Differentiating Assignments

What a whirlwind the fall semester was.
Lessons. Lessons. And more lessons!
After writing 32 lessons for an afterschool program and reorganizing and revamping my own,
I need to reflect on all my new learning this year.

My newest idea that I starting using in my classroom is the idea of differentiating homework assignments.
After attending a math workshop with Dr. Connie Schrock, I started writing assignments allowing students to choose the assignment option. See example.

Option A is usually basic problems...or naked number problems.  These problems are easy for the students to get into.  This option always has more problems to practice on.
Option B starts the thinking juices to flow.  The problems revolve around a real world example where it is beneficial for students to create a model to gain entry to the problem.  A few more multi-step problems may show up in Option B.  Because of the need for more thinking, the number of problems in this section is always a little less.
Option C includes multi-step problems, solving problems backwards, and generally any problem that requires more thinking and problem solving, while still including the main concept of the lesson.

While my research is still in the baby stages, I have already observed many behaviors from my students.

1) At first, most students chose Option C because it held fewer problems.  This did not benefit most students because they had trouble understanding the problem, let alone trying to solve it.  The intent of having some practice problems were lost on these students as they entered class the next day not any farther along with their understanding.

This prompted a discussion on how to choose the option that is best fitted for each student.  One student told me that after the lesson/activity, he felt he was at a "5" in understanding.  An a-ha moment for me.  Simply having the students self assess their initial understanding of the lesson on a scale from 1-10 can point them in the direction of which option would best meet their needs for that content.

2) Students then started picking option A because the problems were "easier".  Now while this option was indeed the best option for some, for some it was just the easiest to complete.  How to overcome this way of thinking?  It had me stumped until a student asked one day, "at what level will the quizzes be written?" Another a-ha moment.  I could honestly tell my students that most quizzes would be written at the option B level.  While I want my students to know the basic math I also want to push them in their thinking.

3) Since we had already initiated the self assessing concept for choosing the best option for each assignment, I decided to take it to another level.  My students now fill out a Homework cover sheet where they list the date, the assignment, the score they received, learning target and most importantly any questions or notes about the mistakes that they made.  This cover sheet will be a useful tool as they get ready for the quiz.  They can quickly tell what concepts they were successful at and which ones they need to work on more.

4) Another thing I started to notice as I observed their assignments...more of my students were completing the assignments than before and they were actually doing MORE problems then just those listed in the assignment option that they chose.  Wow.  WOW!

While creating differentiated assignments for each day's lesson is quite consuming, I have to say at this point it seems to be worth it.  Questions remain though.
a) Will this increased engagement in homework continue once the newness wears off?
b) Will I see an increase in quiz scores?
c) How each will it be to continue to create differentiated assignments for all objectives in our curriculum?