Keys to Strong Instruction in Teaching

How’s your instruction? Are you hitting all the key points of good instruction? What should observers see in your instruction when they come into your classroom? These are all questions we ask ourselves and wonder. Sometimes it’s nice to do some self-reflection and see if you are hitting all the marks. The following chart shows the basic “LOOK-FORS” in strong instruction. As part of professional development it is always good to do some self-reflection. Video-recording a section of your instruction and then reflecting has also shown to objectively assess your instruction.

Use this chart as a tool to do an instructional check-up on yourself.

Look-Fors	Teacher
Use of Time Transitions from one activity to another. Time spent with individual students or small groups Time spent getting lesson/class started
Pacing Too fast, too slow Time spent in each lesson component.
Questioning Connect to lesson target/objective Assess understanding Stretch students to think beyond yes/no
Clarity of Presentation Modeling – Clarifying – Providing clear directions
Student Movement Positive: quickly transitioning, following directions, taking initiative Negative: getting out of seat frequently, fidgeting, interfering with others
Differentiation Scaffolding of lesson to meet diverse student needs
Material Management Materials are ready for the instruction Student and teacher materials organized to support flow of lesson Handouts are clear, meaningful and appropriate
Classroom Arrangement Furniture placement Visual supports on walls Environment for learning Provision for multiple uses of space
Monitoring / Checking for Understanding Monitoring student progress during independent work time Pauses at appropriate point in lesson to check for student understanding
Student Engagement Positive: Volunteering responses on task student-student interaction, listening, carrying out roles Negative: speaking out while off task, off task student-student interaction, interrupting, interfering
Participation Strategies Use of cold call to ensure variety of student voices Use of discussion protocols Opportunities for partner or small group collaboration

Parents or Adults Helping in Your Classroom

Do you have adults coming into your classroom wanting to help or parents wanting to know what they can do at home? Here is a handout you can print and have on hand for them to work on comprehension. Remember comprehension is a transfer skill. Children have to develop the ability to recall and retell life events first. Only then are we able to transfer the skill of recall and retell to reading.

Working on Comprehension

Below is a chart to be used as a guide for adults working with students on understanding what they read.

Activities	Reasoning Why
Building Relationships: Be a good listener Don’t judge /Don’t fact-find If something comes up that is a concern, tell the teacher or supervisor that they need to ask the student about what happened. Let the teacher of supervisor investigate.	Students/Children need the nurturing that can come from an adult, take the time to get to know them. If something comes up we want you to keep your relationship and trust. Your job is just to let the person in charge know there might be a concern they need to address.
Have the students tell you a story. Ask Questions to clarify their story.	Having the students tell you a story helps them with building their comprehension. It makes them sequence.
Have the students tell you a story using pictures from a book. You may use a book that just has cool pictures and you don't read the story to the child. Ask Questions to clarify their story.	The end goal is for the students to be able to write a story about an event. They often need more practice telling about an event or story before writing. Writing is a higher skill than telling.
Read to the children. As you read ask them questions about what they think will happen. Ask them to retell the story to you. Have them use the picture of the story to retell.	Modeling reading is always great. As adult readers we intuitively ask questions. Children need to learn this skill. By you stopping and asking them those questions they will learn to transfer questioning to their own reading. Having them retell the story builds their own comprehension skills.
Have the students read to you. When the student comes to a word they don’t know, just say the word for them. Have them tell about what they read.	Having students read to someone is always beneficial. Just telling the student any unknown words allows the flow of the reading to continue and doesn’t take the child’s focus off of remembering what they read.

Dr. Scott’s Creative Teaching

Start of School Think Abouts!

The first couple of days of school is where you set the routines for the year. Taking the time now to think about some basic things will make your school year go so much smoother.

• When the students enter the classroom, what do they need to do?
• What is your attention signal?
• Behavior management plan
• Restroom usage
• Pencil sharpening
• Cell phone rule
• Passing out materials routine
• Submitting assignments
• Emergency evacuation (fire drill)

These are just a few areas to address the first day of school. As you think about these take the time to write each one out. After you have them all written out print them and put them into your sub-folder for any substitutes you might have during the year. By completing this task you will not only help your students’ year go smoothly, but also your year will be fantastic and any substitutes will know your expectations of the students.

Have a great start of the school year!

Time to be Thinking About the School Year!

Time to be thinking about the start of a new school year. For some this will be their first year in the classroom while others this may be the year they are completing their career. Either way your year will be determined by the people you hangout with during the year. They can be Marigolds or Walnuts.  Jennifer Gonzalez on her blog has a great article about working with others in your districts. Find your Marigold and stick close and avoid the Walnuts.

Are you a Marigold or a Walnut? Read her article and you will quickly find out what type you are. If you’re a Walnut, I encourage you to become a Marigold. It will change your life and your perspective of school.

Have a great year!

Technology in the ESOL Classroom

Teachers who are not embracing the use of the technology of today may be putting their ESOL students at a disadvantage. Students have more access than ever before to a wonderful instructional tool through the use of the ever-changing and improving technology that is available today.

A major hold back may be the instructors themselves. Shapiro (2014) shared that many teachers express excitement about technology yet fail to implement such technology activities into their classrooms. She states there seems to be a disconnect between understanding and implementation. Shapiro (2014) states that instructors have shared they often feel administrators will not support their use of technology, and she also expressed that instructors are allowing technology to provide the instruction rather than incorporating it for maximum learning benefit.  The direct opposite could happen with technology in that the instructors would be able to meet their students individual learning requirements at their appropriate levels, which would a allow for greater instructional student engagement during the class period.

We need to move beyond the 1980’s and 90’s with technology. Today students are able to know within hours that major events have happened around the world. They come to school equipped with technology, which instructors need to empower the students to use technology to advance their learning and not suppress the use of it. With the use of technology teachers are able to provide their students with differentiated instruction providing a possibly higher relevant learning experience for the students. One size fits all no longer applies when it comes to learning, therefore instruction and the tools we use to accomplish it need to adjust to meet the needs of our learners.

References:

Shapiro, J. (2014). The blame game: Who’s really holding back innovation in schools-teachers or administrators?, Slate. ASU Publishing

Salomon, G. (2016). It’s not just the tool but the educational rationale that counts. In Educational Technology and Polycontextual Bridging (pp. 149-161). Sense Publishers.

Don’t Blame if You’re NOT Going to Fund!

Watching the news the other evening one of the lead stories I saw was about the failing schools in our state in comparison to other states and countries. The story went on to imply that the schools were responsible for our students failing.  Legislators even took a stab at the teachers implying that teachers were not doing their jobs. As an educator this was disturbing knowing the hours teachers put into their planning for their students.

Later in the broadcast these same news anchors were reporting on the state budget and sharing the proposed cuts to the state’s education funding.  Million dollar cuts! As I listen they showed interviews of legislators explaining we are just spending too much money on education and to balance the budget, cuts would have to come in the Department of Education.

What comes first the chicken or the egg? If you are not going to fund education then don’t blame the schools for not doing their job because of low performance scores. There is a reason the ride in the Cadillac is smoother and quieter than the ride in the Chevy Cruz. People who bought the Cadillac paid for the technology and engineering  to make that ride smoother and quieter.  Those who chose the Chevy Cruz received a dependable car that provided them good transportation.

Wake up lawmakers! You can’t pass regulations without support. Educating our youth is expensive if you want all schools to be preforming at high levels. You can’t cut funding and expect high-performing schools. There is a significant difference when the teacher to student ratio is lower. Teachers are able to have more contact with each student and provide specific support for their success. This has been supported through research. Buildings and materials are just as important for schools to be successful.

If you kill the chicken for dinner, don’t expect eggs in the morning.