1. Facilitator notes
This session is designed for approximately 45 minutes. Each slide includes an approximate amount of time for the discussion/activity.
Materials needed for each participant:
Interactive handout
Criterion 3c critical attributes handout
Chart paper, highlighters
Paper end-of-session survey
Each slide notes materials needed for that discussion/activity
There are talking points and directions included in the notes section of each slide. CAPITALIZED TEXT ARE NOTES FOR YOU TO CONSIDER, and regular case are script for you to say.

2. Communicating Clearly and Accurately
DPAS-II Criterion 3c
Time: <1 minute
Good morning/afternoon and thank you for being here. Welcome to our session on the DPAS-II framework Criterion 3c: Communicating Clearly and Accurately

3. Agenda Welcome, Objectives and Agenda
Unpacking DPAS-II for Teachers: Criterion 3c
Self-reflection and Exit Ticket
Time: <1 minute
Please take a moment to read the agenda.
GIVE PARTICIPANTS A MINUTE TO READ INDEPENDENTLY

4. Objective
Teachers will develop a deeper understanding of Criterion 3c: Communicating Clearly and Accurately
Teachers will build their understanding of the elements of Criterion 3c
Time: 3 minutes
Materials: Interactive Handout
Our goal is to help you get to know the DPAS-II rubric and continuously improve your teaching. By improving your practice, you can continue to contribute to students enhancing their learning and growth. Plus, knowing the rubric will help you be successful on your observations as well, potentially leading to increases in your DPAS ratings. Our overall goal is to create a shared understanding of what constitutes evidence aligned to the DPAS-II framework. We aim to ensure that all of us have a shared understanding of what excellent teaching looks like and sounds like according to the DPAS-II rubric.
Today we are going to focus on communication and how it appears in the DPAS-II framework.

5. Agenda Welcome, Objectives and Agenda
Unpacking DPAS-II for Teachers: Criterion 3c
Self-reflection and Exit Ticket
Time: <1 minute
Let’s dive in.

6. When a teacher is communicating clearly and accurately, what are students doing and saying?
Time: 8  minutes
Materials: chart paper (or white board); interactive handout
FACILTATOR NOTE – THIS SLIDE AND ACTIVITY ARE MEANT TO SET THE STAGE FOR DEEPER DISCUSSION. THE IDEA HERE IS NOT FOR PARTICIPANTS TO DIG DEEPLY INTO THE RUBRIC, BUT INSTEAD TO BRAINSTORM WHAT THEY HEAR AND SEE IN CLASSROOMS. THIS ACTVITY REINFORCES THAT THE VALUE OF THE DPAS-II FRAMEWORK IS THAT IT PROVIDES A SHARED UNDERSTANDING AND COMMON LANGUAGE FOR HOW WE TALK ABOUT TEACHING AND LEARNING.
Let’s start by discussing what great instruction looks, sounds, and feels like. We have done this in past sessions and will continue to do so in future sessions about the DPAS framework.
Our core question today is: When a teacher is communicating clearly and accurately, what are students doing and saying?
Turn and talk with a partner and share out your thinking. Please capture your ideas on the interactive handout. (5 minutes)
WALK AROUND THE ROOM. NOTE POSITIVE EXAMPLES. ASK THOSE PEOPLE TO BE READY TO SHARE OUT WHEN YOU RETURN TO THE WHOLE GROUP. LOOK FOR ACTUAL EXAMPLES OF WHAT TEACHERS DO AND SAY, AND WHAT STUDENTS DO AND SAY. HIGLHIGHT THE EXAMPLES THAT THEY’VE GIVEN AND HOW THEY MATCH CRITERION 3c (LISTED BELOW). ENCOURAGE PARTICIPANTS TO GET VERY SPECIFIC – WHAT EXACTLY MIGHT STUDENTS BE DOING AND SAYING?
STUDENTS ARE USING ACCURATELY LANGUAGE/VOCABULARY
STUDENTS ARE USING PRECISE VOCABULARY
STUDENTS KNOW WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO/ARE DOING WHAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO DO
STUDENTS ARE AWARE OF THE PURPOSE OF LEARNING/OF THE OBJECTIVE
STUDENTS KNOW HOW THE OBJECTIVE IS CONNECTED TO THE REAL-WORLD
ALL STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO ENGAGE/LEARN
STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO ACCESS THE CONTENT
STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO THINK THROUGH THE CONTENT/COGNITIVELY PARTICPATE IN THE WORK
STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO THINK/WORK ON THEIR OWN, WITHOUT THE TEACHER
STUDENTS ARE LISTENING TO THE TEACHER FIRST, AND THEN APPLYING WHAT THE TEACHER HAS TOLD THEM
I’d love to share out and hear collective thinking in the room. What did you write on your form? (4-5 minutes) LIST THE BEST EXAMPLES ON THE BOARD

7. DPAS-II for Teachers Component 1: Planning and Preparation
Component 2: The Classroom Environment
Component 3: Instruction
Component 4: Professional Responsibilities
Time: 1 minute
Materials: N/A
The DPAS-II framework provides a common language we all can use to describe great teaching and in the impact it has on student learning. The framework helps us to take what we see in a classroom (what teachers and students say and do) and align it to common expectations.
As you know, in the DPAS-II framework, a teacher’s practice includes these four categories:
Component1: Planning and Preparation
Component 2: The Classroom Environment
Component 3: Instruction
Component 4: Professional Responsibilities
The four components are divided into 18 criterion, each of which has a rubric that identifies core elements and the range of performance from “Ineffective” to “Highly Effective.”
We’ve focused on various criteria in past sessions; today we are focused on criterion 3C: communicating clearly and accurately.
Communication plays a central role in the classroom; only through communication does teaching and learning happen. Today we are going to dive deep into what the DPAS-II framework tells us about communication and better understand the specific indicators and elements of the criterion. The goal is to ensure that we have a shared understanding of 3c, and that you are able to apply this understanding to your lessons.

8. 3c. Communicating Clearly and Accurately
Independently read Criterion 3c rubric language, elements, and indicators
Highlight statements that align to our brainstormed examples of what students are doing and saying; what in the rubric language, elements and indicators would support these student actions?
Check in with a partner
Time: 5 minutes
Materials: Criterion 3c critical attributes doc, highlighters
Now let’s return to the examples we listed on the poster board. Independently read Criterion 3c , the elements, and the indicators and highlight statements that align to our brainstormed examples (2 minutes)
Turn and talk to a partner: what did you highlight? Why? (2 minutes)
CIRCULATE DURING THE TURN AND TALK, LOOKING FOR EXAMPLES ALIGNED TO LIST ON SLIDE 6 NOTES

9. Criterion 3c
The goal of Criterion 3c is not just that the teacher is accurate and clear in communication, but that students are able to cognitively engage in the lesson as a result of the teacher’s communication.
Time: 1 minute
Materials: interactive handout
The critical thing to remember about Criterion 3c is this – it is not enough just for the teacher’s communication to be clear and accurate. Students must be able to engage cognitively in the lesson as a result of the teacher’s communication. The communication must lead to and support students’ learning.

10. 3c. Communicating Clearly and Accurately
Independently read the critical attributes at each level of the rubric
Highlight statements that resonate in your own practice communicating with students, and record your Ah-has! On the interactive handout
Time: 6 minutes
Materials: Critical Attributes Handout, highlighters
Independently read the critical attributes document for 3c and highlight statements that resonate in your own practice as you engage students in questioning and discussion (6 minutes)
AFTER THEY ARE DONE WORKING
Remember, the critical attributes document is a key resource for your review in understanding and internalizing the content of the DPAS-II rubric.

11. Do these meet the critical attributes of 3c?
The teacher shares that 15 x 3 = 60.
After the teacher provides instructions for an activity, students talk to one another asking “what are we supposed to do?”
The teacher uses a Venn diagram to illustrate the distinctions between a republic and a democracy.
When a student responds “the equals of 2+2 is 4” the teacher prompts the student to revise the response to “the sum of 2+2 is four”
Time: 8 minutes
Materials: Interactive handout
Time: 5 minutes
Materials: n/a
Remember, we’ve established that 3c is about more than the teacher communicating with students, its about that communication supporting students to engage cognitively in the lesson.
GO THROUGH EACH AND ASK FOR VOLUNTEERS TO DETERMINE YES OR NO, WITH RATIONALE. SLIDE HAS ANIMATION TO SHOW AN X OR CHECK, SO EACH TIME YOU CLICK, THE CHECK OR X WILL APPEAR
ANSWERS:
NO – THIS IS INEFFECTIVE BECAUSE THE QUESTIONS ARE NOT HIGH-LEVEL. INSTEAD THEY ARE RECITATION QUESTIONS THAT AREN’T ENGAGING STUDENTS. WE KNOW THAT SOMETIMES THESE QUESTIONS ARE NECESSARY, BUT THEY SHOULD BE USED AS REVIEW VS. THE TOTALITY OF DISCUSSION
YES – THIS IS EFFECTIVE BECAUSE IT IS THE BEGINNING OF AUTHENTIC DISCUSSION BETWEEN STUDENTS; THE TEACHER IS FACILITATING THAT IDSCUSSION
NO – BECAUSE THE SAME SMALL NUMBER OF STUDENTS RESPOND, THIS IS NOT THE WHOLE CLASS ENGAGING
YES – THIS STRATEGY SUPPORTS STUDENTS TO MEANINGFULLY ENGAGE IN DISCUSSION BECAUSE THEY HAVE HAD A CHANCE TO CONSIDER THEIR RESPONSE FIRST
NO – QUESTIONING AND DISCUSSION IS NOT JUST ABOUT STUDENTS PARTICIPATING; TEACHERS ALSO HAVE TO ENSURE THAT STUDENTS ARE HELD TO HIGH EXPECTATIONS AND THAT THEIR MISCONCEPTIONS ARE CORRECTED – AND THAT STUDENTS ARE PRECISE IN THEIR RESPONSES TO THE QUESTION. IT IS OK FOR STUDENTS TO RESPOND INCORRECTLY, WHAT’S IMPORTANT IS HOW THE TEACHER CORRECTS THE STUDENT.

12. Agenda Welcome, Objectives and Agenda
Unpacking DPAS-II for Teachers: Criterion 3c
Self-reflection and Exit Ticket
Time: <1 minute
Before we adjourn, let’s take a moment to reflect

13. Independent Reflection and Next Steps
How do I ensure that my communication in my classroom is clear and accurate?
How can I use oral and written communication to ensure that students are able to access important learning in my classroom?
What support do I have available? What additional support will I need?
Time: 5 minutes
Materials: interactive handout
We have gone through a lot today, and we want to make sure that all of this work serves the larger purpose: building our instructional knowledge and skills to develop professionally as individuals and a team. Recognizing that we may all be in different places in growing our practice, we are going to take pause and take the opportunity to step-back reflect on your individual practice for 5 minutes. You can record your thinking on the interactive handout. Please also write down your next steps given your reflections.
YOU CAN ASK TEACHERS TO SHARE THEIR THINKING. YOU CAN BE SELECTIVE ABOUT WHO YOU CALL ON TO ENSURE THAT TEACHERS LIKELY TO HAVE STRONG EXAMPLES ARE THE TEACHERS WHO ARE SHARING

14. Time: 5 minutes
Materials: end of session survey
Please complete the exit ticket to share your experiences about this training. We will use this feedback to inform future sessions, so please be honest and thorough.

15. Questions
Optional time for questions if people have any