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Tiered Assignments
| STRATEGY |
DESCRIPTION OF |
RATIONALE |
GUIDELINES FOR USE |
| Tiered Assignments | In a heterogeneous classroom, a teacher uses varied levels of activities to ensure that students explore ideas at a level that builds on their prior knowledge and prompts continued growth. Student groups use varied approaches to theexploration of essential ideas. | * Blends assessment andinstruction * Allows students to begin learning from where they are * Allows students to work with appropriately challenging tasks * Allows for reinforcement or extension of concepts and principles based on student readiness * Allows modification of working conditions based on learning style |
* Be sure the task is focused on a key concept or generalization essential
to the study * Use a variety of resource materials at differing levels of complexity and associated with different learning modes * Adjust the task by complexity, abstractness, number of steps, concreteness, and independence to ensure appropriate challenge * Be certain there are clear criteria for quality and success |
Tiering a Lesson
> What range of learning needs are you likely to address?
> What should students know, understand, and be able to do as a result of the lesson?
Know:
Understand:
Be Able to Do:
> What's your "starting point lesson?" How will you hook the students?
> What's your first cloned version?
> What's your second cloned version of this activity?
> What's your third cloned version of this activity?
Tiered Activity Example
Subject: Science
Concepts: Density and Buoyancy
Introduction: All students take part in an introductory discussion, read the chapter, and watch a lab activity on floating toys.
Activities Common to All Three Groups
> Explore the relationship between density and buoyancy
> Determine density
> Conduct an experiment
> Write a lab report
> Work at a high level of thinking
Ø Share findings with the class
1. The Soda Group
Given four cans of different kinds of soda, students determined whether each
would float by measuring the density of each can.
They completed a lab procedure form by stating the materials, procedures,
and conclusions. In an analysis section, they included an explanation of
why the cans floated and sank, and stated the relationship between density
and buoyancy.
2. The Brine & Egg Group
Students developed a prescribed procedure for measuring salt, heating water,
dissolving the salt in the water, cooling the brine, determining the mass
of water, determining the mass of an egg, recording all data in a data table,
pouring the egg on the cool mixture, stirring the solution, and observing
the changes.
They answered questions about their procedures and observations, as well
as questions about why a person can float in water, whether it is easier
to float in fresh or seawater, why a helium filled balloon floats in air,
and the relationship between density and buoyancy.
3. The Boat Group
Students first wrote advice to college students about how to build boats
to enter in a boat race.
They then determined the density of a ball of clay and drew a boat design
for a clay boat, noting its dimensions and its density. They used cylinders
of aluminum, brass, and steel, as well as aluminum nails, for cargo and
determined the maximum amount of cargo their boat could hold. They built
and tested the boat and its projected load. They wrote a descriptive lab
report to include explanations of why the clay ball sank and the boat was
able to float, the relationship between density and buoyancy, and how freighters
made of steel can carry iron ore and other metal cargo.