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Abstract
Tiering seemed to be a relatively __#|new idea__ to the class. The chapter explains that tiering is a way to break the class up into readiness levels. These readiness levels are then cared for by the teacher in their own respective ways. Students who excel in the content can have more challenging task to help them stay interested in the class. Students who are meeting the standard for the lesson can continue about the content as it is being taught and those students who fall behind can be taught lessons in an easier way for them to understand. The reason behind tiering classrooms is that it allows students of all readiness levels to be challenged with whatever content that is being taught to them. In the chapter it gives ideas of how to assess a tiered classroom with such assessments including tic-tac-toe boards, learning menus, and summarization pyramids. These tools are great to let students have some say in how they learn the material; it also allows them to challenge themselves in a way they want to. By giving the students option it also allows for kids to use their intelligences to succeed in the class. One tool in which almost everybody mentions was the student contracts. Student contracts could be a great tool if used correctly. These contracts allow students and teachers to come up with a plan for students to control how they learn the material, these contracts can include what types of assessments the student will do to prove understanding of the material and the time frame in which the student will get said assessments done in. The contract gives the student the responsibility to the learn the material in his/her own way however if the contract is broken then the student may be reverted back to the teachers plan.

**Synthesis**
Tiering was a new concept which the class found a bit strange but as the chapter went on the class had a better understanding of the point of [|tiering]. This concept has a place in the classroom which we all would like to keep in mind when we have our own classrooms. Brittany mentions, “Isn’t this sort of like having favorites?” which I fell is something all of us would be concerned about. Tiering is a good tool to keep in mind for when designing lessons. Cameron wrote, “The best way to approach a lesson plan is to design the lesson for what the students should be performing at. That is the benchmark of the plan. As the lesson goes on the teacher can then make the judgment call of whether or not the lesson needs to be harder or easier for the students.” This is a great mindset to have when designing lessons; it would also be a good idea to keep in mind the different readiness of students you may run into and plan assignments accordingly. Some other topics that came about during the reading which the class mentions are the assessment strategies such as tic-tac-toe boards or summarization pyramids. The biggest topic among the class was the use of [|student contracts]. Some of us said that we would definitely like to __#|incorporate__ student contracts into our classrooms and others said that they would use them for a special case. By allowing our students to have a little bit more said in how they learn a more effective learning environment can be created.

By: Jackson F.

Andrew C
Chapter five covered a lot about ways to make our __#|lesson plans__ fit students of all different tiers. Tiering is a tool teachers use to approach all of the students in a unique way that fits them best. Teachers use tiering in order to prepare for students with different readiness levels, interests, and learner profiles. Through looking at all of these teachers place students (mostly based on their readiness level) into groups when giving out some assignments and assessments. They give the different readiness students altered assignments to either challenge them or make it more manageable for them. There is not always the same amount of tiers, and teachers should never predetermine tiers before getting a chance to meet their students. In my classroom I will definitely use tiering in order to reach all of my students in the most effective manner. Chapter five also provided lots of information on some ways to use tiering in the classroom. The methods talked about in the text are, learning contracts, menus, tic-tac toe boards, cubing, and summarization pyramids. All of these methods allow us as teachers to quickly change the different prompts and or categories on each level. I especially like the summarization pyramid, because it is easy to work with and there are so many different prompts that you could use. It would make tiering much easier when using this. I plan on using it in my classroom because it will allow me to challenge all of my students appropriately and at the same time on almost any subject.

**Ali P**
Chapter five introduced to me the meaning of tiering assessments. This idea was new to me and a little puzzling at times. Even though a group of students are in the same class or grade, they are not all going to all share the same challenges. In tiering, it is up to the teacher to assess students depending on what will challenge them. This means that a teachers will need to adjust lessons so that they will challenge each student individually. Students prior experiences and intelligences can effect how a teacher might need to tier a class. I understand the necessity of this but I do not know if students will. I remember in SED 101 our professor mentioned that it is just as hard to teach a student that is struggling as it is a student who knows everything your teaching. It is up to teachers to keep all of their students engaged and challenged. In my class I would like to do the best I can to keep all of my students comfortably challenged. I would like them to enjoy the challenge and feel motivated to accomplish it. I want to find the tools to be able to modify a lesson at any moment to fit my students needs. I sometimes feel intimidated by the idea of having a room of students who all think so differently and being able to teach them all at once. Each mind is so different, I would imagine it would be almost impossible to challenge them all equally at once.

Jackie B.
There are two different definitions given for tiering: how teachers adjust assignments and assessments according to students’ readiness levels, interests, and learner profiles; or similar to what __#|Ann__ Tomlinson calls “ratcheting” up or down the challenge level. I don’t fully understand this tiering business. Basically it’s the breaking down of assessments or lessons so that students who don’t fully understand can be helped. The chapter also says that not every lesson has to be broken down into tiers which is good in my opinion. As I read more about tiering the more I understand it. It can be helpful but not all of the time is it necessary. Maybe in my own classroom I’ll do what the book suggests and give those who need a little bit more time, more time but not break it down so much. I also really liked the samples given about tiering on page sixty. They helped me understanding tiering so much more. It’s really interesting to read about breaking lessons down and “tiering” them but in the next section, read about how I can increase the complexity and add a bit of a challenge. The book lists a few really great ideas that I want to be able to try out in my classroom. One suggestion was to expand on the concept and extend it to other areas. That would be really neat to do with maybe another history teacher. It would be fun to __#|work__ together because history and English go hand and hand so easily. The chapter also suggests working in more abstract ways. If I took a concept and made it abstract, that would be fun to listen to the students discuss their thoughts. Because it’s abstract there isn’t a right or wrong answer so they may feel more inclined to speak up knowing they couldn’t be wrong.

Cameron B.
The chapter opens up with talking about tiering. This is setting up plans according to the students readiness levels. A mistake that some teachers make is designing a plan that it too complex or too basic for the students and it can be hard to change while in the middle of the lesson. The best way to approach a __#|lesson plan__ is to design the lesson for what the students should be performing at. That is the benchmark of the plan. As the lesson goes on the teacher can then make the judgment call of whether or not the lesson needs to be harder or easier for the students. Some things teachers can do to make a lesson plan more challenging is integrating more than one subject into the lesson so that the students have to make connections. Teachers could also have the lesson relate back to the real world. There are some good examples of this in the book. One deals with students having to identify cloud types in a picture. There is the standard version, a complex version, and a less challenging version. The teacher can decide which approach to take with the students. One thing I liked out of the chapter was the idea of making contracts with students. The contracts are a negotiation between the teacher and student that the teacher will note the content the student needs to learn, but the student can negotiate how they can show they mastered it. I plan on using something like this if need be in my class because I feel as if this will help the students want to succeed knowing exactly what they need to learn and being able to show in their own way they have mastered it.

Brittany R.
This chapter brought me to a realization. I think deep down I had always known about tiering assignments but had never had it defined for me. Basically to me, I took it as another way to customize learning. The beginning of the chapter started off with a math problem. My first instinct (being a math concentration) was to solve the problem. The first thought I had was to analyze the slope but the answer that the book gave was aimed more towards the input and output way of graphing a function. This just goes to show that there are many different ways to solve a given problem so why is it reasonable to say a one students answer is right over another’s if they both arrived at the same answer? It isn’t. Just as individuals learn differently, they will be able to relay a message in a different way. Tiering is determining whether or not a student has met their level of learning. When I first started reading about this, my first thought was “isn’t this sort of like picking favorites?” I’m still not sure to be honest. I’m worried that I may be too lenient on some students and allow them to “just get by” in my class but I don’t want that at all. I want all my students to feel challenged at their own level but I guess learning more about my students will help me not favor some students over others and will allow me to assess my students work in the right way.

Emily H.
Tiering is how a teacher adjusts certain assignments and assessments to fit the students’ readiness levels, learner profiles and interests. Chapter 5 focuses itself on tiering and different ways teachers can do this. In each classroom there are going to students who achieve and learn faster that will want to be challenged. There will also be students who need a little extra time and help to understand. As a teacher we need to find ways to challenge those who need it and those who need extra time. Tiering is a way that we can achieve this. The book suggests that we make lessons to fit the in-between. However lessons can be changed to fit the needs of the students. The two ideas for tiering that jumped out to me were the learning contract and learning menu. The learning contract is a cool idea because it makes the student responsible for his or her own work. They are in charge of what they are doing and work with the teacher to go at their own pace. I like that the contract can be changed or revoked if the student is not fulfilling the obligations in the contract. If I felt like a student could work effectively on their own I would draft a contract to try with them. The learning menu is just a neat idea to make choosing an activity in a creative way. It gives students the chance to choose their own activities, but also has them follow a guideline. As a teacher I would present an activity in this way because I like that it gives students a choice.

Jackson F.
Naturally their will be students who will be ahead of the class, students who will be able to keep up with the class, and students who need help keeping up. By having tiers it requires teachers to be able to assess them all fairly. In order not to impair any students progress it is imperative to come up with creative ways to continue growth. This may mean giving advanced kids challenging problems within the content to get them to apply their knowledge, and the students who need extra help may need more basic assessments to learn. Another option to consider is using learning contracts with students who need a more tailored assessment. Using this allows students and teachers to come up with a set plan on the progress the child needs to make by setting up check points. Other forms of assessments include menus, tic-tac-toe boards, and RAFTS to help tier groups challenge themselves. Allowing the students to choose their own assessments is a good way to get kids excited about learning and allows them to feel comfortable with what they choose. Back in high school I really enjoyed the assessments which gave us options it allowed me to use my strengths to learn. It also made me feel more confident when presenting material. I feel like I have always been in the middle tier as a student. I can relate this well with running, being placed in a lower tier gives you something to strive for and by having people in the next tier it helps motivate some students to improve. I really liked reading about the different assessments. I could see myself using the RAFT in my classroom. I think that it is a great way to give students choices while also putting authentic assessments into the classroom.

Nicole C.
This chapter’s main focus was “tiering” assessments. That is, cranking up or down the challenge level of an assessment to meet every student’s mental needs. The fact of the matter is, some students just aren’t ready for complex learning, and some students are ready to go above and beyond even that. Every student that will come into my future class will be at a different readiness level, and I need to be prepared to deal with that. After reading this chapter on tiering, I know that it will help out in this area big time. An important point that I took away from it was that I should never start “below expectations.” I should expect each student to demonstrate total proficiency with what I am teaching – starting at grade level and then moving up into more complex ideas as the year goes on. Of course, the pre-assessment will tell me if some exceptions need to be made, and I will adjust accordingly. Before reading this chapter, I’ll admit that I was a bit confused as to //how// to tier without making some students feel “smarter” or “less smart” than other students. I was provided with some really great tips here, the most important of which (in my mind) was providing students with choices. For big assessments, students can pick certain tasks to complete from a determined set of options. Students who are at an advanced level can be encouraged to pick the more complex tasks. One idea I had was to say “If you pick options from the more complex list, then you will have to do one less item than if you pick from the less complex list.” This might entice advanced learners to actually go for that option without isolating them by giving them a completely different list than the others. Tiering is important, but it is something to tread on delicately when it is done.

Joe S.
This chapter discusses “tiering,” or the process of adjusting difficulty of an assignment to suit the needs and capabilities of different students. Each level of the tier qualifies as demonstrating understanding of the standard, but specificities of information can be tiered for “early readiness students” and “advanced readiness students.” Furthermore, not all aspects of each lesson are tiered, as generally only one facet is tiered. The chapter gives many specific examples for how to challenge students and create reasonable tiers. Some of the best suggestions were to manipulate information rather than just echo it, identifying common misconceptions within a concept, and defending completed work. These are especially interesting to me because they serve excellent purposes in a math classroom. Following this list, the author gives certain “look-fors” when assessing the tiered work. One of my favorite tiered-style assessments was the tic-tac-toe board, where students are allowed to decide between any three tasks that would satisfy a winning tac-tac-toe maneuver, where each space signifies a different activity that assesses students in different areas of the MI theory. This model gave me an idea so ensure that each combination gave students an early readiness task, grade level task, and advanced level task. Doing this would ensure that each student completed what they needed to, while striving to challenge and develop critical thinking skills that would further their understanding of the concept. Finally, a few of the last things to really strike me were the question “How do we assign equitable grades when different tierings are used?” and the idea to automatically tier for grade-level and above grade-level, using the third option only if necessary. I could not determine an answer to the question, and I liked the idea of the second to encourage high expectations and push my students to succeed. = =

Phillip C.
Chapter five talked about tiering assignments and assessments depending on what level the students are currently at. I talked about wanting to do this in a previous blog post an think it is very important. I think it gets overlooked too much that assignments and assessments need to be tiered to students above the current level as well. It is ok for students to exceed the standard, but all students should reach the standard. The path it takes to get there will and should be varied for different students though. I might have fallen into making an entirely new lesson when trying to tier but in fact, not everything about the lesson needs to be tiered. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is just keeping the assignment the same and extending the deadline. I think that if drastic tiering has to occur than learning contracts are a must. This makes sure that the student will be able to determine when things are passed in and that they are still learning all of the material that fulfills the expectations of the unit. If I were to use contracts in my classroom I would be sure that they would contain expectations and consequences for not meeting them. Most of all, I would want there to be the option to go beyond their assigned expectations for every task outlined in the contract. When students understand what they are doing, or a concept clicks for them after struggling, they are likely to want to do more, and be challenged more. I would want to be sure I could provide that opportunity. The restaurant menu was another interesting idea that could make choosing what tasks a student picks for a unit fun (similar to an expanded version of the “Celebration of Learning” contract sheet from Chapter 10 of MI).

Clayton P.
This chapter __#|deals__ with how to tier assessments. It’s obvious that you don’t want to assign something that your students won’t know how to do. In order to make sure your students understand a subject in its entirety, you need to introduce the topic and gradually build on to it. This is what the author refers to as tiering assessments. He gives an example of a complex math equation made simpler by using fewer variables and limiting the uses of “less than” and “greater than” signs. The author then gives several methods for tiering assessments. The first method is known in the text as “Tomlinson’s Equalizer.” It is a series of nine continuums with which the teacher must consider assignments and assessments in each area. The second method addressed is learning contracts. These are especially effective for students to be able to learn at their own pace. Learning contracts enable teachers to be able to teach what they need to, while at the same time enabling the student to negotiate with the teacher what kind of pace they’re going to be learning at. One of the more well-known methods for tiering assessments that’s mentioned in the chapter is Frank Williams’s Taxonomy of Creativity. It consists of eight distinct levels: fluency, flexibility, originality, elaboration, risk-taking, complexity, curiosity, and imagination. The author then gives sample assignments for each level. This chapter was useful for determining what kind of level of difficulty students should be for their learning style. This will also help me determine what pace my future classroom will be going.

Meng H.
This chapter is about tiering assessments, which is a great way to differentiate assessments to meet students’ readiness levels. There are a number of different models or techniques that we can use in a classroom. RAFT(S) caught my attention because from first glance it looked like what we did in class as part of Stage 2 in unit lesson planning. We did GRASP in class, but they have some similarities. There are role, audience and produce/format that are the same. The difference is that Stage 2 for us are totally open-ended, but RAFT(S) in the chapter are more pre-designed but still offer students choices.

 I like the advice of “start tiering by expecting every student to demonstrate full proficiency with the standard, not something less” (Wormeli 56). Because I like to believe that the students may be different in ways but they are full of potentials and I don’t want to judge them or expect anything less from them without challenging them. No student should be expected to achieve less because he or she is different or has an IEP. As long as we can implement differentiated instruction and assessment, providing assistive technology, students should all be able to learn and succeed in school.

I want to try out the “learning menu” and “tic-tac-toe boards” in my classroom because they both grabbed my attention as refreshing and creative methods to give students choices. This will be a great way to keep students engaged in a math lesson. I believe when students are involved in decision making, or when they are free to choose, they will be more engaged and committed in learning. I want to make it clear to my students that their success in school is a shared responsibility between them and me.

= =

Tyler R.
This chapter taught me about tiering. The chapter defines tiering as a way of putting different levels of difficulties on lessons. By doing this, the students who are excelling will not be slowed down by the students who are struggling. It’s main purpose however is to give the appropriate amount of work and the appropriate difficulty of work to those to whom it qualifies. As a future teacher I will need to be cautious about this practice however. There are many precautions that a teacher needs to take before implementing tiering. For example, the book explains that if a teacher starts out with planning the lesson for either above or below the standard level of performance expected, then it could distort the actual standard for average students. To go along with this, if the teacher starts with the below students, then the standard or above standard may not be up to par. I believe that I could implement tiering into my classroom as a future teacher, but I would have to be careful to make sure that none of the previously listed things happen or else it could prove counterproductive. Lastly, another thing that I learned is that teacher’s should keep in mind that it is often okay for students to do what every one else is doing. Tiering does not always need to happen in the classroom. As a future teacher I believe knowing this is important. Students don’t always need to be split up into difficulty levels, my lessons should allow for all students to be able to work on the same material from time to time.