How to Differentiate Work
Products and the Advantages

The following list provided by Tomlinson (2001) on how to differentiate work products or authentic assessments would be a good place to start (p. 89):

• Design a webpage
• Develop a solution to a community problem
• Create a public service announcement
• Write a book
• Design a game
• Generate and circulate a petition
• Write a series of letters
• Present a mime
• Design and create needlework
• Lead a symposium
• Build a planetarium
• Conduct a series of interviews
• Develop a collection
• Submit writings to a journal, magazine, or newspaper
• Interpret through multimedia
• Design a structure
• Design and conduct an experiment
• Collect and analyze samples
• Plan a journey or an odyssey
• Make an etching or a woodcut
• Write letters to the editor
• Design political cartoons
• Formulate and defend a theory
• Conduct a training session
• Design and teach a class
• Do a demonstration
• Present a news report
• Write a new law and plan for its passage
• Make learning centers
• Create authentic recipes
• Choreograph dances
• Present a mock trial
• Make a plan
• Compile and annotate a set of Internet resources
• Design a new product
• Write a series of songs
• Create a subject dictionary
• Make and carry out a plan
• Design a simulation
• Write a musical
• Develop a museum exhibit
• Be a mentor
• Write or produce a play
• Compile a newspaper
• Develop an exhibit
• Conduct an ethnography
• Write a biography
• Present a photo-essay
• Hold a press conference
• Develop and use a questionnaire
• Conduct a debate
• Make a video documentary
• Create a series of illustrations
• Write poems
• Develop tools
• Design or create musical instruments
• Develop an advertising campaign
• Compile a booklet or brochure
• Draw a set of blueprints
• Present a radio program
• Do a puppet show
• Create a series of wall hangings
• Go on an archeological dig
• Design and make costumes
• Present an interior monologue
• Generate charts or diagrams to explain ideas

There are a number of advantages for both teachers and students when a range of work product options are provided:

1. Students have a higher degree of ownership when allowed to choose.
2. Students may surprise you – and themselves—with the choices they make if they are supported in exploring.
3. All students benefit from seeing the range of choices and different ways of representing mastery.
4. Students learn a variety of planning timelines, considerations, and presentation skills.
5. Depending on how products are completed (as individual or groups), students may demonstrate additional skills essential to cooperative learning.
6. Artifacts can be collected or captured digitally for further reflection and evidence of learning within a portfolio.
7. Students who find relevance in the products are far more likely to make a connection to their “real life” outside of school.
8. Expertise in self-assessing the quality of work products can be developed.
9. Quality products can provide a basis for determining levels of student performance and suggest directions for further instruction.
10. In some cases, quality work products can function as a summative assessment or the basis for grades.
11. Teachers benefit by creating matches to student interest, readiness, and learning profile as often as possible.
12. Teachers can “direct traffic” by challenging students at the appropriate level.
13. Teachers enjoy variety too (!) and can expand or contract the menu of options based on a number of variables.