productive way to teach.

Won’t There Be More Discipline Problems in a

Differentiated Classroom?
A common fear among teachers who are new to the idea of differentiation is
that discipline problems will increase in a differentiated classroom because
students have more freedom. There is no guarantee that differentiation (or
any other factor) will eliminate all student misbehavior or convert all young
people into consistently judicious decision-makers. Nonetheless, effective
differentiation virtually always reduces discipline problems rather than
increasing them for at least three reasons.
First, many students misbehave out of frustration arising from instruction
that is a poor fit for their learning needs. Work may be regularly too easy or
too hard for a student. The pace of instruction may be too fast or too slow.
Content and tasks may seem detached from their experiences. The teacher’s
mode of instruction may be a mismatch for their preferred ways of learning.
When a teacher works to address students’ varied readiness levels, interests,
and learning preferences, the likelihood of such mismatches decreases, student
success increases, and the need to act out declines accordingly.

Frequently Asked Questions 61

 Second, effectively differentiated classrooms regularly
communicate to students that they have the capacity to impact their
own success. Teachers emphasize effort as the pathway to success
rather than ability. Clarity about learning goals and criteria for
success make it more likely that students know what it will take to do
quality work. Students, like teachers, examine formative assessment
information to help them chart a path to success. Further, students
help one another achieve quality outcomes. And, again, instruction
is designed to address students’ varied learning needs. All of these
factors give students increased efficacy as learners. When people have
an internal locus of control, or a sense that they are in charge of their
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

own destiny, the need for misbehavior again declines.

“ When the
Third, in effectively differentiated classrooms, students learn
system works how to use classroom routines in ways that support their own
for a student, learning and that of their peers. More to the point, they have a
the student no
voice in establishing and refining the routines and understand
longer feels a
“
need to work how they support student success. Those elements support
the system. positive behavior as well.
One teacher explained concisely why differentiation generally
alleviates rather than contributes to student misbehavior. He said,
“When the system works for a student, the student no longer feels
a need to work the system.”
Certainly there will still be occasional instances of misbehavior
in almost any classroom. An effectively differentiated classroom
makes it easier for you to handle those instances for the
following reasons:

1 Most students are focused on and challenged by their work.

2 The classroom has a positive tone of high expectations and

high support that enlists positive attitudes in most students.

3 When the majority of students work effectively in small

groups or independently, you have time to work with
behavior issues.

In instances of misbehavior, it’s important for you to understand what

causes a student to misbehave. That understanding leads to solutions
that are effective for the student, the class as a whole, and the teacher.
Even in acute situations when it is necessary to remove a student

62 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 from the classroom, it’s valuable for you to act in a way that preserves
the student’s dignity and to follow up by seeking to understand the
problem in order to work with the student in addressing its
underlying causes.
In some settings, a large number of students come to school from
stressful homes, having felt alienated by school for an extended time,
lacking fundamental skills for school success, and/or lacking basic
skills of group membership. While teaching classes that are largely
or exclusively composed of such students can be extraordinarily
challenging, these students, like all others, need a classroom where
they are greeted with high regard and positive expectations, that
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

is responsive to their learning needs, and that teaches them both

the academic and personal skills needed for success in and beyond
the classroom.
Helping these students move toward greater autonomy as learners
requires a teacher who is simultaneously accepting and demanding,
sometimes called “warm demanders.” These teachers establish
very clear expectations for student respect and behavior, and insist
on student compliance with those expectations. The compliance,
however, is not for purposes of teacher control, but rather to ensure
an environment in which students can thrive both academically and
personally. Students, therefore, interpret the teacher’s insistence as
a sign that the teacher both cares for and believes in them. “Warm
demanders” do not inhibit, but rather build toward, a setting in
which students not only learn but also learn how to learn with
increasing autonomy.

How Will I Know My Students Are Learning

If I’m Not Watching Them All the Time?
Young people (and people in general) learn because the tasks in which
they engage are meaningful to them, the work they do is interesting,
and/or what they do gives them a sense of power and possibility.
Watch them tackle a new athletic skill, a new piece of technology, or
a new game.
It’s not necessary for an adult to “supervise” their every move
for them to learn. In fact sometimes they learn more readily when
adults step back and let them “own” the situation.

Frequently Asked Questions 63

 Likewise, in a differentiated classroom, students will learn
because the work they do is a good match for their learning needs,
tasks are interesting and relevant to their experiences, they are
clear about expectations and indicators of quality, and/or they are
encouraged as learners by the sense of trust and autonomy shown
them by the teachers.
Teachers certainly should move around the classroom as students
work as often as feasible, talking with students about what they are
doing and “spot-checking” their work, but is not necessary to stand
over students or to observe them from the front of the room as a
condition for learning.
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How Will I Know Who Has Mastered

a Skill If Students Do Different Tasks?
When a teacher is clear about the essential knowledge,
understanding, and skills required for success in a given lesson,
it’s simple to create a matrix of those requirements and use it to
monitor student mastery. (Chapter 5, page 91, provides an example).
Move among students as they work, examining what they are
doing to determine who is and is not working comfortably with a
particular skill. For example, a second-grade teacher may look at
student work (even if the work is not the same for everyone in the
class) to see who is and is not writing in complete sentences.
A middle-school science teacher may, for example, need to know
whether a student can demonstrate cause-and-effect relationships.
The student might demonstrate mastery of that skill in a lab report,
a project, an oral report, a class discussion, or a formative assessment,
to name a few possibilities. The teacher simply records the date(s)
on which she observed the student using the skill appropriately, and
perhaps the context in which she made the observation.
In a differentiated classroom, four students demonstrate mastery
on a pre-assessment, six others on an early formative assessment,
ten in a lab report, and some others not until a final product or test.
The issue is not when a student shows mastery or in what format, but
rather that each student ultimately masters essential content and that
you are aware of each student’s status relative to essential goals.

64 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 How Do I Give Directions When Student
Tasks Vary?
If students have differentiated assignments for which the directions are the
same, it’s simple to give instructions for the assignments to the group as a
whole. However, when tasks vary enough so that directions are different
for various groups or individuals, it’s generally wiser not to go over
multiple sets of directions in front of the whole class. Doing so is time
consuming, confusing to students, and calls too much attention to task
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

variety. Below are some approaches that can be used instead.

1 Use Task Cards. A task card is a sheet of paper or large index card
that gives directions to a group or individual for their assigned work.
Task cards can include general directions, criteria for success, time
parameters, student roles—anything you’d normally tell students to
support their success.

Map Task Card 2

Map Task Card 1 Use your map to answer the
following
. There
five questions about U.S. rivers
Use your map to answer the r table
ut are books and articles on you
following five questions abo ma rke d
ks on with important passages
U.S. rivers. There are boo wers
e to help you. Be sure your ans
your table that can help. Be sur abu lar y about
key include the key unit voc
your answers include the are
and maps and geography so you
unit vocabulary about maps uld about
itin g like writing like an expert wo
geography so you are wr anizer
ic. the topic. Use the graphic org
an expert would about the top be sur e you
on your table to help you
th the
1. Which river runs north to sou have good information on all
and divides the countr y in hal f?
parts of the questions.
t
How did you determine the bes and
answer to this question?  hich river runs north to south
1. W
Ho w did
s? divides the country in half?
2. What rivers form state border you determine the best answe
r to this
Which states do they border? question?
What determines which states
have particular rights to the  hat rivers form state borders?
2. W
lain
shared rivers? Which states do they border? Exp
ys
and give examples of several wa
the y
the rivers help all of the states
border.

Frequently Asked Questions 65

 2 Use Recorders. Sometimes it’s easier to record directions for
students rather than write them out. Recorded directions also
allow students who don’t read comfortably to access directions,
and they have the added benefit of allowing students to re-play
the directions as an assignment progresses to be sure they’re on
track if a task is complex or multifaceted.
3 Give Directions in Advance to One Student in Each Group.
There are always students who listen well, remember what they
hear, understand directions, and enjoy helping peers. You can
go over directions for a specific task with this kind of student
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the day prior to or a short while before students are assigned

the task, making sure the student can repeat or paraphrase the
directions accurately. The student then relays the directions to
his/her group when students assemble in designated spots in the
room to complete assigned work.
4 Use a Mixture of Strategies for Giving Directions. Some
groups might work well with task cards while others might
benefit from recorded directions. Most groups might effectively
use student directions-givers while there may be a group where
students struggle or where a task is quite novel or complex that
would work more effectively if you gave directions to the group
in person.

How Do I Manage Time in a

Differentiated Classroom?
In a class that is not responsive to student variance, teachers ask
everyone to hand in an assignment at the same time and expect them
to move readily from one unit of study to the next at the designated
time. It is not accurate to assume, however, that in those settings
students are all in the same place at the same time in terms of their
knowledge, understanding, and skill. It’s simply that we’ve grown
accustomed to moving ahead “by the clock” without a great deal of
regard to that reality. It’s time to collect the papers, so we do that. It’s
time to move to the next unit, so we do. In a differentiated classroom,
the difference is that the teacher tries to honor two realities: the need

66 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 for maintaining a reasonable pace and the needs of students that may
not be well served by a rigid pace.
There are two aspects of time management in a differentiated
classroom that raise questions for teachers new to differentiation.
First, what if some students finish their work early during a class
segment or period? Second, what if some students still need more
time on a particular topic and the teacher feels he or she must move
on to the next topic? There is a third question that should arise, but
does so less often than the first two. What if a few students learn
something much faster than I thought they would?
The two principles that best address these questions are keys
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to success in a differentiated classroom in general: balance and

flexibility. It’s important to balance the needs of individuals and the
group, and doing so requires flexibility.

“
In terms of individual assignments, it will always be the case
It’s important to
that some students complete work before others do. It is therefore balance the needs of
important to help students in a differentiated classroom understand individuals and the
at least two things about time and learning. First, make sure group, and doing so
“
requires flexibility.
they understand that you expect them to do their best work on
assignments, and that speed is not a goal. Be clear with students on
what high-quality work looks like. When they submit assignments
that are below that standard, give them back for revision and engage
the student in a conversation about what else might be done to
represent his or her best work.
Second, be sure students understand your belief that there are so
many interesting and important things to learn that it’s never correct
to say they’ve finished learning. The first of the two principles can
help students who hurry through tasks become more thoughtful
about their work. The second helps develop a culture of curiosity and
deep learning in the classroom rather than a sense that learning is
about checking off assignments.
You should also be aware that if particular students consistently
complete work earlier than everyone else, it’s likely an indicator of
one of two issues. First, the students may be doing their work too
hastily rather than aiming for their best work. Second, tasks may
be under-challenging for the student. A key goal of differentiation
is to regularly provide each student with work that is a bit too
hard for that student and with a support system to help them

Frequently Asked Questions 67

 “ Good
differentiation
helps advanced
over the difficulty. It can be a challenge to address this goal with
advanced learners, and as a result, those students can often complete
work at a high level of quality with minimal effort. This pattern leads
learners encounter,
succeed with, and many very able students to fear and resist challenge because they’ve
ultimately embrace
“ never learned to strive, struggle, and tolerate the kind of ambiguity
genuine challenge. that is inherent in challenge. Good differentiation helps advanced
learners encounter, succeed with, and ultimately embrace
genuine challenge.
Nonetheless, in a differentiated classroom, it is inevitable that
students will complete assignments at varied times. An excellent response
to this reality is to have anchor activities in place. An anchor activity, you
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will recall, is a learning option to which students automatically move

when they complete an assigned task. See Chapter 3, pages 49–51, and
Chapter 5, pages 86–89, for a detailed description and some examples of
these activities.
To address the fact that some students may need additional time
on a topic or skill when you feels it’s necessary to move to the next
component or unit, it’s also important for you to become comfortable
with teaching “backwards and forwards” simultaneously. Some
strategies for helping some students fill learning gaps while continuing
to challenge others are

• Small-Group Instruction. Students who need extra help

work individually or in small groups with you to master essentials
from the past, while other students work on new concepts or
anchor activities.

• Learning Contracts. Instructional strategies such as learning

contracts allow you to assign both common elements and
individual-specific elements to students within the context
of a shared format. For students with learning gaps, you can
include on the contract some items that require practice with
past essentials as well as some that require work with newly
introduced content.

• Centers. Learning centers and interest centers can provide

opportunities for students to work with both past and current
content. Included in this category can be computers and
other technologies that make available an increasing array of
high-quality programs tailored to individual learning needs,
particularly in the areas of literacy and numeracy. Students

68 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 are typically assigned to various areas of the room in which
particular tasks are located and asked to move among the areas
and tasks over the course of one or more class periods.

• Differentiated Homework. When students struggle with

work in school, those students’ homework struggles are often
amplified when the assignment is the same for everyone in a
class. It can be far more useful to a student to do homework
tailored for his or her particular learning needs at least some
of the time. Providing time at home for students to practice
with critical skills not mastered in the past is one way to tailor
homework assignments.
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• Double Dipping. Particularly in the elementary grades,

teachers sometimes have multiple groups meeting around
the same topic—for example, several reading groups or one
group that meets with the teacher about math in the morning
and another subject in the afternoon. It can be helpful to have
students who need additional, well-focused work in a given area
participate in two reading groups.

Managing the time of advanced learners can also be a significant

issue in a differentiated classroom. You must be ready to help these
students move ahead when they have mastered content, and also to
focus on a particular area of interest when that seems appropriate.
Here are a few points to consider in planning or managing time for
advanced learners.
• Once a student demonstrates mastery of a topic, you no
longer need to feel responsible for teaching that content to the
student. As teachers, we sometimes feel like we’re not doing our
job unless we directly teach specified content to every learner.
Let common sense prevail. We only need to teach what students
don’t know!

• Giving advanced learners more work than other students is

not productive. It is burdensome rather than challenging.
Instead, look for ways to challenge these students. Provide
work that is more complex, open-ended, multi-faceted, or
abstract. Such work may call on students to transfer ideas
and skills to unfamiliar contexts, to use advanced resources to
address real-world issues, or to use multiple skills to address
a single problem. For example, if students are learning about
simple machines, advanced students might be asked to look for
applications of those machines in everyday tools and equipment.

Frequently Asked Questions 69

 I f students are doing book reports, advanced students could be
asked to show their understanding of the book by rewriting a
scene in the book from the point of view of another character.
• Work that is appropriately challenging for advanced learners
often stems from essential understandings (big ideas) or essential
questions that are core to a topic or unit. Because big ideas or
principles or essential understandings of a discipline are core
to the meaning of that subject, there is always a more advanced
version of them. Helping advanced students explore big ideas
at a more sophisticated level enables you to keep the student
connected to essential ideas shared by everyone in the class, but
at an appropriate level of challenge.
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• As a general rule, when a student demonstrates mastery in one

content area, it’s not imperative to extend the student’s work in
that content area. For example, if a student shows early mastery
of content in a science unit but really wants to learn more about
a topic in history, it’s fine to develop work for the student in
history (or invite the student to propose a topic or investigation).
Many of the skills advanced learners use in substantial
investigations—for example: research, writing, logical and/or
creative thinking, reading, creating graphics to convey ideas—
are useful across subjects. This is a chance to show students the
connectedness of knowledge.

• It can be helpful to teachers and advanced learners to plan

longer-term tasks or investigations rather than many shorter-
term assignments. More complex assignments require more
thought from advanced learners than is likely to be the case from
a series of short tasks. Longer and more complex assignments
also keep the teacher from having to find or create a new task
each day for students who learn rapidly and/or in depth.

How Do I Control Noise and Movement?

Once again, balance and flexibility are important. A classroom full

of young learners will never be (and should never be) sound-proof
and wiggle-resistant. The goal in a differentiated classroom is not to
prevent conversation and student movement in the classroom, but
rather to shape it for the task at hand.
There are times when students should work silently. At other
times, it’s important for students to use very quiet voices to

70 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 communicate with peers. At still other times, normal conversational
voices are appropriate. At no time is shouting acceptable. Certainly
you need to work with students to help them understand both when
and why particular levels are effective. For example, you may explain
that when you are working with a group of students, it’s important
for you to be able to hear them easily and for them to be able to hear
you. Therefore, at those times, students doing other work will need
to use “tiny voices.” (Teachers of older students might call them
“movie voices”—the volume you’d use in the movie theater to say
something to a friend without bothering people around you.)
When students are told to work silently, you need to give
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reminders that silent doesn’t mean whispering. It means no sound at

all. It may also be necessary from time to time for you to give a quick
reminder to reduce voice levels. The signal may be verbal, a quick
flick of the light switch, a sound (such as two quick claps followed by
three quick student claps), or any other agreed upon reminder to turn
down the volume just a bit.
Similarly, in terms of student movement, there will be times
when no one should be out of his or her seat. At other times, it will
be appropriate for designated students to get or return materials
or supplies for a group or to go to you to ask a question for the
group. In other contexts, it will be acceptable for students to move
purposefully to secure materials, turn in papers, get help from peers
and so on.
Here are some strategies for helping students manage voice levels
and movement in the classroom.
• Make sure assigned work is appropriate for the readiness levels
of the students to whom it’s assigned so that there will be less
need for students to seek help.
• Make sure assigned work is interesting to and engaging for the
students who are asked to do it.
• Be sure students understand expectations for movement and
conversation in the particular context in which they are working
and why the expected behaviors are important in supporting the
success of each learner in the class.
• Practice routines that may be new or difficult for students to
recall so they understand what to do in terms of movement and
conversation in each routine.

Frequently Asked Questions 71

 • When students get it right, be sure to compliment them.
When they don’t, take time to talk with them about why it
was difficult to meet the expectations and what both you and
students can do to ensure success the next time.
• Make sure guidelines, rules, and routines are as simple and
straightforward as possible, and that they exist to support
student success.

Remember that there are some students who simply cannot sit for
extended periods. In some cases, these students may have a diagnosis

“ Make sure
guidelines, rules
of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Other students with a
similar need for movement may not have a diagnosis. Find ways to
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and routines are support these students. You may send them on errands, ask them
as simple and
straightforward
to assist in the classroom, give students permission to stand as they
as possible, and work, or even have two seats assigned to the student so that he or
that they exist “ she can move from one to the other. It’s nearly always the case that
to support
other students understand the need for a given classmate to be up
student success.
and about. Just be sure the student understands the responsibility to
respect the needs of the teacher and peers as they are respectful of
his/her needs.

How Do I Get Started?

In some ways, of course, this book has already provided many

of the answers to that question. To summarize, it’s important to
understand what differentiation is and why it can be helpful students.
Its key principles should guide your decision-making and actions.
It’s important to prepare yourself to be a leader in a student-
focused classroom. It’s also important to prepare the students to
be participants in making the classroom work, and to prepare the
classroom environment to support increasing student independence
and success. It’s important to study students consistently to
understand them as individuals in order to teach them more
effectively. And finally, it’s clearly critical to think through classroom
routines and to prepare to teach students to use them efficiently
and effectively.

72 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Beyond those foundational areas of preparation, however, there
are a few other pointers that can be helpful in beginning to guide and
manage a differentiated classroom.
1 Find your own pace for implementing differentiation. Some
teachers are quite successful establishing a broadly differentiated
classroom in a very short period of time. Others feel the need to
progress in a more stepwise fashion. If you are in the latter group,
consider starting in just one class or subject area. You might
select the subject or class in which you sense the greatest need for
differentiation, or you might prefer to start with the subject in
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

which you’re most comfortable.

You might want to begin differentiating and managing
differentiation with tasks that don’t require group work or
conversation. You might find it easier to differentiate for just a
brief time span and to do so in the last portion of a class or time
block. This way, if things are going as you’d hoped you have a
built-in transition. What matters most is that you progress in
developing your skills in a manner that is comfortable for you.

2 Plan for success. Take time to envision how you’d like a class to
proceed so that you have a mental image of what you and your
students are aiming for. As you plan, ask yourself, “What could
go wrong here?” Then proactively plan to avoid those potential
pitfalls with clear directions, modeling, practice, and so on. Be
sure students know and understand what they need to do in order
to be successful with both the work you ask them to do and the
routines that support it. Have an “escape hatch” ready so that
if there’s a significant problem, you are ready to make a quick
and smooth transition to another task. (The need to use the
escape hatch rarely arises when teachers plan thoroughly, but it’s
comforting to have one in place.)

3 Be reflective. Watch the students while they work so that you
have a clear sense of what’s going well and where work is still
needed to smooth out potential rough spots in working processes.
End each class with a few minutes of de-briefing with students,
both about what they are learning and how they are working.
Share your pride in their success in handling routines when that’s

Frequently Asked Questions 73

 warranted. Let them know when they are not doing their best
with routines. Continue to teach and polish routines just as you
do with students’ content skills. Throughout the year, re-visit
with the students the goal of creating a classroom that supports
each person’s maximum growth. Provide ongoing opportunities
for students to provide input into how the classroom can work
better to help them succeed. Take time to reflect on your own
growth as a teacher. The best teachers learn from both successes
and glitches. The goal is growth, not perfection.

4 Establish partnerships with colleagues. Talk with teachers

Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

who teach in a flexible, responsive, student-centered, or

differentiated way in their classrooms. Observe them when
you can. Ask them to plan with you, observe in your classroom,
or co-teach. Being an active learner on behalf of your students
yields great benefits for you as it does for the young people
you teach.
5 Establish partnerships with parents. When parents know we
are deeply invested in the success of their children, they are our
best allies. Over time, teachers develop a breadth of knowledge
about the age group that parents don’t have. Parents, on the
other hand, have a depth of knowledge about their own children
that teachers don’t have. The combination of a parent’s deep
knowledge about an individual child combined with a teacher’s
broad knowledge of an age group is a powerful force in
supporting learning. Let parents know that your goal is to help
their child have the very best school year possible, that you are
continually checking to see how their child is faring with critical
learning goals, and that when you see a need to adjust teaching
and learning options to ensure their child’s vigorous growth,
you will do that. Let the parents know you want to tap into their
child’s interests to make learning more dynamic, and that you
want to help their student become more and more aware of ways
to learn that are personally effective. Invite their input. Then be
sure to listen. Share your observations about their child. From
time to time, you should be able to help parents understand

74 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 how to be more effective in their role. From time to time, they
should be able to help you see how you can fulfill your role more
effectively as well.

Knowing What Matters

The questions and answers in this section are just a small portion of
those you will encounter as you continue to move toward your goal
of differentiating your classroom. Just remember that the variety
of students entering today’s classrooms represent the full spectrum
of needs and possibilities in the world as a whole. There are few
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

challenges more substantial, and few more important, than teaching

in a way that dignifies humanity and elevates the possibilities in every
one of them. It appears increasingly clear that impersonalized, one-
size-fits-all instruction fails too many, if not virtually all, students.
Differentiation is not a recipe—it is an idea, a frame for thinking
about teaching and learning. It suggests that a teacher can actively
and meaningfully address students’ varied learning needs while
maintaining a focus on critical content by developing an environment
that invites and supports learning; establishing and conveying clarity
about critical learning goals; monitoring student status relative to
those goals; and tailoring teaching and learning plans as necessary
to attend to student readiness, interest, and learning profile. Central
to the idea of differentiation is students’ participation in the success
of their own learning and in the smooth functioning of classroom
processes and routines. All of these elements call on a teacher to
become increasingly comfortable and skilled in guiding a classroom
that is both flexible and orderly—one that employs the classroom
elements such as time, materials, space, and grouping for the benefit
of individuals as well as the group.
Chapter 5 provides examples and resources that illustrate many of
the key ideas discussed in the book so far. It is, in effect, a toolkit. We
hope that it will be useful as you translate ideas from the book into
your own classroom practice.

Frequently Asked Questions 75

 Chapter 5
Ideas Into Action

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“To provide choices, we must first acknowledge that what
students do determines what they learn and that they can
find many ways to learn the same things. Variety in ‘doing’
is the only way I know to ensure constancy in learning.”
Phillip Schlechty
Inventing Better Schools

C
hapter 5 contains examples of some of the processes and strategies discussed
in the first four chapters of the book and offers a wealth of additional ideas
as well. To provide a context for what you will find here, we begin with an
example of one teacher moving through pre-assessment and planning activities for
her kindergarten class. The chapter then offers a variety of additional pre-assessment
and anchor activities you can use in your own classroom, as well as other strategies
for monitoring student progress and scaffolding success.

76 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Differentiation in Action: Ms. Sanders’s Classroom
Karen Sanders thought about the upcoming math unit she would be using with her
kindergarten students. She knew from her work in screening all of the kindergarten
students in her school that she could expect students to be at different places with
their understanding, skill and background knowledge. However, she wanted to
pinpoint exactly where her students were in terms of her learning goals. So, where
should she begin?

Establishing Classroom Goals

Karen reflected on a unit she had taught before and one she believed was an
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

appropriate for the beginning of the school year. She organized her planning around
what she wanted her students to Know, Understand and Be Able to Do [KUD].
She developed her KUD by using her state and district standards along with several
math resources she had accumulated over the years. After some thought, she decided
on the following learning goals.

Know:  ey vocabulary: count, sets, many, number, amount,

K
numbers 1-10

Understand: N
 umbers show an amount or quantity of something
and can be represented in different ways.

Do: • Identify and count the number of objects in a set.

• Determine the amount of objects needed to
compose and decompose a set.
• Write numbers 1-10.
• Make sets of objects, given specific criteria.

Karen next had to decide how she would determine students’ prior knowledge
related to her learning goals. She wanted to develop a pre-assessment that was
relatively easy to administer but that would help to identify what students already
knew and did not know with regard to her number sense unit. She also wanted a pre-
assessment that would help her get to know the students themselves—their likes and
dislikes and favorite things. See Figure 5.1 on page 78 for the pre-assessment used.
Karen decided to give the pre-assessment in small groups while students were
completing another task at their learning stations. They were asked to either write

Ideas Into Action 77

 the number of objects that they had on their paper or to draw the
correct number of objects to match the number on their paper.
When they finished their work, Karen asked each student to draw
on the back of their paper something they like that they have more
than one of, and show how many they have (for example: pets, good
friends, tennis shoes).
This last task had a double purpose. First, it would help Karen
learn something about her students’ interests. But it would also
handle the issue of “ragged time,” since it was likely that her students
would finish their work at different times.
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Number Sense
Pre-Assessment for _______________________________

Mastery Level
Numbers Objects (p+, p, or p-)

10

Figure 5.1

78 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Analyzing and Applying Information
After reviewing the pre-assessment, Karen found that she had ten
students who knew their numbers 1-5, five students who knew their
numbers 1-10, and five students who could say their numbers but
could not match objects to a specific number or know how many
objects it would take to make that number. She made the decision
that she would continue to emphasize math ideas during her morning
calendar routine for the entire group by asking questions such as the
following that would cause students to use their number sense skills.
How many boys do we have in class today? How many girls?
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How many days have we been in school this week?

How many students are having a birthday today?
How many lunches are on the back table?
How many classmates chose pizza today as their lunch choice?

Karen also decided that in addition to her calendar time each day, she
would hold small group sessions for students to address the readiness
differences she found from the pre-assessment. Her tiered instruction
groups are outlined in Figure 5.2. Note that all tasks cover the same
understandings, are equally respectful and engaging, but reflect the
skill differences identified during pre-assessment.

Orange Group • Built on what they already knew to identify

the numbers 6-10
• Used and drew objects to make sets for
students who knew their numbers 1-5 numbers 1-10

• Composed and decomposed sets of

numbers using a variety of objects
Purple Group
• Used teacher-made flash cards to have
students match up the number word,
students who knew their numbers 1-10 numeral, set of objects to help students
make that connection

• Counted out or drew objects to match a

Green Group specific number
• Used flash cards to match the number to
the correct group of objects
students who could not yet identify
their numbers 1-5
• Practiced writing the numbers 1-5 using
models to guide their work

Figure 5.2

Ideas Into Action 79

 Other Pre-Assessment Ideas
You have just read an example of how Karen Sanders determined her
students’ readiness for a lesson while also learning something about
them as individuals. There are, of course, several other methods
you can use to pre-assess students’ readiness, interests, and learning
profiles. Examples of these follow. You should also feel free to
substitute your own knowledge and interest-based inventories, as
well as any other assessment options you believe will help you know
your students better and monitor learning progress. No matter what
methods are used, students will soon understand that you care to
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

learn about who they are, what they know, what they’re interested in,
and how they prefer to work.

Student Inventory
A getting-to-know-you pre-assessment inventory can reveal helpful
data for you to use in your planning. The number of questions could
be adjusted to fit the reading and writing levels of the class and the
time of year the assessment is given. Examples of questions include

1 My family consists of________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________.
2 M
 y favorite subject in school is___________________________________________________
because________________________________________________________________________________.
3 M
 y least favorite subject in school is____________________________________________
because________________________________________________________________________________.
4 O
 ne rule that I think our class should have is__________________________________
because________________________________________________________________________________.
5 W
 hen we can choose how we show what we have learned, my favorite
way is__________________________________________________________________________________.
6 It is easier for me to do my work when I can___________________________________.
7 One fear I have about school is___________________________________________________.
8 I am most proud of__________________________________________________________________
because________________________________________________________________________________.
9 I think that the best thing that a teacher can do to help me be successful is
__________________________________________________________________________________________.

80 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Line ’Em Up!
An enjoyable activity that works well at the middle school level is
Line ’Em Up! This activity involves all students standing somewhere
on a line that you have made using masking tape that matches their
agreement or disagreement with various statements that you read aloud.
Here is an explanation of the activity including sample statements you
might adopt or adapt for use with students in a math class.
1 Draw a line on the floor using masking tape.

2 Tell students that as you read each statement, they should stand
on the left side of the line if they strongly agree with
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the statement or on the right side if they strongly disagree with

the statement. If students do not feel strongly one way
or another they can stand near the middle of the line.
• I am really quick at solving word problems.
• I learn best when I work in a small group with
other classmates.
• I am good at explaining how I got my answer to
a problem.
• I find it easy to remember vocabulary words.
• I like using manipulatives to see how math ideas work.
• I think that math homework is easy to do.
• I like hands-on projects that let us do math and apply what we
have learned.
• I am very confident in converting decimals to fractions.
• I am good at estimating answers to math questions in my
head.

3 Take a digital photo of each grouping so that you can later show
the class how they looked as a group for each statement. Place
the photos on a poster highlighting the statements that the
grouping represents.

4 On a rotating basis have students study the posters and ask them
to draw conclusions about the results they believe are important
for the classroom. You might have them complete
a sentence starter such as the one that follows.

Ideas Into Action 81

 Since we are all similar and different
in really important ways, I think it
would be helpful if this year in our
classroom we
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Cube About You

This activity is a small construction project that asks students to form
a cube that reveals information that is unique to them by coloring or
designing six small squares of white paper or cardstock that you later
help them tape or glue together to form a Cube About You. Once
the cubes are complete, ask students to group themselves with others
who have the same designed/colored cubed as they do. They will
quickly find that everyone’s cube is different.
This task can launch a wonderful discussion about why you might
need to assign different tasks to different students at different times.
You can follow such a discussion by asking students to share any
worries or wishes they have about your potential response to their
cubes. Some students may desire feedback from you regarding how
you will use the information they provided on their cubes to help
them experience a great school year. Figure 5.3 provides a template
for the cube as well as sample questions that can be used.

What Do You Already Know?

Students can indicate prior knowledge before beginning a new topic
or unit of study using an activity as simple as the one shown in
Figure 5.4. The form could be shown using an overhead or digital
projector while students record their responses on a sheet or
index card.

82 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 #1 - How Are You at Spelling?
• Color light blue if you are really good at it.
• Color lavender if you are pretty good at it.
#3 - How Are You at Playing a
• Color dark blue if you have a hard time Musical Instrument?
with it.
• Make stripes (any color) if you
are really good compared to
#2 - How Are You at Kickball? others your age.

• Put stars ( ) if you are really good at it. • Make polka dots (any color) if
you are pretty good compared to
• Put checkmarks (p) if you are pretty others your age.
good at kickball.
• Draw a picture of an instrument
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• Put exclamation marks (!!!) if kickball is you would like to learn how to
hard for you. play but don’t play now.

#1

#2 #3

#4 #5
#5 - How Are You With Animals?

#6 • Draw squiggly lines in black

if you really like animals
• Draw straight lines in brown
if you sort of like animals
#4 - How Are You at Reading?
• Draw arrows a in red if
• Color light green if you are you do not like animals
really good at it very much
• Color yellow if you are
pretty good at it
#6 - How Are You With Talking in Front of a Group?
• Color orange if you have
a hard time with it • Color pink if you are really good at it
• Color blue if you are pretty good at it
• Color purple if you are uncomfortable with it

Figure 5.3

Ideas Into Action 83

 Name ________________________________________
Period _______________________________________

THE CIVIL WAR: WHAT DO YOU ALREADY KNOW?

Write what you know about the Civil War using the space
provided and the back of your paper if needed.
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1. The Civil War was caused by ________________________

_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________

2. Write what you know about the following people/events:

braham Lincoln
• A
• Harriet Tubman
• General Robert E. Lee
• General Ulysses S. Grant
• The Emancipation Proclamation
• Gettysburg (or any Civil War battle)

Use the back of the paper to share what you know.

If you don’t yet know about an item, list it and just
write DKY (don’t know yet).

Figure 5.4

The example in Figure 5.5 combines a readiness pre-assessment

with additional questions related to interest and learning profile
data. You may want to routinely include similar questions to aid
in planning relevant learning experiences that are likely to engage
students and promote learning.

84 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Name _______________________________________________________

What do you know about Simple Machines?

For each simple machine, write all that you know in the space provided.
Give an example
Simple Machine What Does It Do? using words
and/or pictures
1. Pulley
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2. Lever

3. Wedge

4. Wheel and Axle

5. Inclined Plane

6. Screw

List 3 topics you would like to learn more about in our Simple Machines unit.
1. ________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________

Think about how you like to learn and place an X next to any
statements that are true for you.

• I like working: __ by myself __ with a partner __ in a small group.

• I like to work: __ sitting at my desk __ at a table __ on the floor.

• __ I like to talk about what I know.

• __ I like to draw or illustrate what I know or ideas that I have.

• __ I can work when there is a little noise.

• __ I work best when it is quiet.

Another favorite way I like to learn is _____________________

___________________________________________________.

Figure 5.5

Ideas Into Action 85

 Frayer Diagram
A Frayer diagram, shown in Figure 5.6, is a graphic organizer
that can reveal what students already know or have learned about
specific vocabulary, events, people, and concepts from any content
area. It also allows students to write or draw what they know using
abbreviated forms of language and/or illustrations, which can be
particularly helpful with students who are learning English, those
who have a preference for artistic expression, or those who have
reading or writing difficulties.
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Definition,
Description, Characteristics
or Picture

Topic

Example Non-example

Figure 5.6

Anchor Activities
Another valuable tool in a differentiated classroom is anchor activities.
An anchor activity is a purposeful learning experience that students
can complete independently. It is instituted as a classroom routine,
and can be used to

• extend or enrich students’ interest in a topic;

• provide an opportunity for students to apply knowledge
and skills;
• begin or end a class period;
• engage students after lunch or another transition; or
• direct students to a task to do when they finish an assignment
and other classmates are still working.
The choices provided as anchor activities should be selected based
on what students are currently able to do, and should be relevant

86 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 to the topics studied in class and mindful of learners’ interests
and preferences. Effective teachers routinely change the options
presented to students in order to keep students engaged and to reflect
new skills and interests. Figure 5.7 provides of several examples of
anchor options.

Anchor Option Variation

Journal Prompts • Young students might reflect

on what they think was the best
• Journal prompts are short part of a story, field trip, or experiment.
writing assignments that cause
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students to reflect on what they • Older students might respond to

have learned, make a connection scenarios or dilemmas that ask them
to their lives, explain what they to apply content knowledge and skill
understand, note what is most in a new context. For example, after
important to know, or respond a unit on the weather, a scenario asks
to a scenario in which they must them to generate a new warning
generate possible solutions. system or evacuation plan.

Independent Reading • Young children might have browsing

boxes that contain books at their current
• Teachers can provide a variety reading level and also have an area of
of reading materials that the room where books on a unit of study
students are allowed to select might be located.
for independent reading.
• Older students may chose to read
• Some teachers might have a a library book, a favorite magazine,
special location in the classroom or a newspaper.
where reading materials are
stored—such as a basket, storage • How-to books might appeal to older
bin, or designated book shelves. students who want to increase their
knowledge and skill on a particular
topic—for example, how to build a
rocket, how to plant a garden, how
to fix a car.

Puzzles • Young students might have a designated

activity table where puzzles are located
• A variety of puzzles is engaging nearby.
for students of all ages. They can
range from very simple, large • Sudoku, crosswords, or other puzzles can
wooden puzzles to complex also be stored in large plastic bags or file
crossword puzzles. folders; students could take puzzles to
their desks to complete.

Figure 5.7

Ideas Into Action 87

 Anchor Option Variation

Games • Young students might use a

number of matching games to
• Board games, card games, practice skills, review vocabulary or
flashcards, chess, concentration, math facts, and solidify what they have
and other games appeal learned about a topic.
to students of all ages. Many
can be appropriate for skills • Older students do enjoy similar
practice and can be completed matching games for review of
individually, in pairs, or important facts, people, events,
small groups. formulas, issues, and ideas.
• Wise teachers will give explicit • You can easily make file-folder
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directions regarding their games for vocabulary or spelling

expectation for noise and review in which a student matches
student conduct while they the word to a definition or its use.
play games. It’s a good idea
to designate which games are
allowed during particular time
periods.

Independent Projects • Younger students might be interested

in researching information about an
• Independent student investigation animal, famous person or place, or how
on a topic of interest involves something works.
students in
• Older students may be interested in
 conducting research investigating a topic related to a unit of
using a variety of sources; study, a question that is related to their
 deciding how they would lives, or a topic they encountered while
show what they have learned watching television, surfing the Internet,
by making some kind of or reading a book or magazine.
display or presentation; and • Simple forms that help students manage
 sharing the information with their projects so that they remain focused
an appropriate audience. and organized can be extremely useful to
you and your students.
• Teachers are advised to establish
timelines and benchmarks as • You may need to help students
indicators of quality work before locate on-level resources that align to
the projects begin. their topics of interest.
• Check-in sessions are useful ways for
students to receive feedback on the
quality and progress of their work, as
well as guidance on next steps.

88 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 Anchor Option Variation

Test Prep Materials • For very young students, the

test preparation materials may be
• Many schools purchase or simple tasks in which students fill in
have developed test preparation a score sheet and become familiar
materials that help students with how questions are asked on a
review specific content and skills standardized test.
they have learned previously.
• Older students may use a packet of
• Students’ preparation and materials that matches the area in
confidence will improve if they which they need more practice; then
can do their review using similar they may check their work against
formats to those they will an answer key, record their progress,
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

encounter on a formal assessment. and note their next steps.

Computer Work • Students of all ages enjoy using the

computer, but computer work can easily
• There are several computer blend into computer play. Teachers are
programs that allow students advised to set specific guidelines for
to practice needed skills, read approved, appropriate computer tasks.
books or other documents, or
learn important information • If there are limited computers available
about a topic by accessing for student use, you may specify how the
sources on the Internet. computers will be shared so that everyone
gets a turn. You can keep a timer to help
• Students might be assigned a control time management.
WebQuest to be completed
over a specific time period that • When students complete a task at a
is connected to a unit of study computer station as part of required class
or to a student’s area of interest. work, an anchor option could be to return
to that task to gain additional practice
• Students who have completed (or just to allow students the opportunity
particular writing pieces and to further enjoy using the technology).
want to publish those could use
computer time for that purpose.

Independent Writing • Young students may need scaffolded

writing prompts or product frames to
• Students may keep a notebook to consult for different writing tasks.
record thoughts, ideas, feelings,
summaries, explanations, or other • Older students may be allowed the anchor
notes they wish to remember. option of choosing their own favorite
topic or genre to write in.
• You may provide students with a
list of writing choices in different • You could require that each student
genres, such as letters, poems, have one published piece of writing each
greeting cards, stories, reports, marking period and students know that
newspaper articles, blogs, scripts, they can return to that writing
graphic fiction, e-mails. any time an anchor option is available.

Ideas Into Action 89

 Anchor Activity Log
In order to keep track of anchor activities that students work on
for a period of time, you might have students record their anchor
activity work on a form or log. Students should also be able to do a
p
self-evaluation regarding the quality of their efforts, using a +, ,
or – to indicate good, acceptable, or weak effort. An example of a log
is shown in Figure 5.8.

Anchor Activity Log

for the Week of____________________
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Name: Jean P. Class Period: 2

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Short story Short story free reading Short story Short story
work work work work

+ + p - +
Teacher Comments:

You chose your anchor options wisely this week and concentrated on them well.
I agree with your self-rating.
Figure 5.8

Scaffolding Student Success

One of the best ways to ensure student success in a differentiated
classroom is to continually monitor progress and provide help where
it is needed. Following are some ways to do both.

Monitoring Student Progress

Keeping track of students’ progress can be accomplished using
numerous tools and strategies.
Tracking Chart. One tool is a teacher-made chart that lists
standards or skills along the top of the page and the names of
students down the left margin, leaving plenty of room in the
spaces for teacher notes. If you are comfortable making tables on
the computer, you can create and update the chart electronically.

90 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 However, the chart will be more easily used in the classroom if you
attach it to a clipboard or staple it inside a file folder so that it can be
easily retrieved when reviewing a student’s coursework, conferencing
with a student, or observing students working. Figure 5.9 provides a
sample of a recording system you might use to track students’ math
skill progress in a middle school classroom.

Ratios and
The Number Expressions and
4th Period Proportional
System Equations
Relationships
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

• Understand ratio • Apply and extend • Reason about and solve

concepts and use previous understandings one-variable equations
ratio reasoning to of multiplication and and inequalities
solve problems division to divide fractions
by fractions

• Multiply and divide • Represent and analyze

multi-digit numbers and quantitative relationships
find common factors between dependent and
and multiples independent variables

9–17 good (1) 11–4 could solve

(1) 10–3 skills
reasoning simple equations;
Latonya B. test scored
evident when ready for increase
94/100
asked orally in challenge

(1) 10–3 skills

test scored
9–20 written 64–100
Matt D. explanation is
solid (2) 10–10 skills
test scored
76/100

9–17 reasoning (1) 10–3 skills

Aaron H. is not yet test scored
evident 74/100

Figure 5.9

Ideas Into Action 91

 RAFT Strips. If you’re not fond of charts, a very different way
to monitor student progress is by using RAFT strips. You may be
familiar with RAFT as a way of structuring writing projects. The
acronym refers to the Role of the writer, the Audience, the Format,
and the Topic. But a coordinated set of RAFT assignments, like
the one shown in Figure 5.10, can be very effectively used as a
pre-assessment, formative assessment, or summative assessment.
The key is to set up the strips so that no matter which one
a student selects, he or she has to include the same knowledge,
understanding, and skills that other students must include in their
strips. This can be handled through directions that say to students
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

that they can select the option that seems most interesting to them,
but that their answers must include specific key vocabulary and big
ideas or principles. If specific skills are a target, those should be
reflected in the way the strips are crafted.
When that stability exists across all options, RAFT strips are a
great way to differentiate assessments in that they allow students
to focus on an interest and/or mode of expression that works for
them while still ensuring that all students demonstrate their level of
competence with the essential knowledge, understanding and skill.

ROLE AUDIENCE FORMAT TOPIC

A painting or drawing You’d all be in trouble

Plankton Big Fish
with an explanation without me!

Things in Do you know how we all

Gardener Conversation
the backyard help each other?

Things in the I was just thinking about how

Lion Thank you note
Jungle important you are to me.

Kid & Adult

Sketches for a It’s amazing how things in
at the grocery Other kids
children’s book here are connected.
store

Directions: Please choose one of the four RAFT strips to show what you know about how a
food chain works. Be sure to use as many of these words as possible in your work: producer,
consumer, decomposer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, predator, prey.

Figure 5.10

92 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 The Mini-Lesson: Responding to Students’ Needs
Effective teachers routinely build into their day or week
opportunities to observe students at work and are prepared to take
note of students who may need additional explanation, practice, or
support. They should be prepared to quickly call a group of students
together for a short time and assist that group with a short segment
of instruction—a mini-lesson.
For example, you might notice while walking around the room
that several students are having difficulty completing a graphic
organizer. Invite those students and any others who are uncertain
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

about the accuracy of their work to meet you at a back table or come
to a carpet area. You can then provide the needed assistance, answer
questions, and assure students that they are on track.
Following is an example of a teacher’s conversation with a small
group of first-grade students who are comparing ants and butterflies
by completing a Venn diagram. The idea is to have students
understand that while all insects have common characteristics,
specific insects can have unique features that distinguish them from
one another.

Teacher: Boys and girls, as I’m watching you work, I see that
some of you are having a bit of trouble with the
Venn diagram because you may not remember some
information you need to complete it. I want to ask
anyone who needs a quick refresher to complete their
work to join me for a minute on the floor at the front
of the room.
Teacher: Who can tell me what you remember about our study
of ants?
Jamie They have 6 legs.
Teacher: You’re correct Jamie! Good job remembering.
Roberto: They have two antennae.
Teacher: Wow, Roberto! You, too. I can see you were
also paying attention.
Ivory: But they don’t have wings.

Ideas Into Action 93

 Phillip: Well, I think maybe some do.
Teacher: Great! I can tell that you’re really trying to think
carefully about what you know and all of you are on
track to complete this assignment. Let me remind you
about what this graphic organizer helps you do. On the
left-hand side you put down all the facts that are true
for ants and on the right-hand side put down all the
How Are You facts that are true for butterflies.
Working? Teacher: Does anyone remember what goes in the middle of our
Please place the correct
organizer? Can anyone think of at least one fact that is
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

circle on your desk that

shows how you are true for both? It is fine for you to look at the pictures I
working. They will help the
teacher help everyone. have here to help you.
Jada: They both have antennae!
green
Teacher: Good work Jada. Give me a thumbs up if you think you
understand how to finish this work!
You are working just
fine. No need for teacher
help right now.
Getting Help
yellow In addition to keeping an eye out for struggling students, you should
provide all students with routines that enable them to seek help or
You are not completely sure find it on their own when they are “stuck.”
if you are on track, but you
are trying to complete the
task. It might be good for Signal Colors. One method that a student can use to alert you when
the teacher to double-check
that you are doing okay. he or she needs help is a system of color-coded disks or cups that you
can use to quickly see how students feel about their current work.
Figure 5.11 shows an example of a poster that a teacher put up to
red
remind students how to use their discs.

You are stuck and need

First-Aid Station. Another way to assist students while they are
help! You will work on
another task or anchor working is to set up a First-Aid Station where students can access
activity until the teacher
gets to you. He’ll come as
tips for completing assignments or find annotated workbook pages
quickly as possible. that provide support. Figure 5.12 provides examples of the kinds
of materials a student might find at a First-Aid Station for upper-
Figure 5.11 elementary students.

94 Managing a Differentiated Classroom

 FIRST AID

Ideas for Writing Steps for Conducting an Experiment

• Tips for creating • Equipment lists
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

characters • Setup procedures

• Ideas for settings • Safety rules
• Plot possibilities • Tips on completing recording sheets
• Dialogue suggestions

Computer Tips
Math Tips • How to make a podcast
• Fact sheets • How to organize a PowerPoint
• Examples, rules, or presentation
algorithms • How to edit video clips
• Worksheets with • How to insert graphics in a Word
reminders inserted document
• How to do simple calculations in Excel

Figure 5.12
A Closing Thought
A colleague recently wrote in an e-mail that he believes meaningful
teaching not only reflects the skills we acquire, but also the person
we seek to be. We hope the book has helped you extend your
thinking about managing the details of the classroom. We hope,
too, that it has encouraged you to reflect on the person you seek
to be as you lead the young people you are privileged to teach, and
whose lives you will inevitably shape. Refining the skills of teaching
is a career-long process. Enjoy the challenge!

Ideas Into Action 95

 References
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Ballantine.
Dweck, C. (2000). Self-theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, & Development.
Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis.
Schlechty, P. (1997).  Inventing Better Schools: An Action Plan for Educational Reform. 
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sternberg, R. (1984). Beyond IQ: A Triarchic Theory of Intelligence. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Sternberg, R. (1987). Successful Intelligence: How Practical and Creative Intelligence Determine
Success in Life. New York: Penguin Putnam.
Taba, H. (1971). Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice. New York: Harcourt.
Managing a Differentiated Classroom © Tomlinson & Imbeau, Scholastic Teaching Resources

Taba, H. (1962). Curriculum and Practice. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World.

Additional Resources
Cummings, C. (1997). Managing a Diverse Classroom. Edmonds, WA: Teaching Inc.
Cummings, C. (2000). Winning Strategies for Classroom Management. Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House.
Rothstein-Fisch, C., & Trumbull, E. (2008). Managing Diverse Classrooms: How to Build on
Students’ Cultural Strengths. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Sousa, D., & Tomlinson, C. (2010). Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the
Learner-Friendly Classroom. Indianapolis, IN: Solution Tree.
Tomlinson, C. (1999). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of all Learners.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms, (2nd Edition).
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C. (2003). Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom: Strategies and
Tools for Responsive Teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C. & Eidson, C. (2003). Differentiation in Practice, K–5: A Resource Guide for
Differentiating Curriculum. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C. & Eidson, C. (2003). Differentiation in Practice, 5–9: A Resource Guide for
Differentiating Curriculum. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and
Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C., & Imbeau, M. (2010). Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating Differentiated Instruction and Understanding
by Design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Differentiation Central. www.differentiationcentral.com

96 Managing a Differentiated Classroom