The idea behind my talk was for teachers and parents to think about different ways to differentiate or individualize for children. 

1. A “Bag of Tricks” is something we all have! It is “filled” with any idea which may help children learn. These ideas can be teaching methods and ideas you already use or know about, or something new that you will add to your “Bag of Tricks” collection. It may mean doing something different than you have done in the past, and it might mean researching to find a new way to teach a concept. It could be merely using on-the-spot creativity or ideas collected from educational magazines, university classes, in-services, workshops, talking with other teachers or reading their blogs or tweets. I kept my collection of ideas in a file box sorted by topic. (It’s like when in the middle of cooking, you realize you are out of an ingredient. You either modify the recipe, borrow from a neighbor, run to the store, or quickly change to another recipe!)
2. I suggested using worksheet templates to create parallel assignments. Different numbers can be written in based on the different abilities or levels of the students.
3. I talked about the importance of record-keeping, and informal assessments to see what the children already know, and to design assignments using the students’ knowledge, and strengths to teach new concepts. If a student knows the Magic 9 addition facts, such as 9+5, use those facts in the new concepts you are teaching. Some very simple examples: 

• Money – $9 + $5. 
• Estimation – Estimate 89 + 52. (90 + 50)
• Word math: There are 9 red chairs and 5 blue chairs. How many chairs in all?
• Addition regrouping: 190 + 150.

• Is it because prerequisite skills weren’t mastered?
• Is it because math facts aren’t memorized, and children are counting incorrectly to get answers? 
• Is it because when working on math problems, columns are not set up correctly, and careless errors are made?
• Is the student proficient with math facts, but does not understand how to regroup? Is the student placing the new ten or hundred in the wrong spot, and therefore adding incorrectly? Does the student understand WHY numbers are regrouped?

Word math and following directions could be affected by reading ability or limited English. 

• Think of a student who struggles to sound out most of the words, but by the time he or she has finished reading the word math question, the meaning of what was just read was lost! 
• Children with non-verbal learning disabilities can read, but might be having trouble comprehending what they read. They will need strategies to help them visualize the problem.
• What about children who can read and do the math, but do not follow directions?
• There are children who can read, and do the math, but may not understand some of the vocabulary.

So, when you are giving math assignments, ask yourself, what are you measuring in the assignment? Ability to read, ability to know how to solve a word math problem, ability to be able to do certain computational skills, or ability to know what certain words mean in math such as mean, mode, median?