The Tiered ApproachThe First Level of Differentiation

Certain motivational states interfere with learning. Two adverse conditions are especially dangerous: anxiety and boredom.

When might anxiety or boredom occur? Anxiety occurs primarily when teachers

expect too much from students. Boredom occurs when teachers expect too

little.∙ Talented Teenagers by Csikszentmihalyi, Rathunde, Whalen

Tiered Assignments:A Starting Point

Assumes that a wide range of students all work towards the same goal

Most of our classrooms are heterogeneous Acknowledges the varied readiness levels of

students Knowledge Understanding Skills

The Tiered Approach

Tiered activities are important when a teacher wants to ensure that students with different learning needs work with the same essential ideas and use the same key skills.

Why Tiered?

Bobby struggles with reading and has a difficult time with abstract thinking but nonetheless needs to make sense of pivotal concepts or principles of a lesson/ unit.

Brian is advanced well beyond grade expectations in the same subject and needs to find genuine challenge in working with the same concepts and principles.

A “one-size-fits-all” activity is unlikely to help either of these students.

Why Tiered?

Maximize the likelihood that… Each student comes away with pivotal skills and understandings Each student is appropriately challenged

Tiered Helps Teachers

1. Select the activity organizer (essential to building a framework of understanding) concept skill generalization EQ’s

2. Think about your students or use assessments to focus on:o Readiness Level

o Interestso Learning Profile

Designing a Tiered Lesson

3. Create ONE activity that is Interesting High level Causes students to use key skills to

understand a key idea Mainstreamed to the middle*

Developing a Tiered Lesson

4. Chart the complexity of the activity as high skill/ complexity or low skill/ complexity.

Developing a Tiered Lesson

5. Clone the activity along the ladder, as needed to ensure challenge and success for your students, assessing it in terms of…

Materials: basic to advanced Form of expression: from familiar to

unfamiliar From experience: from personal experience

to removed from personal experience The equalizer is recommended to assist

with this task!

Developing a Tiered Lesson

6. Match a version of the task to a student based on student profile and task requirements.

Developing a Tiered Lesson

Writing tasks Homework Learning centers Computer tasks Product

assignments Learning contracts Labs Questioning

NEVER eliminate the essential understanding of the concept/ generalization/ principle

NEVER forget the need for ALL students to use a variety of print, non-print, Internet resources, and types of information

Tiered What?

Focus on readiness Create assignment first, then modify to meet the

needs of all of your students Use alternate forms, vary group size, provide

recordings or alternate texts/ materials Encourage students to express what they learned in

different forms Lessons should be

designed to help students understand the generalization/ concept/ principleappropriately challenging and engaging for students at all levels

How Do I Tier?

Examples of Tiered Instruction

Grade 8 Social Studies Concept: Citizenship Background: During a study of Canadian

citizenship students enter into an extensive project period.Projects are focused on creating an interest in Canada and citizenship.Projects are handed to students according to the tiers the teacher has organized.The tiers are as follows: below grade level, grade level, and above grade.

Tiered ProjectsAbility and Interest

Below Grade Level

1. Create a three part collage that deals with three of the following criteria below. Be able to discuss the collage in class.1. Natural Resources2. Government3. Entertainment4. History5. Literature

1. Create a top ten list of reasons why people should move to Canada based on your research.

2. Present a collection of at least 10 Canadian items.

Tier 1 Creative Written Presentation

Below Grade Level

2. Learn how to correctly sing or speak the Canadian National Anthem in both English and French.

2. Create a top ten list of reasons why people should move to Canada based on your research.

2. Create a list of questions you would want to ask a Canadian citizen. After I check the list, email your teacher and e-question one of her students.

Tier 1 Creative Written Presentation

1. Using Microsoft Publisher, create a travel brochure promoting a Canadian destination of your choice.

1. Write a letter to a Canadian you admire. Be sure to explain why you admire them and how their actions have affected you.

1. Research Canada’s relationship with the United States, and present a PowerPoint to the class in which you explain how we co-exist with our neighbor to the north.

Tier 2 Creative Written Presentation

Above Grade Level

1. List 5 criteria that make a good citizen and design a promotional campaign for yourself as you run for Prime Minister

1. Write a well-developed speech about what you would do if you were Prime Minister.

1. Based on your research of Canada’s needs, create an exhibit on the theme of human rights, or organize an event or lecture on the topic.

Tier 3Creative Written Presentation

Above Grade Level

2. Research how Nunavut became a territory, and create a flag for Nunavut. Be able to explain your choices.

2. Write a well-developed speech about what you would do if you were Prime Minister.

2. Create an interactive timeline of what you believe to be the 10 major events in Canada’s history.

Tier 3 Creative Written Presentation

Citizenship Projects Contract Name: ____________________________________ Final Due Date: _____________________________

Creative Project: ____________________________ Due Date: __________________________________

Written Project: _____________________________ Due Date: __________________________________

Presentation Project: _________________________ Due Date: __________________________________

Student Signature: ___________________________ Teacher Signature: ___________________________

Assessment Learning Contracts

Self-Evaluation

Self Evaluation

Did I do my job?1 2 3 4

Did I share my ideas?1 2 3 4

Did I listen when others were talking?1 2 3 4

Did I help others in my group?1 2 3 4

Rubrics are an effective way to evaluate student work. Also a positive thing about rubrics is that you may create them along with the students.

The Rubric

http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/as

sess.html http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubr

ics/ http://rubrics4teachers.com/ http://www.tcet.unt.edu/START/instruct/gene

ral/rubrics.htm http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/

rubrics.shtml

Evaluation Rubrics

3 2 1

Make Your Own Rubric

Final Total: _________1/5Out of 100: ___________Scale: ________________

Grade 9 Science Concept: Inference Generalization: Data collection is the

impetus for making inferences in science. Background: After studying the organization

of data and making inferences, students are assigned a project where they must create their own

Tiered InstructionAbility and Interest

Students will use a variety of pre-made experiments, where the students choose and organize the data collected. These students often:

• procrastinate• use judgment rather than scientific inferences• achieve low because of a lack of comfort in the

subject or academic

When the teacher takes away the ‘wonder’ time, he/she allows these students to move right into achievement

Tier 1

Students will attempt a suggested topic to work withinFor example, suggest the group do a behavior study… one student may study the effects on one’s success with vocabulary when being rushed compared to the success of someone not being rushed Students will see how moods and frustrations play a part in success Students in this tier are appropriately challenged because they are creating. The teacher has taken away the weeks of wonder by making a general suggestion for the group.

Tier 2

Students will create their own study or experiment. Most of these students have mastered the experimental process and data collection The real learning and appropriate challenge is the process of planning their own experiment.

Tier 3

Teachers can give students a choice in tiered assignments

Allow the students to choose a color: Example:

Blue: Tier 1 Green: Tier 2 Red: Tier 3

Explain what the expectation for the assignment is BEFORE allowing students to choose their tier Groups – Partners – Individuals What will the assignment entail?

Tiering in Math: Linear Equations

Students receive the information and an equation.

Information:Joe already has 100 cookies in a cookie jar. He then bakes 20 cookies per hour. Write an equation that represents the total number ofcookies Joe has in the cookie jar. Equation: t=20h+100

Tier 1

The assignment will be to interpret and apply their knowledge

Interpret: What does the “t” stand for? What does the “h” stand for? What kind of equation is this? Graph this equation

Apply: If Joe has 200 cookies, how long did he bake? Solve for “h”

Tier 1

Students are given the exact same information as the students in Tier 1

Information Equation Then, students are given a different

scenario They use the first scenario as an example to

complete the same assignment, questions, and activities for the new scenario

Tier 2

Students look at the new scenario and write an equation

Then, students graph the equation and answer the same questions as Tier 1 based on the information in the new scenario

Tier 2

Students are given ONLY the scenario They must develop an equation, apply,

graph, and interpret the data in a series of questions

They have no example to use as a guide

Tier 3

Concepts: Connections/ Relationships Generalization: Literature is connected to

music, other pieces of literature, and real life

Text: The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Tiers Below Grade Level At Grade Level Above Grade Level

Tiering an Entire Unit

The Webquest http://webquest.org/index.php

The Ultimate Tier

Contracts Planning Guides Board Meetings Check ins Staggered Due Dates Student-Conceived Rubrics

How Do I Supervise it All?

Differentiation of Instruction

Is a teacher’s response to learner’s needsGuided by general principles of differentiation, such

as

Respectful tasks Flexible

groupingOngoing assessment and adjustment

Teachers can differentiate

Content Process Product

According to student’s

Readiness Interests Learning ProfileCarol Tomlinson, 2001

Compacting. This strategy encourages teachers to assess students before beginning a unit of study or development of a skill. Students who do well on the pre-assessment do not continue work on what they already know.

Agendas. These are personalized lists of tasks that a student must complete in a specified time, usually two to three weeks. Student agendas throughout a class will have similar and dissimilar elements.

Complex Instruction. This strategy uses challenging materials, open-ended tasks, and small instructional groups. Teachers move among the groups as they work, asking students questions and probing their thinking.

More Options

Orbital Studies. These independent investigations, generally lasting three to six weeks, revolve around some facet of the curriculum. Students select their own topics, and they work with guidance and coaching from the teacher.

Entry Points. This strategy from Howard Gardner proposes student exploration of a given topic through as many as five avenues: narrational (presenting a story), logical-quantitative (using numbers of deduction), foundational (examining philosophy and vocabulary), aesthetic (focusing on sensory features), and experimental (hands-on).

Problem-Based Learning. This strategy places students in the active role of solving problems in much the same way adult professionals perform their jobs.

More Options continued

Choice Boards. With this strategy, work assignments are written on cards that are placed in hanging pockets. By asking a student to select a card from a particular row of pockets, the teacher targets work toward student needs yet allows student choice.

4MAT. Teachers who use 4MAT plan instruction for each of four learning preferences over the course of several days on a given topic. Thus, some lessons focus on mastery, some on understanding, some on personal involvement, and some on synthesis. As a result, each learner has a chance to approach the topic through preferred modes and also to strengthen weaker areas.

More Options, continued

http://wblrd.sk.ca/~bestpractice/tiered/ Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated

Classroom – Carol Ann Tomlinson How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability

Classrooms – Carol Ann Tomlinson Integrating Differentiated Instruction and

Understanding by Design – Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe

The Differentiated Classroom – Carol Ann Tomlinson Differentiation in Practice – Carol Ann Tomlinson

and Cindy A. Strickland

Works Cited