ABSTRACT
Differentiation is one area where, as an experienced teacher, you can get better – because progress here is virtually infinite. It’s important, we do a lot of work with it, but we always feel that we could do more. In this sense, it can be a source of guilt (and guilt is a very teacherly emotion). It’s a matter of common sense that efficient teaching takes account of the varying personalities of those who are learning. You have twenty-eight pupils with twenty-eight reading ages, personal histories, individual needs, numeracy levels, learning styles, interests, SAT scores, CAT scores, attitudes and preferences, and some of those have changed since last week. And you have four classes a day. They are all mixedability classes, because all classes are mixed-ability classes (children don’t come in ability-batches of twenty-eight); and a good deal of differentiation isn’t just about ability anyway. You know that differentiation is more than graded worksheets. The challenge and pressure of all this is enormous and we need to seek realistic solutions.
