TIERED ASSIGNMENTS

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TIERED ASSIGNMENTS
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What is Tiered Instruction?

• A differentiation strategy where all students
  focus on essential understandings and skills, but
  at different levels of complexity.

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Why Use Tiered Instruction?

• Avoids work that is anxiety or boredom producing
• Promotes success and is therefore motivating
• Blends assessment and instruction
  
• (Tomlinson, 2001)

• Encourage students to begin learning from where
  they are
• Allows students to work with appropriately
  challenging tasks

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TIERED LESSONS AND CURRICULUM LADDERS

• Students explore ideas that value their readiness
  level by building on prior knowledge
• Students use varied approaches to explore
  essential ideas
• Rubrics are used to assess tiered
  lessons/curriculum ladders that are created
• http//ideanet.doe.state.in.us/exceptional/gt/tier
  ed_curriculum/welcome.html

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Lesson Plan Template for DI
Subject Spanish IV (H) Key Concept or Standard "Relative" pronouns are called "relative" because they are "related" to a noun that has previously been stated. Differentiated by Content according to Readiness
Lesson Whole-class Components Differentiated Components
Introduction Whole class mini-lecture on relative pronouns their use in English and Spanish (15-20 min.)
Practice Place students on computers to complete exercises by ability. Relative Pronouns 1 -beginning Relative Pronouns 2 target level Relative Pronouns 3 advanced (25-35 min.)
Assessment Quizzes by ability level.
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EQUALIZER
1. Foundational Transformational
2. Concrete Abstract
3. Simple Complex
4. Single facet Multiple facets
5. Small leap Great leap
6. Structured Open
7. Dependent Independence
8. Slow Quick
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THINKING ABOUTTHE EQUALIZER

• Use the equalizer to help you think about tiered
  lessons and how the descriptors might help you
  move a student from simple to complex resources,
  research, issues, problems, skills or goals.
• Plan one activity and plot its characteristics on
  the equalizer
• Determine areas you can move the activity to more
  or less difficult on the equalizer

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TIERED ACTIVITY DEVELOPMENT

• Select the activity
• organizer
• Concept
• generalization

• Think about your
• student/use assessments
• Readiness range
• Interest
• Learning profile
• talents

Chart the complexity of the activity High to
low

• Create an activity that
• Is
• Interesting
• High level
• Causes students to use
• skills to understand a key idea

Choose activities along Ladder as needed
to ensure challenge and success (basic to
advanced)
Match task To student
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Subject Language Arts Grade
Seven Standard 2 Reading Comprehension
(focus on informational materials) Key Concept
Locate information by using a variety of consumer
and public documents. Generalization Choose a
product to purchase and research it in Consumer
Reports for the best one to buy. Watches,
radios, or other small appliances should work
well for this research project. Background
Students are working on understanding where to
find information that helps make decisions. In
this lesson, they are looking at products as
consumers. They need to be familiar with
advertisements and consumer magazines. This
lesson is tiered in product according to
readiness. Tier I Struggling Learners
Knowledge/Comprehension Activity These students
need work that helps them comprehend the issue at
hand. In this case, they want to find criteria
that will help them decide what is good to buy.
They need to pick a product that can be easily
found in Consumer Reports. A watch, radio, TV,
hair dryer , CD, or video game would be good
choices. They need to choose one. As they read
the report, they need to create two lists of
criteria to help them judge which product to buy.
The first list is labeled "Positive Attributes
of the Product". The second list is labeled,
"Negative Attributes of the Product". They need
to choose two types of the product they have
chosen and write the positive attributes and
negative attributes on the list created. Then
they need to find advertisements in magazines or
newspapers for each of these products and clip
them out. Finally, they need to take two
different colors of markers and underline the
words they find on their advertisements that
match the items on the lists they created. Based
on what they find, they should be able to suggest
to the group which product to buy.
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Tier II Grade Level Learners Analysis
Activity These students should pick a product
they wish to analyze according to criteria in
Consumer Reports. Products suggested in the
Tier I activity would work here too, or any
product they are interested in and can find in
the Consumer Report. They need to read the
analysis in the report, noting what criteria the
magazine lists and which brand names of the
product rate the highest on each criterion. They
should make a list of the order of the products
by brand. Now look for advertisements in the
Sunday Paper for any mention of any of the list
of products. Based on what the advertisement
states, analyze the way the product is advertised
according to what the Consumer Report states
about the particular product. Based on findings,
be ready to suggest which product is the best to
buy and why. Consider cost in recommending the
product as well as other criteria. Tier III
Above Grade Level Learners Synthesis
Activity These students will again generate a
list of products they would like to research in
the Consumer Reports. Before reading the
magazine, however, they should generate a list of
criteria they think is important for the magazine
to rate. In other words, they should analyze the
product they choose first according to what they
think is important to know about this product
when they buy it. Make a list of these criteria.
Next, read the report of this product., checking
their own criteria to see if they identified
important criteria on their own. List the
criteria listed in Consumer Reports. Which
products are the leading brands and what criteria
is important to check? Did they agree with the
Consumer Reports on essential elements to know
about products? Write a paragraph in defense of
research before a consumer buys a
product.    Assessment Since each group
researched material using Consumer Reports, this
is a perfect activity to share as a large group.
This activity can be done individually or in
small groups (of whatever size you choose--twos,
threes, or fours work well). At the culmination
of the activity, have individuals or groups share
what they found and what they would suggest for
all consumers concerning their product. They
each have a product to hand in at the end of this
activity.
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Subject Mathematics
Grade Eighth Standard Standar
d 4 Computation and Estimation 8
Algebra Key Concept Key Concept Students
practice mental calculations by recognizing
patterns and relationships among integers.
Generalization Students do mental calculations
using symmetry and looking for visual patterns.
  Background This lesson could be an activity
for anytime of the year. Each tier provides a
fun way of practicing mental addition, looking
for visual patterns, and recognizing symmetry.
Consequently, students should be adept at mental
addition and familiar with recognizing
patterns. This lesson is adapted from the book
Math for Humans, ISBN0-9656414-7-3.  This lesson
uses magic squares which originated in China and
have mainly been studied since the seventeenth
century. These activities are designed to
reinforce mental calculations as students total
various arrangements that make 34. Begin the
lesson as a whole class but have the students
arranged in their tiers and do the first part of
The Code Square found on page 4-2 of the
reference. This forms the basis for all the
other activities as students become familiar with
and recognize the patterns found in a 4-by-4
Magic Square. Students may work in pairs or
individually within the tiers. This lesson is
tiered in process according to Howard Gardners
Multiple Intelligences.  Tier I Linguistic
Learners Students continue using the Magic Code
Square to play the word and code game using the
rules found on page 4-2 of the reference. Tier
II Logical-Mathematical Learners Pairs of
students complete A Box of Patterns on page 4-6
of the reference. You might also have some of
these learners create new Magic Squares by
following the directions on page 4-8 of the
reference. Tier III Spatial Learners Students
play the Rune Square game following the rules
found on page 4-4 of the reference. You might
also have some of these learners follow the
directions for making a design surprise on page
4-7 of the reference. Assessment Use observation
and questioning as you visit each tier to assess
this lesson.
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Subject Science
Grade Eleventh
Physics Standard 9 Common Themes Key
Concept Key Concept Understanding how things
work and designing solutions to problems of
almost any kind can be facilitated by systems
analysis Generalization Principles of physics
can help us understand everyday
phenomenon. Background Students have studied
mechanics and properties of matter. As a
comprehensive check for understanding about these
principles, students will be placed in groups
according to readiness. Their task is to analyze
the given phenomenon, demonstrate it, and
identify and explain all the physics principles
involved. The results must be shared with the
class. The presentation style is left to the
group but must include both demonstration and
explanation. Many books and materials will give
directions for these phenomena. One that is
quite comprehensive in both the directions for
the demonstration and the explanation of why it
works is How Things Work The Physics of Everyday
Life, by Louis Bloomfield (ISBN 0-471-59473-3).
This lesson is tiered in content according to
readiness.  Tier I Basic Pulling a Tablecloth
from a Table Set with Dishes (Laws of
Motion) Tier II Grade Level Swinging Water
Overhead in a Bucket without Spilling the Water
(Acceleration, Circular motion) Tier III
Advanced The Cartesian Diver (Density,
Pressure) Assessment Teacher observation and
student interviews during the investigation will
serve as formative assessments. Summative
assessment includes accuracy of explanation and
successful demonstration of the phenomenon.
Students presentation skills may be assessed
with a rubric. If possible, you might wish to
consider sharing the demonstrations with younger
students.
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Subject Mathematics - Statistics
Grade Twelfth Standard Data
Analysis and Probability from the National
Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles and
Standards for School Mathematics Key Concept Key
Concept Students are knowledgeable, analytical,
thoughtful consumers of data. Generalization
Students formulate a question that can be
addressed with data and collect, organize, and
display the data. Background This lesson would
be an end-of-course culminating activity and
should be completed in groups consisting of two
to four students. Students choose a tier
according to interest in a question and decide to
use a survey, observational study, or experiment
to answer the question.  Directions for all the
tiers are the same. Students determine a
question they would like to answer, decide on a
appropriate means for data collection, and
prepare a presentation of the information to
share with the class. The presentation should
include a complete analysis of the data and the
answer to the question of interest. However, a
variety of presentation methods would be
appropriate, e.g., a poster, a PowerPoint
display, a written report, or a radio/TV show
interview. This lesson will take a number of days
to complete as students will need time to decide
on a question, collect the data, analyze the
data, and prepare the presentation. You will
also need 1-2 days for students to make their
presentations. This lesson is tiered in process
and product according to interest. The tiers
could be based on the questions or the products.
Those listed here represent the products
produced.  Tier 1 Poster Tier II Power Point
Tier III Written report Tier IV Radio/TV
Assessment Assessment A rubric for each
product should be based primarily on neatness,
organization, accuracy of the information, and
accuracy of the statistical analysis. The
rubrics should be given to the students at the
beginning the lesson since the decision on which
product will be made after selecting a question.