Another work in progress post but thinking about ideas, beyond the obvious, for differentiating in IT/Computing lessons.
1) Differentiation By Outcome
The old classic and now a major no-no in the eyes of Ofsted as judging students by the quality of their work is no longer appropriate. However, you can give the lazy method a new twist by using:
2) Differentiation By Task
Where students are given different task to complete. At a literacy level this might be asking Level 4 (L4) students to state 4 types of something while L5 are asked to describe with L6 being asked to compare and so on. However, sometimes all students need to achieve the same goal in order to be able to progress so we can use:
3) Differentiation By Resource
Where students undertake the same task but with different supporting resources or worksheets. Challenge L6 students to independently achieve a task while providing L4 students with a walk-though guide. L5 may be allowed to choose to use the guide or not. It’s not wrong to give students the choice – a L6 Maths student will have different strengths to a L6 Art student and in a topic like ICT its only appropriate that sometimes they choose. So another alternative is:
4) Differentiation By Communication
Lucky enough to have a supply of iPads in school then these are perfect for this method. Students who have greater difficulty writing than others may prefer to record themselves talking. iPads are perfect for recording a student talking about their work.
