CLO 1 - Describe the diversity of students and its impacts on schools.

CLO 2 - Examine various educational models and the role of schools in communities and with government. 

CLO 3 - Analyze teacher practice and decision-making. 

CLO 4 - Explore the professional and ethical complexities of teaching. 

CLO 5 - Synthesize foundational elements of education into a personal philosophy of education and teaching. 

CLO 6 - Evaluate professional learning of pre-service and in-service teachers and educators. 

Academic Vocabulary in the Field of Education

Professionalism in Teaching - Professionalism is a multifaceted concept encompassing a teacher's attitudes, behaviors, and skills. A Professional teacher demonstrates dedication to their student's success, a strong knowledge of their subject and teaching methods, and a commitment to ethical behavior and continuous improvement.

Ethics - Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually regarding rights, obligations, societal benefits, fairness, or specific virtues. 

The Danielson Framework for Teaching - The Framework for Teaching (FFT) was designed to enhance professional practice. In many ways, it was the first of its kind and has stood the test of time. Over the last two and a half decades, the FFT has been used by countless educators worldwide, and the Danielson Group has partnered with thousands of organizations supporting educators in 49 states, U.S. territories, and 15 other countries. We’ve seen the FFT’s power to accelerate teacher growth, improve student outcomes, and create a more rewarding and sustaining professional environment. The FFT has directly impacted student learning and development by supporting teacher reflection, collaboration, inquiry, and innovation.

Engagement in learning - A measure of a student's level of interaction with others, plus the quantity of involvement in and quality of effort directed toward activities that lead to persistence and completion. The key to achieving engagement in teaching is creating a dynamic where teachers and students are invested in learning. This collaborative approach fosters a deeper understanding of the material, a love of learning, and a positive school experience for everyone.

Primary Concept - As a teacher what am I expected to demonstrate regarding effective instruction in the classroom? 

Hawai'i Department of Education - The Educator Effectiveness System (EES) is a comprehensive evaluation system that sets clear expectations for effective teaching, provides educators with quality feedback and support to improve their effectiveness with students, and informs professional development.

To help students succeed in college and careers, it is imperative that the Hawaii State Department of Education (HIDOE) support our educators to become highly effective in their schools and classrooms. This means that administrators and teachers need feedback, coaching and data that inform them about how to improve their practice and make an impact. We are holding ourselves accountable at all levels of the organization for providing support and getting results for students. ​

Under Board of Education Policy 203.4, the EES is centered on two categories:

• Teacher Practice 

• Student Learning and Growth

Within those categories, teachers receive feedback, support, and evaluation on three components:

• Classroom Observations, using the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching for classroom teachers or Working Portfolios for non-classroom teachers;

• Core Professionalism, using the Charlotte Danielson Framework for Teaching, and reflecting on data and feedback from the Panorama Student Survey and Hawaii Growth Model​;

• Student Success Plans (SSPs)* / School-System Improvement Objectives (SSIO), focusing on standards-aligned learning goals and integrating the data team process to monitor student progress.

Based on their scores in each of these categories, educators receive an overall rating of:

• Highly Effective

• Effective

• Marginal

• Unsatisfactory

Primary Concept - What is effective instruction?

Primary Concept - What are professional expectations for effective practice in the Danielson's Framework for Teaching? 

Danielson's Framework for Teaching is a standard professional teaching framework for observing a teacher's classroom practice.  It is well-known by educational professionals, educational researchers, classroom teachers, and school administrators in the State of Hawaiʻi.  We highlight components of this framework by values put forth by the Hawaii Department of Education (HIDOE).  The five components used in the DOE for your instructional observation and evaluations of new teachers are required to achieve tenure status. 

2b Developing Classroom Culture - Teachers should ensure students value learning and know the expectations, including learning targets, outcomes, and evaluative measures. Additionally, teachers should work to support students in developing into quality learners, including effort, commitment, initiative, evaluation, accuracy, and accountability.

2d Behavior Management - Teachers are responsible for setting norms and behavioral expectations. Additionally, teachers prevent, monitor, and respond to student behaviors appropriately and effectively.

3b Questioning and Discussion - Teachers should use various questioning techniques to encourage critical and well-reasoned thinking. Rigorous and challenging questions deepen students' comprehension of a topic and support their achievement of learning goals. Quality questions are the foundation of meaningful student participation and dialogue.

3c Student Engagement - Teachers are responsible for creating a learning environment where students actively seek knowledge, skills, and experiences.  This can be encouraged by designing effective and challenging instruction, managing scaffolding, chunking, and timing of instructional activities, providing meaningful and diverse instructional materials, and creating diverse opportunities for interpersonal and intrapersonal engagement.

3d Assessing Student Learning - Teachers need to know whether students are learning in order to develop insight into whether instruction is effective or needs to be adjusted. Having clear learning targets, assessment criteria, and instruction designed to reach those targets is essential in this process. Additionally, teachers should monitor student progress in learning tasks and provide meaningful and timely feedback. 

Primary Concept - How do we use effective student engagement practices in Danielson's Framework for Teaching? 

Arguably the most important aspect of teaching is keeping students engaged. This goes hand in hand with classroom management. If you have effective engagement strategies, you do not have classroom management or discipline problems. 

It is true, effective instruction can cure behavioral challenges. Through relationship building and a toolbox full of engagement strategies, a teacher can successfully manage a class, and learning will happen! 

The effective teacher chooses strong activities, tasks, and assignments that spark students' interests, and not necessarily straight from the textbook. They group their students for specific needs. They also change up what instruction looks like through different learning structures, as well as pacing.

The ability to challenge student's thinking, while creating an atmosphere of agency, as well as keeping students connected is an art form. 

You must ask yourself, "Who is working harder in the classroom, the teacher or the student?" 

Exemplary teachers build a toolbox that can be used in all instructional areas and they believe that engagement is found in the mind, voice, and body. Students in these classrooms are "working harder" than the teachers, in that they are engaging their minds in multiple ways through many different kinds of tasks. 

Every lesson should include components that can naturally engage students in the activity, task, or assignment. 

Effective teachers...

• know when to add more conversation, hands-on materials, visuals, technology, and more. 

• Keep up on best practices and what students are interested in; they are not afraid to take risks.

• Read their students' body language. 

• Change their lesson structure by adding in more learning structures to get them talking about the content. 

• Using the student's energy and talkative nature can lead to deeper discussions and engagement that is more appropriate. 

• Realize that students may have to adjust the lesson when they do not understand a concept. For example, students who cannot grasp the abstract idea of an algebra equation may have to pull out a visual or manipulative. Using a scale to model the equation can make the concept more concrete for students. This is also true for extending an idea to a more complex level. When using an algebra equation to solve a volume problem, a teacher can use a real-world scenario involving a ratio of the correct amount of cocoa for the perfect cup of hot chocolate.

• Introduce a concept at the concrete level, then advance to the pictorial or symbolic level, and lastly to the abstract level. 

• Use discussion to drive instruction. 

• Understand the learning and scaffolding pyramid. " Talking at students" is the lowest comprehension level expectation. In contrast, students collaborate with others, developing and creating ideas, systems, and projects to be applied in the real world at the highest comprehension level. 

• Build in time for everyone to discuss motivations and new, important concepts with the teacher, whole group, small group, and in pairs or triads.

• Use different levels of structures to get responses.

• Use simple or complex strategies like "Think-Pair-Share," Socratic Circle, or Kagan Cooperative structure.

• Ride the fine line between too much discussion and not enough content, as well as when discussion occurs within a lesson. 

• Understand the content so well that they know that they expect specific questions ahead of time. 

• Understands the "give and take" between the teacher and students. 

• Use formative assessment checks throughout the lesson to help predict a positive learner outcome.

• Thinks..." The students are talking more than me; I am doing my job." 

• Can "read a class" that is overly chatty and decide to increase discussion 

Engagement as...Objectives & Outcomes 

Engagement as Objectives & Outcomes - We want to decide what level of thinking and action you want your students to participate in during any given activity. Of course, lots of educators throw around the term "critical thinkers," but what does that actually look like? How can we create activities that lead to the level of critical thinking we know our students will need? What are the things students need TO DO in order to be at that level?

We can use our understanding of Marzano's taxonomy to begin building activities that we know will best support our students. Remember, higher-level thinking and student engagement are built on a foundation of lower-level student actions and using diverse modes of learning. Yes, we eventually want our students to apply knowledge of routines, but we need them to be able to identify those routines first!

Learning targets are what students will be able to do, which is why many objectives start with "SWBAT," or "Students Will Be Able To...". The year plan or syllabus is an active document, it provides an overview of the course, it can be adjusted at any time during the year. It should include some standards or learning objectives. These objectives often live in assessments that help us to measure whether students have learned. When students do things, we can see whether or not they have learned. Students' success and the effectiveness of a teacher are based on students' abilities to complete assessment tasks. 

An effective way to create learning targets is to use Marzano's Taxonomy of Thinking Skills & action verbs. The following are important concepts we want to consider when planning using a learning taxonomy:

Higher-Order Thinking and Planning

4 - Highest Level - Using Knowledge (APPLYING THE KNOWLEDGE & DEEPENING UNDERSTANDING)

• Decision Making

• Problem Solving

• Experimenting

• Evaluation

3 - Next Level - Analyzing Knowledge (APPLYING THE KNOWLEDGE & DEEPENING UNDERSTANDING)

• Comparing

• Classifying

• Analyzing Errors

• Inductive Reasoning

• Deductive Reasoning 

2 - Next Level - Comprehending Knowledge (BUILDING THE BACKGROUND)

• Symbolizing

• Integrating

• Synthesizing knowledge 

• Combining lists

• Developing Themes 

1 - Low Level - Retrieving Knowledge (BUILDING THE BACKGROUND)

• Recalling

• Recognizing

• Executing

• Generating lists

In this case, it's good to think about what actions your students will take that will help you measure how well they've learned. What will that look like? What specific things will you see your students doing that show success?

What Do You Want Students to do? (SWBAT or Students Will Be Able To)... or (the student-first language of "At the end of this lesson, I can...")

Lower Cognitive Challenge - You're expecting learners to recall an idea, phenomenon, or fact in somewhat the same form they learned.

• • • Arrange, check, cite, choose, define, describe, duplicate, find, group, hold, identify, label, list, locate, match, memorize, name, omit, order, pick, quote, read, recall, recite, recognize, relate, repeat, reproduce, reset, review, say, select, show, sort, spell, state, tell, touch, underline, write.

Middle Cognitive Challenge - You're expecting learners to explain an idea in somewhat the same form in which they learned it.

• • • Arrange, calculate, classify, comprehend, construct, convert, define, describe, discuss, estimate, explain, express, identify, illustrate, indicate, infer, interpret, locate, paraphrase, predict, recognize, report, restate, summarize.

Middle Cognitive Challenge - You expect learners to communicate an idea or thing in a new or different form, see the relationship among things, qualify ideas about one's own experiences, and project the effects of things.

• • • Analyze, appraise, arrange, calculate, categorize, compare, contrast, correlate, criticize, deduce, diagram, differentiate, discriminate, dissect, distinguish, examine, experiment, investigate, point out, prioritize, question, research, sequence, survey, test.

Higher Cognitive Challenge - You're expecting learners to break things down into their parts and uncover the unique characteristics of a "thing," think creatively (divergently), and take things and pattern them in a new way. 

• • • Adapt, arrange, assemble, build, collaborate, collect, combine, compile, compose, construct, create, derive, design, develop, express, formulate, generalize, generate, hypothesize, incorporate, integrate, invent, make, manage, modify, organize, perform, plan, prepare, produce, program, propose, report, revise, set up, write. 

Higher Cognitive Challenge: You're expecting learners to think creatively (divergently), take things and pattern them in a new way, make judgments about "things" based on either external or internal conditions or criteria, and make or create new or original "things."

• • • Appraise, argue, assess, attach, award, choose, classify, compare, conclude, criticize, critique, decide, defend, determine, estimate, evaluate, infer, judge, justify, predict, prioritize, rank, rate, recommend, select, support, validate, value.

Remember - being lower on the taxonomy is not necessarily a bad thing. We all need to roll over, crawl, toddle, and walk before we can run! What's important is understanding how lower-level activities (e.g., arranging events in chronological order) can eventually help students reach higher-level cognitive activities (e.g., determining cause and effect). This will help you plan lessons that properly support student growth.

• Text: Marzano's Taxonomy for Processing Knowledge

• Text: Marzano's Taxonomy Sentence Stems 

• More info about "Students Will Be Able To" - SWBAT

Engagement as...Motivation and Instructional Strategies

What has been called the "hook," "anticipatory set," or simply the "introduction," is the very first portion of a lesson that gets students interested in the learning that is forthcoming. Developing teachers start the lesson without considering the importance of the first few minutes. Proficient teachers start by stating the lesson's objective and rationale; they answer the question of why the students are going to learn the concept. Exemplary teachers spend time finding an exciting hook that gets students' interest peaked and can continue this engagement level throughout the lesson. 

• Help students discover the personal relevance of learning.

• Connect classwork to life outside of the classroom. 

• Create opportunities for student choice. Strategies: 

• When students ask why they are learning something, engage them in authentic reflection and connection: avoid shallow or coercive answers, like “because it’s going to be on the test” or “because I said so.” 

• Connect lessons to students’ lives outside of class and demonstrate knowledge and caring about their lives.

• Provide a range of options for engaging in learning and completing assignments so that each student can find an option that appeals to them.     

Engagement as...Diverse Instruction

Diverse Instruction as Engagement - Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (MI) suggests that there isn't just one type of intelligence but several. This framework can be conducive to understanding and nurturing students' strengths. 

Visual-Spatial - think about physical space, as do architects and sailors. Very aware of their environments. They like drawing, doing jigsaw puzzles, reading maps, and daydreaming. They can be taught through drawings and verbal and physical imagery. Tools include models, graphics, charts, photographs, illustrations, 3-D modeling, video, videoconferencing, television, multimedia, and texts with pictures/charts/graphs. For example,  a high school English teacher uses film to teach Common Core skills!

Bodily-kinesthetic - people use the body effectively, like dancers or surgeons. They have a keen sense of body awareness. They like movement, making things, and touching. They communicate well through body language and are taught through physical activity, hands-on learning, acting out, and role-playing. Tools include equipment and real objects.

Musical - show sensitivity to rhythm and sound. They love music, but they are also sensitive to sounds in their environments. They may study better with music in the background. They can be taught by turning lessons into lyrics, speaking rhythmically, tapping out time. Tools include musical instruments, music, radio, stereo, CD, multimedia.

Interpersonal - understanding and interacting with others. These students learn through interaction. They have many friends, empathy for others, and street smarts. They can be taught through group activities, seminars, and dialogues. Tools include the telephone, audio conferencing, time and attention from the instructor, video conferencing, writing, computer conferencing, and E-mail.

Intrapersonal - understanding one's own interests, goals. These learners tend to shy away from others. They're in tune with their inner feelings; they have wisdom, intuition, and motivation, as well as a strong will, confidence and opinions. They can be taught through independent study and introspection. Tools include books, creative materials, diaries, privacy and time. They are the most independent of the learners.

Linguistic: using words effectively. These learners have highly developed auditory skills and often think in words. They like reading, playing word games, and making up poetry or stories. They can be taught by encouraging them to say and see words and read books together. Tools include computers, games, multimedia, books, recorders, and lectures.

Logical-mathematical: reasoning, calculating. They think conceptually and abstractly and are able to see and explore patterns and relationships. They like to experiment, solve puzzles, and ask cosmic questions. They can be taught through logic games, investigations, and mysteries. They need to learn and form concepts before they can deal with details.

Expert - Learning from someone with many years of experience and knowledge about a topic.

Technology - Using technology to enhance learning opportunities.

Natural World - Learn from being outside or in the actual environment of the studied topic.

Teachers must think meta-cognitively about the level of complexity of the question or task, the student's strengths, and the concept's concrete-to-abstract nature. They can use best-practice instructional strategies and materials to engage students. Here is a short list of common teacher engagement ideas that have an infinite number of variations:

• Discussion

• Writing

• Movement

• Visuals

• Technology

• Magic

• Real-life Stories or Events

• Quotes or testimonials

• Art

• Passion Projects

• Total Participation Techniques (see below)

There are many common and quick engagement strategies that you can use in your classroom. 

For example, it's effortless to use a "think, pair, and share." A teacher will pose a question to the students. Students then think meta-cognitively on their own first. Then, the teacher pairs them up, and they share their answers. In this fashion, all students are engaged covertly with their minds, then they share out with a partner overtly. In addition to learning structures, a teacher can add active participation techniques, or Total Participation Techniques, into their engagement toolbox. These techniques are different from learning structures in a couple of ways: First, these techniques are used to keep students engaged for a more extended period during a lesson; second, they may or may not be a part of an overall learning structure, and they may stand alone if used effectively. 

Here is by no means an exhaustive list. Remember, you just want to incorporate a few into your teaching as you become more competent in engagement strategies.  

• Timed Think Pair Share

• Socratic Circles

• Inside-Outside Circle

• Rally Robin

• Rally Coach

• Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up

• Four Corners

• Jig Saw

• Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down - agreement, disagreement, or for voting purposes

• White Boards - used to show written response

• Kahoot Quiz can be used to quiz students or as a poll for all to view classroom results; it can also be used in a game format.

• Pinch Cards - used for students to hold up the given response according to what is on the card (i.e. A, B, C, D, 1, 2, 3, or True, False, etc.…)

• Notetaking - students write down notes in some manner

• Ranking or Ordering - students putting items in a rank order or some other fashion

• Stand Up/Sit Down - getting students moving according to given questions

• Padlet - Using a web 2.0 tool for all students to respond

• Quick Draw - using a whiteboard or paper, students draw the answer

• Likert Scale Scoring - students use a numbered system to score questions, tasks, opinions, etc…

Engagement as...Quality Questions 

Quality questions for students - What questions will you ask students to challenge their thinking and to let you know that they are ready or have completed the learning of the objectives?  (Write down some questions you will use for temperature checks and formative assessments with questions). Check out some simple questions here.

High-quality questions cause students to think and reflect, deepen their understanding, and test their ideas against their classmates. When teachers ask high-quality questions, they only ask a few of them and give students sufficient time to think about their responses, reflect on their classmates' comments, and deepen their understanding. Occasionally, for review, teachers ask students a series of (usually low-level) questions in a verbal quiz. This technique may help establish the facts of a historical event, for example, but should not be confused with the use of questioning to deepen students’ understanding.

The teacher poses questions designed to promote student thinking and understanding. The teacher creates a genuine discussion among students, providing adequate time for students to respond and stepping aside when appropriate. The teacher challenges students to justify their thinking and successfully engages most students in the discussion, employing various strategies to ensure that most students are heard.

Indicators include:

• • Questions of high cognitive challenge, formulated by both students and teacher.

  • Questions with multiple correct answers or multiple approaches, even when there is a single correct response.

  • Effective use of student responses and ideas.

  • Discussion, with the teacher stepping out of the central, mediating role.

  • Focus on the reasoning exhibited by students in discussion, both in a give-and-take with the teacher and with their classmates.

  • High levels of student participation in discussion.

Asking better questions affords students an opportunity for deeper thinking and provides teachers with significant insight into the degree and depth of student understanding. Questions of this nature engage students in classroom dialogue that expands student learning. Questions should go beyond the typical factual questions requiring recalling facts or numbers. Paul Black, a noted authority on formative assessment, suggests that "more effort has to be spent in framing questions that are worth asking: that is, questions which explore issues that are critical to the development of students' understanding." (Black et al., 2003). 

The following are questions stems tied to Marzano's levels:

• KNOWLEDGE - These types of questions are focused on the retrieval of information

  • • What happened after...? 

    • When and where does the story take place? 

    • Who was in that...? 

    • Can you name the...? 

    • Describe what happened at...? 

    • Can you tell why...? 

    • How does the story end? 

    • What is the problem in the story? 

    • Which is true or false...? when...? 

    • How is ... similar to ...? 

    • What are some of the problems of...? 

    • Can you distinguish between...? 

    • What were some of the motives behind...? 

    • What was the turning point in the book? 

    • What was the problem with?

• COMPREHENSION - These types of questions are focused on student's deeper understanding of information. 

  • • Can you write in your own words...? 

    • Can you write a brief outline...? 

    • How did the main character feel at the beginning of the story? How at the end? 

    • What do you think could have happened next...? 

    • Who do you think...? 

    • What was the main idea...? 

    • Who was the key character...? 

    • Can you distinguish between...? 

    • What differences exist between...? 

    • Can you provide an example of what you mean...? 

    • How was the problem in the story solved? 

    • Explain why the story has the title it does.

• APPLICATION - These questions rely on imagination. 

  • • If you had to cook a meal for the main character, what would you cook? 

    • Do you know another instance where...? 

    • What would you do if you could go where the story takes place? 

    • Can you group by characteristics such as...? 

    • What factors would you change if...? 

    • What would your mother do if she was in the story? 

    • What questions would you ask of...? 

    • From the information given, can you develop a set of instructions about...?

• ANALYSIS - The questions require the learner to make connections across ideas and information. 

  • • Which events could have really happened...? 

    • What do you do that is just like the character in the story? 

    • How was this similar to...? 

    • What do you see as other possible outcomes? 

    • Why did changes occur? 

    • Compare your ... with that presented in...  

    • What part of the story was funniest? Saddest? Most exciting? 

    • How is ... similar to ...? 

    • Can you distinguish between...? 

    • What made the characters do what they did?

• SYNTHESIS - These questions ask students to build on the content. 

  • • How else could the story have ended? 

    • Retell the story from another character’s point of view. 

    • Can you see a possible solution to...? 

    • If you had access to all resources how would you deal with...? 

    • What is another way the character could have dealt with the problem? 

    • Think of 2-3 new titles that give a good idea of what the story was about. 

    • Can you create new and unusual uses for...? 

    • Can you write a new recipe for a tasty dish? 

    • Can you develop a proposal that would…

• EVALUATION - The questions ask students to think about their actions and learning (somewhat metacognitive)

  • • Compare two of the characters on their inner qualities or attributes. 

    • Is there a better solution to... 

    • Judge the value of... 

    • Can you defend your position about...? 

    • Do you think ... is a good or a bad thing? 

    • How would you have handled...? 

    • What changes to ... would you recommend? 

    • Do you believe the main character good or bad? Explain your answer. 

    • How would you feel if...? 

    • Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Engagement as...Caring

Students engage more deeply in their work when they feel their teacher likes and cares about them. 

• Get to know students as people. 

• Let students know they matter to you. 

• Address disciplinary problems with empathy. 

• Create a supportive welcome routine that establishes your classroom as an environment of trust and respect. 

•  Regularly gather information from students about their lives and interests and share yours. 

• When addressing challenging behavior, actively work to maintain your growth mindset regarding students and their choices. Instead of assuming that a student purposely refuses to cooperate, consider that you may not know all that is happening in this student’s life and experiences.

Students learn more effectively when their teachers set high expectations, recognize progress, and offer respectful, critical feedback to help students improve. Students are more motivated to learn when the work in class feels interesting and relevant to them. 

• Focus on growth over proficiency. 

• Give actionable, critical feedback along with reassurance. 

• Focus on quality over quantity with praise. 

• Set high standards for all students. 

• Help students focus on their understanding of the content, rather than just their performance or grade, and normalize mistakes as part of the learning process. 

• Help students learn to give and receive feedback with the “I Like, I Wish, I Wonder” protocol. 

• Give students opportunities to practice giving meaningful feedback that includes praise for specific areas of strength, concrete suggestions for improvement, and questions. 

• Praise the process, not the person. 

• Modify your language to focus on the process instead of the person. 

• Praise students’ hard work when they accomplish a difficult task. 

Engagement as...Metacognition

Engagement as Metacognition - Confronting new material is almost daily in classrooms. However, figuring out how new learning connects to what we already know or what’s already been learned isn’t always clear to students. For many kids, when new lessons are taught in class, it can feel like just another abstract idea or concept to add to the whole mix of school, another thing to "think about," memorize for a test or explain in a writing assignment. 

The key to building more profound, robust, and durable learning is to grasp how knowledge builds upon each other and forms an intentional continuum that stretches through units and grade levels and connects to existing background knowledge. It’s also critical for students to take ownership of their own learning and make meaningful connections to the things that are unique, important, or contextually based in the student's life. This is how we bring content to life in the student. 

• What stands out to me? What makes me wonder? - When students encounter new information, we ask them, "What do you notice? What do you wonder?" Students can begin class by simply spending a few minutes looking over new material and noting what stands out to them. It helps them slow down and focus on what’s before them. They can write about what they noticed and then turn and talk to a neighbor (pair share) to enhance and draw attention to things they may have missed. 

By giving students time to think for themselves and ask questions about the new material, Young intentionally empowers them to engage critically with it. She wraps up the exercise by asking students what they wonder, creating a window for Young to see where students might need further instruction and getting them to reflect on their knowledge gaps. 

• Which parts or terms are new to me, and which do I recognize? - What students think they know and know don’t always overlap; research shows they frequently overestimate how well they understand content and how prepared they are for tests or exams. But active reflection as they encounter new material can help—they should be looking for gaps in their knowledge, poking at their assumptions about a subject, and contemplating how their thinking syncs with new or old information. 

• How does this connect with what I already know? - The beginning of a unit is an excellent opportunity for students to think more deeply about how what they're learning may be connected to previous knowledge, strengthen the new knowledge, and review older material. This is a meaning and sense-making process. Students should regularly pause to contemplate and ask themselves how their learning fits their existing knowledge framework. So, if you need a framework, this is an opportunity to build one with students.

• What follow-up questions do I have? - Many students are hesitant to ask questions or don’t connect their feelings of confusion to needing more information. We can get students to identify what they are confused about and then embrace, work on, and wrestle with that confusion as they participate in the learning activities. Have students work with "What was most confusing to me about the material being explored in class today?" 

• Why is this idea important? - When teachers routinely encourage students to think about why a new concept or skill is vital to learn or how it links to the real world, it helps students find their connections to the material and "add their spin" in ways that clarify for them why they’re engaging with the work. Taking the time to look for and add intrinsic motivation ensures student engagement is built into the learning process. Focusing on inherent motivators will give students the desire, discipline, and dedication to learn. 

• TBD

Assessment 4.3 - Professionalism & Ethics - Instructional Observation

Module 5, Week 13 - Your Educational Philosophy - Part I - Serving Community With Purpose