High Leverage Practices

Assessment High-Leverage Practices

Use multiple sources of information to develop a comprehensive understanding of a student’s strengths and needs
Interpret and communicate assessment information with stakeholders to collaboratively design and implement educational programs
Use student assessment data, analyze instructional practices, and make necessary adjustments that improve student outcomes

Social/Emotional/Behavioral High-Leverage Practices

Establish a consistent, organized, and respectful learning environment
Provide positive and constructive feedback to guide students’ learning and behavior
Teach social behaviors

Instruction High-Leverage Practices

Identify and prioritize long- and short-term learning goals
Systematically design instruction toward a specific learning goal
Adapt curriculum tasks and materials for specific learning goals
Teach cognitive and metacognitive strategies to support learning and independence
Provide scaffolded supports
Use Explicit Instruciton
Use flexible grouping
Use strategies to promote active student engagement
Use assistive and instructional technologies
Teach students to maintain and generalize new learning across time and settings
Provide positive and constructive feedback to guide students’ learning and behavior

High Leverage Practices in Special Education
2nd Edition Book

Explicit Instruction

Explicit instruction is a structured, systematic, and effective methodology for teaching academic skills (Archer, 2011).

Explicit instruction is the cornerstone of special education and is an effective instructional approach for teaching students across disability categories new skills and strategies across content areas. It is important to recognize that the majority of evidence-based practices embed elements of explicit instruction and/or are typically combined with explicit instruction to meet the needs of students with disabilities.

There are not always specific EBPs that align with every skill teachers will need to teach
And therefore, explicit instruction is essential for teaching students with disabilities new skills and strategies

Features of Explicit Instruction 4-Part Course

This 4-part course provides learners with an opportunity to extend their understanding of explicit instruction through in-depth exposure to the explicit instruction model and supporting practices required for effective implementation.

This Explicit Instruction course is comprised of four modules:

Modeling and Practicing to Help Students Reach Academic Goals
Supporting Practices: Using Effective Methods to Elicit Frequent Responses
Supporting Practices: Providing Immediate Specific Feedback and Maintaining a Brisk Pace
Evaluating the Use of Explicit Instruction to Support Students' Academic Needs

Opportunities to Respond (OTR)

Opportunities to respond (OTR) involves giving students frequent chances to answer questions or prompts in a set amount of time (e.g., 3-5 per minute). Rather than one student responding at a time, ALL students respond simultaneously using verbal responses or non-verbal responses.

Defined: An instructional question, statement, or gesture made by the teacher seeking an academic response from students (Sprick, Knight, Reinke, and McKale, 2006).