Differentiation

Why Use Differentiation?

A good answer is, "Using differentiation is best teacher practice." This is true. However, the best answer is, "Because my class couldn't function if I didn't differentiate."

You know the saying, "Necessity is the mother of invention?"

In my class, "Necessity is the mother of differentiation."

Skip down to the end of this page to see a version of my class roster. Then you'll understand...

Pre-Assessments

My first step is finding out what the kids know and can do. Often students will say they can play piano, but once they sit down you find out they are at the most basic level and can't handle the demands of an ensemble. So I start with "Karate Belts."

Karate Belts to Pre-Assess Instrumental Skills

Recorder Karate is a record method written by Barb Philipak using public domain sheet music. Students start with the "white" belt, which aptly is "Hot Cross Buns." The pieces get progressively harder until they reach "black belt," which is "Amazing Grace," a piece with a large range and challenging rhythms.

I now use this book as a prompt for my differentiation. Rather than going through the belts progressively, I give the students 2 classes to reach the highest belt possible on any instrument of their choosing. Obviously if my prodigy violinist plays black belt perfectly, and then shows off with a Paganini caprice, I'm going to count all belts as completed and give them something harder.

I use Numbers to record where the students are in their "belts." This book is reported to be a "highly motivational method" and it's very true. The students get very excited to see what belt they have achieved and stay very focused on obtaining their next belt.

This is a handy document for keeping track of the students, which instruments they play, whether they belong to me (e.g. Soprano Recorder - 14 is mine), what levels they achieved, and whether any comments need to be made.

Teaching basic instrumental skills using Differentiation

Example: Canon in D

First of all, I need to make sure that everyone in my class has basic instrumental skills, and do it quickly because I only have students for 13 week blocks, and I still need to get them through the creative cycle at least once.

Step 1: Use karate belts as a pre-assessment to figure out what level kids are at.

Step 2: Find a piece of music that can be arranged to have easy, medium, and hard lines. Make sure a range of skills are taught. E.g. in the Canon example, the ukuleles have to use both finger-picking and strumming.

Step 3: Assign instruments as needed. For example, an intermediate student might get the challenging melody line. Or perhaps the very experienced violinist can move to viola, or the cellist can move to double-bass.
Remember - Differentiation is about challenging the advanced kids as well as supporting the struggling kids.
Video the students as they learn the music together. This not only improves their playing skills, but it "models" how to effectively use the creative cycle before they'll need to go and do it by themselves.

Sample Progress Video

This is a sample of a progress video made of "Canon in D." This is by far not a polished performance. The video was made at the end of class and the students' homework was to watch it and make an evaluation of how the group sounded and what else they could work on in the upcoming class. It's a good example of differentiation because of the instrumentation. E.g. The girl playing the cello in the video is a violinist who wanted to try something different. The other girl playing violin is playing a harder line than she is normally used to.

Students Using S.M.A.R.T. Goals to Set Personal Goals

One of our school's Professional Developmental workshops had us in groups creating materials and resources specifically for Differentiation. My group decided to use S.M.A.R.T. goals to allow the students to set their own goals for their learning. Everyone in our group was from a different department (Music, Mandarin B, Korean A, and Biology) and each of us made a different worksheet based on the same format.

I chose to do my worksheet on Criterion D: Personal Engagement because that can often seem like a "fuzzy" criterion for students. How can you assess someone's behaviour and attitude? I wanted my S.M.A.R.T. sheet to allow students to define Criterion D, to find some goal for improvement, and to clearly state the evidence of how their attitude will have changed.

(I also edited the Mandarin sheet, so if anyone wants it, please email me and I'll send it to you.)