No matter where you teach, it’s incredibly important to differentiate materials so that all of your students can succeed. I’ve taught in schools with bigger special education populations students, I’ve also taught in schools with honors or gifted and talented programs. No matter where you teach, differentiating your materials helps every student grow.
Why should you differentiate in Spanish class?
High-performing students:
- Finish early
- Sometimes rush or work more quickly than others
- Can be disruptive if they’re bored
Low-performing students:
- Can become frustrated if they don’t understand the task
- Give up or take much longer than other students
- Can be disruptive if they’re bored
Did you notice what these lists have in common? Students will be disruptive if they’re bored! As we both know, no one wants disruptive students in class.
What does it mean to differentiate?
Differentiation means providing access to students at the level that they can succeed with our materials. It does not mean “dumbing down” materials, but rather tailoring them to students’ needs so that every student can be successful.
Here’s the thing about differentiation: it keeps every student engaged at an appropriate level that allows them to learn and achieve.
How do I use differentiation in Spanish class?
We can differentiate a lot of things but I’ll focus on for concepts here: content, process, products, and learning environment.
How to differentiate content in Spanish class:
When I say content, I’m referring to what you teach and how you present it to students in class.
To differentiate your content, you can:
- Use reading materials at a variety of levels – NewsELA is great for this!
- Put text materials on tape or audio
- You spelling of vocabulary list at students’ access level – scale the list down into a group of key words instead of giving a long vocab list
- Present ideas with both auditory and visual cues
- Small groups for reteach and extended thinking (read more about reteach in this blog post)
All of my resources provide differentiated texts and opportunities for success – find your next lesson in my shop!
Differentiate processing in Spanish class:
- Scaffold activities from the lowest complexity to the highest level
- Encourage students to explore class topics that interest them
- Create task lists that address students’ learning needs
- Fewer, specific tasks for lower-performing students
- More tasks or a choice of complex tasks for higher-performing students
- Offer manipulatives or other hands-on supports for students who need them
- Very the length of time a student may take to complete a task
- Provide support for struggling learners
- Encourage an advanced learned to pursue a topic in greater depth
How to differentiate products in class:
Products refers to the materials that you’re using in class to provide activities for students. In Spanish class, this can be reading, writing, listening, or speaking activities as well as grammar or vocab practice tasks.
- Provide choice
- Use differentiated rubrics to provide opportunities for everyone to succeed (grab my free proficiency rubric here!)
- Allows students to work alone, in pairs, or small groups – again, provide choice
How to differentiate the learning environment:
- Provide quiet spaces to work
- Provide space for collaboration
- Set clear guidelines for independent and peer work
- Develop routines that allow students to ask for and receive support
Oh my goodness, compañeros. This blog has become so long already. Grab this free differentiation checklist to pop on your clipboard, and stay tuned for more posts about differentiation!
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