Tier 1 instruction is universal instruction designed to meet the needs of all students. All students receive grade-level instruction with scaffolding and differentiation supports using high-quality instructional materials. Differentiated instruction allows students to access the same high-quality classroom curriculum by providing:
• Various entry points
• Challenging learning tasks
• Processes that can be expanded or compacted
• Rich content to build on
• Outcomes that are tailored to student’s needs
Students who are acquiring new skills, and those students who need intervention, benefit from explicit instruction that reduces cognitive load, transfers new knowledge to long-term memory, minimizes errors, and maximizes content learned. Explicit instruction is direct and unambiguous (Archer & Hughes, 2010). Systematic instruction is organized through a planned sequence that follows the logical order of the language.
