Teachers: plan, teach and differentiate

To ensure that learning is engaging and rigorous, lessons are planned and crafted to meet the levels of ability of learners within each class,
year group and milepost. The sample lesson plans below demonstrate the lessons that include differentiation to meet the needs and abilities
of the learners.

Milepost 1: Y2 Lesson Plan

Year 2 teachers differentiate by ability groups. In this literacy lesson (extension of an IPC unit on light), lower ability groups had the opportunity
to hear further explanation from teachers and were also supported with writing a diamante poem about light.

Milepost 2: Y3 - Lesson Plan Example

Differentiated tasks are provided to help meet children at their level and ability to keep students challenged and engaged.
TUESDAY 23RD FEBRUARY
Target: GEOGRAPHY TASK 1
WALT: To be able to label a volcano and state what happens once it erupts
Personal Goal/LLL Focus: Learn: Enquiry
Kind of Lesson (K,S,U): K
Biblical Integration:
Materials: Cross section of a volcano (Sparklebox picture) for ch. to label. Volcano eruption sequence cards. Extension: wbs and iPads
Vocabulary: crater, cone, ash cloud, lava, lateral vent, central vent, magma
Activity:
What does a volcano look like?
We saw some photos last week
What does it look like on the inside?
Have ch. draw the inside of a volcano on WBs
Then compare to a diagram of a volcano (Sparklebox picture)
Do you know the name of each part and what happens when a volcano erupts?
Research:
Ch. to label diagrams of volcanoes by using the classroom books and iPads, and colour in.
Then role play/write about the process of an eruption in chronological order.
Plenary:
Ch. to talk and/act out about the process of an eruption

International Mindedness: Point to Krakatau on the World map and other volcanoes ch. have researched

Milepost 3: Y4 - Lesson Plan Example

When Planning, the Year 4 team of teachers ensures that they differentiate when backwards planning to be sure materials and
expectations are suited to the varying levels of student ability. This is to help guide lessons and expectations while allowing children to
work within their
ability.

Milepost 3: Y6 - Lesson Plan Example

Learners are often paired in mixed ability pairings in
order to scaffold and support each other. This
differentiation benefits both stronger and weaker
learners. Weaker students benefit from a stronger
students knowledge, skills and understanding and
stronger students benefit from having to support and
explain the learning to the weaker one. In this history
activity, the teacher first explained and demonstrated
and the the students were paired up to work with a living
timeline of Dr. Sun Yat Sen (Host country) person. They
discussed together how to place events from his life in
either a positive or negative light and then completed
the task.

PE - Lesson Plans
Teachers are aware and help support learners needing extra attention and clarification.

Year Level Teachers - As teachers, we follow a teaching and planning cycle as we use the AFL Programme for skills
assessment: As we move on, we are cognizant of those students who havent yet reached their developmental level and
give them more opportunities to practise.

Upper Primary Music Teacher sample of differentiation

I cite this lesson plan (and the unit of which it is part) as a supreme example of differentiation, showing how a performance piece is made appropriate and
sufficient as a learning exercise for a specific class of children, tailored to the collective experience and development levels of the children. Intervention is
not specifically detailed, but is necessarily present as I work in rehearsal with the class to develop their progress towards performance.
When Senior B perform Lassitude 4 in effect, their exit point each member of the class will be playing an individual part in the ensemble. Our learning of
the music for Lassitude 4 began with the whole class attempting the challenging conga rhythm, at first with hands on knees (Orff-style), then on bongos.
Volunteers then attempted to demonstrate their ability on the congas. I appointed the most promising pair to the roles; at least one other student has kept
practising, aiming to convince me that she can drum with the best of them.
The members of the recorder group take pride in their status, and will not easily be persuaded to change instrument. Although Theme A is relatively
straightforward for recorders, the melody contains several unfamiliar notes, sufficient to extend these players knowledge of their instruments. Two other
quite musical - students have been assigned to play alongside the recorder players on metallophones; the nature of the theme gives them an opportunity to
explore giving the notes their exact duration (by damping them), which will take a stage further their technical skill on these instruments.
The remaining class members have been set to play Theme B (a sequential scale pattern) on xylophones. Eventually they will each have to play this Theme,
or a variation of it, individually as part of a complex texture. I will assign a place in the texture to each student based on his/her confidence in finding the
correct entry point; the more confidence, the later the entry point.
Three players who have previously shown an affinity for playing bass parts have been given that responsibility again, together with two other students, one of
whom has expressed an interest in playing the cello, while the other likes to be noticed (playing a bass instrument does tend to attract attention!).
Finally, one child who lacks fine motor skills but nevertheless shows a keen interest in music and a good ability to keep time has been given the job of
marking the start and mid-point of each section using the cymbals
Below is a snip from the senior music teachers typical lesson plan