Assessing Writing Teaching Writing

As there are some differences in multilevel classroom, tiered activity can be also based on the differences that occur in that class. Heacox 2002: 91-94 mentions some bases of tiering. They are tiering by challenge level, by complexity, by resources, by process, and by product. In tiering by challenge level, trainer should use bloom’s taxonomy as a guide in designing the most appropriate activities. Tiering by complexity is to differentiate the lower to the higher level learners. The more advanced participants have the more complicated materials. For tiering by resources, the differentiated material is based on different resources although the activity is the same. In this case, trainer is to look for some resources which are different in complexity. Or, trainer may also offer two different but related sources. In tiering by outcome, trainer may have exactly the same source for the participants but the activity should be different. In this part, participants are demanded to have different outcome based on their English proficiency level. Tiering by process requires participants to work on the same outcomes with various processes to result them. The last is tiering by product. Trainer may group the participant s based on learning preference, using Gardner’s multiple intelligences.

b. The Benefits of Using Tiered Activity

There are some problems that usually occur in multilevel language classrooms since the trainer is not able to precisely design the materials and activities. They are commonly not aware of the different participant s’ needs. This unawareness leads to the failures in achieving the teaching and learning objectives. There were some proofs that the English article writers of PLUSWRITER Company had some differences so that the class was categorized into a multilevel classroom. In this research, the researcher designed the most appropriate activity for the participants of this research. Tiered activity was offered as one of the appropriate activities to improve language skills of the participants because tiered activities have some benefits. Graves 2000: 152-153 states that activities should build participant s’ confidence and allow participants to problem solve, discover, and analyze. Tiered activity lets participants involved well since it meets the participant s’ needs. The easier activity is for the low participants and the more difficult activity is for the advanced participants. All of the participants are busy doing the activity that meets their English proficiency level. They solve the problems inside the activity, discover and analyze the activity that agrees with their competence. Consequently, all of the participants can do the activity. By doing the activity, the participants actually build their own confidence.