Professional vocabulary
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Ability Grouping—Grouping students according to similar readiness levels or learning profiles.
Alternate Assignment—Assignments given to particular students or groups of students in lieu of the assignment given to the other members of the class. These assignments are designed to capitalize on student readiness levels, interests, or learning profiles.
Anchor Activity—A task or activity that a student automatically moves to upon completion of other assigned work.
Cluster Grouping—Flexible grouping and regrouping of students within a classroom to accommodate different instructional needs at different times and/or for different subject or content, different readiness levels, interests, or learning profiles.
Compacting—Modifying or streamlining content, process, or product in order to eliminate repetition of previously mastered material.
Contracting—Students contract for grades and/or choose from a variety of available project/product options.
Cooperative Learning—Students work with other students in groups to achieve a specific goal or purpose. Each group member has a particular, predetermined role in helping the group reach its goal.
Exit Cards—Teacher distributes index cards to students a few minutes before the end of class. Students respond quickly to a specific prompt such as “What’s the most important thing you learned today?” Exit cards provide a quick and easy method of assessing understanding.
Flexible Grouping—Purposeful reordering of students into a variety of different groups in a short amount of time in order to ensure that all students work with a number of different students on a regular basis. Criteria for grouping—readiness, interest, learning profile, activity or task, content—will vary regularly as well.
Interest Centers/Groups—Interest centers ( often used with younger learners) and groups (often used with older learners) allow students choice in an area or areas of study.
Independent Study Projects—A student or small group of students pursues an area of interest related to a specific topic, curricular area, or individual area of interest.
Literature Circles—Small groups of students read and/or study different books with varying degrees of difficulty and/or focusing on a variety of topics of interest.
Product/Project Options—Students chose from a variety of options the way that they will provide evidence of learning. These options allow students to utilize their individual strengths and interests.
Pyramid Activities—Any activity that begins with students working individually, progresses through pairs, groups of four, etc., until ending with the whole-class group. A good way to review material or to practice test-taking strategies. Students may begin by individually recording what they know and then add to or change their responses as they collaborate with other students.
Questioning Strategies—Different types of questions are employed before, during, and after an activity, a lesson, or a unit of instruction to engage and challenge students to demonstrate their understanding from the knowledge level to the evaluation level. These questions allow students to clarify their thinking, increase their knowledge, and deepen their understanding.
RAFT Activities—Students select a Role, Audience, Format, and Topic for a particular task. The task vary but may include writing, oral presentations, skits, review activities, etc.
Reader’s Workshop—This student-centered, instructional model for “real reading” uses authentic literature and allows students to self-select books. Students read at their own pace, reflect on what they read, and talk about their reading with others.
Reading Buddies—One name for peer reading partners, pairs of students who assist each other in reading for comprehension. They may take turns: one reading aloud and the other summarizing OR one reading aloud while the other formulates questions about that reading, etc.
Scaffolding—This refers to any support system that enables students to succeed with tasks they find genuinely challenging.
Subject/Content Acceleration—A student or group of students moves to a higher level of at an earlier time or age than the other students.
Thinking Maps—Visual representations of ideas that allow students to “unpack” their thinking and organize ideas in a visual format rather than solely in sentences or paragraphs.
Tiered Assignments—Teachers adjust the degree of difficulty for a particular assignment or task in order to meet the needs of students with varying levels of readiness, varying interests, and/or varying learner profiles.
Writer’s Workshop—This student-centered, instructional model for “real writing” uses authentic assignments that allow students to participate in differentiated activities while participating in all stages of the writing process. Students spend time on self-selected writing activities.
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