1. “The meat and potatoes of differentiated instruction” Tomlinson (1999)
Tiered Lessons
“The meat and potatoes of differentiated instruction”
Tomlinson (1999)

2. What is a tiered lesson?
A tiered lesson is a differentiation strategy that addresses an essential understanding or particular skill, BUT allows different pathways for students to achieve this understanding or skill based on their interests, readiness, or learning profiles.

3. When Should I Tier an Assessment?
When some students
are ready to move ahead and other students need more time.
would benefit from using different resources, readings, or materials to understand the basic concepts.
need more modeling and direct instruction.
need more challenge, more independence, or more complexity.
Dodge (2005)

4. Eight Steps in Developing a Tiered Lesson
Pierce and Adams

5. Step One
Identify the grade level and subject for which you will write the lesson.

6. Step Two Identify the standard you are targeting.
START with the standard first. If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know if you get there?

7. Step Three Identify the key concept and generalization
The key concept follows from the standard.
What big idea am I targeting?
What do I want the students to know at the end of the lesson, regardless of their placement in the tiers?

8. Step Four
Be sure students have the background necessary to be successful in the lesson.
What scaffolding is necessary?
What must you have already covered or what must the student have already learned?
Are there any other skills that must be taught first?

9. Step Five
Determine in which part of the lesson (content, process, product) you will tier.
Can tier what you want the students to learn OR the way the students make sense out of the content OR the outcome at the end of a lesson, lesson set, or unit.
When beginning to tier, it is suggested that you only tier for one of the three.

10. Step Six
Determine the type of tiering you will do: readiness, interest, or learning profile.

11. Step Seven
Based on your choices, determine how many tiers you will need and develop the lesson.
Keep in mind that differentiation is doing things differently.
Be sure that work in each tier is challenging, respectful, and developmentally appropriate. No group should be given “busywork.”

12. Step Eight Develop the assessment component to the lesson.
Can be formative, summative, or a combination of both.

13. Tiering for Different Level of Learners
First, design an activity for on-level learners.
Next, design an a similar activity for your struggling learners, providing scaffolding.
Finally, develop a third more complex activity for advanced learners.

14. Scaffolding
more modeling, additional teacher instruction, review of concepts, peer tutoring
color-coded elements, highlighted elements, exemplars of writing or assessments
manipulatives, sentence strips, sticky notes, flash cards, address labels typed with vocabulary terms, access to text resources
more opportunities to use language: vocabulary lists, cards with pictures, word banks, opportunities to discuss the topic using provided terms, word walls, lists of questions, a list of signal words
a graphic organizer, an incomplete outline, a framed paragraph, sentence starters, prompts
a template, a set of steps, a formula
Dodge (2005)

15. Complexity identify assumptions, points of view, or problems
examine and support their ideas, positions, conclusions, and perspectives
formulate, hypothesize, or synthesize new ideas
Represent, model, or demonstrate ideas in a new way rather than simply listing, applying, or summarizing another’s ideas
Identify implications
Explore “what if” scenarios or alternative perspectives, action, or results
Dodge (2005)

16. Making Tiering Invisible
The biggest disadvantage to tiering is making tiering invisible. To do this, first, make sure students are used to moving in and out of different grouping arrangements in the classroom. Second, remind students that “Fair is not equal. Fair is getting what you need” as Tomlinson and others have said.
Also:
You must make all tasks equally engaging, important, and fair.
Try to design activities that look similar or have products that are similar.

17. Examples

18. Topic/Concept/Skills: Conducting Research
Research any nonfiction topic
Take notes as you read information
Tier 1 Basic Application/Analysis
(Teacher-directed activity)
Teacher introduces key vocabulary terms.
Students read with teacher/reading partners.
Using guided questions, they discuss what they have read.
Students complete provided graphic organizer or cloze sentences (My animal live__) with terms from a word bank.
Tier 2 On-Grade Analysis
Students read on-grade-level material independently.
Given a graphic organizer or outline with subtopics included, they take notes on details.
Tier 3 Advanced Synthesis
Students create their own questions for research about the topic.
Using several sources (text, nonfiction books, the internet), students locate information.
Students take notes in any format studied (outline, mapping, bullets, graphic organizer).
Dodge, 2005

19. Subject: Mathematics
Grade: 3
Standard: #5 Geometry and #6 Spatial Sense
Key Concept: Students work with geometric shapes and develop spatial sense.
Generalization: Students identify lines of symmetry of objects.
Tier 1 Kinesthetic Learners
Pairs of students use brightly colored paper to make several simple origami designs. Provide guidance when necessary. When students are finished, have them unfold the figure(s), find any congruent figures, and identify lines of symmetry. Students then share the origami figures and have classmates try to construct them.
Tier 2 Visual Learners
Pairs of students work with pictures of items from nature, such as a butterfly, sunflower, rainbow, snowflake, or starfish. Students find any congruent figures and identify lines of symmetry for each item. Students color the pictures to help show the lines of symmetry. Students cut out the figures and have classmates find the lines of symmetry.
Assessment
Use a summative assessment noting students’ abilities to identify the congruent figures and lines of symmetry. Have each student reflect in writing about congruent figures and lines of symmetry. From a list of objects in the classroom, students will select an object and write about whether or not the object has congruent parts, lines of symmetry, or both and then explain why. The students could also include a drawing that illustrates the congruent parts, lines of symmetry, or both.
Pierce and Adams

20. Tiered Graphic Organizers

24. Helpful Websites
Dozens of examples of lessons K-12 that are tiered by readiness, interest, and
learning styles
Information, resources, and strategies that can be used in a differentiated classroom