Differentiating Number Sense for Mixed-Ability Classes (South Africa, CAPS)

In a Grade 4 class of fifty, the spread in number sense can be five years wide. Some learners are secure with place value to ten thousand; others are still counting on their fingers to bridge ten. Running four separate lessons is impossible, and running one lesson pitched at the middle leaves half the room idle. What works is a single lesson with four entry points into the same mathematics, planned once and reused. The prep does not quadruple if the differentiation is built into the task rather than into the worksheet.

One problem, four doors

Start from the mathematical idea, not from the ability groups. Take partitioning: the fact that a number can be split and recombined without changing its value. The scaffolded version uses concrete apparatus and two-digit numbers, with the partition written for the learner to complete. The core version uses three digits and asks the learner to find two different partitions. The stretch version asks which partition makes an addition easiest and why. The challenge version asks for a partition that makes the calculation harder, which forces learners to articulate what made the easy one easy. All four are the same lesson. All four can be discussed together in the last five minutes, because everyone worked on partitioning.

Planning the four levels in twenty minutes

1. Write the core task first. Pitch it at the middle of the class and make it three questions, not fifteen. Everything else is a variation on these three.
2. Scaffold by removing a step, not by simplifying the mathematics. Supply the apparatus, the first line of working, or a worked example beside the question. The thinking that remains must still be the thinking you are teaching.
3. Stretch by asking for a second method or a justification. No new content, no extra pages. "Show it another way" and "explain which way is better" cost nothing to write.
4. Challenge by reversing the question. Give the answer and ask for the question. Give a wrong answer and ask what mistake produced it. These take one line to set and produce far more talk than an extension sheet.

Once you have the four, print them on one page in four boxes rather than four separate handouts. Learners can see the whole ladder, which matters in a mixed class where being handed the "easy sheet" is a public event. Ready-made levelled material saves the writing, and the Interactive Math Mission – Numbers 0–100 & Practice Tasks tasks are useful for the scaffolded door because the number range stays small while the reasoning stays honest.

Running it with fifty learners and one of you

Choice, not allocation, is what makes this manageable. Tell learners which box you recommend, then let them start where they like on the condition that they move if it is too easy. Most self-select accurately within a fortnight. Circulate on a fixed route so nobody waits fifteen minutes for help, and mark nothing during the lesson beyond a tick and a code. Use the two-question rule: learners must ask a neighbour and check the worked example before they ask you. For the core door, a set with plenty of parallel questions matters, since the fast finishers need more of the same difficulty rather than a jump, and the Math Adventure Grade 2 – Numbers to 100 & Skill-Building Challenges pages give you that depth for learners working below the grade level without looking babyish.

Keeping the assessment honest across four levels

The risk of four doors is four different standards. Avoid it by assessing against the grade expectation regardless of which door a learner used, and recording the door separately. A learner who reached the core standard with the scaffolded task has met it with support, and that is exactly the information a School-Based Assessment record should carry into the next term's Annual Teaching Plan. In the plenary, take answers from all four doors on the same board so the class hears the challenge thinking even if only six learners did it; this is how the middle of the room gets pulled upward over a term. Building a shared bank rather than making sheets one at a time is what makes this sustainable, and a growing collection like the Mega Math Bundle – Growing Resource for Grades 1–4 means that next year's version of this lesson is a matter of choosing pages rather than writing them. The lesson has worked when a learner who started in the scaffolded box asks, unprompted, to try the reversed question.

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