The Tiered Approach

1. The Tiered Approach The First Level of Differentiation

2. Tiered Assignments:A Starting Point • 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

3. The Tiered Approach • 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

4. Why Tiered? • 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.

5. 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.

6. Tiered Helps Teachers • Maximize the likelihood that… ̊ Each student comes away with pivotal skills and understandings ̊ Each student is appropriately challenged

7. Designing a Tiered Lesson • Select the activity organizer (essential to building a framework of understanding) ̊ concept ̊ skill ̊ generalization ̊ EQ’s • Think about your students or use assessments to focus on: • Readiness Level • Interests • Learning Profile

8. Developing a Tiered Lesson • Create ONE activity that is • Interesting • High level • Causes students to use key skills to understand a key idea • Mainstreamed to the middle*

9. Developing a Tiered Lesson • Chart the complexity of the activity as high skill/ complexity or low skill/ complexity.

10. Developing a Tiered Lesson • 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!

11. Developing a Tiered Lesson • Match a version of the task to a student based on student profile and task requirements.

12. Tiered What? • 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 • Writing tasks • Homework • Learning centers • Computer tasks • Product assignments • Learning contracts • Labs • Questioning

13. How Do I Tier? • 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/ principle ̊appropriately challenging and engaging for students at all levels

14. Examples of Tiered Instruction

15. Tiered ProjectsAbility and Interest • 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.

16. Tier 1Creative Written Presentation Below Grade Level • Create a three part collage that deals with three of the following criteria below. Be able to discuss the collage in class. 1. Natural Resources 2. Government 3. Entertainment 4. History 5. Literature 1. Create a top ten list of reasons why people should move to Canada based on your research. • Present a collection of at least 10 Canadian items.

17. Tier 1Creative 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.

18. Tier 2Creative Written Presentation • 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.

19. Tier 3 Creative Written Presentation Above Grade Level • 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.

20. 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.

21. Assessment ̊ Learning Contracts Citizenship Projects Contract • Name: ____________________________________ • Final Due Date: _____________________________ • Creative Project: ____________________________ • Due Date: __________________________________ • Written Project: _____________________________ • Due Date: __________________________________ • Presentation Project: _________________________ • Due Date: __________________________________ • Student Signature: ___________________________ • Teacher Signature: ___________________________

22. Self-Evaluation Self Evaluation Did I do my job? 1 2 3 4 Did I help others in my group? 1 2 3 4 Did I share my ideas? 1 2 3 4 Did I listen when others were talking? 1 2 3 4

23. The Rubric • 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.

24. Evaluation Rubrics • http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php • http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html • http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics/ • http://rubrics4teachers.com/ • http://www.tcet.unt.edu/START/instruct/general/rubrics.htm • http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/rubrics.shtml

25. Make Your Own Rubric Final Total: _________1/5 Out of 100: ___________ Scale: ________________

26. Tiered InstructionAbility and Interest • 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

27. Tier 1 • 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

28. Tier 2 • Students will attempt a suggested topic to work within ̊For 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.

29. Tier 3 • 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.

30. Tiering in Math: Linear Equations • 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?

31. Tier 1 • 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 of cookies Joe has in the cookie jar. ̊ Equation: t=20h+100

32. 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”

33. Tier 2 • 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

34. 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

35. Tier 3 • 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

36. Tiering an Entire Unit • 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

37. The Ultimate Tier • The Webquest • http://webquest.org/index.php

38. How Do I Supervise it All? • Contracts • Planning Guides • Board Meetings • Check ins • Staggered Due Dates • Student-Conceived Rubrics

39. Differentiation of Instruction Is a teacher’s response to learner’s needs Guided by general principles of differentiation, such as Respectful tasks Flexible grouping Ongoing assessment and adjustment Teachers can differentiate Content Process Product According to student’s Readiness Interests Learning Profile Carol Tomlinson, 2001

40. More Options • 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.

41. More Options continued • 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.

42. 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.

43. Works Cited • 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