Chapter 5

This chapter is about teiring. The chapter define teiring as "ratching" up or down the challenge level of a lesson or assignmet. By adding or subtracing attributes to increase or decrease the complexity of the lesson or of an assessment. This is done to help adjust to students' specific readiness levels within the discipline. The chapter continues by giving examples of how to tier lessons and assessments including; learning contracts, learning menus, tic-tac-toe boards, cubing,a sunnarization pyramid, Frank William's Tazonomy of Creativity, RAFT(S), and on-word summaries. It suggest that when using a learning contract there is copy made for the student's parent(s) to see as well. Periodic evaluations of the status of the contract and rewording the assignments helps students stay involved in their own learning. Getting the students out of the traditional learning "box" helps them learn better and master the information. Also discussing the types of tiering with colleages helps generate more creative ideas.

Tiering can be usful and hepful to students but also harmful at the same time. Giving the students a say in how and what they learn gives them more of an independent feeling and may motivate them to do more of the work. As long as there are check-ins and periodic meetings on the students success this may be a wonderful idea. However, on the other side there is the risk of a student feeling singled out or less than other students if they are receiving modified assignments. This could make the students less motivated and move him or her more towards the idea of leaving school. This is a risk the is taken when tiering. however, many students do like having a choice in how they show their understanding. This chapter however, was helpful whether the students are more or less motivated. This is one of the more helpful chapters and if the teacher is discrete in modifying the assignments for the students no other student needs to know. This would avoid the whole slef-esteem issue.