4d: Participating in the Professional Community

We are moving on to Domain 4: Professional Responsibilities.  This week we are looking closely at component d: Participating in the Professional Community.  

Teachers need to be learners, alongside their students.  To do this, we connect.  Connect with colleagues to share strategies, plan for the success of individual learners, and discuss our latest learning.  Schools are a professional organization for teachers and we must think of ourselves as members of a professional community.  This community is characterized by mutual support and respect, as well as the recognition of the responsibility of all teachers to be constantly seeking ways to improve their practice and contribute to the life of our schools.  Inevitably, teachers' duties extend beyond the doors of their classroom and include activities related to the entire school or larger district.  These include things such as school and district curriculum committees or engagement with the parent community (PTO, Governance Board, Community Connect).

Critical Attributes at Proficient: 

• The teacher has supportive and collaborative relationships with colleagues.
• The teacher regularly participates in activities related to professional inquiry.
• The teacher frequently volunteers to participate in school events and school district and community projects.

What might this look like?

• The principal remarks that a teacher's students have been noticeably successful since her teacher team has been focusing on instructional strategies during its meetings.
• The teacher has decided to take a free online course (or BB9 module!) and share his/her learning with colleagues.
• The teacher utilizes Twitter to learn about best and next practice and implements new ideas into their classroom. 
• The teacher enthusiastically represents the school on a district science team and brings their content area knowledge to the team.

Critical Attributes at Advanced: 

• The teacher takes a leadership role in promoting activities related to professional inquiry.
• The teacher regularly contributes to and leads events that positively impact school life. 
• The teacher contributes to and leads significant district and community projects.

What might this look like?

• The teacher leads a group of mentor teachers at school.
• The teacher hosts a book study group that meets monthly; he/she guides the book choice so that the group can focus on topics that will enhance their skills.
• The teacher leads the annual Science Day, thereby involving the entire student body and faculty in science events.

Our professional community used to consist of the teachers in our building and district. At times you'd be lucky enough to attend a conference.  Today, technology has cracked our professional community wide open.  You can read the blog of a teacher in Australia, you can follow your favorite educational guru on Twitter, you can access a teacher in New York's anchor charts each day on Instagram, or you can watch a teacher's math minilessons from Alaska.  We have the ability to be more connected than ever before. 

How do you ensure you are constantly learning?  At the SLATE Conference this week, keynote speaker Rob Mancabelli posed the question: Are you a 21st century learner?  In the comments this week, share your thinking on what it means to be a learner in the 21st century and how you participate in the professional community.  Please share favorite blogs or people to follow on Twitter as well!  Engage in our professional community!

Danielson 3b: Using Questions and Discussion Techniques

This week’s blog focuses on component 3b: Using Questions and Discussion techniques.

Overview

Questioning and discussion are used as techniques to deepen student understanding.  Good teachers use divergent as well as convergent questions, framed in such a way that they invite students to formulate hypotheses, make connections, or challenge previously held views. High-quality questions encourage students to make connections among concepts or events previously believed to be unrelated and arrive at new understandings of complex material. Effective teachers also pose questions to which they do not know the answers. Effective questioning and discussion techniques lead to animated class discussions that engage all students in considering important issues and in using their own language to deepen and extend their understanding. Discussions may be based around questions formulated by the students themselves.

When exploring a topic, a teacher might begin with a series of questions of low cognitive challenge to provide a review or to ensure that everyone in the class is on board. As the complexity of the questions increases, the teacher ensures that all students are still engaged in the discussion. In lessons involving small-group work, the quality of the students’ questions and discussion in their small groups are considered as part of this component.

In order for students to formulate high-level questions, they must have learned how to do so. Therefore, high-level questions from students, either in the full class, or in small group discussions, provide evidence that these skills have been taught.

The elements of 3b are:

Quality of Questions/Prompts

Questions of high quality cause students to think and reflect, to deepen their understanding and to test their ideas against those of their classmates.  When teachers ask questions of high quality, they ask only a few of them, and they provide students with sufficient time to think about their responses, to reflect on the comments of their classmates, and to deepen their understanding.

Discussion Techniques

Some teachers confuse discussion with explanation of content; as important as explanation is, it isn’t discussion.  In a true discussion, a teachers poses a question and invites all students’ view to be heard, and also enables students to engage in discussion directly with one another, and enlist the assistance of students to ensure this outcome.

Student Participation

In a few classrooms, some students tend to dominate the discussion; other students, recognizing this pattern, hold back their contributions.  Experienced teachers use a range of techniques to ensure that all students contribute to the discussion, and enlist the assistance of students to ensure this outcome.

In a proficient classroom an observer would see:

While the teacher may use some low-level questions, he or she poses questions to students designed to promote student thinking and understanding. The teacher creates a genuine discussion among students, providing adequate time for students to respond and and stepping aside when appropriate. The teacher successfully engages most students in the discussion, employing a range of strategies to ensure that most students are heard.

Indicators:

-The teachers uses open-ended questions, inviting students to think and/or offer multiple possible answers.

-The teacher makes effective use of wait time.

-The teacher builds on and uses student responses to question effectively.

- Discussions enable students to talk to one another, without ongoing mediation by the teacher.

-The teacher calls on most students, even those who don’t initially volunteer.

-Many students actively engage in the discussion.

In a distinguished classroom an observer would see:

The teacher uses a variety or series of questions or prompts to challenge students cognitively, advance high-level thinking and discourse, and promote met-cognition.  Students formulate many questions, initiate topics and make unsolicited contributions. Students themselves make sure that all voices are heard in the discussion.

Indicators:

In addition to the characteristics of a proficient level of performance:

-Students initiate high-order questions.

-Students extend the discussion, enriching it.

-Students invite comments from their classmates during a discussion.

*The majority of the content for the  this blog is taken directly from Danielson’s Framework for Teaching.

This will be the last blog outlining the Danielson framework for a few weeks.  Be sure to familiarize yourself with Domains 1 and 4 as well.  In the weeks ahead, we will continue to connect teachers to resources to support effective instruction.

This weeks question:

What strategy do you use to engage students in a discussion?  As students start to disengage, what do you do to bring them back into the discussion?

Additional Resources:

Edutopia Article: 5 Powerful Questions Teachers Can Ask Students

Edutopia Article: Four Strategies to Spark Curiosity Via Student Questioning

Danielson 3c: Engaging Students in Learning

This week our focus is on component C of domain 3: Engaging Students in Learning.  Danielson calls student engagement the centerpiece to the Framework for Teaching, as all other components contribute to it.  Student engagement does not mean that students are "busy," or simply on task, but that they are intellectually active in learning important and challenging content.  Students can be compliant and busy, while disengaged.  In a classroom where students are engaged they are developing their understanding through what they do.  They may be:

• Discussing
• Debating
• Asking and answering questions
• Discovering patterns
• Selecting their work from a range of choices

A lesson in which students are engaged usually has a discernible structure: a beginning, a middle, and an end, with scaffolding provided by the teacher or by the activities themselves.  Student tasks are organized to provide cognitive challenge, and then students are encouraged to reflect on what they have done and what they have learned.  Lessons have closure, in which teachers encourage students to derive the important learning from the tasks, discussions, and/or reading that they have done.

The elements of 3c are: 

• Activities and assignments
• The activities and assignments are the centerpiece of student engagement, since they determine what it is that students are asked to do.  Activities and assignments that promote learning require student thinking that emphasizes depth over breadth and encourage students to explain their thinking.
• Grouping of students
• How students are grouped for instruction is one of the many decisions teachers make every day.  There are many options: students of similar background and skill may be clustered together, or students may be in mixed groups.  Alternatively, a teacher might form groups randomly or let students choose.  

• Instructional materials and resources
• The instructional materials a teacher selects to use in the classroom can have an enormous impact on students' experience.  Though some curriculums and resources are in place, teacher use these responsively or supplement them with others of their choosing that are better suited to engaging students in deep learning (i.e. primary source materials in social studies).
• Structure and pacing
• No one likes to be bored or rushed in completing a task.  Keeping things moving, within a well-defined structure, is one of the marks of an experienced teacher.  Since much of student learning results from their reflection on what they have done, a well-designed lesson includes time for reflection and closure.

Lisa reflects with Level 1 students in a community circle after a science experience.

In a proficient classroom...

The learning tasks and activities are fully aligned with the instructional outcomes and are designed to challenge student thinking, inviting students to make their thinking visible.  This technique results in active intellectual engagement by most students with important and challenging content and with teacher scaffolding to support that engagement.  The groupings of students are suitable to the activities.  The lesson has a clearly defined structure, and the pacing of the lesson is appropriate, providing most students the time needed to be intellectually engaged.  

What does this look like?

• Students are asked to formulate a hypothesis about what might happen if the American voting system allowed for the direct election of presidents and to explain their reasoning.
• Students are given a task to do independently, then to discuss with a table group, followed by reporting from each table.
• Students are asked to create different representations of large numbers using a variety of manipulative materials.

In a distinguished classroom...

Virtually all students are intellectually engaged in challenging content through well-designed learning tasks and activities that require complex thinking by students.  The teacher provides suitable scaffolding and challenges students to explain their thinking.  There is evidence of some student initiation of inquiry and student contributions to the exploration of important content; students may serve as resources for one another.  The lesson has a clearly defined structure, and the pacing of the lesson provides students with the time needed not only to intellectually engage with and reflect upon their learning but also to consolidate their understanding.

What does this look like?

•  Students determine which of several tools (protractor, spreadsheet, or graphing calculator) would be most suitable to solve a math problem.
• A student asks whether they might remain in their small groups to complete another section of the activity, rather than working independently.
• Students identify or create their own learning materials.
• Students summarize their learning from a lesson. 

Things to reflect on: 

• What am I asking the students to do?
• Do the learning tasks involved higher level thinking?
• Are students challenged to identify patterns or make predictions?
• Are students answering open-ended questions or questions with one answer?
• What are students saying and doing?
• Are students "minds-on" or just "hands-on"?

Comment question:

How will you relax and refresh over the Thanksgiving break?

Danielson 3a: Communicating with Students

This week we are focusing on Component A of Domain 3: Communicating with Students.  Teachers are constantly communicating with students for a variety of reasons:

• to convey that teaching and learning are purposeful activities.
• to provide clear directions for classroom activities.
• to model activities and thinking.
• to present concepts and information with accuracy, clarity, and imagination.
• to use precise, academic language.

The elements of 3a are: 

• Expectations for learning
• The goals of learning are communicated clearly to students.  Even if the goals are not conveyed at the outset of a lesson (for example, in an inquiry science lesson), by the end of the lesson students are clear about what they have been learning.
• Directions for activities

• Students understand what they are expected to do during a lesson, particularly if students are working independently or with classmates, without direct teacher supervision.  These directions for the
  lessons's activities may be provided orally, in writing, or in some combination of the two, with modeling by the teacher, if it is appropriate.
• Explanations of content

• Skilled teachers, when explaining concepts and strategies to students, use vivid language and imaginative analogies and metaphors, connecting explanations to students' interests and lives beyond school.  The explanations are clear, with appropriate scaffolding, and, where appropriate, anticipate possible student misconceptions.  These teachers invite students to be engaged intellectually and to formulate hypotheses regarding the concepts or strategies being presented. 
• Use of oral and written language
• For many students, their teachers' use of language represents their best model of both accurate syntax and a rich vocabulary; these models enable students to emulate such language, making their own more precise and expressive.  Skilled teachers seize on opportunities both to use precise, academic language and to explain their use of it.  

In a proficient classroom:

The instructional purpose of the lesson is clearly communicated to students, including where it is situated within broader learning: directions and procedures are explained clearly and may be modeled.  The teacher's explanation of content is scaffolded, clear, and accurate and connects with students' knowledge and experience.  During the explanation of content, the teacher focuses, as appropriate, on strategies students can use when working independently and invites student intellectual engagement.  The teacher's spoken and written language is clear and correct and is suitable to students' ages and interests.  The teacher's use of academic vocabulary is precise and serves to extend student understanding.

What might this look like?

• The teacher says, "By the end of today's lesson you're all going to be able to write a conclusion that relates to the opinion you presented."
• While presenting content, the teacher asks students, "Can anyone think of an example of that?"
• The teacher uses an anchor chart or Smartboard for task directions so that students can refer to it without needing the teacher's help.
• The teacher says, "When you're trying to solve a math problem like this, you might think of a similar, but simpler problem you've done in the past and see whether the same approach would work."
• The teacher explains passive solar energy by having students think about the temperature in a closed car on a cold, but sunny day.
• The teacher uses a Venn diagram to illustrate the distinctions between a republic and a democracy.

In a distinguished classroom...

The teacher links the instructional purpose of the lesson to the larger curriculum; the directions and procedures are clear and anticipate possible student misunderstanding.  The teacher's explanation of content is thorough and clear, developing conceptual understanding through clear scaffolding and connecting with students' interests. Students contribute to extending the content by explaining concepts to their classmates and suggesting strategies that might be used.  The teacher's spoken and written language is expressive, and the teacher finds opportunities to extend students' vocabularies, both within the discipline and for more general use.  Students contribute to the correct use of academic vocabulary.

What might this look like? 

• When asked, students are able to explain what they are learning and where it fits into the larger curriculum context.
• The teacher says, "Here is a spot where some students have difficulty; be sure to read it carefully."
• The teacher asks a student to explain the task to other students.
• The teacher asks, "Who would like to explain this idea to us?"
• The teacher pauses during an explanation of the civil rights movement to remind students that the prefix in- as in inequality means "not" and that the prefix un- also means the same thing.
• A student explains an academic term to classmates.

Things to reflect upon... 

• Are students able to explain what they are learning?
• How do you use metaphors, analogies or other strategies to bring content to life for students?
• How do you use and help students learn academic vocabulary?
• How do you ensure students understand what they are supposed to do?

* Much of this work on the Danielson Framework comes directly from a "Teachscape" information document called "Framework for Teaching."

Comment Question of the Week: 

How do you involve students in explaining content to each other? 

PBL Elevator Speeches

Wondering what's going on in your school and across town?  Watch these Elevator Speeches to hear all about the amazing PBL experiences that are happening at Randall STEM and Hawthorne STEM from the teachers who created them!

Specialists

Level 1:

Level 2: 

Level 3: 

Such great learning will be happening as we finish Trimester 1!

November 4, 2013

Thank to Level 1 from STEM Randall for having the ENTIRE team post to the blog last week!  We  hoped you enjoyed the brookies at the PLC meeting on Wednesday.  The same rules apply this week for all teams.  The first team with everyone posting a comment, gets treats at Wednesday's PLC meeting.  Except...you can't win two weeks in a row(sorry Level 1 STEM).  This week's comment connects to next week's Danielson topic - 3a: Communicating with students (see below videos).

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting with everyone around your EEPs last week.  We continue to be impressed with the amount of teaming and collaboration that happens around students.  We are excited to see these plans come to fruition and look forward to celebrating the successes that will follow!

As you move into the week, here are some videos from our last PD day's work.  Thank you so much for your active engagement around the day's learning.

Videos from the afternoon PD session:

When do we preassess?

How should we preassess?

What should math preassess?

What should literacy preassess?

What do we do with preassessment data?

When teachers communicate with students, they communicate for a variety of purposes.  How do you convey to your students that learning is a purposeful activity?

Bonus question - how many words do you think you say in a school day?

3d: Using Assessment in Instruction

Congratulations to this week's comment winners: Angie and Carly!  A morning beverage will be coming your way this week.  We love hearing your classroom connections to the components of Danielson.  We are looking forward to hearing from everyone each week.  

NEW CONTEST ALERT!!  

We will provide PLC treats to the first team that has FULL participation in commenting this week. 

This week we are focusing on Component D of Domain 3: Using Assessment in Instruction.  Assessment has evolved over the last few years and it no longer signals the end of instruction.  While it is important to know if students have learned what we set out to teach at the end of a unit, assessment for learning along the way is an important part of classroom instruction.  In order to assess student learning for the purposes of instruction, teachers must have a "finger on the pulse" of a lesson, monitoring student understanding and offering appropriate feedback to students.

Teacher actions in monitoring student learning may look very similar to those used in monitoring student behavior, but have a fundamentally different purpose:

Similarly, the questions you ask for the purpose of monitoring learning are fundamentally different from those used to build understanding:

Monitoring student learning and feedback are strengthened by a teacher's skill in making mid-course corrections and adjustments, seizing a teachable moment, or using student interests to enrich an explanation.

The elements of component 3d are: 

Connections to the
Personalized Learning Elements
from
The Institute @ CESA 1

• Assessment criteria
• It is essential that students know the criteria for an assessment.  At its highest level, students themselves have a hand in articulating the criteria.
• Monitoring of student learning
• A teacher's skill in eliciting evidence of student understanding is one of the true marks of expertise.  This is not a hit-or-miss effort, but is planned carefully in advance.  Even after planning carefully, however, a teacher must weave monitoring of student learning seamlessly into the lesson, using a variety of techniques.
• Feedback to students
• Feedback on learning is an essential element of a rich instructional environment; without it students are constantly guessing at how they are doing and at hoe their work can be improved.  Valuable feedback must be timely, constructive, and substantive and must provide students with the guidance they need to improve their performance.
• Student self-assessment and monitoring of progress
• The culmination of students' assumptions of responsibility for their learning is when they monitor their own learning and take appropriate action.  Of course, they can do these things only if the criteria for learning are clear and if they have been taught the skills of checking their work against clear criteria.
• Lesson adjustment
• Experienced teachers are able to make both minor and (at times) major adjustments to a lesson, or mid-course corrections.  Such adjustments depend on a teacher's store of alternate instructional strategies and the confidence to make a shift when needed. 

Shelly uses questioning to assess student understanding during a science lab.

In a proficient classroom...

Students appear to be aware of the assessment criteria, and the teacher monitors student learning for groups of students.  Questions and assessments are regularly used to diagnose evidence of learning. Teacher feedback to groups of students is accurate and specific; some students engage in self-assessment.  If impromptu measures are needed, the teacher makes minor adjustment to the lesson and does so smoothly. 

Sarah works with a small group to assess their readiness.

What might this look like? 

• The teacher confers during small group or independent work, offering suggestions to students.
• The teacher uses specifically formulated questions to elicit evidence of student understanding.
• The teacher asks student to look over their papers to correct their errors; most of them engage in this task.

In a distinguished classroom...

Assessment is fully integrated into instruction, through extensive use of formative assessment.  Students appear to be aware of, and there is some evidence they have contributed to, the assessment criteria. Questions and assessments are used regularly to diagnose evidence of learning by individual students.  A variety of forms of feedback, from both teacher and peers, is accurate and specific and advances learning.  Students self-assess and monitor their own progress.  The teacher successfully differentiates instruction to address individual students' misunderstandings.

Carly has students use their arm to show where they hear "th" within a word.
She is able to quickly identify misconceptions with this formative assessment.

What might this look like?

• The teacher reminds students of the characteristics of high-quality work, observing that the students themselves helped develop them.
• While students are working, the teacher confers, providing specific feedback to individual students.
• The teacher uses exit tickets to elicit evidence of individual student understanding.
• Students offer feedback to their classmates on their work.
• Student evaluate a piece of their writing against the rubric or writing checklists and confer with the teacher about how it could be improved.

Things to reflect upon...

• Are the standards of high quality work clear to your students?
• How do you collect evidence of student learning?
• How do you use the evidence to plan responsive instruction?
• How do you involve students in in assessment of their own work?
• How do you provide specific and timely feedback?

* Much of this work about the Danielson Framework comes directly from a "Teachscape" information document called "Framework for Teaching."

Comment question of the week:

How do you use assessment for learning to drive flexible grouping?

Remember to encourage your team to comment as well! 

Check out STEM Community Day's Cardboard Challenge!  

It was a great day!

Danielson Domain 2b: Establishing a Culture of Learning

Beverage winners for this week are DeeDee and Sarah M!  We really appreciate the comments you posted to our blog.

This week’s Danielson focus is component 2b: Establishing a Culture of Learning

A “culture for learning” refers to the atmosphere in the classroom that reflects the importance of the work undertaken by both students and teacher. It describes the norms that govern interactions among individuals about the activities and assignments, the look of the classroom, and the general tone of the class. A classroom with a strong culture for learning is characterized by high cognitive energy, by a sense that what is happening there is important, and that it is essential to get it right. There are high expectations for all students, and the classroom is a place where the teacher and students value learning and hard work.

The elements of component 2b are:

• Importance of the content and of learning

In a classroom with a strong culture for learning, teachers convey the education value of what the students are learning.

• Expectations for learning and achievement

In classrooms with robus cultures for learning, all students receive the message that although the work is challenging, they are capable of achieving it if they are prepared to work hard.  A manifestation of teachers’ expectations for high student achievement is their insistence on the use of precise language by students.

• Student pride in work

When students are convinced of their capabilities, they are willing to devote energy to the task at hand, and they take pride in their accomplishments.  This pride is reflected in their interactions with classmates and with the teacher.

In a proficient classroom:

The classroom culture is a place where learning is valued by all; high expectations for both learning and hard work are the norm for most students.  Students understand their role as learners and consistently expend effort to learn.  Classroom interactions support learning, hard work and the precise use of language.

What might this look like?

-The teacher communicates the importance of the content and the conviction that with hard work all student can master the material.-The teacher demonstrates a high regard for students’ abilities.

-The teacher conveys an expectation of high levels of student effort.-Students expend good effort to complete work of high quality.

-The teacher insists on precise use of language by students.

In a distinguished classroom:

The classroom culture is a cognitively busy place, characterized by a shared belief in the importance of learning.  The teacher conveys high expectations for learning for all students and insists on hard work; students assume responsibility for high quality by initiating improvements, making revisions, adding detail and/or assisting peers in their precise use of language.

What might this look like?

-The teacher communicates passion for the subject.

-The teacher conveys the satisfaction that accompanies a deep 

understanding of complex comment.

-Students indicate through their questions and comments a desire to 

understand the content.

-Students assist their classmates in understanding the content.

-Students take initiative in improving the quality of their work.

-Students correct one another in their use of language.

Thoughts about your practice:

What expectations do you hold for specific students?

How do you convey high expectations for all through personalized learning experiences?

How do you guide students to produce high quality evidence of learning?

What beliefs about learning are conveyed in words and actions from you as well

as your students?

The majority of the content of this post comes from "Framework for Teaching" from Teachscape.

Resources for Deepening Understanding of 2b:

Marzano Framework

Opening Minds by Peter Johnston

Article

This week’s comment question: As we spend our conference time setting goals for students, how have you engaged students to reflect on their own progress and work towards those goals?