RATIONALE || When a teacher uses personal regard for students, this can foster relationships by establishing personal connections with their students, making sure their students feel cared for and supported, establishing high expectations for student success, and providing constructive guidance to ensure their students are meeting those expectations.
DESCRIPTION || Proximity: close proximity provides opportunities to bond
Courtesy: Demonstrate mutual respect, Golden Rule
Touch: Shaking hands, high five, thumbs up
Personal Interest: Incorporate personal interests into academics, noting individual accomplishments in student's lives, use the 2 x 10 strategy
RATIONALE || When a teacher asks varying clarifying questions, students have a better opportunity to link learning and find pathways to the correct answer.
DESCRIPTION || When a student begins by being unable or unwilling to answer, the teacher should try to make the sequence end as often as possible with the student giving a correct or valid answer. You can use one of the four basic formats to respond to a student in this situation.
RATIONALE || When a teacher utilizes different strategies to call on students, it increases a student's level of attention and concern to think about and formulate an answer.
RATIONALE || When a teacher assigns appropriate length and thoughtful wait time, it conveys to students that all can answer if provided time to process.
DESCRIPTION || This is an invitation to think. Provide more time when asking open-ended, complex questions that require interpretation. Offer less time when asking a straightforward question with one correct answer. If you want a thoughtful response, provide the time. Utilize a visible timer when appropriate. Gauge wait time by saying, "Show me with your fingers, how many more minutes you need," then reassign the amount of think time needed.
CITATION || Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. (chapter 7)
DEMO || [ None ]
Culture of Belonging, Equity & Inclusion
Strategy 1: High interest text
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses high interest text, it allows students to see themselves within a text, build knowledge around a topic, provides opportunity for voice and choice, supports other content and makes topics more accessible to all students.
DESCRIPTION || High interest texts are intentionally selected around a specific topic designed to help all learners build background knowledge and vocabulary.
RATIONALE || When a teacher hosts a morning meeting it allows the classroom to build a positive community.
DESCRIPTION || Each morning, students and teachers interact with one another during four purposeful components (greeting, sharing activity, morning message). Students are allowed to share something about themselves in a safe environemnt, have a positive start to the day and build a community.
RATIONALE || When a teacher communicates with a parent/guardian, a partnership for learning is established.
DESCRIPTION || Send a welcome postcard, survey, weekly/quarterly email or flyer highlighting class content, positive phone calls home, send work home to share and receive feedback.
RATIONALE || When a culturally responsive classrooms is established, it provides learning envrionments where every student's cultures, languages and life experiences are acknowledged, valdiated and celebrated.
DESCRIPTION || Consider a variety of backgrounds and cultures when choosing bulletin boards, instructional examples, visuals, and books so that students will see themselves and feel like they belong.
RATIONALE || Recognizing students for following rules, directives, directions, and participating, is one of the most effective tools for managing, promoting, and correcting undesired behaviors.
DESCRIPTION || Teacher provides positive, behavior-specific feedback to students - Example: I love seeing you walk quietly in the hallway. To be most effective, teachers use the ratio of 5 positive interactions to one negative.
RATIONALE || When teachers teach and reinforce expectations it ensures students have an understanding of the expectations and creates a clear, consistent, positive environment.
DESCRIPTION || When teaching expectations the teacher states the expectation, provides rationale, models the behavior, asks students what they noticed and practices the expectations. The teacher then reinforces the expectations by remaining consistent and clear. Praise or review of expectations should be given when needed.
RATIONALE || When a teacher posts a visual schedule, it provides students with organization and structure, increases on task behavior, improves productivity, increases student independence and supports students who have difficulty with transitions.
DESCRIPTION || The schedule is placed in a central location that is visible to all. It may include subjects, periods, agenda, etc. in sequential order.
Strategy 3: Develop and Review Classroom Management Plan
RATIONALE || When teachers develop and use a classroom management plan effectively throughout the year, they hold students accountable for their own behaviors and hold the teacher accountable for reinforcing expecations and routines set up at the beginning of the year.
DESCRIPTION || A classroom management plan establishes procedures for student needs, such as: attention signal, transitions, using restroom, using classroom resources, and laptop usage
RATIONALE || When the teacher organizes the classroom materials in a way that all students have access to all that they need to enhance student learning, student achievement will increase and problem behaviors, caused by lack of organization, will decrease.
DESCRIPTION || Teachers organize their classrooms in a way that all students have physical access to all materials necessary to learn. Examples- books, teachers workbooks, manipulatives, pencils, etc.
CITATION || Differentiation in Middle & High School Strategies to Engage All Learners by Doubet and Hockett
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 2: Physical Space Matches the Learning
RATIONALE || When a teacher organizes the physical layout of the classroom to ensure safety, facilitate movement, and focus on learning, they can monitor the extent to which these activities enhance student learning.
DESCRIPTION || Design of classroom is purposeful in regard to teaching spaces and placement of resources. Pathways are clear for both students and teachers, furniture is arranged in a way that teacher is accessible at anytime.
RATIONALE || Providing posters and visuals in the classroom that support student learning ensures an organized environment that is free of distractions.
DESCRIPTION || Students assist with the creation of Anchor Charts and visuals that are displayed can be a resource for students to refer back to.
CITATION || [None]
DEMO || [None]
Managing Classroom Behaviors
Strategy 1: Boys Town Social Skills
RATIONALE || When teachers use this school-based intervention program, it provides all students with the positive behavior support they need to succeed.
DESCRIPTION || To create and sustain an orderly, effective learning environment.
RATIONALE || When teachers use a coupling statement for an unexpected behavior it is easy and fast, saves instructional time, minimizes distractions and behaviors, improves attention and focus, keeps the class on track, does not have significant negative association and can be done at any point of a lesson or activity.
DESCRIPTION || Teachers give a brief statement that pairs a behaviorally-specific description of the inappropriate behavior with a behaviorally-specific description of the appropriate alternative behavior. Example: You are running, please walk.
RATIONALE || Tier 1 systems, data, and practices impact everyone across all settings. They establish the foundation for delivering regular, proactive support and preventing unwanted behaviors.
DESCRIPTION || Teachers use building token economy system, student breaks, alternate seating, non-verbal cues, proximity, etc. to manage student behaviors
RATIONALE || When a teacher allocates a specific time to an activity or assignmnet, it creates a sense of urgency, teaches deadlines and time management.
DESCRIPTION || Use an online timer or other visible device so students are aware of how much time is given and the progress of time. Ask students how much time they need to finish a task. "Show me with your fingers how many more minutes you need," be thoughtful about how much time you are providing (don't offer 2 minutes for something that might take 30 seconds)
When a teacher internalizes their lesson to purposefully plan each activity and how to move students (mentally and/or physically) from one engagement to the next, more time is spent on the task.
DESCRIPTION || Be purposeful and know your next move. Pre-plan questions, explicitly give instructions before asking students to move, provide a link from new learning to previous learning.
RATIONALE || When a teacher has materials ready, students have more time on task, transition time is shorter and the path of the learning process is clear.
DESCRIPTION || Handouts copied, items shared on Google Classroom, slide show projected, audio and video tested, classroom set-up, materials are accessible, be prepared with examples and non-examples.
RATIONALE || When a teacher plans their instructional time vs. engaged time, they take into account how much time will be needed for input and modeling while maximizing the amount of time students will need to process and respond to the content.
DESCRIPTION || Sometimes new information is so new that students need to first see a visual representation and then require some information directly from their teacher to think about. Other times, it's best to set up a situation connecting to student schema and then group work to follow. Deciding the instructional mode (direct, student-centered, or facilitation) can be as important as choosing the content.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses visible student friendly learning goals, they become meaningful targets the students can see and direct their effort toward.
DESCRIPTION || Visible learning goals are student-friendly descriptions— via words, pictures, actions, or some combination of the three—of what you intend students to learn or accomplish in a given lesson.
CITATION || Explicit Instruction by Anita Archer, Classroom Instruction That Works by Marzano
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 2: Quality Components
RATIONALE || When a teacher includes the quality components of a clear learning goal, students have a clear understanding of the expected outcome.
CITATION || The Art and Science of Teaching by Marzano
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 3: Establish and Revisit
RATIONALE || When a teacher establishes and revisits the learning goal throughout a lesson, students learn more effectively by knowing what they are supposed to be learning, why they are learning it and are able to reflect on their progress towards reaching the goal.
DESCRIPTION || The learning goal is clearly stated and visible to the students and throughout the lesson or unit, it is revisted and students are given the opportunity to track their progress on reaching the goal through feedback provided by the teacher.
CITATION || The Art and Science of Teaching by Marzano
RATIONALE || When a teacher previews the learning, prior knowledge is activated to focus the students' attention before the actual lesson begins.
DESCRIPTION || Entrance ticket (review or preview questions or problems to solve), get students interested or curious about the learning, link to previous learning.
CITATION || The Art & Science of Teaching by Robert J. Marzano
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 2: Input
RATIONALE || When a teacher can single out a few well-structured input experiences as critical to student learning, students have a better opportunity to meet the objective/learning goal.
DESCRIPTION || I DO - Ask questions to identify prior knowledge, make links between previously learned and new learning, engage in a simulation, watch a demonstration, read, short video, lecture
CITATION || The Art & Science of Teaching by Robert J. Marzano
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 3: Modeling
RATIONALE || When a teacher can model a skill and demonstrate the thinking and decision making necessary to achieve or complete the task, students have a clearer picture of what proficiency looks like.
DESCRIPTION || I DO - Clearly demonstrate the process or product that students are expected to acquire or produce, use both modeling and/or models to explicityly show and tell the what and how of the task. Share examples and non-examples
CITATION || From Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching by Anita L. Archer and Charles A. Hughes.
Copyright 2011 by The Guilford Press. All rights reserved. The Art and Science of Teaching by Robert J. Marzano
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 4: Check for Understanding
RATIONALE || When a teacher takes the time to check for understanding it increases the chances that students will experience success rather than confusion or frustration during the practice. Successful students are more likely to be motivated to continue learning. Teachers can then reflect on the pace of the lesson, should they move forward or back up.
DESCRIPTION || Check for Understanding is used before students are asked to practice, it can also be used duirng the set to check what students previously know about the learning or in the closure to summarize the key ideas of the lesson. This involves all students in overt response, students receive positve and corrective feedback, it relates to the objective and the desired level of thinking.
CITATION || Mastery Teaching by Madeline Hunter
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 5: Guided Practice
RATIONALE || When a teacher allows students to practice their new knowledge or skill under their direct supervision, errors at the beginning of learning can easily be corrected.
DESCRIPTION || WE DO - The teacher leads the students through the steps necessary to perform or complete the task, making observations of see/hear/do. This can also be achieved through cooperative learning and peer tutoring.
CITATION || The Art & Science of Teaching by Robert J. Marzano
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 6: Independent Practice
RATIONALE || When a teacher is sure that students understand the content, independent practice is assigned so students can work on their own, based on the learning that occurred during the lesson.
DESCRIPTION || YOU DO - The teacher provides opportunities for students to practice or demonstrate their new knowledge or skill.
CITATION || The Art & Science of Teaching by Robert J. Marzano
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 7: Closure
RATIONALE || When a teacher plans closure, students have the opportunity to review and clarify key points of the learning.
DESCRIPTION || Closure occurs in the minds of the learner, not in the mind of the teacher. Closure can encourage the students to extend their thinking, to make connections to what they have already learned or will be learning next. Closure involves all students and relates to the learning goal.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses distributive and cumulative practice it leads to stronger retention by providing students with multiple opportunities to continue using a skill
DESCRIPTION || Distributed practice refers to multiple opportunities to practice a skill over time.
Cumulative practice is a method for providing distributed practice by including practice opportunities that address both previously and newly acquired skills.
RATIONALE || When a teacher monitors student learning they interpret the stuent behavior and then act on that interpretation.
DESCRIPTION || Teachers closely track their students' progress and use strategies (such as differentiation) for adjusting instructional activities to meet the students' learning needs.
RATIONALE || When a teacher reteaches, the teacher constantly has their finger on the pulse of the classroom, finding misunderstandings and fixing them before they become large-scale problems.
DESCRIPTION || Teachers teach again a specific objective or skill that students did not learn.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses retrieval practices with students, it allows for the learning to "stick," it strengthens memory, improves understanding, and improves transfer of knowledge to new content.
DESCRIPTION || "Some Retrieval Practices Include:
-Verbal Retell to Partner
-Quick Write
-Low Stakes Quiz
-Bell Work
-Exit Ticket
"
CITATION || Dean, C. B., Hubbell, E. R., Pitler, H., Stone, B. J., & Marzano, R. J. (2012). Classroom instruction that works: Research-based strategies for increasing student achievement. Alexandria, Va: ASCD
Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses instructional scaffolding with students it allows students to be successful with new skills or concepts. Teachers provide temporary supports to students and the supports are gradually removed as students master the concepts.
DESCRIPTION || To provide scaffolding support, a teacher would pre-assess to determine what students know, begin with what students can do, provide supports to help them be successful (organizers, adjust work load, provide checklists, etc.), then gradually release supports when students are ready.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses flexible grouping, it provides opportunities for students to be a part of many different groups based on their readiness, interest, or learning style.
DESCRIPTION || "To use flexible grouping, a teacher would first pre-assess to determine what students know. Depending on the purpose of the groups, the teacher would then decide whether the groups would be homogenous or heterogenous and whether they may be student-selected or teacher-selected. The teacher would monitor student growth and adjust groups as needed.
"
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses a choice board, they provide students the opportunity to make their own choices, which increases intrinsic motivation and therefore increases meaningful learning. Students are more likely to internalize content if a learning activity is interesting to them or if they can make a connection to their own life.
DESCRIPTION || A choice board gives students a menu of possible tasks to accomplish. This is a structured way to allow for student choice and incorporate high-interest content. A teacher can do this by providing a varitey of meaningful tasks and the students can choose which task they would like to complete.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses personalized learning they allow students to become partners in their learning which allows the students to understand how they learn best so they can be self-directed and own their learning.
DESCRIPTION || Personalized learning is when educational experiences are both individualized and differentiated. It accounts for learner preferences by empowering each learner's voice and academic preferences. Personalized learning includes: knowing your learners, voice and choice, flexibility of mindset, groups and space, data informed decisions and technology integration.
CITATION || Tapping the Power of Personalized Learning by Dr. James Rickabaugh
RATIONALE || An effective lesson ends with an activity in which students reflect on their experience. When a teacher uses an Exit Ticket routinely, they will see a positive influence on student achievement.
DESCRIPTION || An Exit Ticket is one of the easiest ways to obtain information about student's current levels of understanding. An exit ticket can be a card or piece of paper where a student responds to a prompt from the teacher. The specific prompt reflects the information the teacher wants to gather.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses this strategy, it helps students identify and understand the most important aspects of what they are learning
DESCRIPTION || To effectively summarize, students must delete, substitute and keep information.
CITATION || Marzano - Classroom Instruction that Works
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 3: Opportunities to Respond
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses frequent opportunities to respond, in both large and small groups, by requiring students to say, write, and/or do things, attention, on-task behavior, and learning will increase and behavioral challenges will decrease.
DESCRIPTION || Opportunities to Respond include choral response, partner response, response slates/cards, sentence expansion, hand signals and gestures
See Principal 4
CITATION || Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching
Strategy 4: Questions, cues and advance organizers
RATIONALE || Providing cues and asking questions activates prior knowledge and gives students a hint about what they are about to experience. When a teacher provides questions, it is an opportunity to assess what students do not already know.
DESCRIPTION || Explicit cues and questions activate students' prior knowledge by bringing to mind relevant personal experiences or situations that they encounter on a daily basis. They remind students of what they have already learned and help them build a framework for the new learning that will take place.
CITATION || Marzano - Classroom Instruction that Works
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 5: Chunking
RATIONALE || When the teacher identifies the chunks within a critical input experience and offers students an opportunity to process the content, student learning proceeds more efficiently.
DESCRIPTION || The teacher determines the nature and size of these chunks and then provides students opportunites to process the content by summarizing, responding to questions, etc...
CITATION || Marzano - The Art and Science of Teaching
DEMO || [None]
Feedback to Learners
Strategy 1: Affirmative Feedback
RATIONALE || When a teacher affirms effort and behavior, the praise can enhance academic learning, increase on-task behavior, shape future actions, improve student-teacher relationships and help create a more positive learning climate.
DESCRIPTION || The goal is to strengthen future performance. Tie the praise specifically to the behavior that met the requirements, use quick and affirming words or phrases as you circulate, be genuine, and recognize performance that is exemplary for a particular class or student
CITATION || Archer (Element 13) & Marzano - Classroom Instruction that Works
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 2: Specifc and Corrective Feedback
RATIONALE || When teachers provide immediate feedback to students about the accuracy of their work, it helps
ensure high rates of success and reduces the likelihood of practicing errors.
DESCRIPTION || Reduce the distance between the current response and the desired response by providing planned and specific information, focus on the correct answer versus the incorrect answer, use an appropriate tone when correcting errors and have students give the correct response.
CITATION || Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. (chapter 7)
Marzano - Classroom Instruction that Works"
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 3: Timely
RATIONALE || When teachers provide immediate feedback to students about the accuracy of their work, it helps ensure high rates of success and reduces the likelihood of practicing errors.
DESCRIPTION || Correct errors immediately before moving on to reduce practice errors.
CITATION || Archer (Element 13) & Marzano - Classroom Instruction that Works
DEMO || [None]
Principle 4: ACTIVE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
Active Participation
Strategy 1: Corners
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses Corners, learning is enhanced when participants identify interests within a topic and have an opportunity to comunicate with peers
DESCRIPTION || Corners requires students to show their position on a specific statement by standing in a particular corner of the room. This technique can be used as a warm-up activity by asking students to respond to a statement about what they are studying or as a follow-up activity by asking students to apply what they have learned.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses Give One to Get One in their class, students are able to share their ideas with others, generate new ideas and have an increase in communication skills.
DESCRIPTION || The teacher will ask a question or provide a sentence stem and students will write their own response(s). Students will then walk around and share their idea with a partner. Partners then exchange their papers and find a new person to share that idea with. At a signal, everyone returns to their seat and shares what they learned.
RATIONALE || When a teacher can break down a longer text into smaller sections, students will be less overwhelmed with the content. Using this technique emphasizes cooperative learning by giving students the opportunity to help each other build comprehension.
DESCRIPTION || The teacher will break up a longer text into smaller chunks (1-2 paragraphs) that students will work together in groups to become experts on the content read. Students then move to a new group and teach that group their portion of the text.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses small fires groups, it sets a norm for respectful listening, creates a safe space for sharing ideas and allows for small group processing.
DESCRIPTION || Students gather in a small group with only chairs (knee to knee) and share with each other about the topic given to them or answer an assigned discussion question. Someone from the group summarizes and reports out to the large group at the end.
RATIONALE || When a teacher plans a gallery walk, students have the opportunity to see the work of their peers and showcase what they have accomplished. In chat stations, students can examine a piece of content or short video and discuss with peers.
DESCRIPTION || Stations or posters are set up around the classroom, on the walls or on tables. Small groups of students travel from station to station together, performing some kind of task or responding to a prompt, either of which will result in a conversation. In chat stations, students are prompted with a discussion question and sentence starter to engage in a conversation.
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses choral response, it increases the frequency of student responses and helps students retain knowledge.
DESCRIPTION || When you are teaching and the oral answers you request are short and there is only one correct answer, all students can be asked to say it together. It is particularly powerful when used to practice or review factual information.
CITATION || Link & Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. (chapter 6)
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses written responses, it provides a scaffolded way to elicit responses from all students and move them toward a firm grasp of conepts or infomration. It allows teachers to correct errors and clarify misconceptions, reteach information or move forward in the lesson.
DESCRIPTION || This can be used at the beginnin of a lesson to retrieve previous content, during a lesson to summarize content or at the end of the lesson to pull information from notest or text. Examples: Writing frames, sentence starters, response slates/cards, summary statements, etc..
CITATION || Link & Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. (chapter 6)
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 3: Individual Verbal Responses
RATIONALE || When a teacher elicits an individual verbal response, hold all students responsible for the thinking, avoid calling on volunteers, and encourage all students to be ready with an answer.
DESCRIPTION || Partner First - share with a partner, lock in an answer
Question First - ask a question, provide think time, call on a student randomly
Whip Around or Pass - when there are multiple answers, have every student think about an answer and offer a pass option if they don't have an answer
CITATION || Link & Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. (chapter 6)
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 4: Partner Responses
RATIONALE || When a teacher used partner responses it benefits both teachers and students. As students are sharing answers, teachers can move around the room, listen to numerous responses and provide feedback. Students talking enhances thinking and they benefit from their partners' ideas, which will often spark new ideas.
DESCRIPTION || All children are involved as they either say the answer or listen to their partners' responses.Think-pair-share, think and write-pair and write-share, study-tell-help-check, pause procedure, team responses, Kagan strategies, numbered heads together.
CITATION || Link & Kagan Strategies & Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. (chapter 6)
DEMO || [None]
Strategy 5: Action Responses
RATIONALE || When a teacher uses action responses, this increases students' interest, attention, and pleasure. It makes the content easier to remember and abstract concepts easier to understand. This allows the teacher to monitor responses of all students quickly and correct errors and clarify misconceptions during instruction.
DESCRIPTION || Students respond with a designated action, such as touching or pointing at a stimulus, responding with gestures, giving hand signals, or action out an answer. Touch/Pointing, Action Out/Responding with Gestures or Facial Expressions, Hand Signals, etc...
CITATION || Link & Archer, A. L. & Hughes C. A. (2011). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. (chapter 6)
