RUNNING HEADER: Differentiating Based on Readiness

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How can I differentiate lessons based on student readiness within the third
grade curriculum?
A level II Internship Inquiry looking in depth at differentiating instruction for the
three levels (below level, on-level, and above level) of students in the classroom.
By Savannah Holtz
EDE 4942-005
Professor Andrea Willson

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Table of Content

Cover Page

Table of Content

Introduction

Background

Classroom Demographic

Purpose of Inquiry

Wondering

Literature Connections

Methods

Homogenous Groups

Exit Tickets

Differentiated Response Cubes

Findings

Conclusion

Resources

Appendix

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Weekly Data Log

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Introduction

Over the course of this semester I have been working to better my skill of differentiated
within the classroom. I took an in depth look about how I can support learning in all of my
students using based on their readiness for materials. Within the classroom can be very difficult
to select differentiation strategies for content readiness since there are so many that are availed to
educators. Since this is an important piece in being an effective teacher I needed to explore it, to
fully understand how to pick differentiate instruction strategies in the third grade classroom
environment in order to meet all of my students needs as both students and as people.
Background
Classroom Demographics
The class is a third grade classroom with nineteen students. There are ten boys, fifty two
percent of the class, and nine girls, forty eight percent of the class. The ethnicities in the
classroom however as very similar are the overall school. In the class there is one Asian or
Pacific Islander (five percent), two African Americans (eleven percent), one students who is
Hispanic (five percent), and the rest of the class are Caucasian (fifteen students making up
seventy nine percent). There are no English Language Learners in the classroom but there is and
ESE student who needs differentiated instruction for academic disabilities in reading and speech.
Lastly, the class has a low percentage of students on free and reduced lunch at only ten percent.
Purpose of Inquiry
After observing my class I have noticed that there are three distinct groups of students in
my classroom based on their readiness for the lessons or curriculum. In order to effectively teach
all of my current and future students I noticed I would need a lot more understanding of how to

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meet their needs through differentiating lesson plans to better fit all of my students. Throughout
my classes and internship this semester I hope to develop my thinking as an educator to better
understand good ways to differentiate instruction and plan for the differences in the individual
students that will be in my classroom. Allowing the students to better build understanding of the
content and get the support or enrichment they need to meet their goals.
Wondering
How can I differentiate lessons based on student readiness within the third grade
curriculum?
Literature Connections
The first major step that I underwent into this inquiry was to do a little bit of research on
idea for differentiating based on readiness based on the conversations I was having with my
certified teacher. Through this research I found three good ideas that I wanted to implement
within my classroom based on my students and their needs I was looking for.
This first idea I found was grouping; homogeneous, grouped based on similarity, and
heterogeneous, grouped based on everyone is different. Each of these forms of grouping are both
wonderful resources but they do slightly different things when considering readiness aspects of a
lesson. There can be times that heterogeneous is wonderful because you get a wonderful
discussion when using large groups such as half the class. However when used at a smaller scale
this type can lead to dependence on peers to do the work instead of having the discussion to build
everyones knowledge. In my case within the classroom the homogenous group strategy would
work out better since I am doing smaller groups and want to cater to each level of student
(Johnson, 2011).

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The second idea I found was exit tickets; a form of assessment that you can differentiate
to meet the needs and content of the classroom. This idea seemed like a great way for me to try
to differentiate assessments based on the readiness of the students. Exit tickets can have
metacognition, challenges, support, and standard checks all built in a different way for students
to response at the end of a lesson without the undifferentiated versions of standardized testing
(McCarthy, 2014).
The last idea I found was a tool called cubes or response cubes; basically cubes or dice
that give student directions based on a number of differentiation strategies. This idea was
probably my favorite out of the ones I discovered during this research. Response cubes are a
cross curriculum tool that helps the teacher build differentiation within a play based learning
system. I choose this idea to include because there are so many ways you can use them to
differentiate based on readiness; each level could get different cubes with ways to do a response,
or they could be different questions (Williams, 2002).
Methods
Method 1: Homogeneous grouping based on student level
This method is one that me and my certified teacher implemented together. We broke up
the class into three levels based on readiness; below level, on level, and above level. We then
grouped the students further based on willingness to work with peers. We purposely grouped
students to create a good environment not just for learning but also social interaction during
discussion that would be guided by one another. I then created a graph of the different groups
that we have with in the classroom now, please see figure 1. I color coded by level to make it
easier to fallow at a glance while lesson planning; yellow is below level, blue is on level, and
green is above level. And since our pod is Avengers themed we went with Avengers as the

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mascots of each group and placed sticker that corresponded on each student name card for them
to remember their groups.
The way that we implemented this as a way to differentiate was to have each of the
leveled groups doing the lesson slightly differently based on the level they were at. The
questioning and support for each group would be a little different while still keeping the class on
the same concept, story, and standard. I really love how this worked out with in the classroom
and it seemed to be a great way to keep students levels in mind when planning lessons.
Method 2: Exit tickets
This tool I implemented at the end of lesson about fractions. I took into consideration that
the group I was going to work with was a mixture of on level and above level students. Thus I
wanted to create a way to understand the students thinking, metacognition, and understanding of
the concepts we were reviewing, see figures 2-3. Thus I created two questions for metacognition,
one on level question, and lastly a higher question which I called the challenge. By calling the
last one a challenge question allowed for every student to try and complete it if they wanted to.
So it would push the on level students and enrich the above level students after the lesson, see
figure 4.
Method 3: Differentiated response cubes
The last tool I implemented was the differentiated response cubes. For this tool I first
looked at each of the level groups that I previously created. With this in mind I created four
questions I wanted all of the students to answer to see if they understood the concepts we were
teaching in the lesson. Then I created two differentiated questions that either enriched or
supported the students at each level. The idea was that since four of the questions were the same
I would be able to review a whole but to include the two questions that were on their level, see

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figure 5-7, to better understand further struggles that the students have with the standard we were
working with. I intended to do it in this way in order to build not only a whole group review
system but also to look into each of the three levels with in my classroom.
Findings
Homogeneous grouping based on student level
Looking at the data I collected from this method I have found that this type of grouping
works very well within the class setting of small group work and social learning. I found that by
having all the same level students in a group I was not only better able to plan for each student
but also was better at facilitation of the groups compared to when they were not implemented.
Exit tickets
Looking at the data I collected from this method I have found that while this method
worked decently for my purposes. Exit tickets are a great resource however I found that the way
I used them and presented them to the students they did not work how I intended for them to for
differentiations. Looking at this I will try other ways in the future to see if this tool can be used in
other ways then the way I used it for.
Differentiated response cubes
Looking at the data I collected from this method I have found that this tools is very
versatile and a wonderful addition to any classroom on any level. The amount of customization
and student enjoyment that I observed with this tool were outstanding. It did what was intended
and more for the students with in my class and I was still about to identify each of the students
struggles to further plan for them as individuals. And I will for sure be including this within my
future classroom teacher tool kit.
Conclusion

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Based on this research and experience in the world of differentiation based on readiness
there are so many ways to have your students learning as the focal point. Whether it be through
exit ticket, grouping, or using cubes differentiation may seem very difficult to do when planning
a lesson however it is truly easy as long as you put yourself in the mind set of differentiated from
the beginning of a lesson instead of after the lesson is completed. Looking at the data I have
collected this semester in my internship I now have a firm foundation to continue to build
differentiation strategies on in the future.

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References

Johnson, B. (2011). Student Learning Groups: Homogeneous or Heterogeneous? Retrieved April

14, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-grouping-homogeneousheterogeneous-ben-johnson
McCarthy, J. (2014). 15 Readiness Resources for Driving Student Success. Retrieved February
18, 2016, from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/differentiated-instruction-readinessresources-john-mccarthy
Williams, E. (2002, March). Cubes and Thinking Dots. Retrieved February 18, 2016, from
http://curry.virginia.edu/uploads/resourceLibrary/nagc_cubing__think_dots.pdf

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Appendix
Level Groups

Iron Man

Amy

Oliver (ESE) Joelee

Nancy

Zira

Captain America Donald

Billy

Courtne
y

Mark

Thor

Jazzie

Saria

Luke

Sarah

Alex

Hulk

Matt

Larry

Mary

Conner

Chase

Figure 1: Homogenous groups based on level of students. For confidentiality I have replaced all
the names of the student with pseudonyms.

Figure 2: Front of the exit ticket.

Figure 3: Back of the exit ticket.

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Figure 4: Sample of student response.

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Figure 5: Response cube template for below level with questions.

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Figure 6: Response cube template for on level with questions.

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Figure 7: Response cube template for above level with questions.

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