In this practical guide, teacher and brain-based learning expert Sarah Armstrong offers the tools and techniques that make designing tiered lessons manageable. She guides teachers through pre-assessing before a unit, identifying scaffolds necessary to support students, and focusing instruction around essential understandings. She demonstrates how to design tiered questions that engage students at their level and involve high-level thinking skills; she also shows how to incorporate choice and collaboration to motivate students. Armstrong shares a wealth of strategies, planning sheets, graphic organizers, and more to make tiered instruction a success. For use with Grades 3–8.
Sarah Armstrong brings her experience as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and principal—as well as her expertise in brain research—to her work training educators across the nation. Armstrong conducts workshops at national and state conferences and works regularly with teachers in grades K-12, as well as novice and aspiring school administrators who want to develop brain-compatible programs in their schools. In addition, she serves as an adjunct faculty member for several universities, embedding brain research in classes on curriculum and instruction, assessment, and risk and resiliency. Armstrong received an M.ED as a Reading Specialist from Lynchburg College, and an Ed.D from the University of Virginia. She is the author of Teaching Smarter With the Brain in Focus (Scholastic, 2008). She resides in Virginia with her husband Stu.