Stop Sorting Students: Use One Frayer Frame for All

Renata Salas

So, I- I was sitting at my kitchen table last night, it was, uh, easily past ten, and I had three different colored piles of paper in front of me. The blue ones were simplified, the yellow were, you know, standard, and the pink were the "challenge" worksheets. And I just I stared at them and thought, why am I doing this to myself? It is exhausting, and- and honestly, in third period, it just ends up with kids looking at who got what color and deciding right then and there whether they are the "smart" group or the "struggling" group.

Colin Whitfield

Right, the dreaded pink, yellow, and blue hierarchy. It- it- it is a psychological minefield for them, isn't it? And research-wise, that kind of explicit tracking, even at the table level, it sends these incredibly toxic, silent signals about capability. It's actually what Michael McDowell was writing about in Edutopia, just earlier this year, on- on January 6, 2026, to be precise. His article was called "How to Differentiate Without Splitting Students Up."

Renata Salas

Wait, January 6? That is literally just a couple of months ago. What- what was his main, like, his main argument?

Colin Whitfield

Well, he- he argues for "common tasks, common structures." Instead of fracturing your classroom into three mini-lessons and frantically running between them like a- like a waiter at a busy bistro, you keep everyone in the same physical and intellectual space. You use the exact same structural container, but the differentiation happens in the *depth* of the student's output, not the- the design of the handout.

Renata Salas

Common structures. That makes so much sense. It- it reminds me of Carol Ann Tomlinson's work on, uh, what does she call it? "Respectful tasks." Like, every kid deserves a task that feels dignified and high-level. If you give one kid a complex reading and another kid a word search with the same vocabulary, that is- it's not respectful. But if we all use, say, a Frayer Model, then the kid with an IEP and my highest-flying student are sitting side-by-side, doing the exact same work, just at their own developmental level.

Colin Whitfield

Exactly! It's an equity issue, really. A shared, dignified entry point. The Frayer Model is perfect because it's- it's- it's visually identical. Nobody knows if you are writing a literal definition or a highly abstract, metaphorical one. The template itself doesn't- it doesn't betray your reading level.

Renata Salas

Yes! Okay, so let me paint a picture of how this actually, um, how it played out in my third period yesterday. We are reading our novel, and we came across the word "rebellion." Instead of three worksheets, I just walked up to the chalkboard and drew a big four-square Frayer Model. You know, the standard quadrants: definition in your own words in the top left, key characteristics in the top right, examples from the book in the bottom left, and then non-examples or common confusions in the bottom right.

Colin Whitfield

Simple. Beautiful. No colored paper in sight. So, what was step two?

Renata Salas

Step two was five minutes of absolute, beautiful, quiet writing. No talking, just everyone filling out their own copy on a plain sheet of binder paper. And then, step three, we share out. And this is where the magic of "same frame, different depth" really, really happens. So, my student who is still building English fluency, he writes down "rebellion" means "fighting the bad guys," and his example from the book is the character physically running away. It's literal, it's plot-level, but it is 100% correct.

Colin Whitfield

Right, he's got the core of it. He's in the game.

Renata Salas

He is totally in the game! But then, right next to him, another student shares out, and she says, "rebellion is a quiet refusal to accept an unjust reality," and her example is how a character uses silence as a weapon. Same square, same prompt, but she is operating at this- this deep, thematic, figurative level. And the whole class gets to hear both! They- they see the whole spectrum of what that word can mean.

Colin Whitfield

That is brilliant because the- the literal example actually scaffolds the concept for the rest of the class, while the thematic one pushes everyone's thinking higher. And- and practically speaking, Renata, what are you doing while they are writing for those five minutes? You're not cutting laminating sheets, I assume?

Renata Salas

Absolutely not. That's step four, and it's my favorite part. Because I'm not managing three different groups or shushing kids at the "independent station," I am completely free to wander. I can kneel down next to a student, look at their Frayer Model, and have a quick, two-minute targeted conference. It is so quiet and focused.

Colin Whitfield

Now, for teachers who want to try this but- but might struggle to identify those different levels of depth on the fly during a live conference, there is actually a brilliant way to use AI as your personal instructional coach before the lesson. You can feed it a prompt to give you a cheat sheet of what to look for.

Renata Salas

Ooh, tell me the prompt. I- I need this on my clipboard.

Colin Whitfield

Okay, write this down: "Act as an instructional coach. Take this vocabulary word or concept: . Give me a Frayer Model template with student response exemplars at three depths, surface, mid-level, and transfer, that I can use to recognize where each student landed and what feedback to leave."

Renata Salas

Oh, that is incredibly practical. "Surface, mid-level, and transfer." That way, when I'm kneeling by a desk in third period, I already know exactly what a "transfer" level response looks like for that specific word, and I can nudge the student to go just one step deeper. No guessing, no late-night worksheet printing. Just one simple frame on the board.

Colin Whitfield

Exactly. Try it tomorrow. Tell us how it went.