FIAE Chapter 5

The whole concept of tiering is a little bit confusing to me, and I think I would need to learn more about it in order to figure out how to implement it in my classroom. But the chapter did have a lot of good ideas about how to give students choices for how they want to be assessed, and how to also appeal to the many different learning styles in a differentiated classroom. I think the idea of a learning contract between a student and their teacher could be a good thing, because it keeps the student personally accountable for their work and gives them the needed autonomy. But I can also see how such a long list of rules and requirements could be overwhelming and off-putting to a student, so I think that kind of rubric should be used sparingly and only when the teacher knows that it will be very beneficial to the particular student. The ‘change the verb’ form of tiering is something that I would definitely use in my future classroom. I had never realize before how much impact the wording of a question or assignment could have on the way a student perceives it, but it really does make a big difference. Being as specific as possible really helps students get the most out of the assessment, and it encourages direct, purpose-driven thinking. Any project or assessment based off of a question or prompt should be active thought-provoking, because an assessment that is designed in a way that does not actively engage student thinking does not showcase their best work.