Differentiating for Lower Achieving Students (Without Lowering the Bar) [Episode 170]

Rebecca Joyner 0:00
So you’ve got your list of standards, you’ve got the Elos from your department head, you have the benchmarks for your EOC exam at the end of the year, and yet you find that your students are further behind, they’re lower than the bar. They’re lower achieving than is expected of them for the course that they are in that you are teaching them. Maybe this is an on grade level CP course, or maybe it’s students in your honors section that probably shouldn’t be there, that aren’t performing at that expected honors level. How do you differentiate to serve these students that are achieving lower than is expected? And if I’m honest, I don’t love that term, like lower achieving, but just like for simplicity and consistency sake, we’re going to continue to use it. And today I’m going to share with you nine tips for serving this population of students, and a final tip at the end that’s really going to be specific, for serving these students who are the outliers in a class that’s designated as advanced. So most of these tips are going to be for your like, on grade level course that’s just like, lower than it should be. It’s really below grade level, and it should be on, like, how are you going to kind of bring them along? And at the end, we’ll talk about specifically the students that are in that next level course, that are in that advanced course, and everyone else is kind of hanging in there, and they’re kind of falling behind. What’s the number one recommendation I have for serving them and catching them up and then remember, next week is where we’re really going to put this all together and talk about, okay, you have a section. I don’t care what it’s labeled, on grade level, honors, whatever, but just the range in there is so vast. How are we serving these mixed levels in one place. Traditionally, we see we kind of separate our students in haves in most schools into on grade level, into advanced, or honors versus CP, and so we’re going to be talking today specifically towards that on grade level group, but the mixed talk is coming next week, so stay tuned. But let’s get into these nine tips about serving your lower achieving students.

Rebecca Joyner 2:06
This is secondary science simplify, a podcast for secondary science teachers who want to engage their students and simplify their lives. I’m Rebecca Joyner from it’s not rocket science. As a high school science teacher turned curriculum writer, I am passionate about helping other science teachers love their jobs, serve their students and do it all in only 40 hours a week. Are you ready to rock the time you spend in your classroom and actually have a life outside of it? You are in the right place, teacher friend, let’s get to today’s episode. You

Rebecca Joyner 2:43
it First things first, no matter how behind or low or beneath the bar the students you’ve acquired seem to be when they get to your course, remember that you still have to cover the content. It doesn’t matter if you have two students with IEPs and five oh fours or 20 you are still expected to cover the content that is assigned to your course, whether that’s the standards, the learning objectives, whatever, there’s a difference between accommodating and modifying IEPs and five oh fours have accommodations for us to Make to help level the playing field for all students, whereas modifications is actually making the core content and skills easier for some students. So we’re not going to modify. We are going to always accommodate and serve those students and everything that they deserve with their accommodations. Okay, but in order to know what this bar is to even know if, like, the general mass in your class is behind it or ahead of it, or whatever, you have to know your standard deal, and you need to know them backwards and forwards. And I would like to venture to say you don’t just need to, like read them. I think the best way to know your standards and understand them and how they apply practically to your courses is to write objectives from your standards. So take your standards, and if you have not been given learning objectives for your course and for your standards, write them yourselves. Say, Hey, this is something that I can give to my students. I can give to parents and say, like you’re not going to send the NGSS to your sophomore chemistry parents and say, This is what we’re learning like that means, it barely means anything to us. It’s not gonna mean anything to them. But you can send a list of objectives and say, These are the things we’re gonna learn, these are the skills we’re gonna acquire. And I think when you do that, when you know your standards well, you translated those standards into applicable, clear objectives that your students, their parents and you really understand, you know them backwards and forwards, then you know what to focus on.

Rebecca Joyner 4:47
What’s the bare minimum we need to find success in the EOC to pass this course, whatever that becomes our starting point. Then you can add in things from there, as. You see fit, you can use your discretion there, not just for your honors courses, but for your on grade level as well. For instance, NGSS does not expect students to know the steps in mitosis and meiosis, but I have personally found that it kind of helps them walk through the process a little bit easier if they see those names. They’re names that they most likely saw in life science in seventh grade. So I like to bring those back up again. You can do that and not assess on it. You can do that and assess on it. It’s up to your discretion. But I think one thing that’s really important before we immediately just assume our students are really far behind, is make sure we’re really clear about where they should be. And I think oftentimes we don’t actually know that very well. So let’s get really crystal clear on that. First, if you need help with that, I have an exercise in my lessons, virtual professional development mini course that’s all about, like analyzing your standards and learning how to understand them for yourself. And so I’ll link that in the show notes. But I just want to make sure that’s clear. First,

Rebecca Joyner 6:00
We have to know our standards before we decide whether or not our students are not meeting the bar, or they’re low achieving, or whatever. Okay, now from there, if you know where you your students should be, you know where you need to get with them, and it feels like we’re struggling to get there, and we’re really far behind. Here are my nine tips for you. One clear expectations. Y’all from day one, if you can, obviously, if you’re listening to this, when this airs in February, you’re on day, you know, 105 or something with your students, I don’t know, but like, you’re so far past day one, I get it. But start now. Start with your next unit. Start on a Monday. We love a fresh start on a Monday with clear expectations. Acknowledge like, hey, what has happened, however, many months prior to this, five months before this, that we’ve been together is not okay. It’s not where we need to be. Some of this is on me. Some of it’s on you, but I will take ownership of this. Here’s where we’re going moving forward. Make it very clear, okay, we’re going to be changing how the classes run. I’m gonna have different expectations of you. So much of this with differentiation. Y’all, it starts with the culture of your classroom, and that’s such a bigger conversation than I can dive into right now in this episode, I’ll link that virtual PD course as well about culture. But I definitely think starting with clear expectations, your students make it so clear what you’re expecting of them, where you’re expecting to go, and make it clear how you’re going to help them get there.

Rebecca Joyner 7:25
This is one reason why I love using packets as my organizational tool for my instructional resources. At the beginning of every unit, I give each student a packet of all of their handouts for the entire unit. The cover page divides the unit into concepts, typically three to six per unit. Those concepts have objectives, skills and vocabulary terms that I outlined from day one. This is where we’re going. This is the goal post. This is what you need to know for the test. Every instructional resource goes back to something on this cover page. Every assessment question goes back to something here. All of that goes back to standards that’s going to equip them for their EOC and all of that jazz. So I think just even starting with saying this is what is expected of you, and here’s how I’m going to help you get there, is so beneficial for students. So number one, we’re going to have really clear expectations.

Rebecca Joyner 8:18
Number two, for these classes that are the majority students that you know are struggling bit are lower achieving. We’re going to structure these classes with a lot more reinforcement, because you’re probably going to be covering more of like the bare minimum content and skills that you need. That means you’re going to have shorter direct instruction, less notes, less depth that you’re diving into, and hopefully then reclaiming more time that you can reallocate for reinforcing practice and extra lab time, which we’ll talk about in a second, but that is the hope. That’s where I think it’s really important to again, before we even got into the tips, get super clear on what you actually have to teach your students because you might be going way more into this than you need to. I will never forget when I took over AP Bio from the previous teacher, who I love and respect so dearly that teacher had not been to an AP summer institute or any sort of college board training since they rewrote the AP Bio exam, and so he was still teaching, like the old school stuff. He was still using, you know, fr cues from the 2007 2008 exams, and the exam and the course had changed so much. And y’all, he gave me all of his lecture notes. He gave me all of his resources. He was so generous in that. But what I found after going to AP Summer Institute and being challenged by my teacher there to really study the CD and know it backwards and forwards, I really found like, Oh, he is going into way more detail. I mean, he’s having the students memorize all of. Enzymes and cellular respiration, like all these different things we didn’t need to do. And when I started trimming out all this excess stuff that he had put in, I found that I had way less that I actually had to teach, which created more space to do what I just said, have reinforcing practice on those really challenging skills, which for my students was, unfortunately, so much of like the graphing and lab skills, and, of course, a lot of the math where they were a lot weaker. So we got to have more time reinforcing those skills. And then the labs in AP Bio are really challenging, and we had more time to spend on labs, which we’ll talk about also, again in a minute. So make sure you’re creating space you’re knowing your standards well enough that you’re not teaching more than you have to, so that you can create more time for more reinforcement. These students, they need more than just one practice handout. They need a couple.

Rebecca Joyner 10:52
Now, where do we find the space in our class periods in order to have more time for this reinforcing that comes from having more structure in your class periods. Okay, that’s tip number three. My on grade level classes were so much more highly structured than my honors than my AP Bio classes. I’m not leaving it open ended. You know, I’m not leaving as much space for discussion as much space for tangents. Everything is built out. Every minute is planned. There’s not this time where it’s like, Okay, here’s something. Go off and work on it. We’ll circle back in 20 No, I’m using timers. I’m timing every single thing. I’m saying, Okay, here’s a five minute timer. You’re gonna work in silence on these practice problems completely by yourself. When the timer goes off, you’re gonna come together with your partner. You’re gonna compare what you did with them. See if you guys can help each other for another five minutes. Then we’re gonna get together and we’re gonna go over this as a class like I am constantly keeping the pace in these classes so that they don’t get off task, so that they don’t get distracted, and we can reclaim every single minute possible to have it, because we need it. We need as much time as possible to get these things covered in our class periods. And so if you need help with precise planning of your time and tight transitions between your instructional activities and your course, check out episode 92 I share all my best pacing tips there. It’s something I’m really, really passionate about. But so I think having that solid structure in my classes, especially these classes with a higher percentage of struggling students of low achieving students, makes all the difference. Now I mentioned back when I talked about having more time for reinforcement in labs. That’s where we’re gonna circle back to this.

Rebecca Joyner 12:35
Now, tip number four is I highly recommend, if you have a class period that is lower achieving no matter what the designation of the class is, would you consider doubling the time for the lab that you would do in a higher achieving course? Okay, so for example, if you block out two days to do this natural selection lab in your honors class, block out three and a half to four in the other section, in your struggling section, in your on grade level section, so that they are not rushed and you can provide more support. I have found so much with my lower level students that oftentimes lab days, they just totally see as like fun days and goof off days, because they just accept that they’re not going to learn anything from it, and they’re like, it’s an opportunity to be out of my seat and be social, and then I’ll try to copy the answer from someone else when she makes me inevitably turn something in here, they don’t see the immense value in doing a lab. How, if you’re being really strategic with the labs you choose, these are invaluable instructional opportunities to better understand what we’re learning, and so I’d rather do less labs and spend more time on them. So again, they’re not rushed. They feel the freedom to ask me questions. I typically don’t put limits on my lower achieving students in terms of the number of questions they can ask me. You know, with my higher achieving I usually, typically say, like, each lab group can only ask me, you know, two or three per class period, they have to ask each other first and use all your resources at your disposal to figure things out before you come to me. But I’m not going to do that. I’m going to create more space so we aren’t having to rush through it. And I find, oftentimes, the frenzy and the stress of a lab day comes around being rushed, and so I eliminate that in my CB classes by literally adding double time as needed. And then you can provide more support for them to help them with those graphs. Have every student if you have to come up after they’ve labeled their axes and make sure they’ve evenly spaced them before they even start plotting points, have a conversation with them. Hey, before you even start drawing anything, should this be a line graph? Should this be a bar graph? Should you connect the dots on the graph? If it is a line graph or not, you know, start having those conversations. And you can only do that if you have the space to do it. So definitely block out more time for your labs if you can’t do double just even one. An extra day will make a difference.

Rebecca Joyner 15:02
My fifth tip for serving these students is more guided inquiry and less full inquiry. I love inquiry. I totally see the value in inquiry based investigations, inquiry labs, like all the things, but at the end of the day, we have to reclaim more time in these classes, and we don’t just get extra time. We have the same length of class period as any other class, but we need more time for reinforcing. We need more time for skills practice. We need more time for labs. And so one of the ways we can do that is kind of pull the reins back on the inquiry and do more guided inquiry, smaller inquiry activities that introduce a topic that can only take 15 or 20 minutes, and then diving in a little bit deeper into the content, I find are really, really effective for these on grade level classes that might have the higher percentage of lower achieving students.

Rebecca Joyner 15:54
Number six is arguably the most important tip, which maybe I should have put it at the end and like kind of built to there, but we’re already running with it, so let’s just keep going. Is y’all equip these students with tools. The lower achieving students get the most tools in their toolbox. Okay, this can look like so many things. It can look like reference sheets on tests. It can be as simple as on the top of practice handouts. You type in the equations that they’re going to need for this practice handout, just so they have that as a quick reference. It could be outlines for any research based project. That’s one of the ways I scaffold my research projects in my courses. I mentioned in my last episode, episode 169 my genetic disorder research project that I do in biology for my on grade level, lower achieving classes, I give them a list of topics to choose from that I know that they’re going to have no problem finding research on. And then the second thing I give them is I give them an outline for research. This could be as simple as, like, Here are 10 questions for you to type into Google. Or it can be, you know, a little bit more open ended. It could just have, like, some labels and things like a chart that they’re going to fill in to get the information. I do this for my superhero project in physical science too. I used to teach Physical Science to eighth and ninth graders. So they were definitely, even if they weren’t just, like, low achieving in general, they were just, you know, younger students that needed more scaffolding when it came to understanding how to do research well, and so I highly recommend doing that. That’s a tool that you’re giving them. All those are different tools. Now, let’s say you’re like, oh, how do I come up with these things? Like, how do I just, like, it’s hard enough to come up with the project and the rubric. How do I come up with the outline and the list of topics and all of that? Here’s what you do. You do the same project in your CP class and your honors class, okay, but you have your honors class do it first. Let’s say you give them a day in class to research and decide on what genetic disorder they’re going to research. Then you see what they’ve come up with, and say, Hey, what do you want to do? Have you found a lot of information on it? That kind of thing. You start building your list of topics. From there, if they want to research some disease that runs in their family, and you realize, like, oh, there’s not, this is kind of obscure. You’re not going to find a lot of information or, Oh, this is actually much more complex in terms of how it’s inherited, then you’re going to really be able to grasp let’s take this off the list. That’s how you start to curate your list. And you can reuse this and add to it year over year, as students find new things that are good topics to research. You can say, hey, what were some of the things you Googled at the end of class? Make it an exit ticket and honors. Y’all say, hey, write down two of the things you put into the your Google search in order to find great information today when you’re researching. Or even better, Hey, before you leave, every person needs to email me the link to one website you used as a great source for information, and then you put all those on a Google Doc, and you distribute those as tools for your lower level students who need more support. Okay, then again, you’re repurposing it, and you’re not having to just start from scratch. In serving these students, you’re using your other classes to have a little bit more autonomy, like we talked about last episode, and having them take the bulk of this and then using that to create tools for your lower level students. That’s how I recommend scaffolding those types of things, but we’re going to give them more tools.

Rebecca Joyner 19:11
My seventh tip is to evaluate your tests and make them more structured and have lower Bloom’s Taxonomy questions. Think if this is a two or three part question, don’t just write the question, break it down into the two or three separate parts and say this is Part A, this question, Part B, Part C, or just simplify it all to step a, so it’s not as overwhelming of elite for them to climb in their thinking process to get there. I never do like compare and contrast, prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Instead on a CP test, because I give them an answer sheet, it would have a chart, and it would have blanks for them, and it would say three differences, 1232, similarities, one, two that they’re going to fill in that’s the kind of structure that’s so good for them you’re not modifying. The content they’re still having to learn the differences between procureurs and eukaryotes, but the way they’re going to share their understanding is going to be a lot simpler for them, as opposed to just saying, hey, you know, write a short answer about comparing and contrasting these two types of cells. So that’s what we want to do with our tests, much more structured, lower Bloom’s Taxonomy questions. And of course, you can always do less questions, too.

Rebecca Joyner 20:21
Number eight, for my tips for serving your lower achieving students, know that they need more time to learn content, of course, but they also just need more time to learn how to learn and to just practice learning skills. Okay, so hopefully you’ll have more time to do this as you’re covering less content with them, but this is things like they need more support with how to take notes. Like, even if you give them completely filled in notes, which we’ll talk about next week, you need to teach them how to engage with those filled in notes. How, while you’re lecturing, they can be highlighting certain things, or marking certain things, or writing questions off to the side, or just active listening and then asking you questions as you are talking like, we need to teach them how to do that. We need to teach them how to make study guides, how to study like, how to do things in lab, how to make graphs and all this is going to be best done by modeling. Modeling, modeling again, it’s going to feel like a lot more teacher centered in that regard. But if it’s like, I go, now you go, we take turns. It’s going to get them engaged with that, but they’re going to need more time with skills practice. And I think if you just have that expectation going into teaching, like an on grade level biology course and saying, like, I can’t just dive into macromolecules. Like, I know I’m gonna have to, like, really review a lot of this stuff more. I think it’s just gonna get you in a better headspace, not feel like you’re constantly behind, but to have a better idea of, like, No, I’m just, like, serving my students and meeting them where they are, and I know that they’re gonna need more time to learn these skills.

Rebecca Joyner 21:59
Okay, so let’s review. We’re gonna have clear expectations, lots of reinforcement, more structure, double our lab time, if possible, more guided inquiry and less full inquiry. We’re gonna equip them with more tools than we would like an honors class. We’re gonna look at our tests and make sure that they’re very structured. Our answer keys are more structured. They have lower Bloom’s Taxonomy level questions. And yeah, we’re really supporting them and helping them get to the answer with tools, even in the answer sheet that they’re filling out. And then eight, we’re going to build in more time for them to learn and practice the skills that they’re going to need, just basic learning and studying skills.

Rebecca Joyner 22:40
And then last but not least, number nine. Just like with differentiating for higher achieving students, we can serve our lower achieving students by offering them more choices. Allow students to show what they know in a way that suits them and their learning style best you know if you can do a whole choice board with nine options, more power to you. It could be as simple as just giving them two or three choices for an output. Hey, you can write this, or you can draw this. You can demonstrate this with like, a more hands on thing, or you can create this sort of model for your more artistic students. Like, just giving them options is so helpful. Also, as much as like, they need support and they need tools, I also think giving them freedom to learn as they need to learn is so helpful, for instance, with study guides. Yes, I model for students how to make a study guide. I do this at the very beginning of the school year, and I’ll link a blog post I have about how I do study guides for you. But I also really encourage students like this is how I would make a study guide, because this is something that I like to study from visually. But you may feel differently. Maybe yours needs to be more tech based. Maybe yours needs more visuals. Maybe yours needs to be more physical. Have flaps, have something you’re using with your hands so that you’re engaging with it that way. Maybe yours needs to be something that you’re recording and then listening to. Is more auditory, I don’t know, but giving them those choices to create study tools for themselves in a way that really serves them, I think, is going to really help them as well in your class and down the road.

Rebecca Joyner 24:11
Now, those are my nine tips, just for like, a general class that’s just lower achieving across the board. So I know I don’t want to leave you hanging, even though next week, we’re going to be talking about mixed classes with, like, a ton of range in your abilities. I don’t want to leave you having to wait one week. So my last tip for you is for those outlier students. Specifically, if you’re teaching, like, an honors or an AP and advanced course of some kind, and there are students in there that are lower achieving, like, they honestly may not have been put in that course, like if you had been there. Maybe you want to put them in it. Maybe their parents push them to do it. Maybe they’re one of those students that’s like, I’m honors everything, even if really they should only be honors, English and history and maybe on grade level math and science. I don’t know. I don’t want to put labels on them, but we’re talking about those outlier students. In Your Honors course that are really, really struggling. If you’re anything like me, you might be exasperated with them. You might be just frustrated, like you shouldn’t be here in the first place. You had a choice, and you chose to be here, and now you’re not stepping up, and now it’s my fault, like I would get frustrated like that. Sometimes there’s more going into it, and maybe it’s not their fault that they’re there. Maybe their parents force them, I don’t know. So if you’re anything like me, and you’re feeling impatient and exasperated with them, here’s one way you can serve them without exasperating yourself. Okay, tools. Give those students some of the tools that you’re giving your CP biology or your on grade chemistry level students and help support them. So for example, you’re doing a research project. Maybe no one else in that honors course is getting the research outline, but you’re going up them and saying, Hey, you’re slipping them a printout and say, Hey, use this while you’re researching for this project. Or, hey, here’s two or three websites that would be helpful for you. Or, Hey, come after school today, and I’m going to walk through your study guide with you how to do it, so that then you’re more equipped with this skill of making a study guide for future study guides. So in like my CP class, I’m doing this as a whole class with everybody with these outliers in an honor class. I’m saying, hey, come, come meet me, and we’ll do this together once, and then you can run with it from here. Like one of the biggest tools I push for those outlying students is tutoring. I’m a huge fan of having a consistent tutoring time, mine was always 30 minutes after school every day, three to 330 and really encouraging them, like, come in. I will help you with this. I will walk through this with you. You probably just need more in reinforcement. I will help you with that and be there for them. And then at the end of the year, have an honest conversation with them as they’re picking their courses for next year’s schedule. And just say, Hey, what is your reason for picking this? Do you feel like this is really best for you? Here’s kind of what I’m thinking, and you can kind of go from there and making sure they don’t fall into this trap of feeling like they have to be all honors all around.

Rebecca Joyner 26:54
Okay, so that’s your take home challenge for today. That’s your one tip for those outlier students, serve them with tools for everyone else, for just your general on grade level courses, pick one lab or project or test and apply these principles to it and see how you can scaffold it and differentiate it to better serve your students and help them get to where they need to be. And stay tuned, because next week, I’m really excited to dive into those questions y’all been asking me about mixed level courses, and how to say, Hey, I’ve got 35 students in this one section, and it is a wide range. How do I serve them all? We’re going to navigate all of that next week. So make sure you come back to listen, and you can find this week’s show notes at instant rocket science classroom.com/episode,

Rebecca Joyner 27:40
170 and I would love it if you would leave a review today, if you haven’t already, if you heard something new in today’s episode that you haven’t thought about doing before with your students and you’re excited to implement all right teacher friends, that wraps up today’s episode. If you’re looking for an easy way to start simplifying your life as a secondary science teacher. Head to It’s not rocket science classroom.com/challenge, to grab your classroom reset challenge. And guess what? It’s totally free. Thanks so much for tuning in, and I’ll see you here next week. Until then, I’ll be rooting for you, Teacher friend!