How Effective Is Your Tier 1 Instruction?

Karen Kauo
Oct 20, 2024
5 min read

From Chapter 6: How to Teach Elementary School - Effective Instruction

EFFECTIVE TEACHING BEGINS WITH TIER 1 INSTRUCTION

Great First Instruction. Best First Instruction. Core Instruction. Whatever your school calls it, it is the day to day core instruction presented to students in the classroom by their teacher.

Tier 1 instruction is high quality, standards based, evidence-based classroom instruction that is systematic, explicit, and differentiated. Tier 1 instruction is the foundation for all learning. By ensuring that Tier 1 instruction is the highest quality, schools can prevent the need for intensive interventions later and ensure high levels of student achievement.

“The expectation is that if Tier 1 instruction is implemented with a high degree of integrity by highly trained teachers, then most of the students receiving this instruction will show outcomes upon assessment that indicate proficiency that meets minimum benchmarks.”

-Effective Universal Instruction

According to multiple sources including an article from the American Federation of Teachers, research studies found that students in classrooms with more effective Tier 1 instruction had a higher success rate on assessments and students in classrooms with less effective Tier 1 instruction had a lower success rate. The optimal success rate for fostering student achievement is about 80%. A success rate of 80% shows that students are learning and are challenged.

With effective Tier 1 instruction in every grade and every classroom in a school

80% of students should be proficient.

Up to 15% may need small group targeted interventions to reach proficiency

Up to 5% may need more intensive instruction or to be assessed for special ed services

Effective Teaching IS NOT:

Effective teaching is NOT about teaching in isolation based on personal opinions of what works. Any teacher can say, “I’ve been teaching it this way for years and my students are successful.” My response to that would be, “How do you know?”

The only way to truly know if a specific instructional strategy is working is with DATA. If a teaching strategy is working for you, I’d love to hear about it and I’d love to see the data to back it up. In addition, you may have students who show mastery in the moment, but what about the next school year…and the next?

First graders may assess as proficient with memorized sight words, rudimentary decoding skills and memorized sound patterns. This may meet the needs of a 1st grade reader, but by 3rd and 4th grade those same students may not have the skills to read multisyllabic words and have weak spelling skills.

This would communicate to me that at some point before 3rd and 4th grade, instructional strategies were used that provided in the moment learning, but did not ensure the deep understanding needed for more complex learning in future grades.

Effective teaching is not an individual act but instead a collaborative process. Good teaching is not “what I do for my students” but instead “what WE do WITH our students.” - Best Practices at Tier 1

We are not teaching our students for one grade level. We are teaching students so they can be successful in the next grade level and the next. We must ensure that our instruction leaves no holes and gaps for another teacher to fill. If the teachers in the grade level before you are not effective teachers, it makes your job that much harder.

Effective Teaching IS:

Effective instruction requires an expectation that all teachers use practices proven to have the greatest impact on student learning while at the same time, infusing their own style and differentiating instruction for individual student needs.

Teachers must work in collaborative groups and take collective responsibility for their students’ learning.

Organizations get better results when people work collaboratively. There is no way an individual teacher has all the time, all the skills, and all the knowledge necessary to meet every student’s individual needs. The only way a school staff can achieve the mission of enabling the highest level of learning for all students is by leveraging their combined skills.

-Best Practices at Tier 1

Each grade level of teachers makes a commitment to engage in the same effective instructional strategies and each grade level team above and below them make the same commitment. Every teacher, every grade level, and every classroom is committed to effective teaching practices for all students.

Effective teachers are reflective. They engage in reflective practices on a daily basis. Documenting reflection provides a reference point to go back later and review adjustments that need to be made for future instruction.

Take a minute or two to reflect on your instructional practices and complete the Effective Tier 1 Checklist.

EFFECTIVE TIER 1 TEACHER CHECKLIST

My students can explain the learning goal for a lesson, explain how their activity relates to the goal and know what grade level proficiency looks like for that goal.
I determine if students have mastered the prerequisite skills for a standard and if they have not, unfinished learning is addressed before new instruction begins.
I engage my students in activities that help them link what they already know to new content.
Instruction is broken into “chunks” allowing for time when students are taking in information and time when students discuss or show understanding of information.
Students are engaged in instruction, actively participating in student talk, and understand the importance of remaining focused to gain knowledge.
I use a variety of response strategies to ensure that all students are held accountable for active listening and learning.
I expect all students to participate and answer questions regardless of their academic ability and make sure lower performing students are asked challenging questions at the same ratio as high performing students.
I incorporate physical movement into lessons including quick brain breaks when engagement and energy is low.
Students are given immediate feedback on their understanding of the learning target so they can make in the moment corrections.
My teaching pace is quick with minimal down time and when students transition from one activity to another they re engage quickly.
Lessons are organized so that new content builds upon previous information and progresses to deeper understanding.
Instruction is standards based with the majority of instruction time is spent on identified priority standards with units planned based on the mastery of those standards.
Instruction is provided with adequate modeling, guided practice, and independent practice.
Students who are struggling to grasp new skills are given Tier 2 small group intervention in the classroom with the classroom teacher.
I track my students’ progress towards mastery of a learning target/standard before giving a summative assessment.
I provide accommodations for English Language Learners and ensure that special education students are receiving the appropriate modifications.
I reflect on each lesson and can explain the strengths and weaknesses of each learning goal and learning unit. I document my reflection for implementation in future instruction.
I work collaboratively with my colleagues to plan and evaluate instruction to ensure student learning.

Inspired by the work of Robert J. Marzano The New Art and Science of Teaching

This list contains only 18 of approximately 60 elements of quality Tier 1 instruction. How many are you implementing consistently within your instructional day?

If you are looking for more guidance on improving your instruction check out the Blog posts with reviews of professional resources for Effective Instruction.