ManageBac Tip No 3: Curating Resources and Differentiation

A strong curated list of resources can provide opportunities for self-directed learning, retrieval practice, and interlinking of ideas between topics.

One of the things I will miss doing when I return to Australia and begin my professional experience placement is curating resources and creating an accessible space for students to engage in self-directed learning.

I preferred using ManageBac (MB) Notes over ManageBac Lesson Experiences, as MB Notes could appear easily across multiple parallel classes. In contrast, Lesson Experiences are designed to be copied and adjusted depending on class needs, and they also seem a little trickier to locate.

In one of my classes, I had students with a passive understanding of spoken English but who struggled with writing. Some students were likely misplaced and should have moved up a level. Certainly, had they been in Australia, they would probably have joined a mainstream English class and not qualified for ESL support.

In MB Notes, I would curate resources: those we would use as a class, along with instructions for learning activities across the lesson series. I also included selected grammar practice at varying levels of difficulty, extension activities, online learning games, and recommended explanatory videos. In a situation where I moved between classrooms, this virtual space replaced the traditional classroom setup, where you might display differentiated materials around the room.

This curated space also modelled how students could access and use resources to support their areas of weakness. It became a space where I could direct students easily to materials that would help them with their understanding.

What you can add:

• Links to sites (some of the ones I regularly used were WordWall, ProProfs, ClassTools)

• Upload files such as differentiated reading materials. For example, The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde has multiple differentiated versions for different reading abilities and also

• Videos

• Links to interrelated work or the discussion board

• Links to worksheets

• Images (inspirational or thought-provoking ones; screenshots of worksheets for writing into books; explanatory diagrams)

• Typed text or instructions

  
  

What I observed:

I observed that even strong students enjoyed doing the easier material. It gives them a quick win and a small dopamine hit before moving on to more challenging tasks. Stronger students often revisited resources during the week if they finished other work early.

Weaker students didn’t just rush through the easier tasks—they often repeated them until they achieved mastery.

Rarely were students off-task. Ironically, when I thought they were, they were often self-directing their learning, looking up information related to the grammar point or discussing answers among themselves. Some even researched concepts they didn’t fully understand.

Other Considerations:

• Consider where you sit in the classroom. Sitting at the back allows you to observe students’ laptop activity and offer support when needed.

  
  

• Indonesian schools seem to allow a bit more flexibility regarding what programs and websites can be accessed.

  
  

• Make sure you check resources. If it is a video, watch to the end; if it is an online quiz,. Check that the answers are correct and that it is focusing on what you want to. If you simply put any resource up and it is not valid or useful, then you will detract from the value of your curated resource or find students so bamboozled, and so unmotivated to ever try self-study and resources.

  
  

• Don't be afraid to use translation into other languages.

  
  

• Remember, not every resource you put there needs to be used or done. The beauty of this is that it gives teenagers a sense of autonomy.