GT+Weekly+Teaching+Strategy+Tiered+Lessons+Pt.+1+and+2

= GT Weekly Teaching Strategy: Tiered Lessons Part 1 and 2 =

TIERED LESSONS Part One
// Tiered lessons are “the meat and potatoes of differentiated instruction” Tomlinson (1999). A tiered lesson is a differentiation strategy that addresses a particular standard, key concept, and generalization, but allows several pathways for students to arrive at an understanding of these components based on their interests, readiness, or learning profiles. // Guidelines For Tiering Lessons (Kingore, 2006) Teacher Tips  ·   Use Bloom’s Taxonomy of Thinking Skills to write tiered questions and activities.  ·   What about fairness? Let kids know that all students learn differently and have varied learning needs, therefore learning tasks will be different based on these needs. All kids deserve an education that requires them to work hard and reach their potential. Assigning the same work to all students increases the likelihood that some students will be overwhelmed and others will expend so little effort they infer that school is easy and will always expect that they don’t need to put forth much effort to succeed. This type of belief can set kids up for frustration and even failure in the future.  ·   Use what you have. Everyday Math has enrichment and readiness activities written into the program. Ask me for suggestions on ways to tier lessons.
 * 1) Differentiate by content (the complexity of what students learn), process (how students learn), and product (how they present their learning). GT students require differentiation by content and process to escalate learning.
 * 2) Plan the number of levels most appropriate for instruction. The amount of tiers depends on your student needs. In some subject areas you may only need to plan two tier levels, in others three or more may be necessary.
 * 3) Begin tiered instruction at the readiness level of the students. If you have students comprehending above grade level, make sure there is a tier for them that goes beyond grade level expectations.
 * 4) Ensure that the tiers and the groups working within each tier are flexible.
 * 5) Vary the time required to complete tiered assignments. Some tiered tasks can be short term, while others may evolve into long-term projects.
 * 6) Promote high-level thinking in each tier. Focus on allowing students to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information.
 * 7) Promote continual development. Stretch students beyond their comfort zones. Encourage them to persist and take risks.
 * 8) Provide teacher support at every tier. GT kids benefit from direct teacher instruction and modeling. They don’t always //make it on their own.// Think about how well GT and highly able kids could do if they were pushed beyond their comfort level.

**TIERED LESSONS Part Two**
// Tiered instruction is differentiated instruction that allows students to focus on essential skills and still be challenged at different levels that match their ability, interest, and readiness. // Steps in Developing Tiered Assignments (Kingore, 2006) Tiering Tips to Ponder Activity Suggestions
 * 1) Identify what all students must learn. Select the essential concepts, skills, or generalizations to address. Determine which learning standards to integrate.
 * 2) Reflect upon the assessments of students’ readiness levels, learning profiles, and interests.
 * 3) Determine the priorities of the lesson—the ways students will interact and the selected products of learning.
 * 4) Begin by creating an activity that challenges most students, is interesting, and promotes understanding of key concepts or skills.
 * 5) Vary that activity appropriately for students with fewer skills.
 * 6) Create additional activities that are more complex, require more abstract thinking, are interesting, and use advanced resources and technology. Determine the complexity of each activity to ensure tasks that will challenge above-grade-level students and gifted learners.
 * 7) Ensure that each student participates in a variation of the activity that corresponds to that student’s needs and readiness.
 * The first tier does not always represent the same skill or concept level in every lesson. It does not need to represent below grade level work. The first tier can begin at grade level and work up.
 * You can present tiers to the whole class and ask kids to choose or you can assign kids a specific tier. Sometimes giving students a choice works well. Monitor them to make sure that their choices match their learning needs and readiness levels. You may also strongly suggest that a student take a risk and try a more difficult challenge.
 * Tiers can begin at varying levels depending on your students readiness with specific content and in response to different classroom opportunities
 * Tiering can provide //different// learning experiences at varied levels of complexity or //similar// experiences that vary in the degree of complexity within each application of a task.
 * Have students explore and create analogies that relate to the area of study.
 * Have students rate the top 5 most important concepts that are significant to a topic. They can then create a way to share those with you or other students.
 * Students form their own questions to investigate using the highest levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.
 * Students can arrange thoughts, concepts, and information learned about a topic into an alphabet chart. For each letter of the alphabet they would need to think of a word or complete sentence that relates to their learning. They can then create a test, project, center, etc with the information.