differentiated instruction in school

Implementing Differentiated Instruction Lesson Plans in Your Classroom

ByMichael Fallert

When You Have to Create Differentiated Instruction Lesson Plans

One of the popular ideas making the rounds in education is differentiated instruction. Your principal may have told you that you need to start submitting differentiated instruction lesson plans and then moved on to the next topic on the agenda for that in-service day.

I remember being introduced to the concept at a rather unusual in-service meeting. The entire library had been converted to look like a café. There were signs on the door welcoming us to the Differentiation Café, and red-and-white checkered tablecloths covered the worn wooden tables. Each teacher received a place card that assigned us to a particular table with people who taught different grade levels. Hey, at least there were bowls of candy on the tables.

It turned out that the in-service meeting itself was being differentiated. What followed was a bundle of tips for creating and implementing differentiated instruction lesson plans.

The useful idea beneath all the decorations was simple: students do not all begin in the same place, need the same amount of support, or show understanding in exactly the same way. The difficult part is responding to those differences without creating an entirely separate course for every student.

Free Differentiated Lesson Planning Template

Use this template to plan one shared lesson and make evidence-based adjustments to support, practice, grouping, and challenge where students actually need them.

Download the Differentiated Lesson Planning Template (PDF)

Download the Editable Differentiated Lesson Planning Template (Word)

What Differentiation Actually Means

Differentiation is a planned response to evidence about what students know, what they need next, and what support will help them reach a shared learning goal. It does not mean lowering the goal for some students, assigning “easy work” and “hard work,” or preparing 25 unrelated lessons.

Many teachers have differentiated for years without using the label. They notice which students are ready to work independently, which need an example, which need more practice, and which are ready for a more demanding application. They adjust the route while keeping the destination clear.

Differentiation commonly involves adjustments to:

  • content: how students gain access to important knowledge or ideas;
  • process: how students make sense of and practice that content;
  • product: how students demonstrate what they understand; and
  • support and learning conditions: the scaffolds, grouping, time, tools, or feedback available.

These adjustments should follow a learning goal and evidence of need. Variety by itself is not differentiation.

The research base is more qualified than many professional-development presentations suggest. A systematic review and meta-analysis of primary-school differentiation studies found varied results across approaches. Differentiation embedded in a broader instructional plan was more promising than grouping students by itself, and homogeneous grouping did not automatically improve learning. Treat differentiation as a cycle of evidence, adjustment, and follow-up—not as a branded activity with guaranteed results.

Begin With Readiness and Student Needs

Readiness is a student’s current understanding or skill in relation to a particular goal. It is not a permanent description of intelligence. A student may need substantial support with one concept and be ready for extension in another.

Before a lesson or unit, gather a small amount of useful evidence:

  • a short pre-assessment;
  • an entrance question;
  • a quick writing sample;
  • one representative problem;
  • a discussion prompt;
  • work from the previous lesson; or
  • a brief conference.

During instruction, use checks for understanding to decide whether students should continue, receive another model, practice with support, or extend their thinking. The assessment does not need to be lengthy; it needs to help you make a decision.

When a student’s first attempt is unclear, note what changes after a prompt, model, example, or visual support. The site’s dynamic assessment guide explains how this response-to-support evidence can inform the next teaching move without turning a temporary difficulty into a permanent label.

The site’s guide to alternatives to traditional tests offers additional ways to gather evidence without waiting for a unit exam.

Differentiate Content Without Changing the Goal

Content differentiation changes access to the important idea, not necessarily the idea itself. Small adjustments include:

  • providing an audio version alongside a grade-level text;
  • previewing essential vocabulary for students who need it;
  • using a diagram, model, worked example, or demonstration;
  • breaking a long source into manageable sections;
  • offering a reference sheet while students learn a new process;
  • adding background information needed to understand the lesson; and
  • providing a more complex source or application for students ready to extend.

A student receiving vocabulary support can still analyze the same demanding idea as classmates. Support should make the thinking accessible rather than remove it.

Differentiate the Learning Process

The process is what students do to understand and practice. A teacher might vary:

  • the amount or sequence of guided practice;
  • whether students first work with the teacher, a partner, or independently;
  • the examples used to make an abstract idea visible;
  • the questions students answer about a shared text;
  • the amount of scaffolding in an organizer or task;
  • the pace at which support is removed; or
  • the level of complexity in an application task.

One familiar example is guided reading. The teacher works with a temporary small group around a particular reading need while other students complete purposeful work they can manage independently. The group should change as students’ needs change. This approach is easier with another adult in the room, but a teacher working alone can still use short, carefully planned rotations.

Differentiate Products and Evidence of Learning

A product is how students demonstrate learning. Choice can be helpful, but every option must reveal the target skill or understanding.

For example, if the goal is to explain causes and effects, students might write an explanation, annotate a cause-and-effect diagram, or record a short oral explanation using the same required evidence. If the goal is formal writing, a poster cannot replace the writing simply because a student prefers posters.

Keep the success criteria consistent. A small choice among two or three well-designed options is more manageable than an unlimited menu.

Flexible Grouping Is a Tool, Not a Track

Differentiation often uses groups, but students should not remain in permanent “high,” “middle,” or “low” groups. Group around a specific purpose:

  • reteaching one skill;
  • practicing a strategy;
  • reading texts that provide an appropriate level of support;
  • extending a concept;
  • sharing a common question; or
  • combining different strengths for a collaborative task.

Sometimes similar-readiness groups make teacher support efficient. At other times, mixed-readiness groups produce better discussion, multiple approaches, or peer explanation. The article on using ability grouping thoughtfully explains why the purpose and flexibility of a group matter more than the label attached to it.

When a mixed group needs to combine ideas rather than simply share a table, use the task-design and individual-accountability checks in the collaborative learning guide.

Scaffolding and Support

A scaffold is temporary support that helps a student perform work that would otherwise be out of reach. Examples include:

  • a worked example;
  • a partially completed organizer;
  • sentence frames;
  • a checklist;
  • chunked directions;
  • teacher modeling and think-alouds;
  • visual references;
  • guided questions; and
  • feedback at a planned checkpoint.

The support should fade as the student becomes more independent. If a scaffold remains forever, it can become a barrier of its own.

The Education Endowment Foundation’s guidance for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities places scaffolding and flexible grouping alongside explicit instruction and metacognitive support—not in place of strong whole-class teaching. That is a useful planning guardrail: start with a clear, accessible lesson, then add targeted support where evidence shows it is needed.

Multilingual learners may need language support while working with grade-level concepts. The guide to supporting English learners without lowering expectations provides practical examples.

Plan One Lesson With Several Entry Points

A realistic differentiated lesson can still be one lesson. Try this planning sequence:

  1. Name the essential goal. What must every student understand or be able to do?
  2. Check the starting point. What evidence will show who is ready, who needs support, and who needs extension?
  3. Plan the core experience. What important text, problem, model, or task will students share?
  4. Select one or two adjustments. Change access, support, grouping, practice, or product where the evidence justifies it.
  5. Plan a midpoint check. How will you know whether groups or supports should change?
  6. Use common success criteria. What evidence will count as meeting the learning goal?

This is far more sustainable than designing a separate lesson for every student.

These decisions can be added to the site’s lesson-planning framework: keep one essential goal, anticipate access barriers, plan a midpoint evidence check, and decide in advance which supports can change.

For a broader way to judge what a sound idea requires under real classroom conditions, see the reality gap between educational theory and implementation.

Small Adjustments Teachers Can Make

  • Give everyone the same problem, but provide a worked first step to students who need it.
  • Preteach five essential words before a shared reading.
  • Offer a challenge question after students demonstrate the core skill.
  • Let students rehearse an explanation with a partner before writing.
  • Pull a five-minute group based on today’s exit ticket.
  • Provide a checklist for a multistep task, then remove it when students no longer need it.
  • Offer two ways to demonstrate the same understanding.
  • Use mixed-readiness groups when the task benefits from different viewpoints or approaches.

Differentiation and Personalized Learning

Differentiation and personalized learning overlap, but they are not identical. In differentiation, the teacher usually adjusts instruction for individuals or groups in response to evidence. Personalized learning may give students a larger role in setting goals, choosing pathways, monitoring progress, or deciding how to demonstrate learning.

Neither approach requires a separate curriculum for every learner. The guide to practical personalized learning strategies explains how goals, choice, pacing, and feedback can be used within ordinary classroom constraints.

The Pendulum Swings in Education

I remember veteran teachers telling me there wasn’t anything new in education. Approaches come and go under different names, they said, but many are repackaged versions of things teachers have done before.

There is some truth in that. Each class brings a new range of background knowledge, confidence, language, skill, and support. Teachers have always had to notice those differences and decide what to do next.

Differentiation should not become another elaborate display for an in-service day. Its value is practical: a clear goal, useful evidence, a manageable adjustment, and another check to see whether the adjustment worked.

When you are ready to put these decisions into a practical plan, use the Differentiated Lesson Planning Template to organize the shared lesson and the targeted adjustments students may need.

For more ways to vary instruction, assessment, grouping, discussion, and student support, visit the Instructional Strategies List for Teachers.

Sources and Further Reading

Michael Fallert, retired teacher and founder of InstructionalStrategies.org

Michael is a retired teacher with 24 years of classroom teaching experience and the editor of InstructionalStrategies.org. He focuses on practical, evidence-aware guidance teachers can adapt to their students, subjects, and settings.