Education is quickly changing, and teachers like you are finding new ways to reach your students. In particular, technology has become an increasingly important tool for supporting differentiation and small group learning. In many ways, technology can help educators more effectively and efficiently meet the individual needs of their students. Given the continued importance of differentiation, we asked the TPT community for their best practices for using technology to support it. Here are their tips.
How to Use Technology to Make Differentiation More Efficient
Your time is limited, and small group and individual differentiation traditionally take a lot of time. However, teachers like you can apply a handful of tech tools to get more done in less time.
1. Modify assignments to fit student levels with Easel by TPT™.
With Easel, you can easily prepare multiple interactive versions of the same resource to support the needs of individual students or groups. “[Teachers] can select different pages and customize directions to target learning experiences for specific learners,” explains Brenda Kovich. You can also use the duplicate activity feature to make copies of your resources and your annotations for different classes or groups of students.
2. Use ready-made resources to individualize instruction.
Instead of spending time recreating the wheel, you can take advantage of so many resources on the web. For example, you can send different video mini-lessons to different students based on their levels. “Go online and pick specific videos already made for your class,” says Don from Mr D Math Class. Adds Belinda from BVG SLP, “There are a ton of great digital resources that are no-prep and ready to use with your students immediately.”
3. Assess student progress instantly.
Tanya from Gifted Teacher 305 uses tools that provide real-time results, like polls and surveys as formative assessments. “[These tools] allow teachers to differentiate instantly, without the hassle of time-consuming activities like grading and disaggregating data,” she says. For example, teachers can use Easel by TPT’s self-checking features, like drag and drop pieces and multiple choice, to give instant feedback to students. Teachers also get a report with the number of attempts and time spent on the activity, so they can respond to students’ individual learning needs.
4. Empower students to own their individual learning.
Using technology to facilitate instruction makes it possible for students to learn asynchronously, completing assignments and projects at their own pace.
Additional Benefits of Using Digital Tools to Differentiate
Here are a few more ways you can take advantage of the added benefits of using digital tools to differentiate.
Easy, effective feedback.
Digital tools can make it easier to share timely and effective feedback with students. Using Easel, for example, you can leave personalized feedback on students’ completed assignments with the teacher commenting feature. Explains Jenny from DiGiGoods and Printables ELA, “Written feedback is actually more effective because students can read it at their pace and absorb it in their own way. Students will forget what you say, making verbal feedback far less impactful, but written feedback stays put.”
Keep student levels confidential.
Grow With Griffith – Rachel Griffith uses tech to make sure students aren’t self-conscious about their differentiated work levels. “You can assign students different lessons at varying levels without any embarrassment from others that they aren’t doing the same thing as them,” she says. Susan from Ms Cottons Corner adds, “Technology can help a teacher match the right product with a student, and can make that all invisible,” she says.
Using Easel by TPT to support more differentiation
Easel by TPT is the easiest way to teach, assess, and deepen student engagement using interactive, ready-to-go resources from TPT. Every one of Easel’s features is designed to help you engage students quickly. Here are some ways you can use Easel to support differentiation for your students:
- Assign different versions of the same resource to different students or groups.
- Use movable shapes to add digital manipulatives to a resource for students who could use additional scaffolding.
- Remove pages of a resource that are above or below the level of the students you’re assigning it to.
- Use the commenting feature to clarify instructions for students who could use additional guidance.
- Add stretch or bonus questions using the text annotation tools for early finishers.
Although a lot has changed in education, the importance of differentiation has remained a constant. In many ways, technology can be a helpful tool when differentiating instruction or providing small group learning. Ultimately, technology can help educators like you reach more of your students more efficiently and easily than before.
This post, which was originally published in 2020, was updated for 2022.
