Transcript Tiered Lessons – Content by Readiness

Tiered Lessons – Content by Readiness
Project Aspire
Broadcast 8
Sara Delano Moore, Ph.D.
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Where have we been?
– Basic strategies for differentiation
– Essentials of classroom management
– Tiered lessons around process and product.
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What’s next?
– Tiered lessons adjusting content based on
student readiness
How can lessons be tiered?
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Dimension of Learning
– Content
• What students are learning
– Process
• How students are learning
– Product
• How students show mastery
How can lessons be tiered?
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Characteristics of the Learner
– Readiness
• How skilled is the student in this area?
– Interest
• What topics are engaging to the student?
– Learning Style
• How does the student learn best?
On what basis are lessons
tiered?
Content
Process
Product
Interest
X
Learning Style
X
Readiness
X
What is readiness?
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Readiness is the way we determine
if a student is learning at grade
level, above grade level, or below
grade level.
Readiness can vary from topic to
topic within a course.
Readiness can be assessed both
formally and informally.
Assessing Readiness
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Informal assessments include
– Anecdotal records
– Information from a cumulative folder
or other outside sources
– Performance on related tasks
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Formal assessments are tasks
specifically designed to check
readiness for a given topic.
Pretesting
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Pretesting is the classic form of formal
readiness assessment.
Students complete pretest tasks which
are specifically designed to…
– Confirm knowledge of prerequisite skills
– Assess pre-existing student knowledge
about the topic to be studied.
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This broadcast focuses on pretesting for
skills. February (broadcast 9) will focus
on pretesting for conceptual
understanding.
Making time for skills pretests.
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Add pre-test questions on to the end of
the test for the previous unit.
– Make it very clear that performance here
does not count towards the test grade.
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Incorporate pre-testing into a day where
students are completing a variety of
activities and only those students who
are confident of their prior knowledge
opt to take the pre-test.
What makes a good skills pretest?
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Direct and clear items focused on
discrete content.
– Content includes both verification of
pre-requisite skills and assessment of
knowledge of the new content.
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Un-ambiguous questions and
answers.
Easy items to grade
Quick items to administer.
What is a good mastery
standard?
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I like to use 90% accuracy.
Think about a mid-range “B”
If there are several elements to the
pre-test, consider scoring each
separately.
Using pre-test results
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Students who score well on both the
pre-requisite knowledge and the
proposed new content are in your
“above grade level” group.
Students who score well on the prerequisite knowledge but not the
proposed content are in your “on grade
level” group.
Students who have not mastered the
pre-requisite knowledge are your “below
grade level” group.
Now I have groups…
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Once you have three skills-based
groups created, it’s time to make
assignments to the groups.
Some assignments might be the same
for all three groups.
This is where you make sure the “above
grade level” group has opportunities to
study the AP prerequisite skills and
knowledge information which goes
above and beyond the state standards.
“Below Grade Level”
students
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These students need to build
background knowledge and review or
learn the prerequisite skills for the
information.
Student tasks should be clearly
structured and include a great deal of
scaffolding.
Your goal is to help the students get to
the standard.
“At Grade Level” students
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These students are right on target.
They will work on a solid
understanding of the state
standards.
Assignments should reinforce skills
and push students to apply learning
in new ways.
Work on building from doing the
skills to using the big ideas.
“Above Grade Level”
students
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These are our target in Project Aspire.
These students already know the basics
and can meet the state standards.
These students should be pushed to
ensure readiness for AP coursework by
focusing on the AP Prerequisite Skills
and Knowledge.
This is a time to find some of those “I
wish I could do that” experiences.
Getting Started
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Exempt students in this group (above
level) from some assignments,
especially those focusing on skills.
Consider combining two or three smaller
assignments into one longer
assignment.
Use a pre-existing assignment as a
starting point for a more advanced task.
Consider giving these students an
independent study task.
End of Unit Products
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Remember that students should have a
mix of performance/application
assessments and skills assessments.
– Think about the assessments we shared
when we discussed tiering lesson products.
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The pre-test only assessed the skills
part; any “memory effect” on the posttest will be counter-balanced by the
requirement to apply the skills in the
other portion of the assessment.
Coming Next
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In February
– Pretesting concepts, not just skills
– More strategies for creating
assignments for advanced students
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In March
– Independent study contracts
– Pulling it all together
Assignment for Next Session
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Identify essential skills for your next unit.
Select and/or create pre-test items for
these essential skills.
Administer your pre-test either to every
student or to the students you suspect
are working above level.
Make a few adjustments to assignments
during the unit based on pretest results.
Report your experiences on the online
form.