Differentiation

Differentiation

This resource is your practical companion to differentiation at camp. Come back to it when you're not sure how to support a scholar who's struggling or checked out, when you want to use AI to extend or scaffold a lesson, or when you need a quick reminder of what tools and strategies are available to you.
Before you problem-solve, remember that the curriculum already has a lot of differentiation baked in. When a scholar needs something different, this is your first stop. A different challenge level, a one-pager, a planning template—the resource you need most often already exists. Your job is to know what's available so you can connect scholars with the right resource.

IL Opportunities for Differentiation

The built-in structures are your foundation, but the most important differentiation at camp will come from you! The small, responsive moves you make when you notice a scholar needs something different are often the most impactful. Use the guiding questions and ideas below to guide your approach to differentiation in each area of the UDL framework.

Engagement

Guiding Question: What options can I offer to increase scholar interest and support, motivation, and resilience?
  • Change a try-it to be a find-the-bug exercise where scholars need to find mistakes rather than generate code from scratch
  • Change the context of a practice activity to make it related to a scholar interest
  • Set up zones to match different learning preferences (e.g., Quiet Coding Zone, Help Desk, Collaboration Zone)

Representation

Guiding Question: How can I present information, ideas, and instructions in different ways to support everyone’s understanding?
  • Emphasize key vocabulary throughout the lesson and demystify coding terms
  • Share scaffolded code with comments to help scholars get started or start with pseudocode or flowcharts before writing actual code
  • Use a variety of techniques to make content concepts clear

Action & Expression

Guiding Question: What options can I offer to support planning, learning, collaboration, and the sharing of ideas?
  • Let scholars show what they’ve learned in different formats
  • Help scholars break down projects and manage their time
  • Explore Apple’s accessibility tools built into the devices that many scholars use
Knowing what to do and knowing what to say are two different things. This is especially true for IAs, who are often the first person a scholar turns to for help. Here are some low-stakes ways to check in, push further, or offer support without making a scholar feel singled out.
When a scholar seems lost or stuck
  • "What's the last part that made sense? Let's start there."
  • "What part feels fuzzy? We don't have to look at all of it — just that one piece."
  • "Walk me through what you're trying to do. Sometimes just saying it out loud helps."
When a scholar seems bored or finished early
  • "You flew through that — have you tried the spicy version?"
  • "What would happen if you tried to make it do something it's not supposed to do yet?"
  • "What's one thing you could add to make this more yours?"
When a scholar is hesitant to ask for help
  • "I'm coming around to check in with everyone, so I'll circle back to you in a sec."
  • "This part trips a lot of people up — you're not the only one."
  • "There's no wrong answer here, I just want to know how it's going for you."

Knowing Your Scholars

In order to best meet varied scholar needs, you need to understand how your scholars learn best. Kode With Klossy will provide some information about your scholars prior to camp:
  • Requested Scholar Accommodations — We ask rostered scholars to share any accommodations that might help them learn best. Some scholars may have health conditions or learning exceptionalities that require specific instructional support. Go through these before camp. If something gives you pause, bring it to your team. You don't have to figure it out alone!
  • Computer Science Experience — Scholars self-report their level of experience as None, Some, or Lots. This is a rough starting point! Each scholar’s experience can vary widely, so don’t rely too heavily on the label. Your observations in the first few days will be more telling.
The information on your scholar roster will give you a head start, but the most valuable information you'll gather comes from being in the room. Use these strategies to gather additional information to support your scholars once camp is underway.
  • Have authentic conversations with scholars about their learning experiences, learning needs, and interests.
  • Observe how scholars interact, engage with learning, and collaborate. Who jumps in? Who hesitates? Who works best alone vs. with a partner?
  • Review scholar work and notice patterns. Are multiple scholars making the same mistake? That’s a signal.
  • Read microfeedback daily. Scholars tell you what’s working and what isn’t. Use it!
A note on language: some scholars are experiencing camp in a second or third language! This doesn't change what they're capable of, but it may change how they show what they know. Give extra processing time when you can, lean on visual and written supports, and don't mistake quietness for disengagement.

Leveraging the Power of Your Team

Our camps are intentionally designed with a 7:1 scholar-to-instructional leader ratio to ensure scholars receive plenty of individualized support. This structure allows for more meaningful connections and personalized learning experiences.
  • For in-person camps, IAs don’t lead direct instruction, so they have a unique opportunity to support scholars by leading small groups, answering questions, or providing one-on-one help when needed.
  • For virtual camps, the VCC can offer an additional “Help Desk” breakout for scholars who need support outside of their House space.
Every team member also brings something different to the table. Instructors bring classroom management experience and know how to read a room. IAs bring the scholar perspective and often have coding knowledge that can open up a concept in a fresh way. No matter your role, the most effective teams take time to understand and appreciate each other’s strengths, and work together to meet the needs of every scholar.

AI-Assisted Instruction

At Kode With Klossy, we encourage using AI to augment or differentiate your instruction — not replace it! These tools are most powerful when you're using them to extend what you already know, save prep time, or find a new way to explain something that isn't landing. Your judgment, your relationships with scholars, and your understanding of the room are things AI can't replicate.

Before You Prompt: Two Non-Negotiables

Protect scholar privacy. Never share scholar data with AI tools. That means never sharing full names, birthdates, or anything that could identify scholars. Use generic or anonymized examples, and avoid including specific details about individual scholars in your prompts.
Keep the KWK curriculum intact. AI can support or extend what already exists, but it shouldn't overhaul it. Always check that what AI gives you still aligns with the learning goals we've set. If you’re unsure, save the prompt and response, and talk it over with the team!

How to Prompt Well

The more context you give, the better the results. A useful prompt usually includes who you are, who your students are, what you're teaching, and what specifically you need. From there, be specific about format, length, difficulty, and anything to avoid.
One note on language: KWK has its own vocabulary — "scholars," "try-its," "instructional leaders." When prompting AI, swap these for standard terms like "students," "practice problems," and "teachers." It makes your prompt clearer without having to explain the context every time.
And don't expect the first response to be perfect. Iterate! Ask for modifications, request a different example, or push for something more relevant to your scholars' lives.

Prompt Library

Here are some prompts that you can use as a springboard. Tweak them to fit your context, your scholars, and what's actually happening in the room. We've organized them around the situations you're most likely to run into at camp, so you don't have to start from scratch when you need something fast. The more you use them, the better you'll get at writing your own!
Breaking down a complex concept
I'm teaching high school students (ages 13-18) about [concept]. Many of my students are struggling to understand it. Could you explain it using a simple analogy that would resonate with teenagers, create a short code example with clear comments, and suggest 2-3 real-world applications that would be interesting to this age group? Avoid jargon without explanation and keep it concise.
Debugging a scholar's code
Here's a student's [language] code for [project]. Can you help me identify bugs related to logic, syntax, and best practices, without rewriting the code entirely?
Adapting a try-it for different levels
Here's a coding exercise from our curriculum: [paste exercise]. I need to adapt this for students who need more scaffolding, students who need an extra challenge, and a 15-minute time constraint. Please create a simplified version with more step-by-step guidance, the original with minor clarifications, and an extended challenge version. All versions should maintain the core learning objective of [state objective].
Generating culturally inclusive examples
I need to explain [concept] to a diverse group of high school students, including international students from different cultural backgrounds. Could you generate 5 analogies or real-world examples that use universal experiences, avoid American-specific references, and connect to different interest areas like science, arts, sports, and daily life?
Spotting the bug exercises
I need to create a "spot the bug" exercise on [topic]. Please create 3 code snippets that each contain a subtle, educational bug — not a syntax error, but something that produces incorrect output. For each: keep it under 15 lines, include a hint I could give if students get stuck, and provide the corrected code with an explanation of why the bug occurs.
Drafting a Slack message
I need to write a Slack message for my class that reminds students about [info], encourages them to [action], and has a friendly, supportive tone with relevant emojis. Please format it as a ready-to-paste message.

External Coding Resources

When a scholar is ready to go deeper than the curriculum takes them, having a few reliable resources to point them to is one of the easiest differentiation moves you can make. These sites are also useful for you! If a concept isn't landing and you need a different explanation or a fresh example, they're a good first stop. Bookmark a few before camp so you're not searching from scratch in the middle of a session.
  • W3Schools (w3schools.com): Beginner-friendly tutorials on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python, and more. Great for quick lookups and foundational understanding
  • Codecademy (codecademy.com): Interactive, beginner-friendly courses on many coding topics. Good structure for step-by-step learning
  • GeeksforGeeks (geeksforgeeks.org): More advanced, but excellent for understanding algorithms and data structures
  • Stack Overflow (stackoverflow.com): Invaluable for troubleshooting and seeing how others solve specific coding issues