Principal Candace Hugee weighs in on the power of quantitative and qualitative data.
In my experiences as a classroom teacher, district level administrator, and as a professional development coach, I constantly struggle with the negative connotation often assigned to data. This is especially true in cases where educators see the term "data-driven instruction" as being synonymous with high-stakes testing. As my colleague G. Faith Little notes in Understanding Data: How Does It All Add Up?, data is not just a tool for evaluation — it’s a source of information.
The meaning of data
There are several major components of data-driven instruction. Understanding not only what they are, but what they mean is important when considering data points and the intended outcome of improving instruction.
A principal's perspective
with Candace Hugee In Data-Driven Instruction, authors Ben Fenton and Mark Murphy note that “in this era of increased accountability, nearly every principal has begun using data to help drive instructional practices. Principals in the most rapidly improving schools almost always cite data-driven instruction as one of the most important practices contributing to their success. But what exactly does data-driven instruction mean to them, and how do they achieve it?” I decided to take that question and others to Candage Hugee, Principal at the Urban Assembly School for Collaborative Healthcare. We have been working together for nearly three years, and I have found her experiences and application of data for her school to be most instructive.
Current studies indicate that educators in schools with data-focused programs think using data improves their instruction significantly. Very often, these schools have a tendency to gather various forms of data, because they recognize that all forms of data are valuable information. The more information we have, the more informed our decisions can be, and the better our instruction will be for our students.
Observe, infer, and take action on a problem of practice using three simple prompts.
What are we noticing? So, what does it mean for teaching and learning? Now what should happen next? These are some of the questions posed by one of our favorite resources — What, So What, Now What — which leans on our core values of critical reflection and cycles of inquiry.
Developed by Gene Thompson-Grove in 2004 and revised 2012, this protocol allows you to do several things at once: gather information, analyze and interpret a problem of practice, and envision next steps for your work. This is a versatile protocol that can be modified to support teachers, leaders, and even students as they work to understand curricular content.
Jumpstart your reflection
What, So What, Now What can help you to evaluate a recent experience, untangle a problem of practice, or inspect quantitative or qualitative data. After observing and analyzing what you already know, you can then work toward identifying the next steps for your practice.
This resource works in three phases: Understanding the event (What?)
Making sense of the facts and implications (So what?)
Identifying a course of action or new solutions (Now what?)
Engage students in inquiry
From here, the class can begin to share highlights from their charts, and begin to draw conclusions about the lesson.
What, So What, Now What is a highly adaptable tool that can promote curiosity, reflection, and accountability. Its flexibility allows for application with all members within a school community, and we encourage you to adapt it to best meet your needs.
How are you using this resource? Let us know in the comments!
A look at how schools are managing competing priorities while re-acclimating to in-person instruction.
Throughout the New Normal series on our Teaching Today podcast, we’ve been taking a look at the instructional interruptions and innovations that have surfaced over the past two years as a result of the pandemic. As schools continue to re-acclimate to in-person teaching and learning, our panel of school leaders returns to discuss the opportunities and challenges they’re witnessing in their communities.
Let’s “listen” in on the conversation between:
Roberta: It feels like we are coming full circle with our New Normal series. And now that school is back in session, I wonder, what does “normal” mean, and will it ever return? How are things with you since we last had you on?
Candace: Returning definitely came with a lot of anxiety which hasn’t actually gone away, but I think that every stakeholder involved in the life of a student saw the need to return to school, and the kids more so than anyone else. They have been here. I’m seeing attendance at 93% every day! We’ve seen the emotional journey as we make sure we satisfy the needs of everyone who needs so much attention but also make sure that we are working in tandem — always focusing on the academic needs and not using that as a crutch or a reason why we're not focusing on instruction. Ryan: Candace, it’s great to hear about what you're doing and the challenges there. I was a principal in a Benton Harbor area school, and I have recently left that role. Now I'm working at a Silicon Valley consultancy, and I’m working remotely out of Chicago. I'm in charge of professional learning opportunities, so I can certainly speak to what it's like not being a principal, but I can also talk about what I see going on in schools both as a parent and because I’m still working in schools as a collaborator.
Assessing the damage
Roberta: We’ve experienced that cycle of openings and closures along with logistical challenges, but now that we’re settling in, there is a renewed focus on instruction. What are some of the early experiences in terms of atrophy, or what some are referring to as a learning gap, that may have happened in the learning over the last couple of years?
Candace: I think staff members, students, and parents feel a renewed sense of life and appreciation. It has become a central focal point — the reintroduction into school. We’ve had logistical challenges like losing staff members who resigned, moved, or found remote jobs alongside the reality of vaccine mandates. Even with bountiful stimulus money, it doesn’t replace good people. Five years ago, we would have said this is ridiculous, but today we have to actually make meaning, create a path forward, and make goals come to fruition. So, it has been an interesting kind of tension for me personally, as a principal because, while I care deeply about my students I have to focus on these challenges — all of these different variables. Even when I can think of excuses to let up, I’m not going to give any. Every day is valuable, so you have to always keep a straight face and hold on to the mission and vision. Ryan: I think we saw the same thing in Benton Harbor. Staffing was the biggest challenge and it’s very hard to climb up the hierarchy of learning when you don’t have enough bodies. Even prior to COVID, we had situations when multiple teachers would be out, and our PE teacher would have 90 kids in the gym. In my home district here in the Chicago suburbs, we just had a parent teacher conference last night. The first thing you see when you walk in is like a job fair. It’s a huge 25,000 child district, and it’s like we’re going to speed interview. We had to cancel a couple of days of school because we didn’t have enough bus drivers. I was very proud that we were able to offer a kind of hybrid experience, because at the end of the day, kids had about half the time in school, and half is better than none. When I talk to the teachers here locally, they are much more concerned about the social-emotional issues with the little kids. For example, for the kid that missed kindergarten and then went into first grade and maybe didn't have preschool doesn't know how to do school yet. So this is a big deal, especially for the younger children because they just don't know how to function in this environment. They're used to pressing mute, not being in a physical classroom, engaging with humans. I wouldn't even say it's a learning loss. It’s more like you've been raised by a computer for a year, instead of people. Of course, I’m being facetious but how do we do group work in this landscape? I think we forget how intense that social learning is in those first three years, especially. Roberta: I want to build on that because I think that one of the things that we're really seeing across city schools is a focus on social-emotional learning, and I don't know that it's just at the elementary level. I think that we're really seeing it manifesting in pretty big ways in middle schools and high schools as well. Teachers are also experiencing challenges around their own social-emotional health as we're all kind of coming out of the pandemic and beginning to assess the damage both internally and externally. Ryan: It’s funny you mentioned this, because in local districts in the Chicago suburbs, the report was that teachers “stormed” a board meeting about work conditions. Now, maybe the report was a bit overcooked, but at the end of the day teaching really is a 24/7 job, even if you're phoning it in. There’s no such thing as an easy day of teaching, and then to juggle all the COVID protocols — then, to communicate all these things with the central office when there aren't robust systems in place to make that frictionless. I think that working conditions for educators in general are a concern for teachers and their mental health. Candace, you just alluded to that when you said you've got to have a game face, so your teachers can keep their seatbelt on. Sherrish: Yes. What's really happening is that it's different for everybody, so everyone is dealing with some form of a different kind of socialization, some emotionalism around this whole pandemic and returning to school. It looks different if you're in high school, it looks different if you’re in middle school, and from the perspective of a parent or a teacher. Whatever the case, it exists. We're all going through this.
Re-acclimating to the physical classroom
Roberta: One of the conversations I've been having is thinking about teachers who are new to the field within the last couple of years. The reality is, if your first- and second-year teacher are teaching in a primarily remote or in a hybrid situation, there are a lot of brand new things that you're experiencing that you have never had to do before. You’ve never had to pass out papers, figure out how to negotiate the bathroom pass — you’ve never really had to deal with interruptions in your lesson, because you could absolutely put your whole class on mute and finish talking. You can't do that in real life, and that's one of the challenges that a lot of educators are facing right now.
Ryan: I want to jump in and talk about class size. We saw that was one thing people appreciated during the pandemic — small class size. Now that we’re back in person, we have challenges like: in my daughter’s class, five kids just kind of vanished — we know one decided to be homeschooled — and that was enough for the school to cut one fifth grade teacher, so then all of the sudden the class size is even larger than before the pandemic. I’m also thinking about the hopes we have that people are getting vaccinated to scale, but what if that doesn’t happen? Are we going to see a dramatic uptick in COVID and then more disruptive shutdowns? What are you thinking, Candace? Candace: I can't even allow myself to think in that way. With what we’ve been through last year — we're open today, we're closed the next — to me, no matter what happens, just have a plan. I think your city has to have a plan to handle testing, so it might take a lot to close your city, if at all. I’m not really worried about it, because I can't get caught up in what happens. We have to be prepared for it, and have a mentality that we can handle it. With what we lived through, I have that mindset. What I’m focusing on is dealing with teachers that have been around and want to go back to some very traditional teaching, like handing out worksheets or thinking that students need to sit and listen to me teach, watch me write, especially now, when kids have not sat for a long time. Then we have the brand new Gen Z teachers who haven't done anything like this yet. So, I’m just going to say that when you’re a teacher you can’t really prioritize mental health by asking for mental health days in September, which is what I’m seeing here. It’s just a very different way of thinking. Ryan: This is an interesting statement, though. There’s this paradox. We all know the funny stories about kids gaming while they were on Zoom, but from a teacher’s point of view, they could do very linear teaching and we know great teaching is only linear in the sense that you’re building towards something — hopefully a cool assessment. But rarely does direct instruction get you through more than 10 solid minutes, so I think people got used to this sort of luxurious way of not having to think as hard about pedagogy.
Fostering connections
Roberta: I don't know how you're doing things, Candace, but I think a lot of schools are dealing with that hard question: to what extent do we go back to paper handouts and textbooks in the classroom, and to what extent do we continue in the more digital and virtual world? Schools I'm working with have worked very hard to make sure that they can have a one-to-one laptop ratio or Chromebooks within the school building so that kids can potentially have a device at home and also have a device at school. They have eliminated paper and handouts in favor of continuing on with some of those virtual practices.
This brings up the question around hybrid work. Today, we had a staff meeting with 15 people in person and five online. How do we do group work in this situation? It’s easy to fall back on the very traditional, “I’m going to talk for a while and you should sit quietly and answer some questions.” Working individually and independently on my laptop in class perpetuates that traditional model, even though you're working in technology which many people assume is very 21st century. Candace: Yes. Exactly. We started to discuss this at the end of last year. Our building is very traditional in the sense that it's old, so we literally have power outages every single day. I have generators that I bought from Amazon that we have in order to charge a smart board so it stays on when the power goes out. At this point, the kids aren't even phased. It’s more like, “Oh, the power’s out again.” We had a discussion at the start of the year about what to prioritize — how to get and keep students talking, especially as many get used to acclimating themselves in a classroom, simply being around one another. We had to talk about how much technology to keep using, trying to move from online to in person, and how to move from being in front of the smart board to moving around the classroom during class. We actually had our interim superintendent ask why attendance was so high, and I think it's because students weren’t able to have a genuine connection without us, fostering conversation and connecting with each student. This led to kids really wanting to come to school. Ryan: That's interesting because if you've read Matthew Lieberman, a professor of psychology at UCLA, and the Ted talk is out there too, he basically proposes that Maslow's hierarchy of needs — food, shelter, all the way to your self-actualization is incorrect. He says, the first you know when a baby is born, the first thing they do, why they cry, is because they're trying to make a social connection because they're not going to get food and shelter unless they can make that connection with mom or dad. Any school that can capitalize on that basic psychology of humans first is going to have spectacular outcomes like you’re having. It also brings in questions of digital technology, and what happens when we have incredibly shallow meaningless connections. It’s a skill, because you may be connected, but you have to determine if it’s a meaningful connection. Those are big questions as a society we’re addressing now. It’s exciting to hear that getting off the devices was making them tune into each other as human beings and engaging in different ways. At the end of the day, there's real power in saying we're going to do more with less. We’re going to focus on what matters, which is people and relationships — making curricula social is a very powerful thing. This is why we knew intuitively, and we've now found through research, if you have kids going out and doing stuff in the world they'll engage differently than how they engage with just the dreaded worksheets all the time.
Managing observations
Roberta: One of the things that happens around this time of year for many schools is the influx of observation. We’ve established our classrooms, our student programming, getting everyone in their classes and getting their schedules correct, and now is the time for a teacher evaluation. But we're still in a time of a lot of stress and pressure, and it feels like we're still changing. We’ve got teacher shortage issues, and maybe don't have enough bodies in the building — how are you managing that as a school leader in terms of getting back into an observation cycle? What are some of the things that you're concerned about?
Candace: Well, even with the mandate for observations, we never viewed them from a punitive standpoint, so it doesn't feel as painful. It's really about feedback and a conversation. I’ve done a first round that was focused on a non-invasive process, especially for the teachers who needed an introduction to the process. We want our teachers to invite us to two lessons they think will go well, so they feel more comfortable from the start. We look at the Danielson rubric as a tool instead of something punitive, and we invite people to refresh the content for themselves in hopes that it can actually improve the quality instruction for students. It’s about how you show up for kids. Ryan: In Michigan, when we had the first pandemic spring, it was like, “Yeah evaluations: don't worry about it,” and then it went immediately back to normal. We found ways to make it less painful. Like Candace mentioned, teachers invite us in, so it’s less stressful for them — we’ll do anything we can do to mitigate the anxiety this causes because, no matter how you frame it, teachers are concerned because it's their life, their livelihood. Roberta: Yes, and there's only so much that a principal has control over in this situation. The evaluation criteria is actually set by the state, in terms of what percentage of their rating is based on observations and what percentage is based on student performance on state tests. Candace: Yeah, I think because of the pandemic, many educators were hoping that the powers that be will actually see that there should be a different way we evaluate students — in a more holistic way. Roberta: Thinking of operations and feedback, there is an art to actionable feedback, an essential intervention that helps cultivate a culture of shared values, but teachers and leaders often struggle to find the balance between positive, critical, and sometimes destructive feedback.
Promising pandemic practices
Sherrish: Yes, that conversation about actionable feedback is so valuable. We’ve had a lot of realizations today during our conversation, and I think many of us had ideas about what it would be like to return to school, and some of those things turned out to be true and some were not so true.
What is something that you're seeing this year, possibly as a result of the pandemic, that is exciting you for the future of education? Ryan: One of the most incredible things for me was witnessing elementary teachers who didn’t find technology to be their jam. You're supposed to be tactile and you're supposed to have scissors and construction paper. It's not about clicking, but within a month, my teachers — although they were not a very tech savvy bunch — were Google Suite pros and it was very exciting to see that kind of growth around technology happen at a quantum pace. We know that some people are saying you can use this or that software for all of your courses — my question is where are there good ways to use Ed Tech, where are there ways to rethink the classroom schedule, ways we can start doing more dynamic assessments? It’s more like everybody wanted to return back to normal so bad, right, it’s like, let’s go back to the way it was, and I think there is still an opening here to rethink Ed Tech. We’ve got a long way to go, but it might open up more possibilities. Roberta: I hear the concern that you're implying Ryan, which is yes, we want to go back to normal, but not back to the 70s, not back to the 80s in terms of pedagogy in the classroom, and we need to be thinking — how do we take the best of what we learned and the skills that we learned, and really continue to refine them how and work through, “How do you teach today for tomorrow?” Ryan: Yes, and the other interesting insight I have to add is that I've been working with a lot of companies in Silicon Valley, so whether they’re tech firms or firms working on their tech part of the business, the amount of thought and creativity that goes into things we take for granted is just as impressive as you would think. We don't see that kind of capital, both intellectual and monetary, being directed into Ed Tech. Candace: I agree. That said, as a leader trying to figure out how to do that within the box of our constraints, it is a challenge. This could have been a time to reconstruct school schedules, and not because we need to reduce class, but because this could be a different way for students to receive instruction that could have met their needs. There were so many different ways to construct things to meet all kinds of needs, and it felt kind of like we threw everybody back in and literally crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. I am hopeful that somehow, someone does see some innovation, and through the conversation among teachers, they can see the power and kind of the work that they do in classrooms. There are sparks. People are collaborating and pushing. I think when teachers got over their fear of technology, they could move forward and now they can continue to push into new ways of working. Ryan: That’s the central thing — can we put some of the good things we learned in the pandemic in a bottle and start spreading them out in other ways? We know school systems haven't changed in 150 years, really. Now we have a lot of proof of concept that people can do stuff they thought they could never do. You can always use this whole pandemic time as a case study. We published two books during the pandemic, Benton Harbor with CPET. Nobody prior to the pandemic would have thought about doing that. Roberta: Teacher shortages, learning losses, social stressors, anxieties about returning to in person school — it has been a bit of a bumpy ride, but our school leaders see the possibilities of what's to come with hardcore dedication to their team and a deep commitment to their students who are setting a clear agenda for forward momentum, no matter what. Ryan: [silence] Roberta: Ryan, you’re on mute. Ryan: That is the funniest post-pandemic thing — like everybody's been on Zoom for almost two years, and at least once a week, “You're on mute.” [Laughter] Roberta: And then that pause of looking for it — where is it again? It's in the same place as last time, on every call. [Laughter]
Your voice matters! Send us your education questions, concerns, and promising practices and we'll address them. Subscribe to Teaching Today and chat with us on social media, at @tccpet.
How do we decide which words to teach our students?
In Including All Learners, a course I co-teach with my colleague Jacqui Stolzer, we design our content based on the questions we wonder about as teachers. One that comes up often is: How do we decide which words to teach our students? Asking this question challenges us to think about how to focus our instructional time, and nudges us to be more purposeful in designing our curriculum.
Understanding tiered vocabulary
One of the ways we decide which words to teach is by using the tiered vocabulary concept developed by Dr. Isabel Beck. Beck thinks of vocabulary words as belonging to one of three categories:
While it is interesting to group words into these three categories, how does this practice impact our instructional decisions?
Narrowing your focus
When designing lessons and prioritizing instructional time, it may be helpful to consider which tiers and key terms are worthy of classroom instruction. As we can see above, Tier 3 words are easy to identify; these are the words that we need to teach in order for students to understand a particular concept. For example, in an ecosystem unit of a Living Environment course, words such as “abiotic” and “biotic” are Tier 3 words that are necessary terms in the unit; they are the specific words used to identify non-living or living parts of an ecosystem. In a sense, Tier 3 words are easy to determine in a curriculum because they are entwined with concepts in a particular unit. Tier 2 words, however, are often not taught explicitly since the assumption is that students already know what they mean. It’s the Tier 2 words that need extra attention in our classrooms. These are the words to spend time teaching and modeling for your students. What this looks like will vary depending on your grade level and content area.
Modeling for your students
Consider a Tier 2 word such as analyze. Most students are familiar with that word by the time they reach middle school, but what does it really look like in math or science or English? When students are asked to analyze a text, it’s helpful for teachers to model this work, demonstrating the pieces of a text analysis and sharing the tools students need to analyze a text on their own. Think about all the steps that are imperative for analyzing a text. If I were modeling how to analyze a passage, I might:
Analysis can change shape depending on the class — in science, analyzing lab data might look different from analyzing a passage in English. But in both cases, dedicating instructional time to demonstration of the term will help strengthen students’ skills, giving students access to academic thinking and language.
Tiered vocabulary can help you classify key terms for your grade level and content area, and as a result, make instructional decisions that hone in on teaching new or unfamiliar words for your students. Finding a balance between content-specific, Tier 3 words and more general academic terms like those in Tier 2 can help narrow your focus and increase student comfort with the words they encounter in your classroom.
Capitalize on critical thinking, reflection, and action to keep your students actively engaged.
“It’s so hard for me to come up with something to do every day in my class. I know my lessons should prepare students for their summative assessment, but, like, what do I do every day? Every class?”
This was how my meeting began with a relatively new teacher I am mentoring. He knows where he needs to end up in his unit, but what can he do in every single class that doesn’t feel monotonous? What various activities can he use in his class that work towards a concept he is building? In his case, his summative assessment will be an analysis of a theme in the class novel, but he also aims to use the text to teach other concepts, other literacy skills. Enter our student engagement resource (download here). It’s so easy to get stuck doing the same activities each day. Using this resource, you can unlock practical ideas for engaging students cognitively, and find ways to spur students to think about the class text or class concepts from multiple perspectives. I particularly appreciate how these activities are easily adaptable, and can be rooted in concepts students are learning. Across four categories, you can imagine fresh lesson ideas, no matter where you're at in your career.
GET STUDENTS...
Thinking Quote-ables: Pull meaningful quotes from student writing or discussions, and post them around the room. This activity is a way to synthesize students’ ideas, reflections, and wonderings around a topic, and the result is that student voice becomes a new collaborative text. When students see meaningful snippets of their own writing on chart papers around the classroom walls, they will feel seen. A wonderful add-on to this could be to ask students to respond to others’ writing using post-it notes or directly on the chart paper itself. This activity reinforces ideas discussed in class, celebrates student voice, and helps students see concepts through their classmates’ perspectives.
GET STUDENTS...
Doing Get centered: Create student choice by organizing 2-3 different activities around a text (vocab, drawing, summarizing). Allow students to choose which center they want to focus on. Creating a “centers” lesson is a way to get students up and out of their seats to focus on a topic of study using various manipulatives. A variation of this is to create “stations” where students rotate between the stations (or center). Station or center lessons require quite a bit of planning in order to create independent activities that are allotted a similar timeframe, but a “centers” lesson ensures students are actively engaged, and teachers are observing and providing support when needed.
GET STUDENTS...
Feeling Gratitudes: Say thank you to all students on task until everyone is participating. A positive way to get students on track instead of focusing on what they are not doing: “Thank you, Tiffany, Fatima, and Derek, for sitting down quickly and taking out your notes. Thank you, Marcus, for getting started right away on our opening question…” These small statements of praise help to build a classroom culture where students feel seen and appreciated. I would add to this practice by suggesting that ending your class with gratitudes is a way to synthesize all of the significant work that students contributed throughout the class. This could begin a cycle of positivity in a classroom, where students are praised throughout class for staying on task, and at the end of class for their insights and participation.
GET STUDENTS...
Believing Better or Worse?: Ask students to choose which of two options is the best response to a problem. Explain why in writing or discussion. This question creates a binary that provokes us to take a stand that is backed in evidence and reasoning. To answer this question, students must consider the complexity of an issue and come to a decision that presents the best solution. Most of the strategies in this category include two acts of literacy: writing and discussion. If there is one takeaway from this category — or from all categories listed above — it is this: give students time to process and capture their thoughts in writing as a way to engage them. Quickwrites, or brief moments to jot down ideas and gather thoughts in writing before sharing verbally, are a key ingredient to processing and thinking through a concept.
It can be difficult to remember all that we have learned about teaching through the years. Whether you are a new teacher or have years of teaching experience, it's still possible to find fresh ideas for keeping your students engaged and actively thinking in your classroom!
Find practical ways to strategically customize learning pathways for your students.
Differentiating Instruction is the practice of customizing instructional resources, tasks, texts, and topics to meet the needs of students with different learning levels and academic needs. With good intentions, curriculum developers identify grade level expectations and design unit and lesson plans with the ideal student in mind. Those ideal students started the year meeting grade level expectations, speaking the language with fluency. They all attend class every day and comprehend the lesson at proficient standards. They carry with them all the skills from the last unit into the next, and they learn at an even pace throughout the school year.
The problem is that these ideal classes don’t actually exist! This is why it’s so important to differentiate instruction. Students can’t learn when the course material is too difficult — they get frustrated, insecure, and eventually develop avoidance behaviors that cause learning disruptions or disengagement. But the flip side is also true — students can’t learn when the material is too easy! When there is no learning challenge, students get bored, overconfident, and they also develop avoidance behaviors resulting in learning disruptions or disengagement. Differentiating instruction is about the art and science of matching students with their just-right task, text, and topic. When we begin thinking about what we need to know about our students to effectively differentiate, it can get very overwhelming very quickly. The idea of creating a unique lesson for 30 students 4-5 times a day is an insane amount of work. The good news is that highly effective differentiation doesn’t mean that we have 30 different lesson plans — but it does mean we are using data to inform instruction, and customizing learning pathways strategically for our students.
Differentiating deliberately
There is no one perfect way to differentiate instruction, which is one of the things that makes it challenging. Because there are so many options and opportunities for learning, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with all of the different types of choices that can be made when customizing instructional materials for our students. Our Differentiating Like a Star resource is designed to help you streamline your thinking process, and provides a dynamic menu of options for teachers to use while planning differentiated lessons. On the matrix, there are four styles of differentiation: by data, by task, by text, and by team or group. The matrix provides recommended differentiation strategies aligned with each approach, and increases in complexity and effectiveness. If you are able to implement any strategy on the matrix, you’re differentiating! The goal is to develop our practices so that we not only use multiple differentiation strategies, but use them deliberately to meet a specific learning goal.
Tips & tricks
Differentiation done well appears effortless, but it takes a lot of work behind the scenes. Careful planning, analyzing student work, and setting clear learning objectives can help us to develop a pathway of differentiated experiences that are targeted to meet students’ needs.
Seamlessly navigate the pacing of your lessons.
When I was in college, I waitressed at a French bistro on the Upper West side of Manhattan. During my first couple of shifts, I made all of the quintessential mistakes — forgetting to put in orders, getting orders wrong, not being able to greet all of my tables, not knowing if and when to ask for their order or when to drop the check. I found myself overwhelmed! Over time, however, I learned that to be a really good waitress is a skill, an art, something that you can improve. As one of my favorite managers once told me: you’ll know you’re a good waitress when your patrons don’t even know you’re there, when you seamlessly navigate the pacing of their food and drinks.
It’s all about the pacing!
Foundations of timing
In my time as an educator, I have leaned on many of my waitressing experiences. Like waitressing, teaching is an art, and so much depends on successful pacing! How you pace your lessons, the order and flow of your instruction, how much time you dedicate to each task, and how you transition to each segment of a lesson are challenging yet crucial pieces of being a teacher. These actions have such important implications for student learning. How can you tighten up your lessons? Get started with our Foundations of Timing Instruction resource, which highlights helpful considerations and rules of thumb for timing and transitioning your instruction, including:
Whether you are just starting out, or are a seasoned teacher, your pacing can always be improved so that you are better able to serve your students.
Understanding the connection between what is taught and what is learned is a vital part of your classroom practice.
One effective tool we use when delving into new content is the resource It says...I say...So... With this tool as our guide, we can explore Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, 3d Using Assessment in Instruction.
Danielson 3d says...
“Assessment of student learning plays an important new role in teaching: no longer signaling the end of instruction, it is now recognized to be an integral part of instruction. While assessment of learning has always been and will continue to be an important aspect of teaching (it’s important for teachers to know whether students have learned what teachers intend), assessment for learning has increasingly come to play an important role in classroom practice. And 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, where feedback is appropriate, offering it to students.”
This means...
This looks like...
This is challenging, because...
So...
Let’s consider formative assessments. They are most helpful to us when making instructional decisions. They are used to monitor student learning and inform feedback. They help give us an overall picture of a child’s achievement. Formative assessments are used throughout the lesson.
You can try...
Below are a few examples of practical pre-instruction assessments you can try in your classroom.
What are you trying in your classroom? What do you want to integrate into your practice? Tell us more in the comments! Learn more about opportunities to Design Coherent Instruction for your students.
Productively engaging students is a real challenge — but the solution may not be too far out of reach.
How can we create a classroom situation where all our students are productively engaged?
Engaging a class of students in a lesson can feel like a daunting task, with constant disruptions and more students off-task than on-task. It can be overwhelming! Setting up predictable routines and rituals for our students is key, and staying in touch with each of our students to help them engage with a meaningful task is a crucial element of creating a productive, positive work environment. The challenge is real — but the solution may not be too far out of reach. Our Three Sweeps resource (download here) provides a practical approach to getting all students on track and working.
The First Sweep
First, start students on an independent task like a warm up or “do now” prompt. The most effective opening activities are tasks that engage students in the topic or theme of the lesson using prior knowledge. As students enter the class, we can point them to the prompt and activate our first “sweep” by circulating through the entire class and “touching base” with each student using a light touch and offering an affirmation or posing a question, such as: Affirmations
Questions
This first sweep is designed to acknowledge the students who are cooperative and on task (early adopters) and offer those who are not yet settled a calming and supportive first “touch.” Let’s be real: students enter the classroom space in all different mindsets. We want to quickly and quietly acknowledge all of the students who are ready to work, and also have a personal and positive first contact with those who need more support to transition into their classwork. The first sweep communicates the expectation that you are recognizing each student in a supportive way, and it necessitates a personal exchange with each student. After we’ve made contact with each student and either affirmed their engagement or redirected them to the task, we begin our second sweep.
The Second Sweep
Our second sweep is a second opportunity to touch base with all students, with a focus on supporting off-task or unsettled students settle into their work. To start Sweep 2, quickly scan of the room and identify students who have not yet begun the activity. Maybe they’re talking or walking around the room, or maybe they’re distracted. Prioritize a second check-in with these students. Now, the contact and questions with students can include slightly more pointed questions to pinpoint what may help each individual student engage in the task at hand. Depending on the specific situation with each student, and the prior exchange, these questions and comments may include:
Students in Sweep 2 will benefit from a next step action:
Often, we lean on negative interventions with students who exhibit off-task behaviors, calling out students’ names in front of the class, asserting the rules or expectations, or publicly demanding a change in action. Unfortunately, these tactics are more likely to antagonize students who are struggling to connect with the work and can escalate tensions and increase students’ insecurities. The second sweep more deeply acknowledges each student’s specific needs and offers them advice or a tool to get to work. It should be done as calmly as possible with the expectation that students will respond productively. As much as this sweep is about positive reinforcements, it’s also about accountability. If a student says there are no barriers to begin their work, then there are no more excuses, either. If there are barriers to beginning, we want to know so we can remove them and work with kids so they can fully access the assignment. Now, it’s time for Sweep 3.
The Third Sweep
In Sweep 3, we return to a touch point for every student in the class. For students who have been working well for the duration, this is the time to check for understanding, affirm their progress, clarify any questions, and identify any obvious misunderstandings in their work so far. For students who are still struggling to engage in the task, we restate our purpose and return to our redirection questions. Restating the purpose is an important moment to communicate a shared expectation and explicitly outline the value of the task, and the community expectations. Affirmations
Clarifications
Restating Purpose
Redirect Questions
Notice that in these questions, we’re really focusing on asking the student to provide the solutions. When students choose to engage, or offer a suggestion for what would help them work better, they are more likely to implement the strategy they suggest, even if it doesn’t seem genuine to us in the moment. This is a key factor, because when we respond defensively to students who may show up distracted or disengaged, we can fall into exchanges that are more about power and control than they are about learning. We want to remember that — especially when we’re striving to develop a culture of high expectations in a positive work environment — it's critical that we find the path to engage all students in meaningful work. That might mean setting aside our personal feelings, and staying laser focused on helping every student to engage in the task.
Making the most of each sweep
Getting used to the three sweeps may take a little time and a little practice, but we’ve found that this is a highly effective strategy throughout the class period. Each sweep ensures that every student has at least two personal interactions with their teacher(s), and that students struggling to engage in the content have at least three positive and proactive exchanges with their teacher(s) — each serving as an opportunity to engage. To maximize the use of Three Sweeps, consider these quick tips:
Three Sweeps can be a shortcut to student engagement and creating a culture of learning. When we get everyone involved and engaged, we can focus on the learning and build momentum towards deepening our students' content knowledge and skills on a daily basis.
Data-informed decision-making that creates groups of students who work collaboratively for a specific purpose.
From the one room schoolhouse to the giant lecture hall, the image we often conjure of teaching is of the sage on the stage, the professor imparting wisdom on the entire student body who are hanging on our every word. But the reality is that whole class instruction is rarely effective as a meaningful and sustainable learning experience. Students’ academic knowledge and skills grow more when they’re personally engaged in a task or challenge that meets their learning needs, supports their learning differences, and is customized to help them get to their next step.
Educators can often become overwhelmed with the prospect of differentiating instruction for every single student in the classroom, and often feel frustrated having to design 30 different lesson plans. The good news is that while students do need instruction to be personalized to meet their needs, many of their needs are similar. As educators, we want to better recognize our students’ academic, social, emotional, and skill-based needs and strategically match them with other students in the class.
Strategic grouping
There’s a big difference between working in a group, and working with a group. In an effort to increase group work and collaboration, we will sometimes push desks together so students are sitting in a group, and then give them permission to talk to their groups while completing an individual task. While this is community-oriented, we can differentiate it from working with a group on a shared task.
Strategic grouping is a key feature in teaching effective collaboration skills, and in streamlining instruction to meet the needs of our diverse learners. Strategic — or purposeful — groups demonstrate that we’ve put some time, energy, and thought into who students should work with. We can consider factors like literacy or numeracy performance, communication styles (introvert/extrovert), skills and talents (artists, writers, organizers), and even gender considerations for creating groups that are similar or mixed. One of the reasons strategic grouping is so difficult is because it requires us to know our learning outcomes, and to develop a strategy about the best ways to achieve this outcome. If I’m working on a unit where students will need to write an essay from a text they’ve read, I have to determine:
We can only answer these questions in the context of the class, the unit, and the end goal of the assessment.
Flexible grouping: number, color, shape
One of the most effective ways to establish strategic groups is to create groups that are flexible.
Developing strategic groups requires time and effort! And once groups are established and the students begin their work, it doesn’t mean that it will feel immediately successful. Just like any teamwork approach, groups take time to develop relationships, build trust, and establish healthy and productive routines. When groups change rapidly, even groups that are strategic, it makes it difficult to see the return on our investment. That’s why establishing strategic (purposeful to the context and task) and flexible groups can be a major win. One easy approach to flexible grouping is to design Number, Color, Shape groups. With a little bit of planning, we can set up three types of group structures at once. To establish flexible groups, consider three types of groups that need to be made:
Numbered pairs
Having students work in leveled pairs is an effective way to differentiate. By working with a partner, students can tackle more complex tasks, collaborate with a peer, or edit and revise their thinking as they complete an assignment. Students will also be able to develop more personal connections, which keeps them engaged and interested.
To set up numbered pairs, look at a class list and divide the total number of students in half. 30 students = 15 pairs. Then, begin matching students based on data — performance, reading levels, and personality can all be helpful data points to make matches. Once every student is in a pair, introduce the learning pairs by passing out numbered cards and invite students to find their match. It may be helpful to place numbers around the room so students know where to find their match, or create a class challenge to find partners without speaking. Once established, keep these numbered pairs for an extended period of time. Consider 4 - 6 weeks for pairs, given that it will take a few work periods before students feel comfortable, and once the pairs are working, making changes to the partnerships can derail the momentum. If some pairs don’t work out as planned, make specific changes in those situations.
Same shapes
After students spend time working in pairs, their collaboration and communication skills will improve over time with their partners. We can take our differentiation to the next level by joining the numbered pairs into small groups of 4-5 students with similar ability levels.
Maybe you’ll combine groups 3 & 8 to create a square group, and groups 2 & 9 to become a circle group. Same shape groups will create leveled groupings that allow us to differentiate topics, products, processes, and text levels by assigning a specific task to each group based on their Zone of Proximal Development. If we know that groups 3 & 8 are composed of students who are reading 2-3 grade levels below expectations, we can assign the square group a text that’s at their instructional reading level and have them complete the same critical thinking task that the other groups are assigned. If we know that groups 2 & 9 are composed of students who are reading at or above grade level, we can assign them a more challenging text on the same topic, and have them complete the same critical thinking task that the other groups are working on. Same shape groups work well because after their discussion and group work, the class can come together to discuss the larger topic, without limiting the contributions of students with below-grade level reading skills.
Color blends
Many — but not all! — learning goals are best accomplished by having students work in groups with peers on similar levels. When students only ever see examples of tasks and work products that reflect the same thing they would produce, they don’t have an opportunity to visualize how they can expand their thinking, reading, writing, or reasoning skills. By working with students in mixed ability (heterogeneous) groups, students of all different levels can participate in a jigsaw discussion or group projects. Mixed groups allow students to learn from one another, and play an individual role towards a shared goal.
We can create Color Groups using our Numbered Pairs and Same Shape groups as a starting point! Color Groups will be strategic, data-informed heterogeneous groups that can meet together consistently through a unit or term. To create the Color Groups, review the students in each Shape Group and begin distributing them evenly into Color Groups. Example: We can take one student from the square group, one from the circle group, one from the diamonds, and one from the hearts, and place them into the Purple Group. Because we’re mixing and matching from the Same Shape groups, we’re guaranteed a mix of performance abilities in the Color Blend Groups.
Bringing it all together
Strategic grouping requires data-informed decision-making to create flexible groups of students who work collaboratively for a specific purpose.
By designing these three sets of groups at one time, you can maximize your planning and minimize chaos! No more numbering off from 1 - 4 around the room. No more wandering around to find a partner. No more kids sitting in the back because they don’t have a group. If each student received a card on color cardstock, with a printed number, cut out in a specific shape, they could receive multiple group assignments within seconds. And after each grouping has been established, they’ll begin to learn how to work together for a purpose in each grouping they experience.
Happy teachers tend to be wonderful teachers.
Did you ever get one of those letters? Those notes written in crayon or #2 pencil? Those sweet messages with a picture drawn at the bottom? Some of us remember those. We may have them tucked in drawers or taped in journals. Some of us remember emails or texts, sometimes years after our students graduate. They might have shared a memory or thanked us for a positive moment that stuck with them.
Those messages can help us float above the floor for a few minutes or keep us grounded for the day. What an encouragement! Here we are, in our next normal — whatever that looks like after whatever we’ve gone through. It seems like a good time for a letter from some of your colleagues with practical encouragement that builds our practice of supporting ourselves and each other.
Dear Teacher,
Happy teachers tend to be wonderful teachers. To be happy you have to figure out how to take care of yourself. It's not selfish. The trick is to figure out how best to take care of yourself, and then be deliberate about doing it. Nobody can do this but you! (I learned this a few years ago — I was late to the party)! I think it's important to make time for yourself, otherwise you'll burn out. Even on my busiest weeks, I value taking a little bit of time to be human. That might look different for everyone, so find a practice that centers you — whether that's working out or gardening or just reading mindless BuzzFeed articles. Making time for yourself is essential; not optional. Whatever you do, MAKE the time — otherwise you will burn out and be of no use to anyone.
With five minutes, you can:
With 30 minutes, you can:
With an hour, you can:
Thanks for being a teacher! Take this letter and tuck it away or tack it up somewhere to remind yourself to care for yourself first.
With love from your CPET colleagues, Ashlynn, Faith, Laura, Marcelle, Sean, and Sherrish
Recognize the motivations behind behaviors that block success and explore how to respond appropriately.
A social media post ignites a tiny fire, and the fire blazes as people pour fuel in the form of dislikes and comments accusing one another of being wholly disrespectful to a person, people group, larger community, or an entire country. From social media to the dinner table to the holiday family gathering, we hear words and actions that offend us, and we attribute disrespect or out and out defiance to the person across the table. So much disagreement, so many approaches.
The same goes for our classrooms, right? We’re teaching and a student rolls their eyes or puts their head down – but wait, before we even got to this teaching moment, we spent hours in backwards planning for our unit and prepared an essential lesson to our topic — and now, we’re getting disrespect in return? It’s easy to give up, but what if we approached what we’re seeing in a different way? What if we get curious about what it is we’re noticing in student behavior?
Responding vs. reacting
Our resource for tackling off-task behaviors — Behaviors that Block Success — helps us respond rather than react. We consider that there are four types of behavior that have a negative impact on the classroom environment, and it’s important to be able to recognize what each behavior type looks like, as well as the motivations behind it. This is what will allow us to act responsively.
We can use this resource as a tool to interpret student behavior in a constructive way, cultivating curiosity in ourselves. In order to interpret behavior, we must challenge ourselves to see beneath the surface and identify why the behavior is happening. When encountering inappropriate student behavior, our goal is to respectfully communicate the expectations, de-escalate the conflict, and maintain teacher authority. We can review the behaviors, make connections between what we are seeing and what we already know about our student as a whole person, and ask the student what they’re experiencing as well. This will open up communication by demonstrating respect for the student and asking questions instead of jumping to conclusions.
Imagine having this resource out on your desk during class, picking it up when you’re struggling with what you think might be defiant behavior and considering all the possibilities. Put it up as a poster, and share with your students that you’re trying something new or adding to your toolbox.
You’re all learning together, and no one is on the “other side” of anything in the classroom, so why not make it clear to both yourself and your students?
Simple strategies for imagining an equitable education that benefits all students.
Equity in schools, or a lack thereof, was a problem long before the pandemic began. However, the challenges caused by school closures and remote learning exacerbated the lack of support for minority, special needs, and low-income students, as well as language learners. As we imagine a more holistic, equitable approach to education, we must consider a version of education that addresses students’ academic, social, and emotional needs.
Equity is crucial, especially in times of crisis.
Promising practices for promoting equity
Too often, the terms equity and equality are used interchangeably. While equality means treating every student the same, equity means making sure every student has the support they need to be successful. Simply put, equity in education requires putting systems in place to ensure that every child has an equal chance for success. As President Obama said in his inaugural address, "We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else."
We have an opportunity and an obligation to provide equitable systems that foster success for all, not just success for some. To assist and explain the process, the University of Southern California (USC) School of Education proposes seven effective ways to promote equity in education. Let’s examine what these suggestions can look like in practice.
In addition to the strategies offered above, we can promote equity in our classrooms by recognizing that all learning is a social and emotional experience. We have all endured collective trauma over the past few years, in addition to the personal losses we’ve experienced. Many students (and teachers) are still finding their way back to their learning.
We may not yet have all the answers for how to address students’ academic and emotional needs in an equitable way, even as we return to the familiar environment of our classrooms. But we do have the opportunity to do more, better!
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Discussions are an important component of 21st century learning in all disciplines; they help students process and communicate information, and help teachers better understand which concepts students are connecting with. 21st century learning specialist G. Faith Little joins us this week to unpack the benefits of classroom discussions, and how they can be a simple, authentic way to assess student learning.
Final thoughts
Imagine you’re a teacher who wants to begin or refine the use of discussion in your classroom — what’s the smallest thing you can do to make the biggest difference?
TAGS: ASSESSMENT, TEACHING TODAY
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There is a natural — and often overlooked — link between leadership development and adult learning. Effective leaders recognize that adults are practical, hands-on learners who come equipped with prior knowledge and many years of experience — and adjust their leadership and professional development accordingly. This week, The Aspen Institute's Cheryl Green returns for a conversation around how leaders can better connect with the adult learners in their school communities.
Final thoughts
TAGS: LEADERSHIP, TEACHING TODAY
Keep students engaged with an intentional, research-based approach.
In college, I played rugby on an intramural team. As a “back”, my role was to run the ball up the field and score a “try” (basically, a touchdown) or pass the ball to a teammate so they could score. The players on the opposing team would try to tackle anyone with the ball, so the goal was to either pass to a teammate or outrun and evade defenders in order to score. It can be intimidating (who am I kidding, terrifying!) to run down the field with a scrum of women running towards me with the intention of taking me down. One lesson I learned quickly was not to panic and get rid of the ball like a hot potato before I got tackled — our captain would call this a “hospital pass”, as in let me throw away this ball before I get tackled by passing it to someone who is already so heavily marked that they may end up in a hospital. If we did a “hospital pass” in practice, it meant extra push ups — it was a careless move. Ultimately, we knew it would be better to pass purposefully than to give away possession of the ball or risk a teammate getting hurt.
Those of us who work in schools have so many concerns as we return to school this year. Our concerns are warranted: we are concerned about students who may have missed many of their Zoom classes, and we are concerned how our students are processing this past year filled with personal loss, sickness, and political turmoil. The New York Times recently reported that “by the end of the school year, students were, on average, four to five months behind where students have typically been in the past, according to the report by McKinsey, which found similar impacts on the most vulnerable students” (Mervosh, 7/28/21). Many educators and parents are deeply concerned about students who may have experienced what many are calling learning loss. We are looking for solutions as we re-enter our schools. But we need to think strategically — we cannot panic and toss the ball away in fear. We need to be thoughtful in our intentions, not reactive.
Creating positive relationships
If ever there was a time to think of how to deeply engage students in our classwork, in our content, and in discussions about what makes each subject area so compelling, now is the time.
Linda Darling Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute and professor emeritus at Stanford University, addresses how to reenter schools after this tumultuous year of remote and hybrid schooling. She reminds us to recall the most effective research-based learning methods, which include: “positive relationships and attachments… the essential ingredient that catalyzes healthy development and learning...and enables resilience from trauma” (Hammond, Forbes, 4/5/21). But positive relationships do not develop organically in schools; teachers and administrators can purposefully create positive relationships between the adults and students and between students and students. Positive relationships in school help students stay engaged and interested in learning. According to research from the Carnegie Corporation, “the degree to which students are engaged and motivated at school depends to a great extent on the quality of the relationships they experience there (Eccles & Midgley, 1989, p. 140; Lee & Smith, 1993, pp. 164, 180). Supportive relationships are necessary, although not sufficient without high-quality curriculum and teaching, to foster high performance among young adolescents” (Jackson and Davis, Turning Points 2000, Teachers College Press: 2000, p. 123). This concept is something we know to be instinctively true: relationships matter in every part of life, particularly in schools with young people. And while “high-quality curriculum and teaching” are paramount to students’ success, positive relationships in schools are equally important.
Encouraging connections
There are ways to create positive relationships through the content we focus on in our curriculum, and in the ways we teach students to interact with one another. Hammond also reminds us, “Children actively construct knowledge by connecting what they know to what they are learning within their cultural contexts. Creating those connections is key to learning.” Again, helping students to build connections between new and prior knowledge is something teachers can plan for and create.
Putting Darling Hammond’s advice into action can be as simple as creating opportunities for interactions among students. For example, instructing students to talk to one another first in pairs for a set amount of time, and then encouraging pairs to expand to form small groups. As the groups continue to expand, students move toward whole class discussions. Setting students up with these types of discussion structures — moving from smaller groups to larger groups — and then encouraging them to debrief their discussions in writing or as a whole class is a way to build content knowledge and foster positive relationships. Constructing ways for students to discuss content-specific ideas and helping students process what they are learning and what questions they have is a way to keep students actively engaged in their classes.
As we get reacquainted with in-person instruction, I imagine there will be last minute programs and initiatives that will aim to catch students up and get them back on grade level. But let’s commit to no hospital passes. Let’s commit to what we already know about effective ways of learning and remain strategic about keeping students engaged. The ownice is on us to find ways for students to connect with the content. Let’s move through this year with teaching strategies that are intentional, rooted in research, and that will keep our kids engaged and talking.
Create a classroom environment that is a safe, supportive space for your students.
Planning for the school year as a new teacher can be overwhelming under the best of circumstances, let alone during the third year of pandemic learning. Many teachers are returning to their classrooms for the first time in over a year, and for early-career teachers, this presents unique challenges. New teachers, particularly those who completed their student teaching in entirely virtual settings, may not know what to expect as we move back into in-person spaces. The added uncertainty of quarantine protocols and potential returns to virtual learning may make this first year seem even more daunting.
Though it may feel intimidating, we believe that it is still possible to plan for success as we continue to navigate unprecedented times. With these realities in mind, we can help you plan for an effective and meaningful first year of teaching.
Arranging the physical space
In the fall, many first-year teachers are stepping into physical classrooms for the first time. While virtual classrooms present their own unique pedagogical challenges, the return to in-person spaces may be a challenge for many students and teachers alike. Breakout rooms and chat boxes have radically changed how we conceptualize discussion, collaboration, and class participation. What do these look like in our physical classroom? Though we may be relieved to see our students in person again, we can’t just mute all mics when faced with a rowdy classroom, as tempting as it may be. In our physical classrooms, the arrangement of the space can significantly shape our culture of classroom discussion. We have a ton of options when it comes to arranging the space — rows, small groups, pairs, horseshoes, etc. — and each arrangement comes with pros and cons. Rows may seem too regimented and teacher-centered, but groups may become chatty and difficult to manage. While I love a good horseshoe configuration, I’ve been in classrooms where the physical size of the space makes them a challenge, if not an impossibility. As we move back into physical spaces this fall, you may also be contending with the challenge of creating seating charts and arranging desks to maximize instruction, while also adhering to COVID-19 safety protocols. As much as we may wish to place our students in small groups, this may be a challenge given social distancing requirements. Even if we’re in the same physical space, we may need to fall back on remote discussion strategies in order to remain safe. In all cases, it’s important to have a plan, but be flexible. Remember to let the space work with you and your lesson, not against it. In my own classroom, my students learned to expect new seating arrangements depending on different instructional goals. When we were focused on Socratic discussion, they might walk in to find the desks in a horseshoe. When they collaborated on inquiry projects, they could be found in small groups. They might be partnered for writing workshops, or they might be in rows for standardized testing. (Over the years, I became very quick at rearranging desks between classes and my students came to expect the unexpected.) When it comes to arranging the physical space, find a plan that works for you and your students!
Building classroom culture
Even after years of teaching, I’m always nervous to meet my students for the first time. The first several days sometimes feels like a revolving door of new faces, and as an introvert, it can be exhausting. I want to make sure I remember my students’ names, interests, and quirks — a daunting task when rosters contain hundreds of students. Yet, forming these personal connections lays the foundation for building a strong community of scholars. As Courtney Brown, Director of the New Teacher Network, shared in her article on classroom culture, “creating a positive classroom climate is key to a productive school year.” Taking steps to establish a positive classroom culture ensures that you’re building your school year on solid ground. Check out some of the activities below, which can help spark ideas for how you might approach getting to know your students: Student Surveys Invite students to share information about themselves via surveys using Google Forms and/or other software. Surveys can be a great way of collecting a variety of data, including gauging your students’ prior experience and level of comfort within your content area. Letter Writing Write a letter introducing yourself to your students. Then, invite students to write their own introductory letters in response, giving them the opportunity to share what’s important to them, what they’d like you to know, and what a successful school year might look like in their eyes. Interviews Students get to know each other by producing Humans of New York-inspired narratives. After sharing age-appropriate models from the Humans of New York database, you can invite students to interview each other and create a digital Humans of Our Classroom showcase using Google Slides. This will encourage students to move beyond facts about their classmates and find interesting stories to write up and share with the whole group. Memoir & Poetry Writing Invite students to explore their identities with creative writing. Consider 6-Word Memoirs and Themed Poetry Collections as ways to introduce mentor texts and writing protocols while simultaneously getting to know your students. Goal Setting Encourage a growth mindset by inviting students to set SMART goals for the upcoming school year. For an artistic take on goal setting, you might invite students to create vision boards to help them visualize the end in mind.
Engage authentically
While we hope one or more of these culture-building activities has sparked your interest, it’s also important to remember to engage authentically with your students. Make sure that your classroom culture reflects your personality as a teacher. What works well for your team leader down the hall might not necessarily work for you, and that’s okay! As G. Faith Little writes:
Ultimately, though each of our classrooms might look a little bit different from the outside looking in, positive classroom environments tend to share certain qualities. When I close my eyes and imagine this classroom environment, I see a space that is warm and welcoming, a space where my students feel safe expressing their authentic selves. I also see a space where high expectations are maintained for all students through differentiation. The ideal classroom is warm, yet appropriately challenging, and it’s important to set these expectations up front, particularly after a year of virtual learning, when many students may have felt particularly isolated and disengaged from school.
Establishing classroom structures
After more than a year of virtual learning, returning to in-person classroom routines may be difficult for many students. It’s important to establish and maintain consistent classroom structures and routines that work across in-person spaces and virtual platforms, while also factoring in possible quarantines and temporary returns to virtual learning. Here are a few things you might want to consider as you plan for the school year: Plan for Student Behavior Have a plan to proactively respond to student behavior, and use our Understanding Off-Task Behaviors resource as a guide. There are four types of behavior that have a negative impact on the classroom environment — it’s important to be able to recognize what each type of behavior looks like, as well the motivations behind it, so we can act proactively as opposed to simply reacting. Plan for Material Management Make sure you have a plan for managing the materials in your classroom. How will students turn in their work? Will student work be entirely digitized via Google Classroom or another online learning platform? If students are receiving printed materials, how will these be stored and submitted? Having a plan for how materials move through your classroom will save you a headache when it comes to the end of the marking period. Plan for Curriculum Some of our classroom structures are linked to our curriculum and planning. Check out a sample curriculum planning template — according to Courtney Brown, “these templates help new teachers thoughtfully organize and plan their curriculum while examining classroom rituals and routines, assessment strategies, and more!”
Though this is just the beginning of everything you may want to consider as you plan for the new school year, try not to overwhelm yourself by overplanning or becoming too cemented into a particular routine. My mentor always liked to remind me to be prepared to modify and adjust, a lesson that I’ve taken to heart in the years since. This year, like the last, will likely demand a great deal of flexibility and ingenuity, so be prepared to modify and adjust, but most importantly, be prepared to give yourself grace!
If you’re interested in learning more about planning with successful instruction in mind, check out our upcoming online course, Designing Coherent Instruction. This professional opportunity is intended to support new teachers in strengthening their instructional core, increasing strategic planning skills, and ensuring that lesson objectives align with instructional methods and assessments. Within each module, we’ll delve into the key competencies of the Danielson Framework, examine the key look fors, and offer promising practices and practical strategies that can be implemented in-person and online.
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