Differentation strategy of the week... Arrange students into groups of similar ability. Allocate questions/topics to each group to prepare a presentation (complexity to suit the ability of each group).
Only give information that each group will be able to access. Of course stretch the pupils, but the vocab must be appropriate. Also, don't given stronger and weaker groups the same topic/question to present they must appear different even if they are essentially the same!
I was surprised by how well this worked - as I was expecting it to have problems with behaviour as a result of the seating plan - but I guess that having work that is appropriate for the students means that they are likely to do it. I think I would still try to avoid spending too many lessons in this seating arrangement. With my top set class I did it too, and was struck by how much of an ability range there is even within a top set, and it gave a good opportunity to really stretch the high attainers. We did one activity where each group was in competition with another group of the equivalent ability level and this seemed to work well.
Only give information that each group will be able to access. Of course stretch the pupils, but the vocab must be appropriate. Also, don't given stronger and weaker groups the same topic/question to present they must appear different even if they are essentially the same!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by how well this worked - as I was expecting it to have problems with behaviour as a result of the seating plan - but I guess that having work that is appropriate for the students means that they are likely to do it. I think I would still try to avoid spending too many lessons in this seating arrangement. With my top set class I did it too, and was struck by how much of an ability range there is even within a top set, and it gave a good opportunity to really stretch the high attainers. We did one activity where each group was in competition with another group of the equivalent ability level and this seemed to work well.
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