FIAE+B2+Chapter+5

Abstract
The primary focus of chapter five deals with the process of "tiering" in the classroom. Tiering is a process that measures a student's readiness in the classroom and then adjusts the lesson according to how strongly students demonstrate their understanding. Wormeli is a strong advocate of the method and even states at one stage in this chapter that "If we're out to teach well, we'll tier" (73). Tiering is simply the process of adjusting the complexity of the assignment to fit students needs; if an assignment is too easy for a student's capabilities, tier the assignment up and vice versa. When tiering an assignment down for students, however, Wormeli cautions the reader on how to adjust the lessons. He suggests that teachers should start at the standards and then adjust the complexity of the assignment according; this way, at the end of the product, the student is minimally reaching the standards. Tiering becomes a powerful tool because it can be used more in some assignments, less in others, and sometimes not at all. It is an effective way insure that all students are going to achieve necessary standards while still keeping the big goal in mind. After explaining the benefits of tiering, Wormeli continued his discussion on tiering by offering several ways to tier in the classroom. Learning contracts, learning menus, tic-tac-toe boards, and cubing are all ways that allow for tiering to be integrated into the classroom while still achieving the major goals of the unit.toc

[|Synthesis Jordan]
Tiering is much more than just adjusting the level of the work "up" or "down" for students. Instead, it is a way to offer students a chance to work at their greatest potential and meet the same standards as their peers. [|Tiering] is effective because the process is flexible and allows variation. There are no two specific categories for students to be place in every time that a lesson is tiered and the tiering can be done in different ways. Tiering works to build student's self confidence in the classroom. If a student realizes that he or she really is capable of doing the work (because of tiering), than the teacher has generated a good learning experience. If a student feels good about what they have learned, then it is more likely that they are going to be enthusiastic about upcoming experiences. Tiering allows students to reflect on what they know and work at a pace that they are comfortable with and work with the six facets of learning as well as [|Blooms] to expand their knowledge further. Many view this method as good, but there are also ways that this method can be abused. If used incorrectly, lessons that are tiered "up" equate to those students being assigned more work, instead of more __thoughtful__ work. When students experience this type of tiering, they automatically are reluctant to the idea in the classroom. Demonstrations of [|effective] tiering through cubing, learning contracts, learning menus, and tic-tac-toe boards are all devices that show students that appropriate tiering is an effective method in the classroom.

Kirsten
I feel like idea of tiering assessments isn't or hasn't been obvious to teachers, just as it seems differentiation itself hasn't been obvious, but once you get used to that idea, the actual act of tiering your assessments seems sort of simple. You essentially start with a baseline (the students must meet a state standard, for example) and work your way up from there. I found Tomlison's Equalizer to be the most helpful of all the information put forward. Each point was a sort of scale you could use based on whatever it is you're teaching. For example, if I'm teaching a novel, I could use the "simple to complex scale" and have the less advanced students look for key points in the novel while more advanced students take those key points and analyze them for meaning.

Jordan
“If we’re out to teach well, we’ll tier” (73) is the attitude that Wormeli promotes when he discussing tiering in the classroom. In the beginning of the chapter, he explains that tiering is simply “’ratcheting’ up or down the challenge level” (Wormeli 56) to cater to student’s needs. As a cautionary tip, he suggests that the minimum expectations should begin with meeting the educational standards mandated by the state and government; this way meeting the standards does not become an obstacle when it comes time to assess a student’s work. He continues discussing this method by offering several techniques to use in order to successfully assess students using the tiering method. Learning contracts, learning menus, cubing, RAFT(S), and summarization pyramids are just a few of the ways that assignments can be adjusted to meet the needs of the student’s capabilities as well as the required standards. Each method provides flexibility for how the assessment is approached and options for how the student is able to complete the assignment. After reading this chapter, I realized that many of my teachers used tiering techniques in the classroom, but not when assessing us. I feel that if tiering was used in assessment when I was in high school, I would have been motivated to learn the material and think about it in different ways. I really like this method for a classroom and I can see how the same goals and standards of assessment can be met through tiering. This will affect my classroom in a positive way because my students will feel that they have the freedom to learn without the pressure of keeping up with other students. As a student, I would have preferred this method because I found myself getting discouraged when teachers used other student’s work a standard.

Sarah
Chapter Five developed the idea of multiple learning readinesses within one classroom setting, also known as tiering. The chapter discussed many different examples of how to alter a lesson in order to incorporate learners of all stages to make the learning process enhance each student’s abilities. I found this particular chapter to be highly interesting, for I have always been concerned about addressing different levels of readiness in my class. From reading this chapter, I am now equipped with several methods of adjusting my lesson plans to meet the educational needs of the variety of students who will enter my classroom.

Brittany
Tiering is a tool that teachers should get comfortable with using in the classroom for the best outcome with the students. It is the process in which teachers adjust difficulty in work to best fit the ability of the students. Teachers can set up two levels of the assignment, early readiness and advanced readiness, so that students can work at the appropriate level of complexity to achieve higher learning. Tiering can be used less and less each lesson so that it is not even used at all. Through this process, the students that are learning at the early readiness level are then brought up to grade level work. Tiering can be very effective in helping push students to reach their full potential. It is important to remember not to hold an early readiness student at that level. Instead, the teacher should encourage them to try working on the grade level and advanced readiness level of work to achieve more knowledge.

Leah
If you walk into any secondary education classroom you can tell that there are different levels of student readiness to learn. Their are students who are interested, disinterested, have learning disabilities, are just going to struggle with the material, those who are gifted, and those who will just meet the standard. Here is where tiering comes in handy. Tiering is how teachers adjust assignments and evaluations based on student readiness. Like everything to do with this course it is important to keep goals in mind and to first start every student off with the expectation that they will meet the standards, or else we may end up warping our view of what we are expecting. The chapter then provides different techniques for tiering: learning contracts, learning menus, tic-tac-toe boards are just a few. Many of these tiering techniques are good and I will keep them in mind, letting my students have some control in setting their own pace for their work, but pushing them forward by challenging them.

Corinne
This chapter is about tiering. Tiering is the adjustment of assignments to meet students levels or ways of learning. Tiering is interesting because year after year classes are different in their level, as well as individual students in each class. With tiering, a teacher can take a basic question and take away from it or add to it to make it more or less challenging based on the competency of the students. This will impact me as a teacher because I think it is important to be flexible with the different levels of your students, and tiering is the best way to do this. I also thought "cubing" was an interesting idea, when students make cubes with different ways of questioning such as "describe it" or "associate it". This is interesting because all the beginning questions on the cube can be used in conjunction with any subject or question. It also makes the discussion or assignment seem more like a game, and therefore will better engage students.

Ryan Snowman
This chapter deals specifically with tiering assessments. Tiering is the way that teachers adjust assessments and assignments concurrently to a student’s developmental level. It is helpful to start tiering by expecting every student to demonstrate mastery at the standards level. If teachers do not do this, then there view of grade level performance might not be correct. Tiering can go two ways too. Teachers can increase complexity to above grade level comprehension, or they can decrease the assignment complexity. It depends on the learner. Some methods for tiering assessment include learning contracts, learning menus, tic – tac – toe boards and cubing. I personally like the learning contract idea. It is a way to let students work at their own pace. Tiering seems like a difficult skill for new teachers to master. I will definitely incorporate this into my classroom because it is another skill for differentiated instruction and assessment. Tiering is an effective way to teach and it is definitely warranted in every classroom.

Ryan
Chapter five of //Fair isn’t Always Equal// is a very interesting chapter that deals with students learning capabilities. Every student is at a different level or stage when it comes to learning and this is an important to take into understanding as a teacher. This is where tiering can help. Tiering is where a teacher judges there class and can either increase the level of advancement over the grade level or can decrease the level of advancement in the classroom. The book gives different methods of tiering. Some of these methods are learning contracts, cubing, and tic-tac-toe. Tiering can be very helpful in creating a differentiated classroom environment. As a teacher this knowledge will be incorporated into my classroom because tiering seems like an efficient way of teaching.

Mykayla
When I read the title of this chapter I was immediately turned off by the topic. My school tried something like a tiered assessment and it did not turn out correctly. I was always just given extra work as the more “advanced” student. However, this chapter changed my mind. I saw that if done correctly, tiered assessments could be helpful to every student. If a teacher uses the Bloom’s Taxonomy levels he or she can challenge a student without making the different work seem like extra assignments. The only suggestion that I thought was totally absurd was the student contracts. This seems like a way for teachers to just send a student off on his or her own and not necessarily teach them. I assume that it just depends on the teacher, but I do not think it would be beneficial to allow any student to use this technique.

Jennie
The idea of tiering questions and tests is a good idea. There are going to be students who are more advanced than others, and we, as teachers, are going to have to challenge both without leaving one of them behind or challenging them too much. The idea of learning contracts is a good one, because who knows better than the students themselves what they are capable of? If they get a say in tasks that they have to do then it is more likely they will be excited to work and do their work.

Drew
I am not completely sure how I feel about the idea of tiering lessons. It sounds easy enough, however, I would not want early readiness students to feel alienated from advanced students. With that concern aside, I think it is a great idea. You should challenge to a students potential. If students are of earlier readiness, they will improve by having their potential tested. More advanced students will seek more knowledge as they are encouraged to do so. Learning contracts, I find, would be essential if you are using a tiering system. I think that perhaps it would make students feel less alienated if they had a say in what they do for work. Having a say in what you do for tasks would encourage me to do work if I were of lesser readiness.

Tim
Chapter five of FIAE starts off by going over the idea of tiering and how teachers use it to adjust assignments and assessments. Wormeli begins to explain the tiering system and how a teacher should being tiering by expecting all the students to be capable within the standard of a lesson. Wormeli then begins to express his fears about how, in order to tier, a teacher must stay focused on the same topic. You don’t want to create too complex of a tiering system that creates more confusion than necessary. The chapter allows the reader to explore many different ideas and lessons in regards to tiering, which I found to be extremely helpful in my reading. The idea of tiering, to me, seems as if it could be phenomenally helpful within the classroom if approached and used correctly, but at the same time could backfire on the teacher. It seems like a great way to be able to push new and more difficult information towards a student without overwhelming them.

Rachel
Williams Taxonomy of Creativity appealed to me in this chapter. One reason that I enjoy the idea of health education is because I feel that it gives me a lot a lot of creative freedom in planning projects and assignments. Along the same lines, a major part of health education is teaching students to think for themselves and make their own health decisions in their lives. By encouraging them to be creative and freethinking students in class, hopefully they will continue to be creative and freethinking adults.

Cara
Before reading this chapter, I had never heard the term “tiering”. This is a chapter that I will continue to go back to because I’m still a little unsure of how to effectively make adjustments to a course or assignment. Some students might just need a time extension rather than an adjustment to the complexity of a lesson or unit. The list of things to take away in order to decrease the complexity of a lesson was really helpful for me to read and help me to understand the concept of tiering a little better. I’m sure once I go into the teaching field that I will tier lessons without even realizing it. My favorite part of this chapter was the section describing how to create a learning menu. The learning menu seems like such a cute and fun idea. It also seems very effective because students have a choice in the work they do. I’d like to use something similar to a learning menu in my classes.

Scott
When using tiering we need to emphasize the ratcheting up or down of the challenge of a level in order to match the readiness of a student, the interests and learner profiles should be addressed, but not emphasized. When adding to the complexity of an assignment, or making it simpler, refer to the list on pages 57 and 58 and add or remove one suggestion for each level. It's important to try to pull back tiering gradually. We can using "learning contracts" in order to help tier an assignment for a student, negotiation and then making sure they are held accountable. We can change the excitement level that students feel towards a prompt on for response question simply by changing the words, and be more specific about what we want for a response. To help consider tiering we should think about what we would need to do if all of a sudden we needed to teach our same lessons to students in a lower or higher grade level, there are many ideas in this chapter, too many to synthesise into a blog review this short, so I should refer back to this chapter for ideas.