EXPANDING THE LANGUAGE

One of the first things you have to do is set up your classroom in a way that promotes student engagement and learning. It must be safe, both emotionally and physically, and provide students with the materials necessary for learning to take place.

What will you do? Will your room have an area for whole-group instruction? What about small group and independent work? What types of materials will students need to access regularly? How and where will these materials be organized? What areas of your classroom have worked well in the past? Which areas are you going to make more effective?

Arrangement of Classroom is critical – it impacts instruction, behavior, and the well-being of both the students and teachers. By arranging learning environments to support instructional outcomes, teachers create an atmosphere where students are engaged and on-task. It provides students a safe place to learn and tools to make thoughtful choices. With focused planning, we can design areas that meet the needs of all students.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Arranging the Classroom
Susan Kinsley, Biology Teacher
West Springfield High School, FCPS

Because solid student-student relationships are equally as central to active engagement as student-teacher relationships, arranging my classroom space for student interaction is crucial. Groups of four students who can easily interact with the students next to and across from them work best. Numbering seats and tables allows me to easily call on individuals and groups for response or discussion. My room has enough space between groups for me to easily navigate to different tables in order to interact with and monitor students during cooperative activities. Arranging the groups around the perimeter of the classroom allows for space in the center for cooperative activities requiring that the class, as a whole, interact. In addition to the physical area for students to meet and interact as groups, I have designated areas of my classroom available for groups to display finished products for sharing and discussion. This layout provides for maximum student interaction and positive engagement with one another.

MASTERY TOOLS TO HELP

Consider a lesson you taught today. What types of questions did you ask students in order to check for understanding? What did you do when students responded incorrectly? Did you cue, clue, probe, rephrase, or redirect? Did you hold them accountable after?

These strategies can be found in Checking for Understanding: Formative Assessment Techniques for Your Classroom by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey (ISBN-10: 141660569X. ISBN-13: 978-1416605690. 2007). This book offers many useful tools to direct your instruction and support student learning. Chapter 3, Using Questioning to Check for Understanding, discusses the art of questioning. Figure 3.2 (page 41) specifically identifies strategies to assist students who answer incorrectly. These include cue, clue, probe, rephrase, redirect, and hold accountable later.

This book and a study guide are available from ASCD, www.ascd.org.

Questioning Tip Sheet
Use this tool to reflect or plan the questions you ask.

Do my questions…
·lead to essential learnings?
·invite a variety of cognitive levels?
·come across in clear language that students understand?
·build student interest?
·reinforce knowledge?
·engage students in dialogue that causes them to think at higher levels?

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Vocabulary
Jill Zuber, Social Studies Teacher
Key Middle School, FCPS

As a teacher in a paperless classroom, with a content heavy in academic language, the biggest focus is embedding purposeful vocabulary activities in my classroom. As a CLT we collaborate and explore new ways to teach academic vocabulary. Before every unit, we examine our common formative and summative assessments and our unit materials to determine key concepts and peripheral vocabulary terms that are important to understanding the content. We discuss strategies for teaching these words explicitly in our warm-up/exit tickets and as activities in our lessons. One effective strategy is called “Which One”. To create a “Which One” activity, you provide students with the definition of a word and provide an example and a non-example. Students need to decide which example matches with the definition and explain why. Explicit vocabulary has drastically improved students’ understanding of key concepts, allowed for more practice and serves as a non-threatening way of checking for student understanding.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Curriclum Mapping
Kari Garner Carey, Instructional Coach
Herndon Elementary School, FCPS

What do students need to know? Herndon Elementary School staff had the opportunity to meet as Collaborative Learning Teams (CLTs) to answer this question through curriculum mapping. Each teacher was given a binder with all the state and county documents that help answer this essential question. A school wide template was created that every grade level used to document their collaborative plan. Teams were able to look at each week of the quarter as they integrated topics throughout the content areas. Teachers quickly realized how connecting ideas could save instructional time and make the content more meaningful for students. They vertically articulated with the grade levels above and below them to find out which standards would be most beneficial to focus on the last few weeks of school. These maps can be adjusted by CLTs based on the needs of the students. Curriculum mapping has helped our school look at the standards through a different lens. It is obvious why the Virginia Department of Education reported that "curriculum mapping is one of the 7 most effective practices having a positive effect on student performance."

MASTERY TOOLS TO HELP

Professional Learning Communities consist of educators committed to working collaboratively in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research to achieve better results for the students they serve. Schools that function as PLCs are composed of collaborative teams. (Dufour, Dufour, and Eaker, 2008) Looking for some guidance on developing more collaboration with your team?

ALLTHINGSPLC is a website that contains resources that support teacher collaboration. It shares tools to help collaborative teams effectively conduct their work as they review norms, write SMART goals, and plan effective intervention and enrichment for students. There are also articles, videos, and other sources of information on the site. Visit this webpage to answer questions you have as you work collaboratively to ensure students have every opportunity to learn and succeed.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Being a Part of a Collaborative Team
Patti Freeman, Mathematics Department Chair
Franklin Middle School, FCPS

When I think of teaching in middle school today, I recall what my grandmother often told me: “Many hands make light work.” When I started my first teaching job over 30 years ago, I was given the textbook and told, “Good luck, see you in June!”, and then they closed the door. Thankfully, times have changed. We no longer go into our classrooms, isolated, to fend for ourselves. At Franklin Middle School professionals come together to work toward the same goal – doing what’s best for our students. Our Professional Learning Community is organic, growing, and changing as the school’s needs grow and change. Our collaborative teams (CTs) take many forms and it is not uncommon for an individual to be a part of several CTs. A CT can be subject based, team based, special project based, or grade-level based. The content CTs work together to plan instruction, create common assessments, and pool resources. We work through material together to ensure that our instruction, vocabulary, and expectations are consistent. We check in regularly to measure the validity of our plans and make adjustments as necessary. It is not uncommon for a first period teacher to send a quick email or pop in to say, “Heads up, you should try this instead….” Because we share the responsibility of teaching all of the students not just the students on our roster, we combine our collective experiences and knowledge to find a way to reach each child. It wasn’t always smooth sailing. We had to learn to agree to disagree, to let go of „being right’, and to give up the need for absolute control. We also learned to see the big picture and to compromise. In short, we learned to work as a collaborative team! And it is well worth it. I could not survive without the support of our Collaborative Teams.

Every teacher brings different strategies to the classroom and students present different combinations of needs. How will you know which strategies are most effective to meet these academic needs? How will you focus your conversations around instructional strategies with your collaborative team?

Common assessments provide a shared focus for instructional decision making. They make it possible for collaborative teams to compare different strategies, using a common tool, and decide which ones are most effective for their students. Frequent common assessments facilitate conversations around what works best, and make it possible to make “just in time” adjustments to instruction to meet individual needs.

Dialogue around common assessments helps determine which strategies best meet the needs of all of our students.

GRADING

As we continue to focus on assessing student learning and creating common assessments in our collaborative learning teams, when and how do we assign grades to these assessments? 
Elements of Grading by Douglas Reeves is a book that can help facilitate that discussion.  It prompts readers to reconsider many long-held practices tied to grading and provides ideas about how to make grading more accurate, timely, fair and specific.  

Grading is a valuable form of feedback for students.  Author Reeves lays out the characteristics of feedback and relates these to the grading process. He compares grades to a home thermostat: “A thermostat provides information about the current temperature, just as a grade should tell us what a student knows and can do at the moment.”  He provides concrete ideas for improving grading practices and ties these ideas to research.
Whether your staff has begun the discussion on grading practices, or is just beginning to think about how grades impact student learning, this book is a great book to focus the conversation. 

What is creativity and why is it important? How have creative thinkers changed our lives and shaped our world? These sample questions may be used to raise student/teacher awareness of the concept of creativity and how it can be applied and developed.

Creativity is a dynamic process which draws upon an inner resource that will produce as long as the environment allows and encourages risk taking. The classroom environment is a critical component and it must be one in which students feel free to take risks in order to explore and discover their own ideas, insights, and solutions. Students should be encouraged to observe and notice things, play around with their ideas, and seek patterns and connections. Teachers who nurture creativity provide a safe environment for investigation, instill the value of learning from mistakes, and foster respect for individual ideas and differences.

When students are encouraged to engage in the creative process, they also gain a greater appreciation for the important contributions made to our world by creative individuals. In learning about creativity and exploring their own on a regular basis in all subject areas, they will see in themselves the creators of the future, empowered to improve the world for future generations.

One of the most important things a teacher does is provide differentiated instruction for his or her students. Teachers work hard to determine what students know and can do, and then have to identify instructional next steps. How do you begin to select strategies to help students gain a deeper understanding of concepts and skills?

While there is no single formula for differentiation, by consistently implementing Best Practices for Teaching and Learning, differentiation will happen every day. Differentiation does not just mean offering something differently, but requires regular, just in time adjustments made to meet the instructional needs of every student.

For more information on some principles that guide differentiated instruction, check out the book The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners by Carol Ann Tomlinson (ISBN-10: 0871203421. ISBN-13: 978-0871203427. 1999). This text discusses how assessment and adjustment, respectful tasks, and flexible grouping come into play as teachers work to support the learning needs of their students. Figure 2.1 on page 15 of this book organizes the ideas within the text and helps stimulate new thinking for differentiation.

EXPANDING THE LANGUAGE

Take a look around your classroom. What do you currently have displayed on your walls or bulletin board? Is it relevant to student learning? Studies have shown that 70 percent of the human body's sensory receptors are in the eyes. We take in an incredible amount of information visually, and that makes the displays you use in your classroom essential.

Displays can contain important information about classroom procedures, routines and schedules. These are particularly useful at the beginning of the school year. Instructional displays can help to illustrate complex concepts, such as the water cycle or structure of an atom. Visuals can help students retain that kind of complex information. As the year progresses, it is important to ensure that your displays remain relevant to what your students are learning.

It is equally important to ensure that your displays focus on student work. Displaying student work helps students feel that their work is valued, it helps them share their work with each other, and it reinforces the point that the classroom and the learning belong to the students, too!

EXPANDING THE LANGUAGE

Picture a classroom where a teacher asks students to work in groups of four to brainstorm a list of answers to create a review activity that can be completed by the other groups. The activity must force students to think about the three most important ideas in the unit. The group is asked to be creative, and is given choice in how this assignment is shared with classmates.

This scenario is reflective of Quality Work, a component in the Best Practice of Engagement. Engaging student work consists of several qualities including: novelty and variety, authenticity, choice, learning with others, sense of audience, clearly modeled expectations, personal response, and safe learning environment. In the scenario above, the teacher effectively assigns Quality Work by giving students opportunities to collaborate, apply critical thinking skills, make creative choices, and select from a variety of ways to complete the task.

Each of the qualities of engaging student work provides specific avenues for how to increase student engagement in your classroom.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Engagement in Math
Michelle Lis, Instructional Coach
Clearview Elementary, FCPS

Ensuring that students are engaged in meaningful math tasks is a focus for the fourth grade team at Clearview Elementary. Their math block has been restructured so that students solve open-ended problems to allow flexibility in problem-solving. Teachers ensure that students use a variety of manipulatives, work cooperatively to solve problems, and share their problem-solving strategies. In their weekly math CLT, the fourth grade team paces out and plans their math instruction. “It has been extremely helpful to plan cooperatively with my teammates to reach our diverse learners,” comments Holly Hill, fourth grade teacher. Suzanne Bucynski, another fourth grade teacher, adds, “I’ve noticed the students are more engaged and gaining confidence in their math abilities. They’re excited to learn and share their strategies with each other.” In Clearview’s fourth grade classrooms, you can hear the quiet buzz of students working together to solve problems. Students are using base ten blocks, drawing pictures, or talking with classmates about their work. Regardless of the strategy the students are using, it is evident that all students are actively engaged and thinking mathematically.

Expectations for learning are critical to student success. Teachers work hard to make sure that they know what students are responsible for learning. Students also need a clear picture of what they should be learning and should have goals and a plan for reaching success. Learning targets are a great way to raise this awareness in students, provided they are in a language that students can understand. For example, if the math standard reads “Decide which type of graph is appropriate for a given situation.” The statement can be re-written as a learning target that says, “I will know when to use bar graphs, line graphs, and circle graphs.”

Once learning targets have been established, teachers let students know what success looks like by using tools such as anchor charts, rubrics, and exemplars. The discussions that occur give students clarity in their expectations for learning. Teachers can help students set goals, develop action steps, and identify checkpoints within the lesson.

When students identify what they are expected to know and understand, we enable them to build a stronger conceptual foundation and take ownership in their own learning.

EXPANDING THE LANGUAGE

During winter vacation, I had the opportunity to play a variety of card games with my family. We played Go Fish, Hearts, Spades, and Old Maid. After each deal, I sorted my hand and then made a connection. I realized that I arranged my cards differently depending on the purpose of the game, much like teachers group students depending on the outcomes they want for their learners.

Effective teachers group students flexibly and in a variety of ways to differentiate and maximize learning opportunities. These teachers group students by readiness, interest, and learning style. The best student groupings are organized thoughtfully as teachers carefully consider student outcomes. Teachers ask, “Do I want students with diverse skill sets to support one another in the group? Do I want to address a common misconception for all students in a given group? How might I engage students by tapping into their interests?” By answering questions such as these, the purpose of your groupings will be clear and you can determine which type of grouping is most appropriate.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Supporting Students through Grouping
Steve R. Wilson, Health & Physical Education Teacher
Joyce Kilmer Middle, FCPS

Differentiation plays a very important role in Health and Physical Education. A reliable strategy that I frequently use with my students is flexible grouping. Pre-assessments at the start of the semester give a teacher an idea of what level his or her students are performing. This presents an opportunity to pair stronger students with someone that may require guidance. I often discover that those who are at the lower level of mastery learn information faster when they learn from their peers. Stations can also be utilized for grouping students based on academic needs. This allows advanced learners to move further and acquire a deeper understanding while students whom require additional assistance get the instruction in a smaller setting. Flexible grouping not only breaks the monotony of the whole class instruction, but it provides students with an opportunity to be helped in a way which is most conducive to their style of learning.

MASTERY TOOLS TO HELP

What kinds of tracks do you want to lay down so that their ride is smooth and that they reach their learning goals on time? The first two weeks of school are the most critical in laying down those tracks. Think of what kinds of procedures and routines you will put into place that develop expectations for student behavior and learning.

Procedures and routines is a best practice for teachers because it creates a comfortable and respectful learning environment. While some procedures and routines seem trivial, they lay the tracks for maximizing student learning time. When students feel less anxious about classroom expectations, they can focus on their learning.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Establishing Routines
Jenn McAdoo, 5th Grade Teacher
Union Mill Elementary School, FCPS

Each new school year presents teachers with opportunities to let students and parents know they are a valued part of the school. Teachers invite a partnership with students and parents by setting high expectations for student behavior. Establishing routines for students will strengthen those relationships and foster a safe and productive learning environment for all. Routines allow students to understand and follow through on expectations. This begins with explicit instruction, modeling, and heaps of praise when those routines are followed. Invite students to help develop routines for arrival and dismissal, organization, and classroom transitions. Make a point of praising students aloud and by name throughout the day for following an expectation. Point out how well a group is working together, or give students a chance to recognize a peer. They’ll begin to see themselves as leaders and role models, and take ownership of those routines they helped develop. When you take the time to fully explain and model your expectations, students feel welcome and will learn to take risks which will help them as they become adults.

The Power of an Exit Ticket
Katie Koerner, 6th Grade teacher
Floris Elementary School, FCPS

My exit ticket board is broken into squares with numbers in each square that correlate with the students’ desk numbers. I pose a question to students for them to solve on a post-it note. On their way out of class, students put their post-it note in the box that has their desk number on it. This is a quick way for me to assess student progress. Afterwards, I look at each exit ticket and provide feedback for the students.The next day, students will correct their response or complete an extension activity related to my feedback from the exit ticket.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Real World Problem Solving
Joy Pryde-Haskins, Science Teacher
Rocky Run Middle School, FCPS

Problem-Based Learning is an effective way to engage students in authentic learning. My students complete the unit, “Ferret It Out,” in which they are tasked to develop a plan to reintroduce the endangered Black-Footed Ferret into the wild, and restore its population. By giving them a “real-world” problem to solve as they go through a unit, students become more interested and motivated to learn the concepts they need to understand to solve the problem. My students have also told me that they remember the material better because it was put in a meaningful context.

Problem-Based Learning is also more challenging for students, as they must use creativity to come up with original solutions to the problem, as well as critical thinking skills to evaluate the merits of different possible solutions. It also allows students to experience problem-solving as practicing scientists do, and realize that there are not always simple, right-or-wrong answers to problems.

Daina Lieberman, English Teacher
South Lakes High School

Socratic Seminars are one of my favorite strategies in the classroom. They can function as formative or summative assessments, depending how and when they are used. They are student centered and can benefit students at all levels. Prompts can relate to the text we are using or focus on themes we plan to examine in an upcoming text. I can pass out questions during the previous day's class and ask students to take notes in preparation for homework, or I can pass out questions that period and give them time to prepare.

One way I differentiate is by creating groups of questions at varying levels of difficulty and assigning students to appropriate groups. Many of my students are very verbal but have trouble expressing themselves in writing. Seminars give them a chance to process through their thinking before writing. Often, students who are quiet or don't volunteer much in class allow me to see their analytical abilities during these discussions.

MASTERY TOOLS TO HELP

You develop strong relationships with parents by meeting with them to discuss student progress. It takes a lot of preparation to get ready for these meetings, but you don’t have to do all the work – let your students write some comments, too!

Before the conference, have students reflect on their progress. Provide a graphic organizer to capture information about strengths, challenges, areas of interest, and any other ideas the child would like addressed during the conference. Use the back of the page as a place for your own notes, listing key ideas you want to share with parents about their child.

During the conference, parents are happy to see that their child is thinking about learning and evaluating his or her progress. Give the paper to the parents at the end of the conference to display at home as a reminder of the goal(s) set by the student and teacher for the upcoming marking period.

In addition to strengthening relationships with students and parents, this strategy reminds us that many of our students really do know how they learn and where they need to focus their attention.

STRATEGIES IN ACTION

Relationships with Parents
Donald Reinecker
Beech Tree Elementary School, FCPS

Parent-teacher relationships are important to a child’s learning. The parent-teacher conference is a valuable tool that builds the bridge between school and home. Begin the conference on a positive note by sharing positive experiences and observations about the child. Then give parents a chance to talk about their child. Time spent listening to a parent will yield great dividends for you, the child, and the parent. When responding to the parent, be straightforward and honest, and focus on one or two important issues. Never overwhelm the parent with too much information. If presenting negative observations, do it in a constructive manner. Always state your goals and plans for the child’s improvement. If confrontations arise, suggest a follow-up conference to explore the issue in depth. Finally, be sure parents know you want their child to succeed as much as they do, and tell them how they can help at home. Document the conference plans and goals, but keep information confidential. This will build relational trust with parents and help your students succeed.

EXPANDING THE LANGUAGE

“Turn and talk to your partner, tell him or her two things you learned about westward expansion today.” Teachers often give students opportunities to share with one another, and research indicates that when students explain something to someone else, they end up knowing it better themselves! Teachers who provide structured learning opportunities where students write and participate in dialogue, discussions, presentations, debates, and conversations are implementing the Best Practice of Student Communication.

Students do not learn as much by simply listening to information during class. They need a chance to talk about what they are learning, how it relates to their past experience, and how it impacts their daily lives. Students have to make meaning out of the information, and using Student Communication techniques helps make this happen!

MASTERY TOOLS TO HELP

Summarizing can be a very effective strategy for encouraging higher order thinking skills. Research shows that when students summarize, they learn to synthesize information.

During a summarizing exercise, students are analyzing and identifying information, as well as determining what information might be extraneous. In the process, they are piecing together a deeper meaning for themselves, which is likely to result in a much higher retention of concepts.

There are many different types of summarization activities, most of which translate across curriculum areas and grade levels. Teacher and author Rick Wormeli has put together a collection of summarization activities that have been tested in the classroom.

Summarization in Any Subject: 50 Techniques to Improve Student Learning includes step by step guidance for implementing these strategies, as well as actual classroom examples. This book is available from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, www.ascd.org.

An orderly learning environment supports positive student behavior to facilitate high levels of student engagement, and build a shared community of learners. Mary Pearson describes how she arranges her classroom for student-centered learning. [ TRT: 6:41]

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Classroom arrangement for high school students is a unique process. Safety is key but classroom arrangement also affects how students and teachers interact with one another for optimum learning. English teacher Diana Ellis shows her room prior to the start of school and amidst a classroom discussion of the Crucible. [ TRT: 5:21]

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Middle school teachers illustrate how and why collaborative learning visits enhance professional development opportunities. [ TRT: 4:30]

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Mark Twain Middle School teacher Megan Farrelly and her Power Math students talk about the importance of building teacher/student relationships to enhance learning, peer interaction, and classroom management. [TRT 2:50]

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Centreville Elementary teacher Aubrey Thorne uses morning meetings to build the classroom community, as well as reading strategies to support diverse learners. [TRT 11:09]

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