Having just read Carol Ann Tomlinson's ideas on tiered activities, I was excited to further explore the concept through Dana's Blendspace lesson. The resource that I find most useful is the article from Learn NC "Tiering to Avoid Tears."
Every time I learn a new instructional strategy I have to connect it with something that I'm already doing in the classroom. My current unit of study ishistorical fiction, and I really could have used this information at the beginning of the unit in order to better scaffold our exploration of this genre. We're all reading novels about the time period of the Great Depression and World War II, my students' book clubs, as well as my read alouds. Having a tiered lesson or activity for students to work through as they read their own novels, would have added a deeper layer of understanding about the genre itself and author's craft that's specific to this genre.
So, the wheels are already turning as to how I can use tiered activities and lessons in my next unit of study in reading. I like the idea of Blendspace as a resource for students to refer to as they study the unit topic, genre, author, etc. Each book club will read books on their level within the unit of study & interact with other book clubs using resources such as Padlet or Google Docs to show what they learned about the unit topic, rather than just showing me what they learn about their individual novels/books. I definitely see tiered activities as an open door to more in depth understanding & collaboration despite the varied learning levels.
Every time I learn a new instructional strategy I have to connect it with something that I'm already doing in the classroom. My current unit of study ishistorical fiction, and I really could have used this information at the beginning of the unit in order to better scaffold our exploration of this genre. We're all reading novels about the time period of the Great Depression and World War II, my students' book clubs, as well as my read alouds. Having a tiered lesson or activity for students to work through as they read their own novels, would have added a deeper layer of understanding about the genre itself and author's craft that's specific to this genre.
So, the wheels are already turning as to how I can use tiered activities and lessons in my next unit of study in reading. I like the idea of Blendspace as a resource for students to refer to as they study the unit topic, genre, author, etc. Each book club will read books on their level within the unit of study & interact with other book clubs using resources such as Padlet or Google Docs to show what they learned about the unit topic, rather than just showing me what they learn about their individual novels/books. I definitely see tiered activities as an open door to more in depth understanding & collaboration despite the varied learning levels.