Differentiating Classroom Materials Quickly in Special Education

Differentiating classroom materials can be overwhelming at times but I’m here to help you with a few ways to differentiate a lesson without overcomplicating it. Below are a few examples on how to differentiate in the classroom as well as a list of ideas for differentiating classroom materials.

What is Differentiation in Special Education? Read more about how you can begin differentiating classroom materials.

Differentiation for special education can be tough. Having a classroom full of students who all have different needs, ability levels, and skills they need to work on can be hard and at times overwhelming. When thinking about differentiating, first you want to think about the skills they do have and what supports they still need and meet them where they are academically and provide those supports until they master the skill. 

Defining Differentiated Instruction – Differentiated instruction in special education is tailoring your teaching approach to meet the diverse needs of your students. It involves adjusting content, process, and product based on individual learning styles, abilities, and interests. It’s all about recognizing that every student is unique and may require different strategies to grasp concepts effectively! This often times means that you will need to be differentiating classroom materials as well!

Here are a few examples and ways to differentiate activities for special education:

Math

If you are working on word problems, you might have students working on 1 step word problems and maybe some students are only solving word problems involving addition and subtraction while others have problems with all four operations.

If a student needed a challenge, they could be working on a two-step word problem.

If you have students far below this, maybe their answer is only writing if it’s addition or subtraction but not solving the problem.

If they know the operation but struggle to solve it as they’re still working on that skill, then have them show their work but use a calculator or instead of a calculator they have an answer key to choose from. These are just a few ideas.

If you have students who are working on simple addition skills while others are doing long division (for example) a simple way to differentiate is to separate it by color. For example, have problems posted around the room in blue for addition and green for division and assign the students a color and they have to solve those problems. 

I’ve also done this in easter eggs for easter and it makes it fun to find/collect their color and solve their problems. I also utilize small groups a lot to help me work with each student/group and their individual goals.

Differentiating Classroom Materials in Groups

I also love to utilize different ways to differentiate. One group might be working on task cards that align with their ability level while other students are with me in a small group, and the other group is working on boom cards or any other type of digital media you prefer. (The nice thing about boom cards is you can use them on the computer, or you can print them as task cards).

Writing

when working on a writing prompt, to differentiate what the students are doing you may give them the same writing prompt but have one group write 5 paragraphs while the other group is writing 1 paragraph, or writing detailed sentences and then you’ll later help them with their topic and conclusion sentence, or you can provide a template or sentence starters as a way to differentiate how they are showing their work and what skill they are working on. 

Reading

Often, students who are below in reading struggle to read the material at grade level. To begin differentiating classroom materials, you may pair this student up with a student at grade level, one person reads while the other takes notes or highlights etc. or you may read with the student in a small group, or maybe they listen to the story through a pre-recorded software or device while others in the class are reading the story to themselves or if you’re able to provide leveled reading material that would be great as well!

These are just a few examples to help you brainstorm how you can begin differentiating classroom materials. Below are a few more ways to differentiate to help you incorporate these ideas in your own classroom.

Examples

• Color code skills the students can work on and assign them a color. (like my math example)
• Split students into groups and work with a group of students while others are working independently.
• Utilize task cards
• Utilize digit media and assign students tasks based on their ability level
• Different writing prompts for students
• Different word problems for students
• Writing a multi-paragraph response vs. 1 paragraph
• Provide a key or answer box while others don’t have it
• Provide visuals for students to help them meet the skill they’re working towards
• Allow student to show work through manipulatives
• Provide step by step directions (math, writing, etc.)
• Allow the use of a calculator or numbers chart of some kind if not measuring math computation skills
• Allow voice to text for students to write their papers
• For writing, you can give students the same prompt but measure different things for each student (complete sentences, grammar, punctuations, details, transitions, supporting sentences etc.)

Read more about differentiated instruction:

• https://www.understood.org/en/articles/differentiated-instruction-what-you-need-to-know
• https://www.fullspedahead.com/5-math-curriculum-for-special-education/
• https://www.fullspedahead.com/literacy-skills-for-special-education/

Make sure to check out Whitney’s YouTube video interview all about differentiation!