Essential Understandings

Cycle Step 5: What will we do to differentiate instruction when students already know it?

What the Research Says:

Extension means to deepen students’ knowledge and skills in their core instruction. Enrichment is traditionally the term we use to represent special and elective subjects like art, music, computers, drama, and physical education (Mattos, 2016). In many ways, extending instruction is the mirror image of scaffolding to support the struggling learner. Extending instruction allows students who learn quickly and/or have well-developed background knowledge to move through the instruction in a way that respects their advancement (EL Education, 2020). All students need and deserve a rich, relevant, challenging learning environment that supports their growth.

A Strong curriculum and instruction for the advanced learner starts with a thorough and deep understanding of the standards to be taught. Like all students, highly ready students need learning experiences that are rich. These experiences should be organized by key concepts and principles of a discipline rather than solely on facts (Tomlinson, 1997). Advanced learners need content that is relevant to their lives, tasks that cause them to process important ideas at high levels, and products that cause them to grapple with meaningful problems and pose defensible solutions. Classrooms should be structured for differentiation to occur and choice should be a prevalent practice. These are needs that are common to all learners, but good instruction for more advanced learners should start here.

“Good teaching for advanced learners is paced in response to the student’s individual needs.” Sometimes, a more rapid instructional pace is needed to allow students to be introduced to concepts and skills learned at the next phase of instructional progression. At times, the pace is slowed or augmented to allow students a chance to “achieve a depth or breadth of understanding needed to satisfy a big appetite for knowing. Good teaching for the quick learners happens at a higher degree of difficulty than for other students their age. That implies that content, processes, and products should be more complex and more open-ended than would be appropriate for many peers. They should work with “fuzzier” problems with often less teacher—imposed structure” (Lincoln County District, 2020). Many teachers and teams develop learning targets that represent proficiency with additional targets to represent extensions to accommodate this need (make it happen).

Appropriate teaching for more advanced learners requires an understanding of “supported risk.” Highly able learners often make very good grades with relative ease for a long time in schools. “They often see themselves as expected to make “A’s,” get right answers and lead the way. In other words, they succeed without normal encounters with failure. Then, when a teacher presents a high-challenge task, the student feels threatened. A good teacher understands that dynamic, and thus invites, cajoles and insists on risk; but in a way that supports success and wellbeing (Lincoln County District, 2020). What's more, the differentiated classroom frequently reflects the structure of small group instruction. While this is often an effective instructional strategy, groupings for the more advanced learners should not be held constant. No student learns quickly on every topic. In fact, high achieving students benefit from discourse with students at all academic levels.

In addition to extensions in the core classroom, other avenues for ensuring that high achievers move through the instructional program in a way that respects their advancement should be explored. Independent study projects, internships, and mentorships allow students to deepen their learning in a meaningful manner (DuFour & Marzano, 2011). Extracurricular academic clubs and teams provide opportunities for students to experience enrichment in addition to the standard curriculum. Whenever possible and appropriate, students should be encouraged to pursue advanced academics, honors, advanced placement, dual enrollment and/or International Baccalaureate coursework.

It is a collaborative team’s responsibility to use data to help identify students who are high achievers, select effective strategies aligned to essential standards, and the needs of all students, deliver extension activities when appropriate, monitor their impact and adjust as needed (Bailey & Jakicic, 2018). All students deserve a relevant and challenging learning environment that supports their academic growth.