Ready-to-Use Differentiation Strategies

Grades 3-5

Laurie E. Westphal

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000495676
• Subtopic: Education General

Not all differentiation strategies need to be time consuming and complex in development on the part of the teacher. Ready-to-Use Differentiation Strategies introduces various low-preparation, low-stress differentiation activities and strategies that can be implemented immediately in any content area in grades 3-5. Each differentiation strategy encourages higher level thinking and intellectual risk taking while accommodating different learning styles.

This book features a description of each strategy, how it serves students, and tips and techniques for making it your own, as well as how to use each strategy in the classroom with students. Following each explanation, specific examples are included as well as templates to make each technique ready to use. These specific examples can be used as written or can be modified to meet the needs of a particular classroom. This book also provides templates that can be used to develop new lessons using each strategy. Ready-to-Use Differentiation Strategies provides an easy-to-use way to begin differentiating for all students in the classroom!

STRATEGIES REQUIRING LOW PREPARATION

DOI: 10.4324/9781003237587-3

BLACK OUT BINGO

Learning Styles Accommodated

• • Auditory
• • Tactile/Kinesthetic
• • Verbal
• • Visual

Best Practices

• • Preassessment
• • 10-2
• • Independent Practice
• • Review

Description

• • Black Out Bingo asks students to create their own Bingo cards using the content being studied. Once they have done this, their goal is to black out the entire card through discussion or one-on-one interactions.

Implementation

• • Each student receives or creates a Black Out Bingo board. The number of squares (4-16) is determined by the amount of time available for the activity.
• • Once students have created their board (as needed), they need to record vocabulary, key words, examples, and essential questions from the current unit of study onto their Black Out Bingo board. Depending on the students’ levels, it works best to have the class brainstorm these ideas together and have students place their selections from the list randomly on their boards.
• • After they have finished their boards, students are given a set amount of time to play Bingo in which they mingle with their classmates, answering questions and obtaining signatures. An example interaction might look like the one below:
  • o Anna and Jessica pair up. Anna chooses an available (unsigned) concept, vocabulary word, or key question box on her Black Out Bingo board.
  • o Anna reads what is in the box and then shares an example of the concept, the definition for the vocabulary word, or the answer to the key question with Jessica.
  • o If Jessica feels the answer is the correct, she will sign the bottom of the box that Anna just completed.
  • o Now it is Jessica’s turn to choose a box from her own paper. If she has the same box that Anna selected, she is not allowed to choose that one. Instead, she must pick another box, read it to Anna, share her answer, and have Anna sign her paper if she believes the answer is correct.
• • The exchanges continue until one student (or a designated number of students) receives a black out or time is up.

Specific Uses or Ideas

• • Preassessment: A sample preassessment Black Out Bingo board is found on page 64. This board has extra space, which allows students to record their responses once they have been shared; the board can be turned in so the teacher has preassessment information on hand. The preassessment Black Out Bingo board is used in the same method as discussed above; however, it has the added benefit of a free space. This free space gives students a “free pass” on one of the questions on their board and instead of answering it in front of a classmate, they get to ask a question to another student.
• • 10-2: Before the beginning of the lesson, a master list of concepts, words, and ideas is posted for students. After creating an appropriatesized Black Out Bingo board (approximately a 3:4 ratio of the number of squares to the list of concepts), students randomly place the ideas from the master list. As the lesson progresses, each time students hear one of the items they chose for their Bingo board, they place a mark beside it. When instruction pauses after approximately 10 minutes, students can fill in information about each of the boxes they have marked. At this time, if anyone has obtained a black out, the student is asked to share responses to two or three concepts that the teacher requests at random. Instruction continues and eventually everyone will have a black out.
• • Independent Practice: To encourage problem solving and collaboration, pairs of students are given Black Out Bingo boards with various realworld word problems on them and one free space. The pairs are given approximately 10 minutes to solve the problems before beginning their interactions with other pairs. Once they pair up with another group, each pair will share one of its problems, how the students solved it, and the answer; the other pair must decide if it agrees with the answer (and therefore sign the square) or disagrees (leave the square empty). Each pair then moves onto another pair with another problem. This can be done with any content-based questions as well.
• • Review: When using Black Out Bingo for review, the more variation is in the concepts used on the Bingo board, the better. Therefore, it works best if the list of options contains more than twice the number of boxes students will be completing. The more options there are, the more review the students will be exposed to during their interactions.

Materials

• • Black Out Bingo board or folded paper

Modifications

• • Variations on the content Bingo cards can be created in advance by the teacher and distributed for student use.

Sample Explanation

• • The following pages offer both a generic Black Out Bingo template and a sample preassessment Black Out Bingo template that can be used as they are or modified to meet the students’ needs.

Black Out Bingo

Record a vocabulary word, key word, ex...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• What Is Differentiation?
• Strategies Requiring No Preparation
• Strategies Requiring Low Preparation
• Resources
• About the Author