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Social StudiesHumanitiesMiddle schoolKey Stage 3

How to differentiate instruction in history

To differentiate instruction in history, give every student the same reading and change the help each one gets while they read it. This guide shows how, with two students who need different help and a free activity for your class.

Jemel Fanfan

Jemel Fanfan | Founding Member at Flint

Title card reading 'How to differentiate instruction in history', next to three students' cards from one reading of Lewis and Clark's journals: a student who got a pointer on Clark's spelling and then quoted the entry, a student whose interest in family history led to whose side of the story is missing, and a student still working through the Great Falls entry.

"Flint is a teaching partner that supports students and frees you to provide more targeted, 1-on-1 attention. Line it up with what you're already doing, and it will give students real-time pointers while building confidence that sticks."

David BertholdDavid Berthold, 7th Grade U.S. History at The Kinkaid School

Why this matters

In one 7th grade U.S. History class, a page of Lewis and Clark's journals stops one student at the first misspelled word. The student next to him reads it in five minutes and has nothing harder to try. Both need the teacher at the same moment, and the teacher finds out who understood the reading when the unit test comes back.

What each student needs from the same reading

  1. A pointer at the moment they get stuck
  2. A question that starts from what they care about
  3. Specific credit for what they got right

A teacher can give that to a few students in a period, not to 28 at once. Sparky, Flint's AI tutor, gives it to every student in their own chat, working from the reading the teacher already assigns.

One reading, two students who need different help

The teacher attached four entries from Lewis and Clark's journals, in the writers' own spelling. Sparky's first message is the same for the whole class. Everything after it is one student's own chat.

Sparky gives a pointer the student can use right awaySparky starts from the student's interestSparky names exactly what the student did well
N

Noah

Starting point: Stuck on the old spelling

Understanding check

Which entry do you want to start with: the Great Falls, Sacagawea meeting the Shoshone, the snowy mountains, or the first view of the Pacific?

Noah

The Pacific one. But the words are spelled so weird. What's "roreing" and "brakeing"?

Sparky

Try saying them out loud. "Roreing" sounds like roaring, and "brakeing" sounds like breaking. So what is the camp so happy about?

Noah

They finally see the ocean. They were trying to get there for a long time. It says "which we been So long anxious to See."

Sparky

You backed that up with Clark's own words. Want to try the snowy mountains next?

Noah

Ok. What does "mockersons" mean?

Sparky

Say it out loud: "mockersons" sounds like moccasins, thin leather shoes. Clark was afraid his feet would freeze in them. What does that tell you about the trip?

Noah

They were freezing and starving. It says "men all wet cold and hungary." They ate one of their horses.

Read two entries in Clark's spelling and quoted both

A

Aisha

Interest: Family historyStarting point: Reads the old spelling easily

Understanding check

Which entry do you want to start with: the Great Falls, Sacagawea meeting the Shoshone, the snowy mountains, or the first view of the Pacific?

Aisha

Sacagawea. I'm really into family history. My grandma does our family tree.

Sparky

Then this entry is for you: Sacagawea is back with her own people. Lewis writes that "the meeting of those people was really affecting." What happens when she arrives?

Aisha

She finds the friend who was kidnapped with her, and the chief, Cameahwait, turns out to be her brother.

Sparky

You caught both reunions. Lewis wrote this entry. Whose side of the story is missing from it?

Aisha

Sacagawea's. He says it was "really affecting," but we never find out what she said to her brother.

Sparky

Imagine if the only record of your family's reunion was written by someone outside the family. Later that day, Lewis writes that the Shoshone "appeared well pleased." How much can you trust that line?

Aisha

Not much. That's only what he saw. Lewis was promising them trade, so maybe they went along with it.

Asked whose side of the story Lewis left out

Noah gets one pointer on the spelling each time he's stuck, and he reads two entries and quotes both. Aisha reads the spelling without help, so Sparky skips the pointers and starts from her family tree to ask whose voice is missing. Sparky doesn't tell either student what an entry means. Noah and Aisha are example students.

How to see which students need you

Sparky grades each chat against the activity's rubric. The activity page shows which student needs you right now and which skill the class should practice next.

Flint's activity page for an activity called Lewis and Clark's Journals: Reading the Expedition in Their Own Words. Needs attention shows a live alert that one student has asked about three words in the Great Falls entry and stopped answering. Activity analytics lists what the class does well, an area of improvement where 9 students say who wrote an entry but not why, and a follow-up with a button to create a follow-up activity. The Sessions table shows two submitted students graded Developing and Proficient and one still in progress.

Example activity page

After a class reads Lewis and Clark's journals

The school and students are made up for this page. In this example, the student stuck on the Great Falls entry is the one to sit with first.

Set up the activity for free

The Lewis and Clark activity is in Flint's public library, with the four journal entries attached and Sparky's role, guidelines, greeting and a rubric already written. Open it, select Use activity to copy it into a free Flint account, and move it to a class. Each student gets their own chat with Sparky. To test it as a student first, select Try session myself in the activity's Preview tab.

To use a reading you already assign, such as a textbook section or a set of primary sources, attach it in Guidelines for Sparky and change the guidelines to match it:

Example guideline

The student is reading the document I attached. When they're stuck on a word or a sentence, give one pointer and let them try again. When they understand what happens, ask who wrote it, when, and why. If they mention something they're into, use it in your next question. Never tell them what the document means.

For more history activities, see Flint for social studies.

Start the activity for free

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