When an administrator gave me excellent scores for differentiation during a classroom observation, I was confused. I didn’t level the activity we were doing at all. Every student was working with the exact same text, the exact same questions, the exact same level of challenge. I had bought into the differention myth. So what was my admin seeing? Today I’m pulling on that thread. And it’s completely changed how I think about differentiated instruction.
If you’ve ever built three versions of the same reading, leveled by Lexile score, thinking that’s what differentiation’s supposed to look like, pull up a chair next to me. I used to think that was good teaching, but now I see it as one of the most well intentioned mistakes in education. And it’s part of a lot of the programs schools are buying now.
In this episode I walk through why leveling text down doesn’t help struggling readers get stronger, what the research from Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Tim Shanahan says instead, and what scaffolding up sounds like in real time in my classroom.
The Differentiation Myth
Ten years ago, an administrator watched me teach and gave me a glowing review on differentiation. The problem was, I didn’t think I was differentiating. I’ll walk you through what she saw me doing in that room, and why it took me a long time to understand what she meant.
There’s research that flips the leveling instinct on its head. I discuss what Fisher, Frey, and Shanahan argue happens when we hand struggling readers an easier version of a text, and why that might be keeping them where they are.
What Scaffolding Up Means in Class and at Home
I walk through a study guide prompt I use with students, modeled after a College Board short answer question, and show you how I get kids to work through it. Nobody gets an easier question. What changes is that the teacher provides the scaffolding.
I can’t scaffold like that for students while they read at home, so I teach two specific tools to help them struggle productively on their own, including one that reminds me of reading the Canterbury Tales in college with the original text on one side and the translation on the other.
Key Takeaway: Differentiation isn’t about giving students an easier version of the work. It’s about giving every student access to the same challenging material and showing up as the scaffold yourself, because leveling text down keeps struggling readers exactly where they are instead of helping them build the muscle to rise.
Key Moments:
00:00:42 – Leah introduces today’s topic: why leveled texts and leveled worksheets aren’t actually differentiation, and what the research says real differentiated instruction looks like.
00:01:30 – Leah tells the story of the classroom observation ten years ago that first made her question what differentiation really means.
00:03:50 – The research: Leah breaks down what Fisher, Frey, and Shanahan actually argue about leveling text down versus scaffolding up, including the “you don’t build muscle without lifting anything heavy” idea.
00:04:50 – Leah models a live scaffolding example using a College Board style short answer question on continuity in Chinese history, walking through the “apositive sentences” technique from The Writing Revolution.
00:07:50 – Leah shares how she teaches students to use Gemini Gems and Rewordify to keep struggling productively with challenging text at home, including her Canterbury Tales comparison.
00:10:10 – Leah closes with the core reframe: differentiation means giving every student access to the real, challenging material, not an easier version of it.
Resources and Links
The Writing Revolution – by Judith C. Hochman and Natalie Wexler
Rewordify – simplifies difficult text and lets students hover to compare the simplified version against the original
Gemini Gems – custom chatbots inside Gemini that can be programmed to question students through a prompt instead of giving them the answer
Research referenced – Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Tim Shanahan, “The Challenge of Challenging Text,” Educational Leadership (2012)
How to Build Strong Writers One Sentence at a Time: A Smart Literacy Strategy for Secondary Students – blog post about practicing writing at the sentence level
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Show Transcript
It had to have been about ten years ago. I had an administrator come into my classroom to observe me teach, and afterwards she sat down with me and told me I was doing a great job differentiating. She gave me very high marks for it, and I remember sitting there thinking, wait, what? I’m not differentiating. I don’t have a stack of leveled worksheets. I didn’t hand out three different versions of the same reading based on who could handle what. Everybody in that room was working with the exact same text, the exact same questions, the exact same level of challenge.
All I was doing was walking around the room, talking to students, clarifying something for one kid, rephrasing a question for another, helping somebody sound out a word, checking in with three or four students at a time about what they were reading and what they were being asked to do. That was it. That was the whole thing she was praising.
And that confusion stayed with me for a long time, because I think I had the same idea a lot of us have about what differentiation is supposed to look like. I think a lot of teachers hear differentiation and picture exactly what I thought it was. Multiple versions of the same activity, leveled out for different kids. Leveled readings for everyone. Questions rephrased based on the kid’s Lexile score. Well intentioned, for sure, but hear me out, I don’t think that’s actually what differentiation looks like. And once I started digging into the research, I realized why.
There’s a body of research from Doug Fisher, Nancy Frey, and Tim Shanahan that gets right at this. And it basically flips the whole leveling instinct straight on its head. Their argument is that when we hand a struggling reader an easier, watered down version of a text, we’re not helping them get stronger. We’re just making sure they never have to lift anything heavy. And if you never lift anything heavy, you don’t build muscle. You stay exactly where you are.
That’s the piece that changed everything for me. Scaffolding isn’t supposed to mean giving kids less. It does not mean scaffolding down. It’s supposed to mean giving kids the same challenging material as everyone else, and then standing there with them while they climb that scaffold. You’re supposed to scaffold up. The text doesn’t get easier. The teacher shows up. That’s the scaffold. Not a simplified version of an assignment. You.
So what does that actually sound like in the room? Let me walk you through something I do all the time, whether I’m teaching ELA or history.
I like to model my study guide questions after College Board short answer questions, SAQs. They’re open ended on purpose. They push kids to think and to back up what they’re saying with a real example, instead of just answering a flat, what does this mean, level one kind of question.
So let’s say the prompt is, explain the impact of continuity in Chinese history. Before we even get to an answer, I start with the word explain. What does explain actually require you to do? Well, to explain something, you first have to identify it. You have to describe it enough that it makes sense in context, the who, what, when, where. And then the explain part, the actual heart of the question, is the why or the how.
I teach kids to build a positive sentences, aka Writing Revolution. I’ll link to that book in the show notes. Positive sentences make sure that the kids are hitting all of it. So we start with, let’s identify a continuity in Chinese history. And a student might say, the civil service exam. Good. That goes back to some of the earliest dynasties in China and carries all the way through to the Qing Dynasty. So, civil service exam, throw up a comma. Now describe it. So a student might say, an exam based on Confucian principles that allowed the most capable people to rise into powerful government positions. Throw up another comma. Now we’re getting into the why or the how, the actual explain. Why did that matter? How did it shape Chinese history over time? That’s where the real thinking happens. And one thing I love about it is that there’s a lot of different ways a student could go with that response and still be right, as long as they’re actually grappling with the why or the how, and they’re historically accurate.
That right there, walking a kid through the process out loud, questioning them instead of just handing them the answer, is what scaffolding up looks like. Nobody got an easier prompt. Everybody got the same hard question. What changed was how much of me showed up next to them while they worked through it.
Now, obviously, none of us can be standing next to every kid at home. So here’s where I try to teach them to build that same muscle on their own.
If a student’s working through something like this at home and they get stuck, I’ve taught them to use a Gemini Gem. If you haven’t used Gems before, they’re custom chatbots you can build inside Gemini, and you can load one up with your own material, your own study guide prompts, and specific instructions for how you want it to behave. Mine are built to do exactly what I would do in class. Question the student, push them to think it through, and never, ever just hand them the answer.
And if it’s not a study guide question they’re stuck on, if it’s an actual passage, a piece of text they’re wrestling with at home, maybe they missed a day of class, maybe they can’t stay after for extra help, I teach them to use a tool called Rewordify. You paste the passage in and it simplifies difficult words and phrases for you. But what I actually love about Rewordify is you can hover your cursor over any simplified word, and it shows you the original right there next to it.
That reminds me of reading the Canterbury Tales in college, where you’d have the original Middle English on one side of the page and the modern translation on the other. You’re still looking at the real text. You’re still being exposed to the actual level of language you’re supposed to be working toward. You’re just getting a little help understanding it as you go. And the idea is that the more you do that, the less you’ll need it. Eventually, you hit that word or that phrase again somewhere else, and you just know it. You’ve built the muscle. You can read the harder text now, on your own.
That’s the whole thread I wanted to pull on today. Differentiation was never supposed to be about handing kids an easier version of the work. It’s about giving every single student access to the real thing, the challenging thing, and then showing up as the support that helps them get there. It asks more of us. It really does. You can’t hide behind a packet of leveled worksheets. You have to be present, and you have to be responsive, and willing to walk over to that fourth kid in twelve minutes and clarify the same thing four different ways.
But that’s the job. And it’s the version of the job that helps our kids become better readers, become more analytical, build their vocabulary, instead of just keeping them comfortable. So the next time someone tells you they’re differentiating because they made three versions of a worksheet, you have my permission to gently, lovingly tell them that’s not quite it, and then send them this episode.