Tick, tock...

I am the kind of person who needs to first see the big picture and then pull all of the details into focus. I've been having a little trouble with this since I plan on radically changing the way I run my classes this year. And, since I am still a new teacher, I don't have lessons that I love and could just "turn into" videos and start that way. I truly feel like the past year and a half has been my own "what not to do" lesson.
Anyway, I started forming a vision of what I want to do this year.  My big picture turns out to be the explore, flip, apply model, which you can read more about here: cyclesoflearning.com
The part I am still fuzzy about is the apply part. I've read about so many good strategies that I think will work with my students, and my two favorite are modified assignments and layered assignments.
For modified, I would give a quick assessment as a do now and based on results student would work on similar assignments, but with different levels of difficulty. For layered, students would receive a list of tasks to complete, the required tasks would be in the C level, then they could earn points in the B and A levels.  (See Layered Curriculum)
I know that I could try both to see how they/I like them, but then Im not sure how to set up my grading. I want to decide soon and start planning my first units but feel like this is holding me up.
I would love to hear opinions from more experienced teachers!
I just want to do the best I can for my kids this year :)