How do you think about differentiating in math? Do you have a range of needs in your classroom? Are your students at different levels?

As a 3rd grade teacher I was often teaching students who were still figuring out place value between hundreds and tens, while I had others who understood adding 3 digit numbers. It made it difficult to differentiate to meet everyone’s needs.

📣 Listen to this episode to learn how I changing my thinking…in a BIG way to make differentiation more meaningful in the math classroom.

In this episode we will chat about: 

• not labeling students anymore
• letting every students participate in math thinking
• have students make decisions in learning math

What is differentiating?

Differentiation doesn’t mean you label students high, medium, low and you give them different problems. Instead differentiation is the level of support you give students. 

4 ways I shifted my thinking about differentiating:

1. I was not going to label students anymore.

I decided to see every child as having potential to participate and bring something valuable to the conversation. That meant even Robert who rarely participated in math class appropriately because he was often off task, flipping upside down in his chair, throwing pencils, and rarely doing what I said.
Even for Jaylise who was working on counting objects until to 47. She often got stuck on the decade numbers,… “28, 29… 3, 4, 5…”

Although these students and many many more students like them struggled, that didn’t mean they were in the red group and needed to work exclusively on different standards. Instead, I knew they had experiences and ideas that they COULD use to solve problems if I supported them in the right ways.

So, everyone was in the same group and had the same label. That was HIGH EXPECTATIONS for all group! 

2. I was not going to be okay with some kids doing most of the participating and discussing.

Instead, I decided I wanted EVERY child thinking in math class, every day.

I needed a structure for students to get support, attempt problems independently, and get the support from the community to understand the math. I knew I would need supports to make it safe for every child to share their ideas, no matter what they were.

3. I was not going to be motivated for students.

Say what?!

I know, it doesn’t make sense that kids would be motivated to do difficult math but what I’ve found out from watching kids… is kids LIKE hard things. They love puzzles and trying to climb to the top of the monkey bars. Students like to solve problems and mysteries.

If you want to get a child invested, present them with a problem or secret you just can’t figure out. They will be pumped to help you figure it out. This was my secret to getting my students invested in solving complex word problems as the way we would learn most of the math. 

4. I wasn’t going to make all the decisions for students in math.

Students need to have a voice and choice in their learning to help them build investment in their learning. When I was making the decisions, I needed to consider things like what strategy to use, where to sit, who spoke when, etc and when I could let students start taking the lead. I opened up my classroom for more student choice, without letting things get out of control!

How do you differentiating word problems by increasing support and choice?

Now remember, differentiation doesn’t mean giving different things to students based on their level or label. Instead, it means giving different SUPPORT and choices to students based on their current NEED. 

You must LISTEN and observe first, understanding what students are thinking, what they’ve tried, and get them to explain it to you before you offer a suggestion. This gives students autonomy because ultimately they have to know what they know and understand what they are thinking. If they can do that, then we can support them from there.

The types of differentiating support we can offer to students:

Conceptual– mathematical ideas that help students make meaning of the task

• confused about the task (access to the task)
• procedures, but can’t explain how it works
• math misconceptions
• guessing
• reasoning is surface level or nonexistent

Strategy – understand the task, but need a way to tackle it. Taking the first step, being effective & efficient, developing a strategy that works.

• have access to the task, but don’t know how to solve
• trying a strategy but it’s not working
• using inefficient strategies
• “stuck” in the same strategy

Representation– how students show their thinking. Anything visual that furthers students’ thinking about math.

• can describe their strategy orally, but have nothing on their paper
• it is difficult to describe what they did without a picture or visiaul
• solving fluently mentally, but must show their thinking so others can follow along.
• fingers or objects transferring that to paper

Communication– constructing explanations of their work for various audiences. Whole class shares, written, partners, etc.

• mathematical language you want them to share with the class
• explanation is incomplete or out of order
• more communication (written) would make their argument stronger

You can support students after you’ve listened and gotten them to explain their thinking by giving a nudge or a nugget of support. This is a TINY bit of support to keep students in the solving.

• Nudge is a question or prompt to re-engage students or direct their attention. This is the support.

So, as you think about differentiating for word problems in your classroom, do not think about giving DIFFERENT problems, but instead think about differing the level of support based on the students needs in that moment.

You must listen to students and try to understand their thinking so that you can best support them in making sense of the problem and the solution pathway. 

Have Questions? 📱 My DMs on IG are always open@hellomonamath