RE D

T IE N
G A S O
NIN L E S
SIG CE
DE CIEN
S

42 • • SEPTEMBER 2019
Differentiation also helps
students who have already
mastered a concept.
By Jenny Sue Flannagan
T
oday boys and girls, we are going to continue our
exploration of magnets. In our investigations today,
you are going to work in groups to explore a specific
question. Each group will have a different question. If you
are in the blue group, you will be investigating the following
question, “How can I use what I know about interactions to
identify the poles of an unmarked magnet?” For those of you in
the green group, you will be investigating the following ques-
tion, “How can I use what I know about interactions to stack
magnets on a pencil?” When everyone is finished, we will come
back together and debrief on what we learned.
As soon as the teacher stopped talking, students moved
into their groups and began working. There were three green
groups in the classroom and one blue group. Neither group
seemed to care what the other group was doing because ev-
eryone was doing a hands-on investigation with magnets.
For 10 minutes the groups worked through the investigation
with the teacher spending most of her time between the three
green groups. Finally, after all of the groups had finished, the
teacher pulled the students back together and began debrief-
ing about the two activities.
At any point during the school year, a teacher may find
out the gap between what students know and need to learn is
not large at all. In fact, formative assessment data may show
a handful of students already have mastered the content for
a specific unit of study. While some learners will achieve
grade-level standards at the pace outline by a curriculum or
a pacing guide, others will reach those standards sooner and
need a different level of challenge to maintain their ongoing
learning. To sustain continuous learning, teachers can use
the strategy of tiering to develop a modified version of an ac-
tivity to stretch students who have already mastered learning
outcomes. In this article, we will explore the steps in how to
design a tiered science lesson.
Differentiation Strategy: Tiered
Activities
Tiering a lesson or an activity is a process of adjusting the
level of difficulty of a task, question, or product to match a
student’s current readiness level. The purpose is to develop
different paths a student may take in understanding a par-
ticular standard, concept, or generalization. In short, when a
teacher chooses to differentiate content, process, or product
by readiness, it implies the teacher has a good understanding
of the student’s ability.
Safety Note
This lesson calls for the use of plastic case filled
with iron filings. Please check cases prior to les-
son to make sure they are not cracked or broken.
Tiering should only be used when data from a forma-
tive assessment identifies students have already mastered
grade-level content. Differentiation is not something done
on a daily basis but rather something that occurs when data
indicates there is a need. The lesson example described be-
low came out of a need raised by a former student of mine,
Amanda, who was now a second-grade science teacher. She
called me to ask how to develop a tiered science activity that
would push a couple of her boys’ learning as it pertained to
the topic of magnets. She shared she had a hunch they al-
ready knew a great deal about how magnets interact and was
concerned they would become bored doing the same activity
as the other students. We met to design a lesson to stretch all
students. To design the tiered lesson, we found the following
steps listed below to be very helpful.
1. Identify the standard for the lesson
(national, state, district) you plan to use to
develop the tiered lesson.
This is key to beginning the process. You can’t design a lesson
that will fit the needs of your students if you do not know what
they need to know, understand, and be able to do at the end of a
lesson or a unit of study. The topic of magnets is in the second-
grade Standards of Learning for Virginia and a third-grade
standard for the Next Generation Science Standards (see p. 47).
Once we were clear on what students needed to know and be
able to do at the conclusion of the lesson, we then moved on to
identifying the concept for the lesson plan.
2. Identify the key crosscutting concept.
Every content-based discipline has a core of conceptual,
essential understandings. When curriculum units and les-
sons are framed around concepts, students are less likely to
memorize facts; instead those facts become critical for build-
ing a deeper and transferable understanding of the content
knowledge (Erickson 2007). Think about a magnifying lens.
The lens helps the user see details and other information that
might be missed by the naked eye. In curriculum, concepts
are the “lens” that focuses the thinking for a unit of study.
The Next Generation Science Standard crosscutting concepts
are mental constructs and “windows” through which stu-
dents can “interpret and assimilate new ideas, and relate and
extend them” (Hattie 2012, p. 115).
www.nsta.org/elementaryschool • 43
 Magnet Activity

Engage
As the class comes in, the teachers will give students a card that has a colored dot on it (green, blue, or
orange) Students will be placed into the group based on data from their pre-assessment. The teachers will
begin the lesson by reminding students the concept for the unit is cause and effect. The teachers will lead a
discussion of magnetic force and the relationship to cause and effect, i.e., when a force pushes on an object,
it causes that object to do something. Identifying cause and effects are important in science because we can
use those relationships to understand how forces interacting can cause change.

Explore
Next, the teacher will give groups of students (4–5 students per group) two bar magnets and string. The
teachers will lead students in tying a string around the center of one of the bar magnets. Next, the teacher will
ask one student to hold the string in the air, so that the magnet dangles below while another student in the
group takes the other bar magnet and moves the north pole toward the north pole of the dangling magnet.
Students will write down what they observe occurring. The teacher will then lead a class discussion using the
following questions:

• What did you observe? (Like poles repel or push away; unlike poles attract)
• What questions do you have based on your exploration?

Explain
The teacher will ask students what they think about when they hear the word attraction (record student re-
sponses). The teachers will then ask students to describe what they think about when they hear the word re-
pulsion. Once students are finished, use magnets as a visual to show students that magnets can be attracted
to each other.
The teacher will ask each group to show two magnets that are attracting. Now show two magnets that
are repulsing. Have students draw on their observation sheet two magnets that are attracting and two that
are repulsing. Say to the students, “Every magnet has two POLES, a NORTH pole, and a SOUTH pole. The
poles are on the ends of the magnets.”
The teacher will explain how the poles have to be different for the poles of two magnets to touch. How
many have ever heard the phrase OPPOSITES ATTRACT? That’s a very easy way to remember about mag-
nets. The NORTH POLE always wants to be next to the SOUTH POLE because they are opposites.”

Extend
The teacher will then explain to the groups they will continue to work in their science groups to explore this
concept or to extend this idea. The teacher will share the task is to work with your team members as you
find an answer to your question. If you are in the blue group, you will be investigating the following question-
“How can I use what I know about magnets to identify the poles of an unmarked magnet?” For those of you
in the green group, you will be investigating the following question: “How can I use what I know about the
poles of a magnet to stack magnets on a pencil?” When everyone is finished, we will come back together and
debrief on what we learned. Please move into your groups based on the colored dot you got when you came
into the classroom. Once the groups have completed the investigation, the teacher will lead a final discussion
on what students have obsevered.

Evaluate
The teacher will give the exit ticket to students at the completion of the lesson.

44 • • SEPTEMBER 2019

F I G URE 1
Sample preassessment.
F I G URE 2
Exit ticket.
Draw arrows that will represent what happens
when the two magnets are put together.
Your summative assignment for our magnets unit
will involve making a model of a maglev train. As
you know, these trains use magnetic force. How
can you use what you have learned from our
lesson today to make your train move?
For the magnets unit, we chose to go with the concept of
cause and effect and interaction. Cause and effect is a cross-
cutting concept because it is timeless, universal, abstract,
and if anyone were to think about cause and effects found in
DESIGNING A TIERED SCIENCE LESSON
the world, they could come up with examples with common
attributes. As I shared with Amanda, yes, we wanted her stu-
dents to understand how the poles of the magnets behaved
through their interaction, but more important, we wanted
students to come to the deeper understanding that interac-
tions (attraction/repulsion) between the poles of magnets
could be used to create motion. Once students had an un-
derstanding of the cause and effects that come through the
interactions of magnets, students could take that knowledge
and transfer it to the unit performance task in which students
were asked to design a maglev train.
3. Identify student knowledge.
Data drives instructional planning. While Amanda had a
hunch she had some students who already knew the content
associated with this one lesson in the unit, we were not really
sure. Because the division’s curriculum guide did not have
a preassessment for the objectives for this lesson, we devel-
oped our own (Figure 1). After giving the assessment, we did
indeed see several students (four) already knew the grade-
level content dealing with identifying the poles of magnets
and understanding attraction/repulsion between like and
different poles. During this time we also developed an exit
ticket that would provide Amanda with information on how
the students did after the lesson (see Figure 2). The exit ticket
also includes a question to help students think about apply-
ing what they have learned to the final performance task for
the unit. Having a question on the exit ticket related to the
final performance task was key because it constantly had stu-
dents thinking about connecting what they were learning on
a day-to-day basis and how it would help them to be success-
ful on the final summative assessment.
4. Plan the lesson building in tiers (identify
the number of tiers needed).
The data from our preassessment confirmed for us we
needed at that point in the unit to design something differ-
ent that would stretch and challenge them to maintain their
growth. The data showed we really only needed two tiers—a
just- ready-to-go group (those students who needed to work
more on mastering the grade level objectives pertaining to
attraction, repulsion) and a ready-to-go group (these stu-
dents had a firm understanding of the concepts pertaining to
attraction and repulsion). Once we had identified the tiers,
the next step involved developing the tasks (see Figure 3, p.
46). We began building tiering by beginning with what the
students who were above grade level would do. These stu-
dents already knew like poles repelled and unlike poles at-
tracted. Our goal was not to give them content found in the
next grade level (electromagnetism) but rather to have them
take what they already knew and use it to solve an unknown
problem. For the ready-to-go group (blue dot task card), we
designed a task that would require students to identify poles
www.nsta.org/elementaryschool • 45
 F IG URE 3

Flex groups.

Orange Dot: Not-quite ready-group

Task A:
Materials:
• bar magnets with poles clearly marked (2 or more per student)
• bar magnets with unmarked poles
1. Give each group of students two bar magnets that have the poles of the magnets clearly labeled.

2. Have students use the recording sheet and mark what they observe happens when they put ends of the
two magnets together using the following configuration:
North – North
South – South
North – South
South – North

3. Next, give each group two unmarked magnets and have students identify when they have like poles
together and when they have unlike poles together. Have students explain their answers.

Green Dot: Just-Ready-to-Go Group: Those students who get the concept of attraction
and repulsion using bar magents
Task B:
Materials:
• ring magnets (2 or more per student)
• pencils or dowel rods (1 per student)
• optional clay (enough to keep each pencil upright)
1. Take one of the ring magnets and place it on the pencil.

2. Take another ring magnet and stack it on top of the first magnet.

3. Record what you observe. Is the magnet attracted to or repelled from the magnet.

4. Based on the last magnet, how could you get the magnet to “float” above the magnet?

5. Continue to stack the magnet in a way that allows as many magnets to float?

Blue Dot: Ready-to-Go Group: Those students who are ready for a more open ended
task associated with lesson concept.
Task C:
Materials:
• Unmarked magnets
• Iron Filings

Directions: Your task is to come up with a way to identify the north and south poles of our magnets using the
materials you are provided. Work with your peers to come up with your plan and then try out your plan. Be
prepared to share your plan with the class.

46 • • SEPTEMBER 2019

Connecting to the Next Generation Science Standards
Standard
3-PS2 Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions
www.nextgenscience.org/dci-arrangement/3-ps2-motion-and-stability-forces-and-interactions
• The chart below makes one set of connections between the instruction outlined in this article and the NGSS. Other valid connections are likely; however,
space restrictions prevent us from listing all possibilities.
• The materials, lessons, and activities outlined in the article are just one step toward reaching the performance expectation listed below.
Performance Expectation
3-PS2-3. Ask questions to determine cause and effect relationship of electric or magnetic interactions between two objects not in contact with each
other
DIMENSIONS
Science and Engineering Practice
Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
Disciplinary Core Idea
PS2.B: Electric and magnetic force between a pair of objects do not require
that the objects be in contact. The sizes of the forces in each situation depend
on the properties of the objects and their distances apart and for forces
between two magnets, on their orientation relative to each other.
Crosscutting Concept
Cause and Effect
of an unmarked magnet. To do this, students in this group
would have two unmarked magnets and iron filings. They
would need to come up with the procedure for identifying
the unknown poles. Our hope was students would either
take the unmarked magnets and merely put them together
and look for where they see attraction or repulsion. Or we
thought they might think to use the iron filings like they had
seen in lesson one (in lesson one all students visually “see”
the magnetic field of a magnet through the use of iron filings.
The lesson even calls for students to see when magnets are
placed together, showing repulsion). Once we had this task
developed, we moved to develop the task for the just-ready-
to-go group (green dot task card). Because this group was on
grade level, we had these students move through placing ring
magnets on a pencil and observing what happened. Last, we
did develop a task in case Amanda had students the follow-
ing year who were not quite ready to go (below grade level-
orange dot task card). For this task, we designed an experi-
DESIGNING A TIERED SCIENCE LESSON
(NGSS Lead States 2013)
CLASSROOM CONNECTIONS
Students conduct a series of investigations to determine the effect
of the placement and orientation of magnetic poles in order to
learn about maglev designs.
Students investigate and determine how orientation affects
magnetic force.
Students determine how orientation affects attraction or repulsion
of magnets.
ence that allowed students to learn what happens when like
poles are near each other and when unlike poles are near each
other. After we developed the three levels of tasks, we de-
signed the beginning of the lesson with a whole-class activity
in which students explored the room to find one object that
was “attracted” to the magnet and one that was not. The les-
son ended with a whole-group section in which each group
shared what they learned from their experience.
Once we had the tasks developed, we then began to move
onto designing the details of the lesson plan and how the stu-
dents would move from whole group to the flex groups.
5. Identify classroom management
techniques needed for lesson activity.
One of the concerns Amanda had was related to how to move
students into groups so they didn’t think one group was get-
ting a more engaging activity than the other. To move stu-
dents into their respective groups, we came up with the idea
www.nsta.org/elementaryschool • 47
DESIGNING A TIERED SCIENCE LESSON
of colored dots. Because both groups would be doing a hands-
on activity, I shared with Amanda that students really would
not care which groups they were working in because each
of the tasks we had developed would engage them in doing
something related to the lesson concept. We discussed how
designing respectful tasks is critical to differentiation and
it really meant everyone should be engaged in doing some-
thing. It would be different if one group was given a research
task and the other had the hands-on activity. As you will no-
tice from the task cards (Figure 1), each group focused on the
concept of attraction and repulsion—just in very different
ways. As we called them, the ready-to-go or blue dot group
task was more open-ended and complex. This task required
students to take what they already knew about the poles of
magnets and to design a way in which to identify the poles
of an unmarked magnet. The green dot group or as we called
them the just-ready-to-go group had a similar task that was
more structured. This task asked students to make observa-
tions as they stacked ring magnets and asked students to de-
sign a way to make the magnets “float” on the pencil. While
we did not use Task Card A (not-quite-ready-to-go group/
orange dot), we did develop what students would do if they
did not know about the concept of attraction and repulsion.
This task focused on learning what happens when like and
unlike poles are put near each other.
Conclusion
Amanda’s students did very well with the tiered activity. In
fact, after the class finished discussing the learning experi-
ences, she put out the task we designed for the ready-to-go
group and created a center for other students to extend their
learning if they were done with their other class work. Not
all students chose to complete this task, but many of the stu-
dents enjoyed having the opportunity to continue to learn,
and the use of these extended learning centers has become
a routine Amanda has added to her classroom. As Amanda
and I debriefed about the use of the tiered assignments, we
felt all students were successful in deepening their under-
Jenny Sue Flannagan (jennfla@regent.edu) is an associate professor and Director of Student Teaching at Regent Univer-
sity in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
48 • • SEPTEMBER 2019
standing of the unit objectives. From the exit ticket, it was
evident the activity helped students think about how attrac-
tion and repulsion would help them in the completion of the
unit performance task (Maglev Train).
When a teacher chooses to differentiate content by readi-
ness, the point is to attend to student growth. For those
students who were in the just-ready-to-go group, the cur-
riculum goal was to get them to master the grade-level ob-
jectives. In contrast, for those students who were placed in
the ready-to-go group, they had already met the curriculum
goal. To push their thinking, the design of the activity to be
more open-ended and less structured challenged them to use
what they knew along with collaborating with their peers to
design a method in which to identify the unmarked poles. In
differentiating content by readiness, the goal was not to ac-
celerate the students to learn content objectives found at a
different grade level, but rather to go deeper into the content
objectives at the current grade level.
Differentiation begins with high-quality learning curricu-
lum and is designed with thoughtful planning with regard to
student readiness, interest, and learning profile. By responding
to student learning needs, teachers create opportunities for all
students to be challenged and yet supported. When teachers
respond by creating engaging and thoughtfully planned learn-
ing opportunities, all students have a chance to succeed. ●
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Thank you, Amanda T., for your willingness to try something
new.
REFERENCES
Erickson, L. 2007. Concept-based curriculum and instruction
for the thinking classroom. Corwin Press: Thousand Oaks,
CA.
Hattie, J. 2012. Visible learning for teachers. Routledge: New
York.
National Research Council (NRC). 1996. National Science
Education Standards. Washington, DC: National
Academies Press.
NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next Generation Science Standards:
For states, by states. Washington, DC: National Academies
Press.
Tomlinson, C.A. 2003. Fulfilling the promise of the
differentiated classroom: Strategies and tools for
responsive teaching. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Tomlinson, C.A., and M. Imbeau. 2011. Leading and managing
a differentiated classroom: A practical guide. Alexandria,
VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.