Get to know the students at the beginning of the school year. Set up one-on-one conferences or interviews with students or ask students to complete questionnaires on their learning preferences. Design individual or group activities based on the feedback.
Set up activities that allow for students to work at their own pace and experience success. Students who quickly understand and apply concepts can move through activities at a faster pace and complete additional assignments if they wish. Students having difficulty can take more time to demonstrate they have learned the essential concept.
Vary questioning techniques to suit the student's ability. During open discussions, target the higher-level students with the more difficult questions. On written quizzes, assign specific questions to specific groups of students, asking the same number of questions of all students and covering the same concepts but adjusting the complexity of the question to match the student's ability (see References 3).
Set up flexible work groups that students can move through and change roles in as their skills change and improve. For example, if a student's writing skills improve through weekly journal entries shared in a group setting, ask that student to then mentor another student. Classrooms using flexible grouping might include the whole class, small groups, pairs or working alone.
Assign tiered activities of varying difficulty. Develop exercises that cover key concepts, assigning more abstract tasks to students able and motivated to complete them. For example, one group of students might be asked to write about their favourite character in story, a second group might write a journal entry speaking as this character and a third group might change the character to affect the story's outcome.
Determine and use students' interests and talents to enhance skills. For example, a student with weaker writing skills who loves hockey might be asked to write about their hockey team's games as a weekly journal-writing exercise. An introverted student who enjoys art might be asked to prepare and present posters to practice oral-presentation skills.
Set up work stations that suit learning styles. For example, an auditory station for listening to tapes or oral presentations will benefit the auditory learner, while pictures, maps and charts will work best for the visual learner. Concrete activities that include, for example, experiments and building exercises will benefit the hands-on learner.
Assign small group projects. Research and planning are done together but each group member completes an individual component. While demonstrating their understanding of the concept, students can apply their individual strengths and interests as well as improve upon their weaker skills by modeling other group members.
Encourage the use of different tools to complete assignments. For example, a report on the value of pets might be done with paper and pencil, the computer, overhead visuals, hand-drawn posters, oral presentations or digital photographs. Different tools allow students to showcase different interests and talents such as photography, public speaking or artistic flair while demonstrating their understanding of the concept.