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Session 2. Tiered Tasks, Pathways and Adaptive Practice Tools
Objective. Design a three-route task that leads to one goal, run it in a 40-minute lesson with 35 pupils, and judge an adaptive practice tool with a five-question check that includes an offline equivalent.
Every teacher of a large class knows the problem: fast pupils finish and wait, slow pupils copy from a neighbour, and the teacher stands at the front answering the same question for the tenth time. Tiered routes and well-chosen practice can remove much of this, but only if the design is careful and the lesson is organised so that you are free to teach a group. This session shows how to design routes with one goal and how to judge a practice tool before it enters your classroom.
Key ideas
Same goal, three doors
- A tiered task keeps one goal and one final question, but opens three doors: Route 1 adds support (a drawing, a worked step, sentence starters), Route 2 is the core task, Route 3 adds challenge (what if, find another, explain why).
- Routes differ by support and challenge, not by the amount of work or lower expectations. If Route 1 is only 'fewer questions', pupils learn that less is expected of them.
Make it run: 40 minutes, 35 pupils
- A workable shape: 5 minutes whole-class launch, 25 minutes on routes, 10 minutes whole-class close with the same exit question for everyone. Put route cards on desks, numbered, with pupils' names nowhere on them.
- At first assign routes from the diagnostic; later let pupils choose and check their choice. Plan your own time: 10 to 15 minutes with the group that needs you most, while others use answer keys at the back of the room and an 'ask three before me' rule.
Adaptive practice tools: when they help
- An adaptive tool changes the next question according to the pupil's last answers. It can help with routine practice of facts and procedures (times tables, spelling, verb forms), where instant feedback matters and pupils are at very different levels.
- It helps less for building concepts, explaining, discussing or writing, when one device is shared by four pupils, or when the content does not match our curriculum and language. Evidence summaries show that results of individualised and digital approaches vary and depend on how the teacher uses them.
Test a tool before you trust it
- Ask five questions: Does the content match our curriculum and language? Does it explain wrong answers? What pupil data does it collect? Does it work on our devices and connection? What report do I get in two minutes?
- Pilot with three pupils or one group for two weeks before the whole class. Always have the offline equivalent ready: practice ladder cards, five levels on cards, with the answer on the back for self-checking.
Three routes to one final question
Route 1
More support
- Labelled drawing
- One worked step
- Sentence starters
Route 2
Core task
- The task as written
- Short reason required
- Self-check key
Route 3
More challenge
- Change a condition
- Find another example
- Explain why it works
Support and challenge are different from more and less
The common mistake in tiered tasks is to give weaker pupils fewer questions and stronger pupils more. Fewer questions teach nothing new, and more questions of the same type are only a longer wait for the bell. Real support changes how the task is presented: a diagram, a worked first step, sentence starters, a table to fill in, a simpler number that shows the pattern. Real challenge changes the thinking: find another example, explain why, change a condition and predict.
A good test is the final question. If a pupil on Route 1 and a pupil on Route 3 can both answer the same final question at the end, the routes are well designed. If Route 1 pupils never meet the final question, the support has become a detour.
What adaptive practice does well, and what it cannot do
An adaptive practice tool decides the next question from the pupil's recent answers. For routine content, such as multiplication facts, spelling patterns or verb endings, this can give each pupil many questions at about the right difficulty and immediate feedback, something one teacher cannot provide to 35 pupils at once. Reports of which items cause trouble can also save you marking time.
The same tool cannot build an idea that the pupil does not yet understand, hold a discussion, or read a paragraph of explanation. It can also reward speed over thinking, depend on a connection you do not have, or ask for data you should not give. Evidence summaries describe mixed and varied results for individualised and technology-based approaches, which is why the teacher's use of the tool matters more than the tool itself.
Examples from the classroom
Writing about Navruz in Grade 3
Scene. Dilnoza in Samarkand asks Grade 3 pupils to write three sentences about Navruz. Route 1 has a picture of a table with sumalak and sentence starters 'On Navruz we...'. Route 2 has a blank page and a list of words. Route 3 asks pupils to write one sentence that explains why people celebrate in spring. All finish by reading one sentence to a partner, who says what they liked.
Insight. Same activity, same final act of sharing, with support and challenge placed in the task rather than in the amount of writing.
One tablet in a rural Grade 5
Scene. Jasur in a village school near Fergana has one tablet and 34 pupils. He sets up six stations of five or six pupils. At each station pupils practise times tables: one station uses the tablet app, the others use paper ladder cards with the answer on the back. Each group gets the tablet for five minutes in turn, while Jasur sits for ten minutes with the group that struggles most.
Insight. A single device can still support practice if the paper equivalent is just as useful and rotation is fair.
A chatbot for the teacher only
Scene. Malika in Tashkent tries a free maths chatbot to find a new way to explain fraction division. It gives an explanation with a wrong step. She notices it because she solves the example herself. She keeps the idea, rewrites the explanation and uses it with her class, but does not give the chatbot to pupils, since it has no report and sometimes makes mistakes.
Insight. Some tools are safest as a source of ideas for the teacher, with the teacher checking every line.
Common pitfalls
- Making Route 1 simply shorter, so those pupils learn that less is expected of them.
- Letting pupils choose routes from the first day without checking, so some always pick the easiest.
- Adopting a tool because it is free or popular, without asking if it matches the curriculum and language.
- Using speed rankings or public leaderboards, which can shame slower pupils.
Design Three Routes and Judge Four Tools
- Open the Activity Kit: a plain Grade 6 task on perimeter and area. In trios, write three routes (support, core, challenge) with the same final question, using the route planner (20 min).
- Swap with another trio (10 min). Check each other's routes: is the final question really the same? Is Route 1 only 'fewer questions'? Could Route 3 be done by a pupil who skipped the core?
- Pairs (20 min): read the four tool descriptions in the Kit. Apply the five-question check and decide for each tool: pilot, use only as a teacher aid, or do not use. Write the reason in one line.
- Second short activity (10 min): choose the tool you would pilot. Design its offline equivalent: five practice-ladder cards for one topic you teach, with the answer on the back.
- Alone (10 min): write your school-based task from the Kit and choose the lesson in which you will run your three routes.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- What made Route 1 truly supportive and not just shorter?
- Which tool decision surprised you, and which of the five questions decided it?
- How will you use your own 10 to 15 minutes with the group that needs you?
Reflect
- In your last lesson, which pupils finished early and what did they do next?
- Which of your topics are routine practice, and which need explaining and talking?
- How many devices could you count on in your classroom tomorrow?
Try it tomorrow
- Take one task you already use and add a support and a challenge route, keeping the final question the same.
- Run it with the 5-25-10 shape and sit with one group for 10 minutes.
- Apply the five questions to one tool you have heard about and write the decision: pilot, teacher aid only or do not use.
Further reading and links
Keep one goal and one final question for everyone, vary support and challenge, and use practice tools only for routine practice, after a check and with an offline equivalent ready.