Using Differentiated Task Cards

Debbie Willingham
May 09, 2011

How can Differentiated Task Cards provide a focus for the needs or interests of the learner?

As teachers, we always want to find ways to work smarter rather than harder. One great way to do that is to develop activities and assignments that can be used more than once during the school year. Including easy, automatic differentiation based on student readiness or interest adds another bonus. By creating a variety of really good generic assignments and rubrics to grade them, you can be assured that the tasks you ask students to complete are at the right degree of rigor for their individual readiness levels, or that you provide different options to allow students to show their understanding of a topic. This means you are both differentiating and creating meaningful assignments that can be used again.

One example of this kind of generic assignment is Differentiated Task Cards. The idea is adapted from Sandra Schurr’s “Generic Cards for Reading a Short Story or Novel” in her book, Prescriptions for Success in the Heterogeneous Classroom, published by the National Middle School Association. The adaptation moves the idea of skill cards in reading to a set of differentiated task cards based on Extending Thinking strategies and Reading Comprehension strategies that can be used in a number of subject areas. They can be used as the basis for assignments in which students use factual information they have learned about a topic from the textbook, nonfiction reference sources, historical novels, biographies, and so on, to complete a task about a person, place, thing, event, chronology, extension of the concept or topic, or content vocabulary.

Here is one version of generic Differentiated Task cards. Take the ideas here and then make up your own cards that fit your subject area. A different task goes on each card, and you can either distribute cards according to your knowledge of students’ readiness levels (and may have several adaptations of the same card) or can allow students to choose which of several tasks they would like to complete.

1. Compare/Contrast:

You and Me: Choose two things (people, places, outcomes of events, operations, types of numbers, types of notes, instruments, tools, sources of information, etc.) that we have studied in this unit to compare and contrast. Write a script for their conversation with each other about how they are alike and how they are different in regards to at least three specifications (how they get the job done, how they look, how they are used, their attitudes, etc.). (The number assigned may vary or a list to choose from may be supplied)

2. Inductive Reasoning/Making Inferences:

Trading Places: What if the event we have just studied had happened in a different geographical location, a different historical period, or in a fantasy world? Write a newspaper article “hot off the press” about the event with the change you have chosen. Consider what would likely still be the same and what would probably be different. (The number of details required may vary, or categories of differences may be specified)

Inside a Person’s Head: Choose one of the main people/characters discussed in this unit. Using what you have learned about them and inferences you can make from factual information, plan a birthday party for them. Who would be invited, and why? What would they want to do, eat, and receive as gifts? Write this as a diary entry to yourself, and then create a party invitation with customized information on it for their special day.

Predicting Outcomes: Locate passages from various sections of the text that provide clues about what will be happening next. Write a paragraph making your own predictions about the next important events that will occur, backing up your ideas with the clues you found.

3. Finding and Using Patterns:

Criteria-based Conclusions: Develop a list of the criteria for a good ___ (something we have learned about—creating powerpoints, a story we read, menu, leader, student, floor plan, etc.) Use the list to determine whether a specific example (new or already studied) meets the criteria to be considered “good.” Write your explanation in the form of an acceptance speech or rejection letter.

4. Constructing Support/Fact and Opinion:

Saying Your Piece: Write a letter to the editor, offering your opinion about an event, action, or attitude pertinent to our unit topic. Be sure to include who you are and why this is your opinion, based on factual information you have learned in this unit.

Moody Blues: Choose a major character we have studied in this unit. Describe situations in which you think he/she would have exhibited any three of these emotions: fear, anger, frustration, happiness, sadness, confusion. Construct support for your opinions based on factual information we have learned. (The number of emotions required may vary by readiness, or some emotions might be more easily explained than others)

Want Ads: Write classified advertisements (lost and found, for sale, real estate, jobs, personal ads, etc.) for three important items/ideas/people we have studied in this unit. You may “spend” only $5.00 per ad at ten cents per word, so choose the best, most concise words you can for each ad. With each advertisement, write a paragraph explaining who is doing the advertising and why they would do so. (The number of ads created or the length required may vary)

5. Cause and Effect:

Character Analysis: Choose a major figure we have discussed in this unit and think about how he/she influences/influenced the actions of others. Create a comic strip depicting a series of this figure’s actions/attitudes and their effects on others/other things or events.

Character Development: Choose a major figure we have discussed in this unit and think about how he/she changed over time in terms of his/her actions, attitudes, beliefs, physical looks or health, because of events that occurred. Develop a time line that shows the causes and effects of the changes.

Graphing Effects: Design a bar graph that shows changes in the interest level or excitement level as the plot develops or events unfold. On the vertical axis use a range of 1-10 for the degree of interest/excitement, and on the horizontal axis put a brief explanation of each specific cause and effect that creates a change, in the order in which they occurred.

6. Sequencing:

Human Time Line: Using index cards or sentence strips, write on each one item/event in the sequence of what happened in the _____ (steps of the process, chronology, story, day, etc.). Mix them up and practice putting them in the correct order. Then you will give each to a classmate and they will see if they can form a human time line with the correct sequence.

7. Main Idea and Details:

What Am I? Develop a set of “What Am I” riddles for three things, concepts, people, events, etc. we have studied in this unit. For each riddle, include at least three clues that vary in difficulty level, with the hardest or most obscure clues first. (The number of riddles or clues may vary)

Jeopardy Game: For each concept on our Student Learning Map for this unit, create a Jeopardy game board with five questions under each concept/topic, at increasing difficulty levels. Try out your game with two players and modify if needed before turning it in. (The number or rigor of questions may vary)