Every student should have an equal opportunity to be challenged within the bounds of their abilities, or, as Lev Vygotsky put it, their zone of proximal development. To set the stage for all students to succeed, there are two necessary steps-- assessment and differentiation.
Assessment, including pre-assessment, is the gauge which informs teachers, students, administrators and parents, where the student is at and what progress can be expected. Since education revolves around language, it is essential to assess students' prowess in the four areas of language fluency-- reading, writing, speaking and listening. It is also helpful to know their socioeconomic status, their ethnicity, the ratio of males to females, their personal interests and personalities and their age. All these, and other biographical information, factor into designing a pedagogy which accounts for the needs every individual.
Next, accommodations must be made. Some of the first accommodations should be for students with special needs, such as behavior plans, seating arrangements, paraeducators, class rules, routines for common class activities, and so on.
The next step is to prepare differentiated instruction to accommodate for the various skill levels in my class. An important part of differentiating instruction is reteaching using varied teaching styles according to learning styles. For example, using Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences as a guide, a geography teacher could explain the concept of latitude and longitude aloud with a map for visual aid. Next, the students would label lines of longitude and latitude on an activity sheet with a partner. Additionally, the students could be tasked with putting together a world map puzzle using lines of latitude and longitude. Furthermore, the students may learn a poem which defines latitude and longitude, or write definitions using key terms provided by the teacher. The teacher may also ask the students to do calculations using degrees of latitude and longitude, label climate zones, or label the room with latitude and longitude and have students move around according to instructions using those terms. With these activities, the teacher has incorporated audio, visual, spacial, interpersonal, musical, verbal, mathematical, naturalistic, and kinesthetic styles of learning
For another example of differentiated instruction, often it is necessary to ensure all students understand some particular content before the class can move on. Let's say there is a significant gap in the students' ability to comprehend information in general, as is common. In order to ensure all students comprehend the essential information, a gateway assessment can be used to verify their comprehension. Rather that moving on or waiting, students who pass the assessment can help the students who are still learning. Their activity as mentors can be rewarded in a variety of ways. They could gain classroom participation points which count towards their final grade. They may also earn other rewards such as homework passes, or certificates acknowledging their leadership roles to show their guardians.
Another variation of this method is to allow students who pass the initial assessment to move onto another, related task. It may be a non-essential task which not all students are expected to attempt. This could be a good opportunity to increase the complexity of the task by requiring higher-order critical thinking, as categorized by Bloom's taxonomy. But, it may also also be the same level of complexity as the first task. It may be that only students who complete the second task can earn a full grade, while students who try repeatedly to pass the first assessment may still gain additional credit for improving their score.
There are many ways of differentiating instruction which could fill many books, including using story-telling, full group discussion, paired-discussion, individual writing, building models, role-playing, debates, letter-writing, opinion questions, “fishbowl” discussions, Socratic seminars, reenactments, altering the classroom setup, and more. It takes experience to know which accommodation to use and when, but it an excellent opportunity to be creative and to show students how much they are valued.