EBIS: Foundations of Teacher Clarity

Rationale: Almost everything a teacher does in the classroom has some effect on student learning. In the past, teachers used to ask, “What will work?” Now, with sophisticated research methods and a proliferation of information about instruction, we have a robust understanding of which instructional practices have the highest impact on student learning. Teacher clarity is a foundational evidence-based instructional strategy that leads to effective planning of a lesson’s learning intention, rationale, and success criteria. Once teachers have this foundation, they can move on to planning the instructional activities that will best guide all student learning toward desired outcomes.

Learning Intention: Teams will develop an understanding of teacher clarity as an evidence-based instructional strategy and will consider it’s application in their instructional planning and mapping

Success Criteria: Teams will know they are successful when they…

• are familiar with the research of John Hattie and can articulate the link between evidence-based instructional strategies and their implication on students

• understand the impact and importance of having a schoolwide instructional focus

• can describe the key components of teacher clarity and how they support student understanding

• understand the role of teacher clarity in the instructional planning and curriculum mapping process

• understand how to unpack a standard to identify the language usage components of the standard