In an ideal world, all students would have the necessary skills and perform at the standards for their level. English teachers would be able to select one method of instruction, trusting that they would reach every student, and enable them to engage with the tasks and perform their learning. However, this is not the case. Every student has a unique set of skills performed at varying levels, and they will not all be engaged with or even capable of the tasks set before them. This presents a challenge for all subjects, but particularly in English classrooms, where conversation and discussion are large parts of fostering the critical thinking skills necessary for developing text analysis abilities, and connecting ideas and responding to others is critical for fostering reading comprehension skills. Some level of commonality is required for students to be able to work together, respond to each other’s ideas, and reflect on different perspectives of the same situation. Because of this, creating individual tasks or assigning different content to each student can lead to stagnation in learning, but generalised and uniform instruction will only reach so many students, leaving the rest out of these important conversations and activities.
So how do we reach every student on their level, while practising differentiated instruction and still creating that common ground on which students can connect with each other’s work? There are a lot of tactics, and as difficult as it can be to put into practice in English classrooms, the subject also lends itself quite well to this problem.
Literature circles are not only fantastic opportunities for practising collaborative group work and involving many kinds of texts in the classroom. They also allow for many different tasks centred on common content while involving different skill areas and levels, so that students can do work they are capable of, and still relate and respond to their peers. More than that, it facilitates the ability to use many texts at once, so all students can work with a text that they will be able to comprehend, and others are not bored or intimidated by the content they work with. Each group works with a text tailored (as much as is reasonably possible) for their skills and interests, and can take on roles within their group that will engage their interests and provide them with a point of entry into the conversation with their other members. That common ground is still available to students – they are able to hear from their peers, connect those ideas the a text they are familiar with, and respond in turn. When linked text sets are used, and the whole class is working in different lit circles on texts that relate to each other, even more connections are possible. Students can find commonalities between texts, ideas, and questions, and have a basis for connection and idea-building, without the skill level demanded by the content standing in the way of larger discussions. They can also see how their ideas and perspectives relate to a larger collection of work, allowing them to develop even more connections to and from their text, and founding a greater base for them to draw understanding and build ideas from, and still be working at a level appropriate for them.
Thanks to the broad umbrella of content that falls under the discipline of English, the actual content that may be used can also facilitate reaching every student while still providing general lessons. Students may struggle with classic literature, and that’s just fine, because reading comprehension and text analysis is still present in YA novels, graphic novels, short stories, poetry, and even magazines. Other texts that aren’t prose, like articles, biographies, poetry, informational brochures, and instructional texts can similarly be delivered on a variety of levels and can cover any content area possible. Essay writing may not come naturally to most students – but written expression and idea communication can be done with creative fiction assignments, storyboarding activities, letter-writing, daily journaling, summarising tasks, and concept maps. Because language is used in almost every aspect of our lives, there is practically no limit on what constitutes content in an English classroom, meaning that ideas like convention, form, and style can be discussed across any number of texts, allowing for students to engage with content that suits them as people and as appropriate for their skill level as learners, while still being able to relate their work to their peers and draw on conversations and common concepts in order to further their understanding.
While differentiating instruction and content for students can be intimidating, and certainly requires a delicate balance, it is essential for ensuring that students are engaged and learning in every classroom. While an English classroom necessitate some form of common ground in order to develop essential skills, the subject is thankfully flexible enough to accommodate for this in a large number of ways, from delivery methods to content to tasks.