Differentiation Levels Reference Chart

Universal Design

Core: Universal Design is at the center of these activities and they are designed to support students in reading and understanding complex texts. Over-the-Shoulder Conferences are found at this level, but can be used with students working in all levels of an activity.

ELK Support

	Bridging: This level is designed for ELL students at the Bridging Level who can independently use a variety of high-level English language skills and fully participate in grade-level academic activities in all content areas, with light language support. Supports often include sentence starters to help students respond to the same prompt as the prompt in the Core level.
	Expanding: This level of support is designed for ELL students at the Expanding Level who are beginning to use their growing language skills in more advanced ways that are appropriate to their age and grade level with moderate language supports. Supports often include guiding questions, a list of ideas to think about, sentence starters, and simplified language in the prompt.
_	Emerging: This level of support is designed for ELL students at the Emerging Level who are beginning to understand and use academic language for the grade level, with substantial language support provided. Supports often include breaking the prompt into smaller chunks or short answer questions, shortening the reading passage, providing guiding questions, quotes from the text, a simplified writing prompt, and/or sentence starters.

Extend

Advanced Learners: This level of support is designed for students who read and understand text at their grade band of complexity easily and fluently. Often the core prompts are appropriate for these students. These prompts often ask students to compare two sections of text, create counterarguments, or find evidence to support both sides of an argument.