Making a Difference

Part 2—Making a Difference
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Meeting diverse learning needs with differentiated instruction
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Finally, the process of ongoing assessment 
for
learning, which is embedded in 
a differentiated instruction approach, also bene
fi
ts students with disabilities. It 
allows teachers to more quickly and naturally identify which types of instructional 
strategies and supports individual students are responding to positively or not 
responding to.
Response to instructional supports and interventions
S
tudents with disabilities have a continuum of needs that can be met to varying 
degrees by differentiated instruction. One way to consider the differing 
levels of needs of students is based on their response to instructional supports and 
interventions. For some students with disabilities, differentiated instruction may 
be enough to meet their learning needs; for others, differentiated instruction is the 
starting point for building individualized programming. This is illustrated in the 
model below.
Multi-tiered Response to Intervention Model
The base of the pyramid is made up of students whose disabilities have a mild 
to moderate impact on their learning. These students will respond positively to 
many of the strategies and supports typically used in a differentiated classroom, 
including accessible learning resources, explicit strategy instruction and structured 
opportunities.
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Intensive, individualized interventions
for students who have insuf
fi
cient
Tier 3
INTENSIVE
response to interventions in the 
fi
rst
two 
tiers
Targeted, speci
fi
c prevention
Tier 2
TARGETED
and interventions for students
at risk of academic failure
High-quality 
learning
opportunities 
and
Tier 1
UNIVERSAL
supports for all
students

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