Expansive Opportunities: Evaluate and Elevate Your School’s Tiers of Support
Give [students] something that allows them to see we recognize who they are.
– Matt Coleman, Inflexion’s CEO
INTRO
The Inflexion Approach incorporates core elements of a multi-tiered support approach to ensure each and every student gets what they need to be ready to thrive in the 21st century. During a Crowdsource webinar on April 20, 2023, Inflexion CEO Matt Coleman shared how the framework of the Inflexion Approach helps implement MTSS with aligned instructional supports across the school for every student, every period, every day.
In this segment, he explains the concept and provides examples of how expansive opportunities—in addition to traditional MTSS tiers of support—ensure ALL students are thriving and successful.
OBJECTIVES
- Evaluate your school’s tiers of support
- Brainstorm and plan new expansive opportunities to elevate your school’s supports to reach all students
ACTIVITY
This activity can be done on your own or collaboratively with your leadership/ILT team(s).
1. Watch this six-minute clip from the Crowdsource Webinar, MTSS and the Inflexion Approach
2. Reflect on the examples in the video
- What do you notice about the development of these different expansive opportunities?
- How are they similar and/or different from the tiers of support currently offered for your students?
- Could any of your students benefit from these expansive opportunity examples? If so: who? how? why?
3. Brainstorm your school’s expansive opportunities and areas in need of elevation
- What expansive opportunities are currently available to your students?
- If any: reflect on and evaluate them.
- Who are they serving?
- Are they effective?
- How do you know?
- Could they be elevated?
- Are students a part of the development and evaluation processes for these opportunities?
- If none: reflect on why none are offered.
- Have there been any in the past?
- If so, what happened to them?
- What are the main obstacles to providing expansive opportunities?
- How can these obstacles be overcome?
- If any: reflect on and evaluate them.
- Brainstorm new/elevated expansive opportunities for your school:
- Consider which student groups need support but aren’t receiving enough of it
- Survey students for what supports they feel they need and what expansive opportunities would benefit them in and out of the classroom
- Begin planning the development of at least one new expansive opportunity in the coming school year
TIPS
- Notice that each of the examples in the video are unique to the school and its students. This activity is not asking you to replicate what others have done, but to really know your own students and community and provide opportunities specifically for them and their needs.
Responses