Video 5: How to Differentiate for MLLs at Different Levels

What should we do when some students achieve the goal for the class quickly while others still need more time or help?

In the steps we talked about in the previous videos in this series, there is already room for students to go at their own pace. Fast students may get it quite quickly while slower students need a little more time to practice. No problem. They can keep practicing until they are ready.

But we can take the differentiation a step further.

You can have some extra challenges ready for those stronger, faster students:

Practice 3 new sentences from the handout
Change the 3 sentences and make them silly
Write the 3 sentences now that I know you can say them
Come up with 3 of your own sentences

You can also break the goal down for the weaker students. It may be difficult for slower, weaker students to say all 3 sentences in one go, or they keep making lots of mistakes. You can let those students say each sentence 1 at a time rather than all 3 at once.

When you set up the goals of your class like this…

Every student is able to achieve them
Every student can work at his or her own pace
Students are working more independently and you are freed up to go around, connect with them and coach them
It is much easier to see and track student progress and as a result you are less likely to be surprised at test time when it is probably too late to do anything about a student you discover is struggling

You can see how helpful this is for differentiating in your classes and we need materials designed with this in mind.

ESL Curriculum Membership Materials