FIAE+B1+Chapter+5



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Abstract
This chapter of Wormeli's //Fair Isn't Always Equal// brings foward a concern new teachers might face: how do I meet the various levels of needs my students have? Wormeli's main answer is tiering. Tiering is the process by which a teacher changes an assignment or lesson slightly to better fit a student's capability. The information is gathered through pre-assessment and is put in to action by manipulating portions of an activity. For some students it is worth extending a deadline and for some it is about making a course a bit more intensive. Tiering is meant for students to learn the same information just differently!

[|Liz's] Synthesis
It seems that in someway the entire class had or has some problems with this chapter's topic. For most it was prior questions regarding the practicality of individually changing every assingment. This chapter however managed to put tiering on a manageble level for most. There is a better understanding of how to differentiate tasks and assignments. Once again the importance is not about changing the amount of content it is about adjusting how the content is taken in. There were several mentions of how the class liked [|examples] and how examples really put the situation in perspective. Very simmilar to examples is [|implemenation of tiering into a classroom]. The website is very informative about implementation of tiering into the classroom as well as providing different examples of ways to tier lessons.

Cassandra
A struggle I had with differentiated classrooms is the practicality of changing an assignment for each student. This chapter gives a lot of helpful tips for this exact hang up. To change an assignment is sometimes as simple as adding complexity or subtracting complexity.The chapter gives many ideas for manipulating the complexity of assignments, for example: manipulate information rather than just echo it; extend concept to other areas; work in more abstract concepts and models; or work independently/in a group. In order to manipulate the entire course's complexity, whether the child is advanced or having difficulty, learning contracts seem very handy. They tell the students short term deadlines for tons of work, that way they can gauge when they want to do what assignment.

Amy
Different readiness levels in a classroom require different teaching methods, and therefore, different assessment options. Tiering assessments is a very common method used by teachers to determine what students are learning by providing more or less structure based on whether the learner is at a higher or lower level of learning. Tiering is more so the adjusting of assessments and assignments according to what level each student is at. Simplifying material for students with lower readiness levels helps them meet the expectations of the classroom teacher and the standards, but without compromising the amount of material that needed to be covered. Learning Contracts, Learning Menus, Summarization Pyramids, and Cubing, are among many methods used for tiering information/content material. One important part of tiering that was noted in this chapter, states that, “teachers shouldn’t tier every aspect of every lesson…let students do the same work as everyone else, but give them extended deadlines. Don’t adjust the complexity” (57). Sometimes all it takes is a little extra time for students to comprehend the task at hand, and respond to it.

Zack
In this chapter I learned that it is possible to tier your class so that students whom may have mastered the subject, can continue to dive deeper into it. It is also possible to allow other students to catch up while not having to stall the other students in the process. I will be using tiering in my class in the sense, I never want any of my students to feel like they have hit a roadblock. I always want there to be something the students could be working on to increase the amount of knowledge that they have. Using this process I will be able to allow kids to go ahead of what I have taught, not into something that is going to be taught later on. I will allow them to go deeper, and have a bigger understanding of the whole picture. This also will allow me to tweek my lesson plans so if I do make a lesson too hard I will be able to tweek it down a little so that my students will be able to understand what is being asked of them.

Dan
I understand the inclusion of classes and bringing many different styles of learning as well as abilities to learn together can help students grow in the classroom, in social life, and in the real world. I used to think that was enough and this new topic of tiering assessment was unfair to all the “early readiness students”, the “advanced readiness students”, and the “grade level students.” You may ask why I thought this. My thoughts and questions before diving into this chapter was that “what if the advanced student doesn't want to be challenged?” “What if feelings of the early readiness student are hurt because they are one of the only ones doing what they feel is less work?” After reading the chapter I have realized that the general answer to those questions is that every group is being challenged and are all meeting the same standards. Unfortunately I needed to understand that not every student can do the same work. The reasons are based upon their understanding of the material. That's where the self-assessment can really help a teacher. My favorite tiering of assessment and one that really helped me understand why tiering is so important was RAFT(S). These give the students choices. The best part though is that a teacher can tier the assessment so that a advanced student may have options that make them dive deeper into the material, while the early level student has a couple choices but they are more straight forward.

Andy
Tiering assessments is a new term for me. It is the adjustment of assignments and assessments according to the students’ readiness levels, interests, and learner profiles. Well, that seems a bit weird right off, but the examples the chapter provides are great for clarifying it. The couple that caught my attention was the learning menus and the RAFT(S) idea. The learning menu is just like a restaurant menu that supplies multiple options of activities that they will need to complete by the end of the unit or semester. Having an appetizer, entrée, and dessert sections and giving them a few choices in each allows the kids to have some fun with it, but also learning at the same time. The RAFT(S) idea is a bit similar. RAFT stands for role, audience, format, and topic. Under each category you give them a few options. The students then chose one from each column and create their own story, experiment, piece together history on their own terms.

Ethan
In this section we are introduced to the idea of tiering. The concept involves adjusting the assignments to meet the needs of individual students. For example, if a student is struggling in a class the teacher would start at the level the student needs to be at and then tier the assignment down to the level the student is actually at. Then the student will learn better at the lower level, which in turn will allow them to make greater progress towards the level the student should be at. If a student is excelling at a class the teacher would tier the assignment up to challenge the students and allow them to make better progress. Through tiering teachers are able to help students learn better. It’s pointless to give a student work they cannot complete, instead give them something they can understand in hopes that they will make progress towards being able to do the harder level work. This is a great idea that as a math teacher I feel could be used in my classroom. When a student is struggling with a unit, allowing them to take a step back from the rest of the class and work at the level they can learn on seems smarter than just drilling them with material they have no clue about.

Josh
The whole point of tiering is to adjust assignments and testing based on individual students' readiness, interest and way of learning best. This is not to make assessing easier for some, and harder for others, but to actually create the best way of learning for the individual. It is important to not tier every aspect of every lesson. "It's often okay for students to do what everyone else is doing..."(FIAE page 57). It is the teacher's job to change how they tier and to adjust the complexity of assignments more subtly each day. A learning contract is one method of tiering assessments. They give each student the ability to work at their own level in each lesson at their highest level of performance. They help the teacher assess progress and keep the student dedicated to their work. Learning menus can be used to give your student a choice of assignments to complete from a list of options. "Through tiering, we teach more effectively"(FIAE page 73). The object is to push students. They will be comfortable being pushed and will succeed as long as the bar is not set too high.

Brian
This chapter, chapter five, is confusing me about what we’ve been learning all semester. I feel like what we’ve been reading has been very overlapping and very much similar. As I understand the need for differentiated instruction as well as assessment; I can’t help but start to feel like, as bad as it sounds, we’re lacking an opinion form the other side of this argument. I’m not saying that differentiated instruction is a bad thing and should not be used, but there must be people out there who do, and it seems that we should be able to hear about that as well. As much that we’re learning that students learn differently and have different retention ability levels, school is also a sort of, means to sort people. Those who succeed in school are our doctors, bosses, and other highly knowledge involved areas. I don’t think there’s much argument for a president who didn’t graduate college. I think I lost where I was going with this, however, I do understand that its fair to teach an integrated curriculum and to use differentiation, but I also know it’s not the only successful way to teach. Thus the confusion

George
This chapter was about tiering assessments. This helps differentiate the classroom amongst people of different skill levels. You allow students who get the knowledge and understanding can go deeper into the material and those who are having a harder time can look harder. This can be used so that students can still go over all the material that is required and meet standards. However it still caters to student needs while making sure that students don't feel left alone or bored in class.

Darren
Because of this chapter, I think this book is probably my favorite we have had to read. This was the first education textbook I have read that has provided specific examples of activities to use to differentiate within a classroom. Specifically, I really enjoyed reading about the tic-tac-toe activity that the author concluded. Here, a chart of projects or activities is drawn into nine tiles (one is geared for each of the 8 intelligences and a free space), and the students create three X's in a row to form a line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The kids get to choose the activities they do in both this and another task, called cubing. In cubing, each student rolls a dice-like object that has a specific project on every side. This is another interesting way to give work and create assessment.

My idea is to combine the tic-tac-toe and cubing models to create something even more interesting. The students would roll dice to determine where on the tiled board they would start and continue their line from there. This would give both choice and force the students to branch past comfort zones at random. I think it would be a good way to introduce something new and fresh to the classroom. I also think that an important part of learning is venturing past your comfort zone, but you must also have the support of activities you know for the courage to move into new realms.I really think this is something I will use in my classroom to help students move forward and learn even better.

Jennifer
Teachers should not start out expecting minimum proficiency from students, instead we should set high expectations and therefore create our lessons and assessments with that expectation. When some students learn differently than others, then we can adjust or "tier" our lessons and assessments. To make lessons or assessments harder or easier I found that the list they gave were really helpful instead of just changing everything, I could just manipulate a few things, like having the students use the skills they've learned in different situations. I also really liked the learning contracts and think they will very beneficial to students and a great tool for me. Not all children learn at the same pace, and that is where learning contracts will help. They are learning the same content and skills, but on a schedule that they themselves set. There would have to be a lot of discussions and observations of the students to make sure they are doing the work though. There are a lot of other tiering ideas that will help me teach more effectively.

Liz
Tiering in the classroom is a method used when assessing students. All the students have the same basic assignment and that is the acceptable area but for some students that need more or less you adjust your assignment. This becomes tiering because each student or group of students is now a different level. This does not include taking away from your original standard as that is usually the bases of your lesson. For Maine teachers this could be your Maine Learning Result that you hope to accomplish. For some students this might include them pulling more of the information together or it might be changing the product a little for a lower level student. In my classroom this is something I might encounter and I will need to decided if it is something I want to do in my classroom or not. I will need to consider how it will affect my students and their performance. If I do what will I adjust? How will I adjust it? For me at this time this raises more questions.

Sean
So something that this chapter helps the future teacher with is how to adjust assignments, tests, quizzes, etc. for each individual student based on their best avenue of learning and how ready they are. This doesn't mean everything needs to be changed to fit everyone's needs, but certainly some aspects of teaching, such as tests, should be altered to fit a students needs. This can help a student succeed better at learning, but not to, as some would think, make it too easy for them. For some students, it can still be hard. But with tiering, it will be at their level.

Damian
A learner’s contract outwardly appears like a very good way to outline the expectations between a student and teacher. The student is not being necessarily dictated to, while the teacher can get the curriculum out of the student. This mutual exchange seems a good working relationship in a secondary school where student’s typically crave liberties and choices when it comes to their learning. This option also allows a teacher to pace their students at individual levels.