1. Strategic Teaching Overview
Madison City Schools
Jackie Flowers and Carmen Buchanan

2. Norms Be open to ideas from others. Be an active participant.
Avoid side conversations.
Cell phones on vibrate.
Be present. (Avoid checking your /messages and working on other projects except for during breaks.)
Take care of your creature comforts.
Carmen

3. AQTS
2.6
Designs coherent lessons that integrate a variety of appropriate and effective instructional strategies.
Jackie

4. Learning Target
Teachers will determine the key factors in creating a classroom as a place of active engagement and where learning is visible.
Jackie

5. “A teacher’s job is not to teach kids, a teacher’s job is to create meaningful engaging work whereby the student learns the things we want them to learn.” Phil Schlecty
Jackie

6. Making Clock Appointments
Each person will need to make a 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 appointment by exchange names for each time slot. Write down the name of the person that you will be meeting with beside that time on your clock sheet. Questions?
Jackie

7. Clock Appointment Interviews
Directions:
Interview question:
What are the characteristics of an effective learning environment?
2. Interview three people (12:00, 3:00, 6:00 appointments)- ask the question, record the response on the back of the clock appointment sheets, then move to another person.
3. Summarize findings on the back of the
clock appointment sheets.
Jackie
Ask participants to share summaries with one partner. 7 7

8. Some Research
What teachers do in the classroom has 6 to 10 times as much impact on student achievement as all other factors combined.
(Mortimer & Sammons, 1987)
Individual teachers can have a profound impact on student
achievement—even in otherwise ineffective schools.
(Marzano, Pickering, & Pollock, 2001)
The key to improving education—more than any other factor—
is improving the effectiveness of classroom instruction.
(Wright, Horn, & Saunders, 1997)
Effective classroom instruction works—regardless of students’ socioeconomic status.
(Schmoker, 2006)
Carmen
Lay one on each table. Respond to Share with your table. 5 minutes
Ambra

9. “A Tale of Two Classrooms: Transforming a ‘Place’ of Learning”
The contradiction exemplified so eloquently in the first paragraph of
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens poignantly creates a metaphor
for the possibilities of creating a classroom as a positive learning
environment. For one classroom, it can provide the best of times, the
age of wisdom, the epoch of belief, the season of Light, and the spring
of hope. In comparison, another classroom can experience the worst of
times, the epoch of incredulity, the season of Darkness, and a winter of
despair.
How does a brick building transform into a place of learning? How
can individual rooms within this place become ones in which “learning”
turns into a tangible and desired need not only for students but
teachers as well? The answer lies within the assumptions that students
have about learning and the use of active engagement as a means to
address these assumptions.
Jackie
Explain you will go through the first round of reciprocal teaching together.
Read aloud the following:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us …” (p. 3, Dickens, 1950).
Ask volunteers to read the two paragraphs on the slide. 9

10. Stretch Break

11. School Calendar Do we have enough time to do all we need to do? Carmen
How many school days do we have? 180 days….How much time in a block? A period? Turn to a partner…and do some math….how many minutes is that? Nancy
Conclusion- we cannot waste time.
Maybe this would be a good study for you – go back and count the hours of instructional time that you have had up to this point in the year. I think you might be surprised.
Now , I am not against the block. What I am against is teachers treating the block like they would a 50 – 60 minute period and then adding homework. If you take this chart at face value, I think it shows that we cannot afford to do that!

12. Instructional Time Carmen
Now, list all the things that interrupt our school day and our classes…..Nancy
“The question is not, ‘Is it possible to educate all
students well?’ but rather, ‘Do we want to do it
badly enough?’”

13. Strategic Teaching
Strategic teaching describes instructional processes that focus directly on fostering student thinking, but goes well beyond that. Strategic teaching and strategic learning are inexorably linked. A strategic teacher has an understanding of the variables of instruction and is aware of the cognitive requirements of learning.
Carmen
Planning for Strategic Learning.
How does this definition relate to strategic learning?
Strategic teaching is the process of incorporating purposeful planning, connected strategies, and explicit instruction to maximize the understanding and retention of content material.
To learn strategic teaching techniques, and to foster the ability of students to engage in strategic learning, it is important to define some terms. In fact, one of the principles of strategic teaching is to define terms. Below are terms that are relevant to this process.
Strategic teaching describes instructional processes that focus directly on fostering student thinking, but goes well beyond that. Strategic teaching and strategic learning are inexorably linked. A strategic teacher has an understanding of the variables of instruction and is aware of the cognitive requirements of learning. In such an awareness, comes a sense of timing and a style of management. The strategic teacher is one who:
1. is a thinker and decision maker; 2. possesses a rich knowledge base; 3. is a modeler and a mediator of instruction.
Variables of instruction refer to those factors that strategic teachers consider in order to develop instruction. These variables, as the name implies, change, and therefore the teacher must be aware of the nature of change as well as the actual variables themselves. These variables are:
1. characteristics of the learner; 2. material to be learned (curriculum content); 3. the criterial task (the goals and outcomes the teacher and learner designate); 4. learning strategies (goal directed activities in which learners engage).
In teaching content at the elementary, middle, or secondary level, the strategic teacher helps guide instruction by focusing on learning strategies that foster thinking skills in relation to the content. In connecting new information to what a student already knows, learning becomes more meaningful, and not simply retained for test-taking purposes. There are numerous strategies that teachers can develop that accomplish this purpose. To give one information is not difficult, but to help one be able to develop the tools to both know what information is relevant and the means to acquire it, is perhaps the most important function of any social studies teacher. There are numerous techniques for engaging students in thinking about content.

14. Strategic Lessons include TWIRL
Talking
Writing
Investigating
Reading
Listening
Carmen

15. Essential Element of a Lesson Plan
Learning Target
Beginning (Before Strategies)
Middle (During Strategies)
End (After Strategies)
Formative/Summative Assessment
Reflection
Carmen
Jamie- These two days, we will focus on the Learning Target, the Before, During, and After.

16. Beginning (Before) (20%)
Learning Target- Student Friendly
Sets the stage
Hooks the students
Activates prior knowledge
Build background knowledge
Generates questions
Discuss vocabulary
Establishes a purpose
Jackie
A true question to ask yourself is “How is this related to the learning target?” Jamie

17. Middle (During) Engage with text Verify and formulate predictions
Summarize text
Self monitor comprehension
Construct graphic organizers
Integrates new information with prior knowledge
Jackie
Once again…”How is the related to the learning target>” Jamie

18. Middle (During)
Scaffold the Instruction Using the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) I Do We Do Y’all Do You Do
Jackie

19. End (After) (20 %) Wrap up Reflection on the lesson
Retell and summarize
Gives the teacher information about how much the student actually learned
Jackie
How is this related to the learning target? Jamie

20. Assessment Every lesson needs some form of formative assessment…
3-2-1
Exit slips
Observational data
Etc.
Otherwise you are throwing seeds in the wind and hoping that they grow….
Jackie

21. Teaching is not the presentation of information by the teacher, but the engagement of the learner with the information.
-Engaging Teens in Their Own Learning
Jackie

22. Engagement and the Brain
Why must we engage the learner before, during and after the lesson?
Carmen
Jamie- List of words activity to illustrate that the middle is fuzzy
Beginning:
Sharp
Suture
Thread
Syringe
Haystack
Middle
Eye
Pin
Hurt
Injection
End
Point
Thimble
Pain
Button
Sewing

23. Brain Research and Chunking
Research on the brain and attention spans tells us that it is very important to chunk the text or the lesson.
Grades K - 2 equals 5 – 7 minutes
Grades equals 8 – 15 minutes
Grades equals 20 – 25 minutes
Carmen
Jamie

24. Engagement and Rigor
Carmen
Jamie- Set up the video- Why are these people engaged in a more rigorous activity rather than doing things the easier way or the way they usually do it?

25. Discuss the following question with your 9:00 appointment:
Can we help students learn hard information if we make it engaging for them to do?
Carmen
Turn and talk with your first left brained partner- Discuss with your partner the video you just observed…how does this relate to engaging and rigorous instruction? Jamie

26. Think of Strategic Lesson Plan as a Sport
Before- Warming up, stretching
During- Playing the game
After- Celebrating the successes and planning where you go from here.
Carmen
Jamie 2 minutes-

27. Five Corners Activity
I think active engagement could be compared to a:
Basketball game
Football game
Baseball game
Track meet
Volleyball
Carmen
Chart paper. Once in groups, participants will share out their analogies. (5 minutes) Amy

28. Share beliefs on what active engagement should look like.
Share Out
Share beliefs on what active engagement should look like.
Carmen
Amy

29. Resources
Carmen
Jackie

30. Parking Lot Postings Reflect on the learning from today: Questions
Concerns
Comments
Have a great school year!
Jackie
Ask participants to reflect on the day by jotting questions, concerns, and/or comments on sticky notes and placing them on the Parking Lot.
Explain that the facilitators will use these to assess the learning for the day and that they will be addressed in the morning. 30