FIAE Chapter 5

Tiering assignments for students who are at different levels of learning is the opening of chapter five.  Differentiating assignments at different levels of learning is something teachers do to make understanding easier for s student, not make the assignment easier than everyone else.  We don’t need to tier for every assignment.  We should expect all students to demonstrate full proficiency.  Having a student start out at the benchmark, or lowest point, may inhibit their learning.  Starting at full proficiency guarantees the student the opportunity to demonstrate their full knowledge and understanding.  Using equalizers is also a way to make sure students have full comprehension.  Grouping elements together that don’t seem alike, but are on totally different spectrums of one another.  If a student can pick out continuums from a lesson then they most likely have an excellent mastery of the lesson.  Another helpful tool a teacher can use to closely monitor is a learning contract.  You can set rules and checkpoints to present behavior and content expectations.  My favorite activity for tiering is the RAFT(S) activity.  Choosing content and presenting different scenarios to effectively communicate the big ideas is an excellent idea.  Having students choose their own roles, audience, format, or topic (or time) is a great way for students to show you how they like to learn and be creative in their demonstrations.  I never thought that by using certain verbs, writing prompts could seem so much more alive to a student.  I will try and use this strategy because as a student I remember looking at some prompts and not being very excited or motivated to write it even if I had a lot of knowledge to work with.