Strategy 2: ReQuest

The students read a passage, then take on the role of teacher and write questions about the passage that their classmate and teacher will answer. A good way to incorporate this strategy into mathematics is to have the students write their own word problems for their peers to answer. After a topic is introduced and practiced, the students then either individually or in pairs, write problems involving the math topic. To make the class more interactive, students would exchange problems among themselves, and take turns presenting their solutions to the class. A follow-up activity to the initial presentation could be for the group who wrote the question to provide an alternate method of solving the same problem.

This strategy is excellent for differentiation because each student will develop a problem at their individual level of mastery helping them gain confidence with the material. Also, students are exposed to multiple ways to solve the same problem, allowing them to choose the method which best matches their strengths. This also puts students in charge of their own learning.