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Hama:
Initially grouping was done based on their entry scores for reading and for writing. Very quickly though you get a feel for where students are at, depending on the task that we're doing. So for the task set, we looked at our class at the moment, it was writing. And looking at both creative and transactional writing.

And so students are at a certain level. That level is being based on what we've been doing in class leading up to this point. So I've grouped them according to their writing level. The writing level is something pretty transparent. We're looking at between levels three and six, well, really two and six, in my class. So I know exactly what to look for, and what to test for, and what to see. And I group them according to that ability. In saying that, I will break things up a little bit. I will get the higher ability students to pair up with those that are needing to work on a certain thing. Sometimes even, a student from say, a low-ability group, while they really excel in a certain area. So I'll put them up and get them to lead other students.

In the computer lab, what that looks like is our high-ability students, they work right in the middle, right in the hub, ideas kind of flow in between them. And that allows me to go around the outside and work with those that are kind of at a level two, three, and even a four. So they're there on the outside. I can really monitor them and work closely with them. And I've got to be really deliberate about where people sit, about who they group with. I need to challenge students socially, on where they sit. But also, I need to be able to work with a certain group on a certain skill. Something they need to focus on that other groups don't need to focus on. So depending on our space, depending on where we're at, they're always in groups.

Student 1:
It helps me better to work in groups so when I don't know something, they can help me with it. And if my friend don't know what they're learning about then I can just help them.

Student 2:
There are lots of different ideas that other people have, so you can add those on to your own ideas and make one really good, cool idea.

Speaker 3:
He helps me learn by mixing Māori with English and he lets... he sometimes lets me choose my own groups.

Hama:
Tuatahi, who's read Te Ao Hou magazine? Ka pai.

So you're going to write a piece for them. Maybe one day you will. Maybe this is the piece being sent to them.

Christine:
Each student has created their own Google site. And we've been working on poetry this term so that they've been creating poetry. And this is now their collection of poetry, and they're now putting their poetry into their Google site.

Student 1:
What we do is we write poems on our Netbooks and then we add it on to our sites. Then we eventually share it with our teacher once we've finished with the end result of it. And yeah, she can give us feedback on what we need to improve on and what she likes on our site.

Student 2:
One good thing about the Netbooks is that you can use colour and images to improve your work, and it comes out with a better finished product.

Student 3:
It's also fun because you can like personalise your work. You can put pictures and it's way easier to research things that you're learning about.

Student 4:
And that builds your confidence. So you can keep writing more. It's also good sharing with your family... your work with your family, because they tell you what to improve on next time.

Student 3:
It's cool sharing your work with family because also sometimes they don't think that you're capable of doing that quality, that level of work. And so they learn more about yourself and what you're up to and your work, and what you're doing at school.

Student 5:
One thing that I think I'm good at in my writing is making it creative. I know because my friends read my work and think that... like wow, it's pretty good. One thing that I could improve in is having more descriptive words.

Christine:
I'm learning at the same rate as the students and we're learning together and that's exciting. And actually they're coming up with solutions to problems that I'm encountering, and they're really quick with it, and they're teaching me.

And the Google site is really exciting because it's something that they can use for the rest of their school time here at Tamaki, and even after that. And they can just keep adding their work through year 10 or 11, year 12, year 13. And use it as a CV when they leave to go into university or wherever they want to go.

And we've had two students who have left recently from this class, and one has gone back to Europe, and I'm really excited because I'm hoping he's going to keep writing on his site so we can see where he's at.

Hama:
I got the unique opportunity to teach English to year 9 bilingual students. And we've got a real unique mix in there, which is awesome. Really creative class, very capable class. And what I've seen with them so far is an energy and a willingness to give things a go. So within it is a fairly broad range of ability. I've got students with a reading age of around eight, right up to students who are reading at 15 and 16. And the writing is at a similar sort of level as well with comprehension. So, yeah, I need to differentiate. I can't get up the front and try and do the same thing with everyone. And the main outcome I see is it makes things a bit more manageable for students. Helps build up students' confidence when they know that the task ahead of them is challenging, but ultimately doable. Whereas times I haven't use differentiation, the top students often they'll get bored with it. Middle students find it easy. The ones down the bottom well, they're gonna really struggle. So it's an absolute necessity for the kind of class I have.

Student 1:
The teacher writes that I need to learn... practice on my grammar and spelling, so that I can be an A-star student.

Hama:
Now the aim why we're doing this... is this, I want you to show improvement, that means you're getting better. Ka pai. To be gaining marks and a level above your current level. Right. You're at a level, and we need to raise that level up.

The areas we're going to focus on are ideas, development, structure, terms or language features, and then accuracy. Ka pai? We can have a quick look through that.

Paetae means what? Achieve. Kaiaka therefore means? Merit. And kairangi is? Excellence. Ka pai.

Student 2:
What do those mean?

Student 3:
Paetae means you've got lots of ideas, like, really good ideas but it needs developing. Like, you've got some examples but no paragraphs. And you just need to work on some of your spelling and grammar and punctuation. Merit, kaiaka, your ideas are really clear, but your examples lack in detail, so you need to put more detail in. You've still got some 'there is' there. But excellence. That's where it's nice and clear. It's persuasive. Good examples used. There's one main idea per paragraph, so you're really detailed in your work. So there's not much errors.

So which one are you going to go for?

Student 4:
Probably excellence because last time Matua told me that I have to improve on my punctuation.

Hama:
So one way to ensure that students know where they're at is we hold regular assessments. It might be written, it might be reading, it might be just a quiz. Anything like that. And that way I can feed back to them exactly what they need to work on, but also the level that they're aiming for. I don't say you're a level two or you're a level six, but what I will say is, you need to work on, say, paragraphing. And I get all this from our rubric, I get all this from our explicit level two to level six diagram. So all that feedback, I give that feedback orally. I write into their books. Any marking sheets they get, they stay with them in their books as well, so they can see it as well. But a student should know exactly what they need to be working on at any given time, any given assessment.

Student 1:
Matua lets me stand up in class and put ideas up on the whiteboard for the class to see, and then take the questions for the class to answer.

Student 2:
So we've got two questions here about the Olympics. And it can't just all be about the Olympics eh? So we chose to have one question about our school work. And lately we've just been studying about movies and stuff like that.

Student 1:
About movies – Hawaiki, short films...

Student 2:
And the movie we're studying this week so far is Hawaiki. That's pretty much it.

Student 1:
Just trying to warm up their memories...

Student 2:
Just make sure they learn. Instead of just talking to their mates.

It's kinda like homework too. But homework at school.

Hama:
There's a student here, I'm not going to name her. She's awesome and she's on this side of the class. ...has chosen to present her creative writing as a diary. So she's done journal entries here. "2/3 hard at school. Everyday I'm constantly fighting for acceptance." Kai pai. So she's made herself the character. She's going through and developing some awesome ideas. And through this we're going to see her story.

So options are really where it comes down too, and providing options that students are going to feel challenged by. Hopefully that they're going to see is a little bit relevant as well. That's really, really key. It doesn't matter what the skill is that we're looking at. The task needs to have these kinds of options in it. And it needs to be organised and grouped according to student challenge levels.

Sometimes I'll design a task where the initial scaffolding task will be a little bit easier. To get students warmed up into it. And then it gets progressively harder and harder and harder. So whatever is produced at the end of it, well, that should be where that student is working at. Obviously the more high-ability students, they can kind of race through things and finish it perhaps within that period or within the allocated time for that task. And so our other students need a bit more time to work through it and that's okay. And often, you know, it's negotiated. Often I'll sit down with the students or a group of students and say, well, okay, what do we need to do to get to that end?

So with the writing task, it was really deliberate in terms of the topics I picked. In terms of the depth of questioning. In terms of the kind of engagement I could have with it. Seeing that also... making it really clear what I was wanting, what I was expecting from each level was really, really important. Just so they know, I suppose, what to reach for.

There'll be some generic things I'm getting all the students to do, whether it be kind of on a creative level, or on a structural level. But each level should know exactly what they're aiming for, what the skills are they're needing to work on. And basically, feel some sense of achievement as well, at satisfying that level.

So having a plain marking criteria, or paearu paetae is what we call it, is really, really good. And I go through that with all the students before we do any kind of assessment. I often need to clarify that with students as well. So putting it into their language, I do use the terms of NCEA level one, and that's deliberate. That's so they get used to these terms, get used to the language in it. And so, hopefully that offers a fairly seamless transition into level one.

So explaining the task, going through it, and then working with individual groups on whatever they need to work on. Say a group shows that, I'm not sure, the introductions aren't really providing a good encompass of what they're going to be looking at. Well, we'll just work on introductions with that group. High-ability group, well they're working on how to include quotes a little bit better, how to integrate things a bit more. So I can just sit down with that group and work with them.

At every opportunity though, for using a student, try and jump at it. So and again, this tends to transverse or break out of the different levels often. So a student might be really, really creative, and come up with a heap of ideas that's going to help, you know, their peers. So I'll get that student to work with the ones that are struggling a little bit. And that works a lot better. The less I can talk, the better the learning is.

So this is a simple thing. Trying to share power. Ultimately, trying to make it a bit more co-constructive, and giving the students a voice. That seems to take a whole lot of skill sets. So just running the "do now" and also running the recap at the end of a lesson. I get students to do that. And they have free rein as to what they want to do. And some of them will run a game. Some, questions on the board. A little bit more traditional. It's really up to them. The idea being to build confidence, get them presenting, get them thinking about what we're learning about as well. And getting them to engage with each other. Seeing each other as a resource as opposed to just matua at the front.

Bringing this up a little bit more now, in term 3, is giving students the power to teach a skill that we're working on. Getting them to actually say, "well, this is how I do it, maybe you could do it as well". So the modelling comes from the students, the more able ones. I think that's one of the real benefits of having a class with such broad ability. The modelling doesn't just need to come from me, it can come from the students themselves.

Laura:
This class is my year 9 English class. They're a high-ability class. However, they're grouped by numeracy, so their literacy levels do vary. There are 18 boys and 12 girls in this class, which also makes for a challenge in terms of keeping everybody engaged and interested in the subject.

It's a mixed class of students from all over the place – we have New Zealand-European, Māori, and students from central and Southeast Asia. But we do have a number of students in the class who have English as their second language, and also who do not speak English at home. And also, it's really important that the lessons I provide for them are varied and do offer the potential for extension.

When I put the students into groups to complete tasks, I like to ensure that there are a range of students in each group. I try to look at their asTTle scores and ensure that there are two students working together who have similar ability, and two students working together who maybe need support or to bounce ideas off of those other students.

Laura:
So when I work with differentiation within this English class, I want to make sure that there is a variety of choice for the students, that is linked to our content in terms of the curriculum, and that has the students challenged to work towards level five of the curriculum.

However, I do also think it's very important to recognise their other abilities and strengths that they have that aren't in English; for example, we have some students who are very artistic or very musical, who enjoy writing and enjoy reading. I think it's important that every student in the class can bring their own individual strengths to the tasks that I set for them, so that they have the potential to achieve to a high level in English even if that's not their strong point.

When we did our novel study, I tried to make sure that the learning tasks could be linked to art or music or technology, the things that the students are interested in and are capable of doing. But at the same time, they're still extending themselves with literacy and their reading and writing.

Student 1:
"The only thing that Michael could hear was the zoom off the cars accelerating, and a few honks and beeps. He could also smell a faint tinge of smoke in the air but after that, nothing seemed out of the ordinary."

Student 2:
That was really good. So you're thinking... you think you need a change in there, and how do you know you need to change it?

Student 1:
I think I should add a little bit more of Michael's thoughts so people could know what his character and traits are. I know that I need to add more characterisation in this because in my last lesson that I had, my teacher said that adding characterisation makes the story better.

I feel that characterisation adds more thoughts and feelings and emotion into the character, which helps the story, which helps readers to find the story more interesting.

Student 3:
Well the way I evaluated mine was, I just used the checklist that the teacher gave us, and just went through my story and made sure it kind of went with all the ...

Student 2:
The little different things in the story, so they all matched up. Yeah, that works. Like I suppose if you get a story, sometimes you feel like there isn't... you're missing something. And you can look on there, you can just see if you've got it all or not. It's like a guideline. Yeah.

Student 1:
I think that the peer evaluation is really helpful for me because it allows my people.. my readers who read my story, give me feedback on what I could change or add.

Student 2:
You've got these two bits for this creative writing checklist. You've got a self-evaluation. So you're looking at the story and you're checking up on the different bits in your sort of own personal view. Say, have you used emotions in your story and stuff? So it's stuff you can sort of control. Then you've got the other bits, the peer evaluation. And it's... so you're getting another person's opinion and it's similar type of questions, but they've got a different type of edge to them. So you're getting another person's ideas and thoughts into your story.

So I can tell this stuff's at... it's got the level five work of the, sort of, English writing curriculum in it. You've got different things sort of covering a lot of the things that you need to have in a really good piece of writing. Like it's got, yeah, the character has emotions in the story, and it's got a beginning, a middle, and an end. So this type of stuff is working towards.. working at level five for the writing curriculum.

Student 4:
Being in a group helped me learn much better because, you know, other people's opinions and you can actually know what other people think about your writing, which means you can make your story much better and much more appealing to other people.

Student 5:
I like having a lot of choice in my work because I'm always doing something, I'm not just like stopping and not doing anything. And my friends are motivating me on, and I'm using the most of my time and learning a lot.