Maintaining Rigor and Engagement When Responding to Students’ Needs Session 3, August 2014 NTI

Learning Targets for this Session I can determine the types of decisions teachers can make to monitor and adapt the modules to meet the needs of students (SOP 3.2). I can analyze typical scaffolds and accommodations for their alignment to the rigor expected from the Common Core (SOP 3.2). 2

“…a thinking teacher’s curriculum.” We agree! Discuss at your tables in triads.  If you are coaches and principals: when you see this curriculum being implemented most effectively, what are the decisions teachers are making in relation to its implementation?  If you are teachers: what decisions have you become confident in making about the implementation of this curriculum? How did you develop that confidence? Select someone from each table to report out. 3

Lessons from the Field Modules can (and should) be taught with fidelity to the Common Core and the shifts, and be flexed to meet students’ needs. “Planned not canned.” Decisions must be made in the context of a clear understanding of what comes next (teachers have to understand the whole scope of a module before they can effectively teach lesson 1…you learned this in the last session). Teachers often need guidance (at least for a while) to make decisions that maintain the curriculum’s rigor and alignment to the Targets/Standards and Shifts. 4

Stages of Implementation, p. 22 5

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Interventions Along a Continuum 7 Teacher provides these “just in time” as the need arises. No prep needed. Teacher thinks about these ahead of the lesson, but they don’t require a lot of planning/prep and are often reusable across many lessons. Teacher thinks about these ahead of the lesson. They are intensive to plan and lesson specific.

Effective and Efficient Interventions Effective = keeps the learners in the “productive struggle” zone. Efficient = as little teacher prep time as needed to maintain effectiveness. 8

Discuss as Teams Are teachers in our school monitoring and adapting the curriculum along this continuum to meet students’ needs? If so, in what ways are they intervening? Just right? Too little? Too much? If not, why not? 9

10 Spontaneous Intervention “In the end, good teaching lies in a willingness to attend and care for what happens in our students, ourselves, and the space between us. Good teaching is a certain kind of stance, I think. It is a stance of receptivity, of attunement, of listening.” (Daloz, 1986).

Teacher Response Can encourage clarity and critical thinking…or not. Research finds that most teacher speech follows a pattern (IRE):  Initiating Event – teacher asks a question.  Response – student responds  Evaluation Act – teacher evaluates 11

For Example T: What did Scout believe happened to Mayella Ewell? (Initiation act). S: That she was actually hurt by her father. (Response act). T: Good, that’s right. (Evaluation act) Then teacher moves on to next initiation act… 12

Challenges in This Only students engaging in response are participating. “Right answers” are valued. Learning skims the surface. 13

A Better Way Teacher response can actually be an “intervention,” bringing more students into the learning. Read “The Critical Role of Teacher Response,” p  “C” – This “connects” my thinking about the teacher’s role in supporting students while maintaining rigor.  “E” – this “extends” my thinking about the teacher’s role in supporting students while maintaining rigor.  “CH” – this “challenges” my thinking about the teacher’s role in supporting students while maintaining rigor 14

Discuss with Partner Each share 1 connection, 1 extension, and one challenge. About 1 minute for each conversation. If you have time, return to your Continuum of Interventions on p. 56 – which of the “spontaneous” interventions did you just discuss? 15

Interventions in Action Locate your Continuum of Interventions on p. 56. As we watch this video of classroom teachers monitoring and adapting the modules to meet their students’ needs, highlight specific interventions that you see them using on your Continuum of Interventions. 16

Discuss In what ways are the interventions teachers in our school are using similar and different from those shown in the video? What do we need to do to encourage the practices on the Continuum of Interventions – those that maintain alignment to the rigor of the Common Core while supporting all students? 17

Tier the Task, Not the Text This is a high-prep, but high leverage intervention strategy. Teachers do this when they proactively add scaffolding to the students’ tasks – word banks, sentence stems, more explicit directions, etc. More on this tomorrow, but if this is a very new idea to you, you should read the relevant Tiering Case Study in your notebook, pages 81 and

Final Synthesis Locate your Synthesis For Team graphic organizer, in your notebooks on p. 30. Synthesize your thinking about this session in whichever column is most relevant to you. 19