FIAE Reflections: Chapter 5

This chapter talks about the importance of tiering assignments in challenging all students regardless of their readiness level. Several structures and techniques were suggested for creating tiers in a classroom. They include: increasing or decreasing complexity, Tomlinson’s Equalizer, learning contracts, learning menus, Tic-tac-toe boards, cubing, summarization pyramid, Frank William’s Taxonomy of Creativity, RAFTS, changing the verb, and one word summaries. I think all of these ideas are intriguing. I know that tiering needs to happen to make the class interesting and engaging for all students regardless of their readiness level. I worry, however, about my ability to be as creative in my own teaching. I am afraid that I will fall back on the ways that I was taught the same material, and forget that there are alternate ways to present the material. That is something I will need to be watchful for.