Tiered Lessons – Content by Readiness Project Aspire Broadcast 8 Sara Delano Moore, Ph.D.

Where have we been? –Basic strategies for differentiation –Essentials of classroom management –Tiered lessons around process and product. What’s next? –Tiered lessons adjusting content based on student readiness

How can lessons be tiered? Dimension of Learning –Content What students are learning –Process How students are learning –Product How students show mastery

How can lessons be tiered? Characteristics of the Learner –Readiness How skilled is the student in this area? –Interest What topics are engaging to the student? –Learning Style How does the student learn best?

On what basis are lessons tiered? ContentProcessProduct Interest X Learning Style X Readiness X

What is readiness? Readiness is the way we determine if a student is learning at grade level, above grade level, or below grade level. Readiness can vary from topic to topic within a course. Readiness can be assessed both formally and informally.

Assessing Readiness Informal assessments include –Anecdotal records –Information from a cumulative folder or other outside sources –Performance on related tasks Formal assessments are tasks specifically designed to check readiness for a given topic.

Pretesting Pretesting is the classic form of formal readiness assessment. Students complete pretest tasks which are specifically designed to… –Confirm knowledge of prerequisite skills –Assess pre-existing student knowledge about the topic to be studied. This broadcast focuses on pretesting for skills. February (broadcast 9) will focus on pretesting for conceptual understanding.

Making time for skills pre- tests. Add pre-test questions on to the end of the test for the previous unit. –Make it very clear that performance here does not count towards the test grade. Incorporate pre-testing into a day where students are completing a variety of activities and only those students who are confident of their prior knowledge opt to take the pre-test.

What makes a good skills pre- test? Direct and clear items focused on discrete content. –Content includes both verification of pre-requisite skills and assessment of knowledge of the new content. Un-ambiguous questions and answers. Easy items to grade Quick items to administer.

What is a good mastery standard? I like to use 90% accuracy. Think about a mid-range “B” If there are several elements to the pre-test, consider scoring each separately.

Using pre-test results Students who score well on both the pre-requisite knowledge and the proposed new content are in your “above grade level” group. Students who score well on the pre- requisite knowledge but not the proposed content are in your “on grade level” group. Students who have not mastered the pre-requisite knowledge are your “below grade level” group.

Now I have groups… Once you have three skills-based groups created, it’s time to make assignments to the groups. Some assignments might be the same for all three groups. This is where you make sure the “above grade level” group has opportunities to study the AP prerequisite skills and knowledge information which goes above and beyond the state standards.

“Below Grade Level” students These students need to build background knowledge and review or learn the prerequisite skills for the information. Student tasks should be clearly structured and include a great deal of scaffolding. Your goal is to help the students get to the standard.

“At Grade Level” students These students are right on target. They will work on a solid understanding of the state standards. Assignments should reinforce skills and push students to apply learning in new ways. Work on building from doing the skills to using the big ideas.

“Above Grade Level” students These are our target in Project Aspire. These students already know the basics and can meet the state standards. These students should be pushed to ensure readiness for AP coursework by focusing on the AP Prerequisite Skills and Knowledge. This is a time to find some of those “I wish I could do that” experiences.

Getting Started Exempt students in this group (above level) from some assignments, especially those focusing on skills. Consider combining two or three smaller assignments into one longer assignment. Use a pre-existing assignment as a starting point for a more advanced task. Consider giving these students an independent study task.

End of Unit Products Remember that students should have a mix of performance/application assessments and skills assessments. –Think about the assessments we shared when we discussed tiering lesson products. The pre-test only assessed the skills part; any “memory effect” on the post- test will be counter-balanced by the requirement to apply the skills in the other portion of the assessment.

Coming Next In February –Pretesting concepts, not just skills –More strategies for creating assignments for advanced students In March –Independent study contracts –Pulling it all together

Assignment for Next Session Identify essential skills for your next unit. Select and/or create pre-test items for these essential skills. Administer your pre-test either to every student or to the students you suspect are working above level. Make a few adjustments to assignments during the unit based on pretest results. Report your experiences on the online form.