21st Century Strands & Strategies
Chapter: Strands & Strategies: Deep Dive
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Flexible Grouping is consistently used to drive and deepen student growth
and achievement.
Learners are expected to interact and work together as they develop
knowledge of new content. As one of the foundations of differentiated instruction,
intentional grouping and regrouping must be a dynamic process, changing the
content, project and on-going assessments to meet the diverse student needs. Groups
of students are not fixed. Teachers may conduct whole-class discussions of content big
ideas followed by small group or paired work. Student groups are coached from within
the group of by the teacher to complete assignments. Appropriate instructional
strategies and resources are used to flex instruction to the needs of individual and
groups of learners.
Connections
Based on a teacher’s understanding of their students’ readiness, ability and learner
profile, they can adjust three key elements of any curriculum: content, process and
product.
Content
Process
Product
Content refers to what the
teacher wants the student
to learn and the materials
or mechanisms through
which that is accomplished
(Tomlinson, 1999, p. 11).
Simply put, this is what
students learn.
Process refers to the
activities designed to
ensure that students use
key skills to make sense out
of essential ideas and
information (Tomlinson,
1999, p. 11). Process also
refers to how a student
makes sense of, or comes
to understand, the
information, ideas, and skills
that are at the heart of a
lesson (Tomlinson, 2003, p.
5). Simply put, this is how
students learn.
Product refers to the
vehicle through which
students demonstrate and
extend what they have
learned (Tomlinson, 1999, p.
11). Product refers to
assessments or
demonstrations of what
students have come to
know, understand, and be
able to do as the result of
an extended sequence of
learning (Tomlinson, 2003,
p. 5). Simply put, this is how
students share what they
know.
As teachers discover the readiness level, interest, and learning profile for each of their
students, they tailor the five tenets of differentiated instruction to meet the needs of the
whole child.
Readiness Level
Interest
Product
