Theatre classes potentially include students with a wide range of knowledge and skill levels, especially at beginning levels. Students may exceed or fall short of a course's general student expectations for a number of reasons, such as theatre experiences outside of school or newness to a school's theatre program. Additionally, the learning environments of theatre classes support diverse approaches to exploring ideas and media. The combination of different experience levels and diverse learning styles makes individualizing instruction an important teaching strategy for theatre teachers. Here are a few ideas on individualizing instruction in  theatre.

• Individualizing instruction allows each student to progress through the curriculum at his or her own pace.
• If the diversity of student needs is considered in the design of teaching strategies and curricula, advanced students can move ahead while others work on the basics.
• One basic means of individualizing instruction is to explain a lesson or demonstrate a technique to small groups of students at a time. 

Other strategies teachers might use include:

• contracts for independent learning
• learning centers
• computer-aided instruction.