Delivery of instruction in the past often followed a "one size fits all" approach. In contrast, differentiation is individually student centred, with a focus on appropriate instructional and assessment tools that are fair, flexible, challenging, and engage students in the curriculum in meaningful ways. Differentiated instruction and assessment connects to all aspects of the PYP - The Learner, Teaching & Learning and Community of Learners.

Differentiated instruction and assessment is a framework or philosophy for effective teaching that involves providing different students with different avenues to learning in terms of: acquiring content; processing, constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and assessment measures so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of differences in ability. 

Students vary in culture, socioeconomic status, language, gender, motivation, ability/disability, personal interests and more, and teachers must be aware of these varieties as they plan curriculum. By considering varied learning needs, teachers can develop personalized instruction so that all children in the classroom can learn effectively. Differentiated classrooms have also been described as ones that respond to student variety in readiness levels, interests and learning profiles. It is a classroom that includes all students and can be successful. To do this, a teacher sets different expectations for task completion for students based upon their individual needs.

Teachers can differentiate at least four classroom elements based on student readiness, interest, or learning profile:

• Content – what the student needs to learn or how the student will get access to the information;

• Process – activities in which the student engages in order to make sense of or master the content;

• Products – culminating projects that ask the student to rehearse, apply, and extend what he or she has learned in a unit; and

• Learning Environment – the way the classroom works and feels. [See Community fo Learners to learn more]

Content

Examples of differentiating content at the elementary level include the following:

1. Using reading materials at varying readability levels;

2. Putting text materials on tape;

3. Using spelling or vocabulary lists at readiness levels of students;

4. Presenting ideas through both auditory and visual means;

5. Using reading buddies; and

6. Meeting with small groups to re-teach an idea or skill for struggling learners, or to extend the thinking or skills of advanced learners.

Process

Examples of differentiating process or activities at the elementary level include the following:

1. Using tiered activities through which all learners work with the same important understandings and skills, but proceed with different levels of support, challenge, or complexity;

2. Providing interest centres that encourage students to explore subsets of the class topic of particular interest to them;

3. Developing personal agendas (task lists written by the teacher and containing both in-common work for the whole class and work that addresses individual needs of learners) to be completed either during specified agenda time or as students complete other work early;

4. Offering manipulatives or other hands-on supports for students who need them; and

5. Varying the length of time a student may take to complete a task in order to provide additional support for a struggling learner or to encourage an advanced learner to pursue a topic in greater depth.

Products

Examples of differentiating products at the elementary level include the following:

1. 1. Giving students options of how to express required learning (e.g., create a puppet show, write a letter, or develop a mural with labels);

   2. Using rubrics that match and extend students' varied skills levels;

   3. Allowing students to work alone or in small groups on their products; and

   4. Encouraging students to create their own product assignments as long as the assignments contain required elements.

Learning Environment [See Community fo Learners to learn more]

Examples of differentiating learning environment at the elementary level include:

1. 1. Making sure there are places in the room to work quietly and without distraction, as well as places that invite student collaboration;

   2. Providing materials that reflect a variety of cultures and home settings;

   3. Setting out clear guidelines for independent work that matches individual needs;

   4. Developing routines that allow students to get help when teachers are busy with other students and cannot help them immediately; and

   5. Helping students understand that some learners need to move around to learn, while others do better sitting quietly (Tomlinson, 1995, 1999; Winebrenner, 1992, 1996).