1. Instructional Practices to Support Student Mastery
By Alex LaPres

2. Agenda: Introduction Check-in
4 Most Common Challenges and Instructional Practices to Ensure Success
Peer Experience and Gallery Walk
Wrap-up

3. Objective
Teachers will increase their teaching toolbox to ensure student success on modules and mastery of the Common Core standards.

4. Common Challenge 1: Task Analysis
Challenge: Students do not fully understand the prompt or what the question is asking of them.
Students must be taught how to:
Deconstruct and internalize the prompt
Understand academic vocabulary
Best Practices:
Annotate the prompt
Diffusing
RAFT
Re-write the prompt
Annotate the prompt- Pink for the text names, yellow for the essential question, blue for the requirements of the assignment
Diffusing-Reading a passage, noting unfamiliar words, discovering meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues, dictionaries, and/or
thesauruses, and replacing unfamiliar words with familiar ones.
RAFT- Role, audience, format, topic

5. Ensuring Student Mastery
PARCC Sample Item:

6. Common Challenge 2: Complex Text
Challenge: Students struggle to comprehend complex text.
Students must be taught how to comprehend and analyze a complex text.
Best Practices:
Essential Questions
Chunking the text
Multiple reads
Jigsaw

7. Common Challenge 3: Academic Writing and Citing Evidence
Challenge: Students struggle with organization and citing strong evidence in academic writing.
Students must be taught how to:
Structure academic writing
Develop a claim
Cite credible information to support their claim
Best Practices:
Exemplar student writing samples
AECR

8. AECR Strategy
Can be used for either constructed response or multi- paragraph essays
Great for differentiation- structured and color-coded

9. Here, you make an argument or state your claim.
AECR structure
A = Assertion
This is the topic sentence that relates back to the thesis or answers the questions.
Here, you make an argument or state your claim.
It is a clearly stated expression of purpose.
The ASSERTION is GREEN.

10. E = Evidence
This is the evidence from the text that supports your assertion.
Here, you back it up (not on the dance floor).
The EVIDENCE is BLUE.

11. C = Commentary
This is the commentary on the fact that connects it to the assertion and answers the question, “so what?”
Here you explain why the evidence is important enough to prove your assertion.
You should have more yellow than blue or green in your paragraph.
The COMMENTARY is YELLOW.

12. R= Relate
This is where you wrap it up.
Your relate should synthesize the paragraph and tell the reader how your claim supports your thesis.
The RESTATE is GREEN.

13. Common Challenge 4: Ongoing Formative Assessment
Challenge: Teachers are unable to assess student mastery of the information until the final essay.
Teachers need multiple built-in formative assessments to assess students understanding of material and drive instruction.
Best Practices:
Assignment Check List
Exit Slips
Teacher-student conferences
Self-assessment