Curriculum compacting is used when a teacher encounters the challenge of a student who has already mastered a concept that other students have not.

How:

1. Decide on a level of achievement that indicates “mastery”. Many teachers use 80% on a pre-assessment as an indication of mastery (Reis. 1998; Reis. 1992),
2. Pre-asses students to decide who has already “mastered” the material.
3. Plan enrichment activities or adjust content for learners who attain a mastery level.
4. Use a record to keep track of the progress of the students.
5. To vary activities, so that different learning-styles and levels are addressed.
6. To make them interesting so that more advanced students won’t be bored by lower-level activities.
7. To encourage collaboration, to take advantage of possibilities of peer-teaching and learning.
8. To individualize choice, in order to allow flexibility in level
9. To “personalize” activities to allow room for self-expression of different individual learners
10. To open-end activities to create opportunities to respond at different levels
11. To design tasks with a clear, easily-achieved success level for everyone, plus further optional extensions for faster workers.

Finally, here are some practical suggestions that teachers may find helpful in dealing with heterogeneous classes:

By: Mario G. Basilio | Limay National High School | Limay, Bataan