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I am a preservice teacher and I was wondering how I could differentiate a certain science lesson while still teaching the same concept to the whole class?

There are a few variables you can play with to differentiate science lessons in class. You could switch up your presentation of the material. So instead of straight lecturing, you can show video clips/lessons or provide hands-on tools and activities. By varying your method of presenting the material, you will keep students more engaged in class as well as give them more experiences to draw on the remember material.

You could also switch up the format of your class. Can you do stations in your classroom? Basically you would create the appropriate number of stations so that you have about 5-8 students per station, and students would rotate in whatever way you plan. If you have some students who need to review previous concepts, you could design stations specifically for that purpose. Other stations could help students dive deeper into a topic with a mini-debate or planning a skit. This format takes more planning, but you can also re-use the basic design for future lessons!

Other variables you can play around with are your homework assignments and learning environment. The second half of this blog post on differentiation has some good ideas. Good luck!

Hi Emily,

I agree with Bo's suggestion to incorporate rotation stations with your students. In my classes, I call this activity an exploratorium. I have used them with several of my classes and they work beautifully. I would add to Bo's suggestions to set a timer to allow students to be held accountable for getting their work done. If students don't complete a station, you can always allow them to revisit the station at the end of the period. It is important to keep things moving so students stay on task.

In addition, I think that it is very important to group students by their ability to make your exploratorium most effective. One grouping strategy I use is clock buddies. Briefly, when using clock buddies, students are assigned several students pairs with whom they can work. If you go to this link, the strategy is explained in more detail. These are custom partners (or groups) that are made for each student in your classroom that correspond to the hours on a clock. You can find a clock buddies generator here. The benefit of using this strategy is it saves time in determining partners or lab groups. It also keeps students from only working with a few select friends.

What are some other differentiation strategies that other have used to make labs run more effectively?

I am also a preservice teacher and I have found that videos work for differentiating instruction. Videos can provided another perspective and also appeal to students who learn best through visuals. However, if you have a video that longer than about 4 minutes and is not a movie, it might be a good idea to pause every few minutes to have a whole class discussion. That way students are paying attention and not falling asleep!