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Abstract & Synthesis
Ben Villeneuve Tiering is an important part of curriculum development. It refers to the practice of altering assessments to better fit the readiness level of the students. It's best to start with the standard and then work one's way up to accommodate more advanced students. There are many possible strategies to either increase the level of difficulty for more advanced learners.

//Fair Isn't Always Equal// introduces the concept of [|tiering assignments]. The goal of this chapter is to communicate the importance of tiering assignments, as well as letting readers know how that process may be accomplished. The book explains that tasks should not be designed at maximum difficulty and then adjusted downward. Instead, tasks should be designed to meet grade-level goals and then adjusted upward to meet student readiness. There are several sections devoted to ways to adjust the content upward, such as manipulating information, applying concepts to other areas, and synthesizing formerly unrelated concepts. It also gives examples of tasks that exemplify this type of design. It's clear that tiering is important, but how should instructors determine where students are in their learning? Some responses suggest that the best way is to let the students indicate where they are through [|self-assessment]. One of the ways suggested to help this process is allowing students to choose how they will ultimately be assessed. This puts an important part of the learning process into the hands of the students. There are many different ways to ask students which assignments they'd like to complete, including a tic-tac-toe grid, a learning menu, or a cube with a different assignment on each side. Many readers found the examples to be very helpful in their understanding of how to tier assignments. = =

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Olivia Wandelear
“We don’t have to nail ourselves to our own ideas. Students acting on their own ideas are motivated to do the work, and sometimes, their ideas are better than ours” (Wormeli 65). A teacher must format and tier assessments and lessons to benefit every student, so why not personally ask and consult the students themselves on their abilities? As a student myself, I know I feel much more excited to complete an assignment if I had a say in how it was created and how it will be graded. The element of //choice// excites students, because it gives them a sense of power and importance in regards to their own learning. Teachers //are// not and //should// not be tyrants, so choices and creativity should thrive in the classroom. In chapter 5, I learned that teachers should constantly tier assignments and assessments based on students’ readiness levels, and knowledge of how this can be executed appropriately often comes from speaking with students and hearing their feedback on how they learn and grasp concepts. Learning Menus are a great way to encourage students to choose activities based on this feedback while also providing a sense of power and control over their own learning lives.

Courtney Burns
Tiering is method that can be used in a differentiated classroom so that all students are held to the same standard but can progress at a pace that is best for them. This method is a vertical movement process, not a longitudinal process and there are several strategies that can be used to implement this practice. For example, learning contracts allow students to complete work at their own pace as long as it is done by the due date. I think this option will work best in my classroom because it will be a great way to hold students accountable for their work. Other options include allowing students to choose the assignments they would like to do, either by choosing from a “learning menu”, a tic-tac-toe grid or a cubing that is similar to a dice with different options on either side. Tiering can also be as simple as changing the verbs within a sentence to make a question either slightly more difficult or slightly easier, depending, of course, on the ability of the student.

Erika Tingley
This chapter addresses the issue of tiering instruction to ensure that students gain the most understanding of the subject. An idea that was presented was that of learning contracts to individualize a students learning, while still accomplishing the given goal. I had never heard of this idea before, but thought it would be a useful tool for some students. Some students need the structure of a set of rules and requirements as well as a given schedule to accomplish tasks. As a teacher, I would look for opportunities to give my students options like the contract that allow some flexibility, but also set specific guidelines to their work. The only thing that could be a problem with this concept is that students cannot be singled out in a direct way or other students will notice and may treat them differently.

Dylan Stefani
Tiering is an effective way to alter an assessment’s complexity to better suit the needs of an individual learner. This process can be to add complexity or subtract the assessments complexity. By being able to adjust the level of complexity of a rubric a student is challenged to try harder on the subject matter and maybe even learn new material and broaden their sense of awareness. If a rubric is to complex for another individual, then by simply changing the sentence structure around to better suit the students needs can benefit them dramatically. Pushing students to the end of their zone of proximal development is good for the student.

Andy Shorey
In this chapter the authors talk about tiering assessments and gives examples as to how to do it. In this chapter they give a lot of math examples which I really liked because I don't see how everything in this book can be used in a math class perhaps I haven't thought creatively enough, but it was nice to see math examples. Tiering refers to starting things fairly simple and working to get students to harder tasks, whether it be to get basic skills and then work to reach the standard you are teaching, or starting with a simple assessment and then turning to a more difficult one. When doing this it is important to let students have choices in how they want to learn and what tasks they preform. It gives many examples as to how students can get involved in planning the curriculum. Its a way for students to get a wide scope of information.

Josh
This chapter shows us many ways that teachers can adjust their assignments so all students can complete the task. The term tiering is used to describe the adjustments that need to be made for some students. A couple important things to remember is that not all tasks will need to be tiered and teachers should not pre-tier their students because there are not permanently defined groups. The area of this chapter that I will use in my class will be the learning menu. I think giving students the choice from assignments will give them a sense of ownership to what they are doing. Instead of forcing everyone to complete the same math problems, there is nothing wrong with having some students working from the book, some doing a worksheet, and some creating their own math problems. I will be using learning menus in my class.

Timothy Grivois
Tiered assessments can be a daunting concept for students and teachers when they are unaware of the natural progression of learning. By creating lesson plans and curricula that orient themselves towards layered learning, teachers can assist the growth process of students. By creating lessons that continue to build upon previous mastery, teachers will form a classroom environment most conducive to progress. A helpful technique for learning can be learning contracts. By establishing a set of rules for students and teachers to play by, a healthy relationship and rapport can be built. By formulating a menu of sorts to plan out set goals and mastery, teachers can assist students with the process. Staggering knowledge and established goals bolster learning and mastery because the same concepts are expanded on while new concepts are introduced. In this way, learning is both static and dynamic. Certain concepts are ingrained into students while others are constantly shifted. Creating tiers is a learning process in and of itself so teachers should not be discouraged if at first the results are not ideal.

Dan Horne
In this chapter the book talks about tiering in the classroom. This can be used when a student is having trouble in the class and needs a few things changed in a lesson to help them accomplish the goals. One way of tiering is to alter a rubric to better suit a student’s level of learning. I saw this a lot in one of my mentor teacher’s classes where he had all students from freshmen to seniors. He had made up a few different rubrics for all levels and not just regarding age. This allowed the students who would learn slower to stay on pace but at the same time learn the material in the same depth as the faster students.

Heath
Students are frequently at different stages within the learning process. Teachers need to plan for this situation. By building a tier system into lessons plans, teachers are enabling themselves to be more prepared to assist students toward the goals of the lesson. Students can become bored when the they have mastered a topic while the rest of the class still need reinforcement and on the other side students who are slow to grasp a concept might see a concept as a lost cause and disconnect from the lesson. Either situation can rapidly become a classroom management issue when a teacher is not prepared to offer either additional challenges or extra help.

Shila Cook
In //Tiering Assessments// Wormeli defines tiering as how teachers adjust assignments and assessments. The best way to begin tiering is to start designing the lessons at the benchmark performance level. Another thing that the chapter introduces is the tic-tac-toe boards. This has three columns and three rows and each student need to pick one thing from each of the column, giving the kids the power to make their own choice as to the projects they have to create. The key to this chapter is giving the students options so as to keep their interest. = =

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Caitlin Alexander
Chapter five in //Fair Isn’t Always Equal// works mainly with the concept of tiering in classrooms to accommodate for students who might not be completely ready for the subject material being taught. It suggests having a “test assignment” at the beginning of the course or lesson to determine what kind of tiering is necessary, and it encourages teachers to not make the test assignment below the standards of the material, but instead to make it more challenging so that you can see how you might need to tier. It also suggests using Tomlinson’s Equalizer to check the challenge level of assignments made for the classes. I think that I might use the concept of a Learning Contract in my own classroom because I believe it is a fair and professional way to help students progress and succeed at their own pace. By making a learning contract I am also allowing the students to take part in their own learning by negotiating how and when they will complete assignments based on their own knowledge of their skill levels. By allowing the students to take part in the planning stages of learning and negotiating goals and deadlines with them, I am giving them not only some control and freedom over how they are learning, but I am also letting them exercise their own planning and time management skills.

Kasey Darnell
This chapter discussed the use of tiering in designing assessments for students. Essentially, this means making adjustments to assessments to fit the needs of different learners. One way to do this is to align the minimum expectation with the standard that is being assessed. From there, teachers can increase the complexity of the assessment for students who are at a more advanced level. At the higher tiers, students can be asked to analyze, apply concepts, and identify patterns and connections. Several ideas for tiering assessments were given, such as learning contracts, learning menus, and tic-tac-toe boards. All of these give the students options for showing what they know, and offer different levels to accommodate learning styles and readiness. As an educator, I would like to give my students options such as these to give them the opportunity to show what they know. One concern I have is student motivation. What if a student constantly chooses the lower tiered assignments, when you know they are capable of the higher tiers? Also, how do we prevent the students on the lower tiers from feeling ‘stupid’ or less able than their peers who are doing the higher level assignments?

Kay Sue Collins
This chapter talks about the importance of tiering assignments in challenging all students regardless of their readiness level. Several structures and techniques were suggested for creating tiers in a classroom. They include: increasing or decreasing complexity, Tomlinson’s Equalizer, learning contracts, learning menus, Tic-tac-toe boards, cubing, summarization pyramid, Frank William’s Taxonomy of Creativity, RAFTS, changing the verb, and one word summaries. I think all of these ideas are intriguing. I know that tiering needs to happen to make the class interesting and engaging for all students regardless of their readiness level. I worry, however, about my ability to be as creative in my own teaching. I am afraid that I will fall back on the ways that I was taught the same material, and forget that there are alternate ways to present the material. That is something I will need to be watchful for.

Kyle Rines
This chapter discussed three different ways to assess students within a differentiated classroom. The three were rubrics, portfolios, and student self-assessments. I can relate heavily to the portfolio aspect of these assessments because in high school it was required of me to complete a portfolio with overviews of every year of high school in order to graduate. It was not something that I enjoyed and became somewhat of a nuisance towards the final days of school, but I can definitely see how students would be able to reflect and assess themselves as individuals and as students to see how much they've grown in and out of the classroom. In my classroom I would probably use the student self-assessment the most. I believe that in English class (along with rubrics) discussion and self-assessment are the easiest ways to look back at prior work and fix it.

Ben Villeneuve
===Chapter five of //Fair Isn’t Always Equal,// titled “Tiering Assessments,” is a lengthy chapter that will serve me well in designing my curriculum. Because all instruction should be designed with the assessment of knowledge in mind, the type of assessment I choose is important. If I am going to ask my students to demonstrate their knowledge of //Watchmen// by categorizing the principal characters into broad archetypes, I have to be sure to have spent time during instruction focusing on the characters, and different examples of character archetypes. As an example of tiering the assessment, in order to make the question more challenging, I might ask students to give me an example of a character in another piece we have read who fits the same archetype as a character in //Watchmen.// These are important skills for me to have as an educator.

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Tyler Brookings
Chapter 5 of Fair Isn't Always Equal is centered and titled "Tiering Assessments". Wormeli defines tiering as how well teachers adjust assessments and assignments. Basically, not every student is at the same learning level and tiering allows a teacher to adjust assessments to fit the needs of each student, and move on from there adjusting to fit the needs of the higher level students and their readiness. I can definitely see this helping me in my teaching career simply because adjusting assessments is going to be highly likely when I'm out in the field. I also will need to/ want to meet all needs of my students whether they are on the lower levels or the higher levels.