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Differentiating the High School Classroom: Solution Strategies for 18 Common Obstacles
"Places all of a teacher′s concerns on the table, and whittles them away with classroom strategies."
-Toby Karten, Educational Consultant
"The ideas in this book will be useful for years to come."
-William Fitzhugh, Teacher, Reisterstown Elementary School, MD
"In the good old days, we didn′t have to differentiate."
If this is how you feel about differentiated instruction (DI), you are not alone. Although research shows that DI maximizes learning and neural development, teachers still struggle with its challenges, especially in the high school classroom. Applying her unique expertise as a researcher, teacher, trainer, and parent, Kathie F. Nunley provides practical and supportive solutions to the real obstacles teachers face in mixed ability high school classrooms.
Each chapter lists an obstacle-"I have too much content to cover," or "I can′t grade all those different assignments," or "I thought I was differentiating"-and then
A discussion of the pedagogical and curriculum issues Ready-to-use solution strategies Examples and scenarios showing the strategies in action Practice assignments Written with common sense, wisdom, and humor, this easy-to-navigate guide is a must-have resource for all high school teachers and instructional leaders committed to the benefits of differentiated instruction for high school learners.
-Toby Karten, Educational Consultant
"The ideas in this book will be useful for years to come."
-William Fitzhugh, Teacher, Reisterstown Elementary School, MD
"In the good old days, we didn′t have to differentiate."
If this is how you feel about differentiated instruction (DI), you are not alone. Although research shows that DI maximizes learning and neural development, teachers still struggle with its challenges, especially in the high school classroom. Applying her unique expertise as a researcher, teacher, trainer, and parent, Kathie F. Nunley provides practical and supportive solutions to the real obstacles teachers face in mixed ability high school classrooms.
Each chapter lists an obstacle-"I have too much content to cover," or "I can′t grade all those different assignments," or "I thought I was differentiating"-and then
A discussion of the pedagogical and curriculum issues Ready-to-use solution strategies Examples and scenarios showing the strategies in action Practice assignments Written with common sense, wisdom, and humor, this easy-to-navigate guide is a must-have resource for all high school teachers and instructional leaders committed to the benefits of differentiated instruction for high school learners.
- GenresEducation
168 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 2, 2020
Practical solution idea section was super useful. Personal anecdotes made it easy to connect topics to the classroom.
February 16, 2026
A quick read for teachers with some good insights and specific examples of strategies to try. I was able to note several things to share with colleagues and try to implement in my classes. However, this book also seemed a bit outdated? Or at least not always fully applicable to the types of classes I teach.
July 3, 2022
So far, coming up with three alternative content media then three ways to grade (Level C - Knowledge, Level B - Application, Level A - Critical Thinking) for corresponding complexity is daunting.
I just finished and I gotta say, the author has four children with disabilities of her own, so she ties in linguistic input/output issues for autism and visual input/output issues for dyslexia. The 14 arguments that she refutes boil down to time and resource constraints that just aren't there. So my plan is to set up a C-know the steps, B-demonstrate the steps with knowns, A-critically demonstrate thinking that generalizes the skill and knowledge. In terms of using choice as a differentiator, I plan to offer direct teach only as an option, YouTube videos for those who want to hear from someone else ("flipped" style), and Gizmos for visual learners who just need the steps/model and don't want to process the spoken word.
I just finished and I gotta say, the author has four children with disabilities of her own, so she ties in linguistic input/output issues for autism and visual input/output issues for dyslexia. The 14 arguments that she refutes boil down to time and resource constraints that just aren't there. So my plan is to set up a C-know the steps, B-demonstrate the steps with knowns, A-critically demonstrate thinking that generalizes the skill and knowledge. In terms of using choice as a differentiator, I plan to offer direct teach only as an option, YouTube videos for those who want to hear from someone else ("flipped" style), and Gizmos for visual learners who just need the steps/model and don't want to process the spoken word.
November 11, 2018
This book provides very practical solutions to differentiation issues. Most books on differentiation involve theory - this one goes way beyond that. It is also a quick read.
December 8, 2008
Quick and straightforward read.
Nunley makes a brief and effective introductory argument on why bemoaning the lack of a homogenous classroom population is specious.
Centuries ago, a fraction of a fraction of the population was educated, then this increased to a fraction and now, we're expected to expected to teach every child.
(Nunley has an autistic kid, a dyslexic kid, and who knows what else, so she comes with a bucketful of credibility, also).
At any rate: she focuses on engaging students by providing them with choice both in terms of in-class work as well as assignments to demonstrate learning. Key to this is her argument that doing doesn't equal learning, and that very few of our "assessments" assess learning authentically. I imagine this is related to the idea of practice versus formative assessment versus summative, though she doesn't use those terms.
I like the idea of oral exams/quizzes, which eliminate Saturday and Sunday afternoons in front of the t.v., endlessly grading.
Also: providing students with different ways to learn. Listen to lecture & take notes (traditional), listen & "doodle"/"color in" a subject-related diagram, or read & take notes from a text (other options are also available, but these are the big three). Students will actually likely continue to choose the traditional option, but it's the act of creating choice that actually increases engagement.
Supposedly.
[grin]
We'll see how it works.
Nunley makes a brief and effective introductory argument on why bemoaning the lack of a homogenous classroom population is specious.
Centuries ago, a fraction of a fraction of the population was educated, then this increased to a fraction and now, we're expected to expected to teach every child.
(Nunley has an autistic kid, a dyslexic kid, and who knows what else, so she comes with a bucketful of credibility, also).
At any rate: she focuses on engaging students by providing them with choice both in terms of in-class work as well as assignments to demonstrate learning. Key to this is her argument that doing doesn't equal learning, and that very few of our "assessments" assess learning authentically. I imagine this is related to the idea of practice versus formative assessment versus summative, though she doesn't use those terms.
I like the idea of oral exams/quizzes, which eliminate Saturday and Sunday afternoons in front of the t.v., endlessly grading.
Also: providing students with different ways to learn. Listen to lecture & take notes (traditional), listen & "doodle"/"color in" a subject-related diagram, or read & take notes from a text (other options are also available, but these are the big three). Students will actually likely continue to choose the traditional option, but it's the act of creating choice that actually increases engagement.
Supposedly.
[grin]
We'll see how it works.
June 19, 2011
A loaner from our instructional facilitator, this practical guide describes why the high school classroom can no longer only employ the traditional lecture teaching format. Many ideas are relatively easy to implement. Nunley describes a grading system for scoring points for students completing different assignments, but is it standards based? I liked the NY (not yet) score being different than F (failed to try).
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews