One way I have differentiated content was using the website NewsELA to generate multiple different levels of an article for the class to read. Students met with their reading leveled groups to read the article together. Then we shared out as a class to create a graphic organizer about the topic that everyone copied into their journal. We started the discussion having the lowest reading level share out since their article was the most generalized. I moved up in order to the highest reading level group. As each group shared out more information was added to our graphic organizer. What is really great about using these articles is that all the students can participate at a level that is comfortable for them. The students got much more involved than when we read a single article, whole class. I think that the smaller groups bolster more voices to share out and that translated into more voices during the whole group. I would use this method again if I was working in a classroom that had such a wide range of reading levels. I felt that the students were able to access the thematic content presented in the articles and were more confident reading articles at their own challenging, but not overwhelming, level than articles below (lost interest) or above (confused) their reading levels. I loved how the higher readers were able to dig deeper and share that new knowledge with their lower reading level peers using peer to peer communication.
However, my favorite moment was probably when a whole group of my middle readers was super confused about this gene-editing article we read and two students from the lower reading group understood not only what they were confused about but also were able to explain it using the simplified terms from their article. It turned into this whole peer to peer teaching moment, it was kinda like watching a bunch of Christmas lights turn on all at once.