Chapter 5: Tiering Assessments

The whole point of tiering is to adjust assignments and testing based on individual students' readiness, interest and way of learning best. This is not to make assessing easier for some, and harder for others, but to actually create the best way of learning for the individual. It is important to not tier every aspect of every lesson. "It's often okay for students to do what everyone else is doing..."(FIAE page 57). It is the teacher's job to change how they tier and to adjust the complexity of assignments more subtly each day. A learning contract is one method of tiering assessments. They give each student the ability to work at their own level in each lesson at their highest level of performance. They help the teacher assess progress and keep the student dedicated to their work. Learning menus can be used to give your student a choice of assignments to complete from a list of options. "Through tiering, we teach more effectively"(FIAE page 73). The object is to push students. They will be comfortable being pushed and will succeed as long as the bar is not set too high.