Tiered lessons are a way to have students of varying skills and readiness learn a specific goal or standard. Instruction is adjusted to meet student needs. The teacher selects the learning goal, pre-assesses students to determine their readiness to learn the goal, designs learning activities for the varying levels of readiness, carries out those activities, and assesses student understanding/learning. Tiered lessons are based on what students need to know, understand, and be able to do, based on the standard. With tiered lessons, each student is challenged to do his or her best.
Tiered activities should be different for each group of students. Students don't complete more or less work; they complete different work. Tasks should be equally engaging, active, and take roughly the same amount of time. For gifted learners, tiered lessons might include more complex reading passages, higher level questions, more abstract ideas and/or critical thinking.
Differentiate Content: Tiered Content
Differentiate Process: Tiered Activities
Sample Lesson Plan Template (Google Docs)
Tiered Activities (How to Plan and Samples)