Chapter 5 FIAE

In chapter 5 the author describes the process and effect of tiering. Up until I read this chapter I had not heard of this idea. I now think of tiering as a sort of scaffolding. Students are given appropriate material and each class the old material is used to build upon new material. This is where pre assessments would be useful. You do not want to start a student on material that is too difficult because they will constantly be behind. You also do not want to start to easy because students will become bored with the material. I read in a different article about different ways that teachers can check in with students to make sure that they are not falling behind and one thing that I would like to implement in my classroom is colored sticky notes that students have on their desks all the time. If the student is confused they put a yellow note on top and if they are completely lost. This gives the teacher instant feedback while they are teaching as to what students are not understanding.
In the book the author gives some examples of how to maintain learning while using this technique but I am unsure how things like grouping would work in a high school class where students are already broken up into leveled classes. Especially in science, I would have to learn more about this topic to be able to accurately apply it in a lab or lecture setting. I think learning contracts would be a good addition to my classroom. I would like to call them something less formal. Before I implement these for students I would like to make sure students have a say in what is being done in the education process. Hearing student voices may allow me to appeal to all learning styles.


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