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?