[lily74]

I had an informal observation today and one thing my P pointed out was that all the students were working on the same activity - it was from our basal - and we were introducing the vocab from the story. The students then had to write a definition and a sentence for each word to show that they understood them.

My question is, how could I differentiate this activity? What kind of different graphic organizers could I use for vocab?
And if we are using the basal...why is my P commenting on the fact that all students are reading the same story??!!

(Later in the week, my plan is to use the leveled readers and focus on different skills, which will be differentiated, then I am planning to split the students into groups and have them read other leveled books on the same topic..we are starting a mystery unit this week.)

Hope this makes sense!

[yesteach]

Every lesson does not have to be differentiated. If I were introducing vocabulary, I'd have no problem having all students start with the same activity. Extension activities through the week could be differentiated. IMHO, "differentiate" is the new catch word for admins, and most have no idea what it is or how to do it, they just know it's something you are supposed to do.

As for the "same story"issue, I'd just ask the same thing you did here, how do you use the basal and have them reading different levels??

[stressgirl37]

One way to do this is to preteach the vocab to the kids that need more time to grasp the meanings of words. You could use realia and/or pictures and/or gestures to reinforce the words, then when doing it whole class, that group would have previous exposure and could hopefully do the part you described.

[Munchkins]

If you have any English Language Learners, have them partner with a strong student.

For your stronger writers, have them so more sentences, or make a story using all of the words (or a paragraph of related sentences.)

Lower students- less sentences, and/or fewer words.

And/or:

High- keep assignment the same
Middle- sentences only
Low- illustrate words

Just a few ideas! I find the easiest way to differentiate is the expectations based on ability, but the same assignment. Hope this was helpful!