MTSS: Instructional Strategies to Make Time for Tier 2 Support and Extension

Every teacher has faced a similar challenge: delivering a whole-group lesson to the entire class and watching the mixed reactions on the students’ faces. Some grasp the concept immediately, while others struggle to comprehend it and clearly need additional support. Approximately 20% of students in a classroom will need more than Tier 1 core instruction to reach their academic potential.

• How can teachers accurately identify the aspects of a concept or skill students are struggling with?
• How can they carve out time to address these different needs without leaving anyone behind or holding anyone back?
• How do we design instruction, support, and extension activities to meet students where they are at?

Tier 2 Support and Extension

In my previous blog titled “MTSS in Action: Designing Inclusive Tiered Instruction,” I provided an overview of multitiered systems of support (MTSS). MTSS is a framework designed to guide educators in meeting the needs of all students through a layered approach to instruction and intervention. Tier 2 instruction of MTSS is intended to provide targeted support and extension, or enrichment, for students whose needs are not met by Tier 1 instruction. In this blog, I’ll explore how educators can identify students who need Tier 2 support or extension and the strategies they can use to create the time and space to provide that instruction in the classroom.

Tier 2 instruction fills gaps that appear after Tier 1 instruction or provides the necessary extensions that allow learners with a solid understanding to engage in enrichment activities. Although most conversations about Tier 2 focus on support for students who need additional instruction and support, preparing students for more advanced learning activities to engage in work that extends their understanding and skills is also critical. Extension activities challenge students to think critically, creatively problem solve, engage in exploration, and expand on the core instruction. These extension activities are essential if we want to keep these students engaged as we target the needs of students who require more support and differentiation.

By prioritizing Tier 2 instruction, educators can proactively address learning gaps and provide meaningful enrichment opportunities, minimizing the number of students who need Tier 3 interventions. Consistently providing Tier 2 support or extension supports struggling learners and ensures that advanced learners are continually challenged, creating a balanced and equitable learning environment. This can also minimize the number of classroom management issues that blossom from a misalignment between the level of rigor, complexity, and support of the instruction and our students’ diverse needs.

The Role of Data: Identifying Tier 2 Needs

Data is critical to understanding the effectiveness of Tier 1 instruction and identifying students who need additional support or extension. Data provides the insight educators need to ensure that interventions and extensions are targeted and impactful.

Formative assessment and progress monitoring are essential for identifying and meeting student needs. Formative assessment is informal, ongoing, and embedded into the lesson or learning experience, providing insight into what individual students know and can do. My blog titled, “Formative Assessment is Key to Being Responsive,” provides educators with a range of strategies they can use to collect informal data during the lesson. Some of the strategies I describe in that blog include:

• Observations paired with checklists or simple rubrics
• Tell me how challenges
• Create an analogy
• Error analysis
• 3-2-1 reflections on learning

There are endless ways teachers can check for understanding or assess the student’s ability to apply a specific skill in a lesson.

Progress Monitoring tools track student growth over time. This regular evaluation of students’ mastery of skills allows teachers to measure the effectiveness of Tier 2 interventions and make the necessary adjustments. For example, weekly check-ins or skill trackers can help educators determine whether struggling students are progressing or if additional instruction and support are needed.

When developing a progress monitoring tool, educators should consider the following questions.

• What standards, skills, or learning objectives do I want to track progress toward?
• What types of data will provide the most meaningful insights into my students’ progress?
• How can I build data collection into the fabric of a lesson?
• What specific performance indicators (e.g., mastery, task completion, accuracy) will I track?
• What interventions or extensions have been provided? What was their impact?
• What key milestones or markers of progress will indicate whether students are on track toward mastering the standard, skill, or learning objective? How will I use these markers to identify students who need additional support, differentiated instruction, or greater challenges?

Below is an example of a teacher tool for monitoring student progress, the interventions and extensions provided, and their impact. A spreadsheet is a great way to format a progress monitoring tool because teachers can customize the columns to reflect their approach and use features, like drop-down menus, to quickly label the student’s current levels and note the specific interventions provided. Click on the image to copy and use!

In addition to guiding teachers, progress monitoring can serve as a powerful metacognitive tool that encourages students to think critically about their learning. By analyzing their work and assessment scores and tracking their progress over time, students can identify areas of strength, pinpoint challenges, and appreciate their growth over time. This metacognitive practice encourages reflection and positions students as active partners in their learning journey. When students understand what their data is telling them, they are better equipped to articulate their needs and advocate for the instruction and support they need to continue progressing.

When considering how to engage students in the process of progress monitoring, educators should consider the following questions:

• How can I involve students in tracking their progress?
• What questions can I ask students to help them reflect on their data? (e.g., What patterns do you notice? What did you struggle with, and what support might be helpful?)
• How will I have students capture their reflections on their progress?
• How can I provide multiple means of expression to ensure all students can share their reflections?
• When will I give students time to monitor and reflect on their progress? How can I build this into our class periods so it is a consistent and sustainable part of our work together?

These questions can guide teachers in designing progress-monitoring tools that are purposeful, actionable, and student-centered. They ensure the tools teachers use are manageable for the teacher, meaningful to the students, and aligned with grade-level standards and instructional goals.

Instructional Strategies: Creating Time for Tier 2 Support & Extension

The Station Rotation Model

The station rotation model rotates students through a series of stations, or learning activities, composed of teacher-led, online, and offline stations. The teacher-led station is ideal for differentiated explicit instruction and can be used to meet a range of instructional needs. The teacher can tailor the instruction for the needs of each group, including support and enrichment.

For example, a math teacher who has already introduced the process of adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators may check for understanding and collect formative assessment data at the end of the lesson. The data may reveal that some students need significant support and reteaching, while others have a solid foundation but would benefit from additional guided practice, and others may be reading for more challenging tasks. The teacher can accommodate these needs in the next lesson by using the station rotation model to provide the following differentiation at the teacher-led station.

Differentiated Teacher-led Station: Each group receives a tailored lesson based on what the data reveals about their specific needs.

• Group 1: Reteach foundational skills, such as finding common denominators.
• Group 2: Practice solving word problems involving fractions with the teacher providing guidance, support, and feedback, as needed.
• Group 3: Challenge students with multi-step fraction problems that require critical thinking and a degree of creative problem-solving.

Independent Practice Station: Students engage in self-paced practice at a level of rigor and complexity appropriate to them.

• Students work independently on a digital math platform or grade-level worksheet.
• Advanced students complete extension activities grounded in real-world scenarios. These activities require them to justify their answers and articulate their mathematical process.
• Struggling students can complete more scaffolded practice problems with visual aids, manipulatives, hints, access to deconstructed examples, etc.

Collaborative Problem-solving Station: Students work with peer support to apply their learning to real-world scenarios.

• The tasks are tiered in complexity, and groups select problems to solve based on their comfort level. Advanced groups can create, exchange, and solve their fraction scenarios.

Playlists

A playlist is a sequence of learning activities designed to move students toward a desired result. A mini-playlist can act as a self-contained lesson that students can self-pace through or span several days. The teacher can pull small groups for targeted support or extensions as students work through a playlist.

For example, a seventh-grade English language arts class may work through a playlist to help them identify and analyze literary themes. While the class self-paces through the playlist, the teacher pulls small groups for targeted Tier 2 support for struggling readers and extension opportunities for advanced readers.

Choice Boards

Choice boards, or learning menus, are different from playlists because students get to pick and choose the learning activities from the board that they want to complete. They do not necessarily have to complete items in a particular order. Choice boards can also provide learning activities at different levels of rigor and complexity to challenge students at varying levels of proficiency.

For example, a second-grade science class learning about the life cycle of plants may use a choice board that includes tasks like labeling plant parts, creating a diagram of the life cycle, writing a short story from the perspective of a seed, etc. This self-directed work can allow the teachers to pull small groups for vocabulary support and reteaching key concepts.

5Es Inquiry Cycle

The 5Es inquiry cycle (engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate), focused on a high-interest question related to the curriculum, is a powerful strategy for keeping students engaged in meaningful learning while freeing the teacher to work with small groups. The cycle positions students to dive deeper into a concept, topic, or issue independently or as part of a group.

For example, in a history class, students could individually work through an inquiry cycle focused on the question, “What was life like for a child during the American Revolution?” In a physical education class, groups of students could investigate the question, “How can we design the most effective offensive play for basketball?”

The goal is to allow students to spend time self-pacing through the engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate stages. At the same time, the teacher is free to work with students who need more support understanding concepts and applying specific skills.

Wrap Up

The station rotation model, playlist model, choice boards, and 5Es inquiry cycle are just a few strategies teachers can use to engage students in meaningful standards-aligned learning activities that challenge them at different levels of rigor and complexity. These strategies allow students to take greater ownership of the pace and path of their learning and free teachers to focus on providing Tier 2 instructional support or enrichment.

Meeting Tier 2 instructional needs doesn’t have to feel like an impossible task. With the right instructional strategies, teachers can step away from the front of the room and create dynamic, student-centered classrooms where every learner receives the support or challenge they need to thrive. Flexible models, like the ones I highlighted in this blog, can help teachers design and facilitate learning experiences where all students receive the support and challenge they need to stay engaged and continue progressing toward firm standards-aligned learning objectives.

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