Doable Differentiation: Twelve Strategies to Meet the Needs of All Learners

by Jane A.G. Kise

Differentiating for students' learning preferences can often seem too complex and complicated for too little gain. Learn a better way forward with the guidance of Doable Differentiation. Author Jane A. G. Kise provides a series of straightforward, high-reward strategies that K-12 educators like you successfully use in their daily practice to support, engage, and challenge students with diverse learning styles.

Understand the benefits of differentiation and how to implement differentiated instruction simply and effectively.Learn students' preferred cognitive processing styles to better tailor differentiated lesson plans for all learners' needs.Discover 12 categories of research-based differentiation strategies to implement immediately.Provide students with a variety of accessible options for processing information, engaging in higher-level thinking, and demonstrating learning.Engage learners and develop their proficiency and self-efficacy. What Makes Differentiation Doable?

Part 1: The FoundationChapter 1: Cognitive Processes and Effective Differentiation Chapter 2: Clear Learning Goals and Expectations

Part 2: The StrategiesChapter 3: Choice Chapter 4: Wait TimeChapter 5: Unambiguous InstructionChapter 6: Pressure-Prompted AccommodationsChapter 7: Student-Centered Discussions Chapter 8: Curiosity Creators Chapter 9: Open Questions Chapter 10: Concept MapsChapter 11: Big NotesChapter 12: Moveable Organizers Chapter 13: Planned Movement Chapter 14: Talking to Write

Part 3: Lesson PlanningChapter 15: Two-Step Differentiation

EpilogueReferences and Resources Index

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

275 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 14, 2021

About the author

Jane Kise is a writer, education consultant, and corporate trainer. She has written over 25 books, including Educator Bandwidth, Doable Differentiation, Differentiated Coaching, and Intentional Leadership. She is a past president of the Association for Psychological Type International, an organization dedicated to constructive use of differences.

Reviews

[Gary Anderson]

Jane A. G. Kise’s Doable Differentiation: 12 Strategies to Meet the Needs of All Learners is a professional development resource that has been needed for a very long time. Practical, friendly, authoritative, and grounded in pedagogical theory, this book can move schools forward on their goals for “increasing learning for all students” (3).

Kise’s platform for designing differentiated lessons and activities is type theory, the understanding that individuals have cognitive styles incorporating preferences for extraversion or intraversion, and sensing or intuition. Every teacher knows how these preferences manifest themselves in classrooms in a variety of predictable behavior and thinking patterns but one of my biggest eye-openers was Kise’s demonstration that teachers also have these preferences, and they tend to consciously or unconsciously favor students whose types mirror their own.

Doable Differentiation covers twelve strategies that can be adapted for K-12 classrooms and across subject matter content. The beauty of the examples provided for each strategy is that many of them effectively differentiate simultaneously for multiple learning styles and provide equitable opportunities for every learner when used in simple rotations. The book’s pragmatism encourages teachers to adapt rather than overhaul what they are already doing so that “none of [their] students are at a constant disadvantage” (233) while assuring teachers that differentiation isn’t always necessary: “Sometimes, every student does need to be doing the same thing at the same time … As you plan for instruction, deliberately decide when and how [to] incorporate differentiation strategies” (8).

In addition to the rich number of specific examples and activities for a wide range of learning contexts, each chapter also provides other useful tools. These include ways to adapt the strategies for virtual classrooms, discussions of the research on which the strategy is based, and reflection activities that teachers can use individually or with colleagues. My favorite section of each chapter is Kise’s voicing of “Common Concerns.” She provides the most common objections to each differentiation strategy and deftly counters them with language that honors the concerns but focuses on how the benefits of each differentiation strategy outweigh or minimize the problems.

Although the strategies draw on situations from social studies, math, language arts, and science on both elementary and secondary levels, English teachers will be especially interested in the “Talking to Write” chapter. We tend to think of writing as a solitary activity, which by definition favors students with certain learning preferences. Kise makes an important contribution to writing pedagogy by offering differentiation strategies and activities to “help students clarify their ideas, expand their viewpoints, learn from the opinions of others, and, thus draft a better product” (216).

Doable Differentiation can be used in ways that are themselves differentiated. The book can be read straight through and then revisited for ideas that fit various needs, or it can be used as a collaborative book study within a school or department. Doable Differentiation also lends itself to those who prefer to browse and use sticky notes to mark the sections most relevant to their specific needs.

Through all of its rich discussion, Doable Differentiation maintains two inarguable principles: equity is important, and better thinking leads to better learning. With this book, Dr. Kise delivers another opportunity for teachers to examine their own thinking and practices while enriching their professional lives and the classroom experiences of their students.

(In the interest of full disclosure, I’m honored that Doable Differentiation includes an anecdote from one of my blog posts (202) and a mention in the Acknowledgements of my input in the book’s early stages.)

This review also appears on my What's Not Wrong? blog in slightly different form.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes it's my book, but I'm going by what the educators who submitted peer reviews said. "I need this book now!" "These strategies are doable!" "I can't wait to put this book into the hands of the team I work with!"

And I'm going by the teachers in my workshops who said, when asked which strategy they'd be trying in the next few days, "I'm using all of them."

You don't have to differentiate every second of every day. In fact, students need to develop agility with various ways of learning. I don't just want academic success for students--I want STEAM Squared as I call it: Successful, Thriving, Engaged, Agile, and Maturing. Don't you?

[Vikki Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

DI has been around for a long time and the practices are definitely tried and true! This book brings some new ideas to the table as well as some practices and strategies for virtual education!

[Matt Sautman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doable Differentiation provides a strong resource for ideas on differentiation to enable increased student learning across grade levels.

[Matthew Bertke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the most practical book on differentiation that I have read. It is immediately doable.