A Detailed Differentiated Curriculum for an Algebra I or Algebra II Course

A differentiated curriculum means that assignments and/or teaching techniques reach students at their own level. Doing this within a high school or middle school classroom is difficult, primarily because students find it "unfair" to do a different assignment than their peers. Motivation is another factor, since those who need the most practice typically have a high correlation with being either the laziest group or slowest workers. This article address some of these concerns with a differentiated curriculum as found within a secondary education algebra classroom.

The Rationale for a Differentiated Curriculum
As times change, student motivation and meeting the needs of individual students remains constant. In theory, a differentiated curriculum addresses both of these issues. It makes sense psychologically to create varied assignments in an Algebra I course for various students depending upon their needs. Students who grasp concepts quickly and perform well need deeper level questions and fewer of them, while students who are struggling require more repetition at a simpler level.

Putting the differentiation concept into practice within an Algebra I classroom, however, is difficult. A teacher must deal with a few road blocks. Students want the work to be "fair." Students sometimes want the same assignment as their friends for easy copying outside of class. Some students resort to laziness because they have no accountability for their continual progress at home or within the classroom.

The process of differentiating a curriculum, however, need not be difficult. The following is a differentiated teaching system developed by this author, Kristen Wilkerson, for use with her Algebra I and Algebra II students. Kristen has her Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction as well as 14 years of teaching experience.

Establish Student Achievement Level
There are multiple methods of establishing a student's previous knowledge on a particular topic. This could be a pretest of some sort or using last year's final grade. For the sake of time and dealing with four course preparations, Mrs. Wilkerson chose to use a student's grade as of Monday morning to determine their group for the week. (This coincides with the sports eligibility day within her district, so students will be accustomed to that day.)

Students' grades will be posted on the wall that morning with a code system for anonymity. An equivalent system of a stoplight will assign students to a particular color for the week. If a student has a failing grade, their grade will be highlighted in pink (red.) Those in the middle, who still struggle but are passing with a 'C' or 'D' will be highlighted in yellow. Finally, the 'A' and 'B' students will receive a green highlight.

Doing this will also give a quick visualization to the teacher which hours have a high percentage of students in a particular category, and motivate the teacher as well to try to minimize the pink lines. It would be a good idea for a teacher to maintain a spreadsheet each week to quickly determine a student's group for that week, and to create a long-term visual of a student's progress. It is possible to color code the background of a cell in Excel, making that process simple.

How to Teach for Student Levels within a Differentiated Curriculum
All students will need the basics, of course, from any algebra topic. Begin by addressing those and get into some of the tougher question types as well. When finished with those, give the students in the red and yellow groups their assignments so they may begin working quietly. Continue with the green group separately, teaching them some high level thinking strategies or applications of the topic. When they feel ready, give the green group their assignment.

Red Group Practice Assignments
The assignments of the red group are not graded, but may be used on the homework quizzes which will be graded. Students should write the problem, show their work, and their answer, since they will only have their work as reference during the quiz. This process helps motivate students to complete their work as they will use it again, something which students who are failing a course usually need. It is a start to get these students into the material and helps them gain some educational success. Students will keep their homework together until the weekly big quiz or test so they can have it to study and fix. Students will take a unit quiz at the end of the week.

Yellow Group Practice Assignments
Students who are in the yellow group have fewer problems to do than the red group. However, their problems are a little more difficult. They require higher level thinking skills than the red group, but not much more difficult. Students will still be allowed to use their work during quizzes, but the questions will be slightly different than the problems they had as practice. Students will take a unit quiz at the end of the week.

Green Group Practice Assignments
The green group's practice problems will require multiple steps and higher levels of thinking, but they will have the fewest problems to complete. Often this group will engage in group projects or applied tasks for their weekly assessment.

Daily Assessments
Assess each group according to what they had to perform. Daily homework quizzes would work in an Algebra I or Algebra II course. Each quiz is worth six points. Post all three quizzes on the overhead or board. Have students write their color at the top. (This is easy to verify later, but helps students take responsibility.)

Red Group Assessments
The students in the red group, since their questions are the easiest and quickest could be given six questions taken directly from their homework at the value of one point each. They would be allowed to use their homework during the quiz.

Yellow Group Assessments
The yellow group would have three questions, at two points each. Their questions are a little more difficult, and the questions are not identical to their homework. The yellow group's use of their homework during the quiz would be helpful to them.

Green Group Assessments
The green group would have one or two questions with multiple parts, requiring depth of knowledge or application. This group would not be allowed to use their homework on the daily quiz.

This pattern would extend to weekly quizzes, tests, or projects as needed.

Why would this differentiated curriculum strategy work?
A differentiated curriculum allows mobility between groups, and students are motivated to improve because the green group gets to do fewer problems that are more fun and interesting. In addition, an external reward could go to the class that has the fewest reds each week, or no reds, etc. Thus, the system not only motivates individuals, but the entire class.

What do you think of this differentiated curriculum plan? Would you be able to use a similar approach? How would this teaching strategy apply in other curricular fields? Please comment below!

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