“Once you have experienced excellence, you will never again be content with mediocrity.” – Thomas S. Monson

Are you ready to challenge yourself by trying another strategy for differentiating instruction? One that has been successfully used by many educators is tiering instruction. Tiering an assignment is using varied levels of the activity to make sure that all students explore ideas at a readiness level that builds on their prior knowledge and deepens understanding of the identified concepts.

I like the following definitions of tiered instruction.

“Tiered instruction is a means of teaching one concept and meeting the different learning needs in a group. Task and resources vary according to learning profile, readiness, and interest.”     -Regina Public Schools and Saskatchewan Learning

“Tiered instruction is a method by which the teacher can ensure that students with different learning needs work with the same essential ideas and learn the same key concepts and skills.”     – www.eht.k12.nj.u

Let’s put it another way (Please don’t cringe at this next statement, DI theorists!). Tiering instruction is taking an on-level assignment and simplifying and sophisticating it. But, what does tiering instruction have to do with Tabor Rotation and why am I talking about it on my blog? As teachers become more comfortable with the essential components of the Tabor Rotation structure, they are encouraged to layer on the complexity of their differentiated strategies. One of the ways this can be done is by tiering the activities at the Tabor Rotation stations.

“OK, now that I know the definition of it, what does tiering look like?” “Can you give me an example?”  These are typical questions teachers ask after they have determined to try the tiering strategy.

This is an activity from a kindergarten classroom where the Tabor Rotation structure is used to effectively differentiate instruction during their math block. At the Manipulative Station, kindergarten students will be using bags of varied and interesting buttons and pattern work mats to express the A-B pattern. AB Pattern Work Mat

The teacher places the students in 3 readiness groups for this concept of patterning: approaching level, on-level, and above-level. Take a look at a previous blog on pre-assessment [https://glennatabor.com/blog/2010/01/differentiated…pre-assessment/] for simple ways to assess the readiness levels of students)

*Approaching-Level (Simplification):

• The written directions on the T-Post at the Manipulative Station include pictures clues.
• Several “real-object” examples of A-B patterns are placed at the table.
• In his Friday Readiness Grouping the previous week [Tabor Rotation Planning Guide, the teacher meets with his “At-Promise” students and “front-loads” the information for the coming week by using using components from the accelerated learning model [http://www.briantracy.com/]. The teacher models how to create an A-B pattern and shapes the students’ procedural knowledge as they try creating A-B patterns of their own.
• In addition, the approaching-level student have all of the on-level directives listed below.

*On-Level (Maintenance):

• Simple written directions are placed at the table.
• The teacher shows A-B patterning on Monday during the Whole-Group Mini-Lesson. During the Mini-Lesson, the students work with their M-W-F partner to make A-B patterns using the work mat and interesting buttons. During this time, the teacher practices “clipboard cruising”  as he circulates amongst the students on the carpet. That enables him to help correct and/or encourage pairs of students as they work.
• The leaders and co-leaders for the Tabor Rotation teams, as part of the Leadership Academy, are trained how to successfully complete the activities at all the stations, including the “Find the Pattern” activity at the Manipulative Station. During the Leadership Academy, the leaders and co-leaders are coached, by the teacher, in how to assist students who might be initially challenged by the activity.

*Above-Level (Sophisticate):

• The above-level students are given all of the directives that the on-level student receives.
• A different work mat is used that includes A-B-B, A-B-C, and other more complicated patterns. Varied Patterns Work Mat
• For the child who understands and can explain verbally how to create more complicated patterns, the teacher includes a double- and triple-ring Venn Diagram that will help them organize the buttons by traits in a more challenging and different way.
  

Ready to try tiering yet? Maybe a template would help you organize your thinking. Tiering an Activity Template For those of you who are more visual learners, you may also want to look at the graphic organizer that was created by a school system in New Jersey.

[http://www.eht.k12.nj.us/~jonesj/Differentiated%20Instruction/Developing%20a%20Tiered%20Activity%202.htm]

After you’ve tiered an activity you might want to use the following checklist developed by Becky Mann:

Criteria for evaluating differentiated activities

1. Did every student do it?
2. Should every student do it?
3. Would every student want to do it?
4. Could every student do it?
5. Did the student do it willingly and zestfully?
6. Did the student use authentic resources and methodology?
7. Was it done for an audience other than (or in addition to) the teacher?

Remember to tier activities in such a way that all students are given a respectful, meaningful, and qualitatively challenging opportunity to learn the essential skills and concepts in order to deepen their understanding. Your role, as a facilitator in the learning process, is to move students a little bit further than they were the day before.

“That students differ may be inconvenient, but it is inescapable.  Adapting to that diversity is the inevitable price of productivity, high standards, and fairness to the students.”     -T. Sizer