J.6-3(e)_Pedagogy_and_Lesson_Planning-Beginning.pdf

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics

STEM

Professional Development Series for Beginning Teachers

Pedagogy and Lesson Planning

Trainee Manual

May 2015

Submitted by

ECASE

The Educational Consortium for the Advancement of STEM in Egypt

A USAID Funded Project

This publication was made possible through support by the United States Agency for

International Development. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the

United States Agency for International Development.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Overview

Professional Development Philosophy

Pedagogy Framework

Sequencing

Learning Outcomes

Overview

Domain Competencies and Assessments

Resources for Teachers

List of acronyms

List of concepts

List of technical terms

Appendices

Appendix 1: Pedagogy Level 1 Presentations

Appendix 2: Templates and Task Sheets

Card Sort Template

Projects (GRASPS Example)

Toolbox of Teacher Strategies Task Sheet

Appendix 3: Illustrative Graphics

Understanding by Design

Curriculum Structure

Appendix 4: Frayer Model

Appendix 5. BASELINE (Used for Pre and Post Assessment of Participants)

Appendix 6. Sample Reflection Journal

Appendix 7. Webb’s Depth of Knowledge

Appendix 8. Lesson Planning Template

Appendix 9. Classroom Observation Scale

Overview

The development and professional growth of STEM teachers may be the most important factor in the success of Egypt’s STEM schools. Professional development in the areas of pedagogy, curriculum, lesson planning, Capstones, safe laboratory practices and assessments ensures that teachers are supported in their work to provide the best possible education to their students.

The training sessions for Beginning Teachers will support the establishment of collaborative learning environments and a shared sense of purpose. Teachers will learn the basics of inquiry, projects, and backward design. Beginning Teachers will also learn to establish a system of student advisory and develop strategies for using instructional materials, such as textbooks and the Internet, in the context of the integrated curriculum. In addition, this group of teachers will establish professional learning communities; understand the traits of a student-centered classroom; design rubrics; and set individual goals. These practice-based and interactive teacher training sessions will improve teacher understanding of key STEM concepts and strategies for classroom effectiveness. Workshops are also features that support the integrated curriculum, Egyptian Grand Challenges, Capstones, and assessment opportunities for teachers to see the connections across all aspects of STEM teaching and learning.

For the trainer, these sessions are presented thematically. Training for Beginning Teachers, including those who have not had any previous experience in STEM schools, may happen throughout the school year and potentially as an element of the hiring process. Training may occur in short, targeted sessions or in a larger more intensive Institute format. The Professional

Development Institute (PDI) has historically provided intensive training in best practices for

STEM education formally twice a year: in the winter between semesters and in the summer.

Because Beginning Teachers enter schools at different times of the year the sessions included in this manual may be presented on their own, within a series or for an extended PDI that is a minimum of two weeks (Winter) or up to four weeks (Summer). Model PDIs, including sessions and agendas, are included in the Appendix of the Beginning Teacher Series Introduction. For

Beginning Teachers, this PDI serves as an introduction to the methodologies of active learning, the STEM philosophy and the professional culture of the Egyptian STEM Schools.

When possible, the Beginning Teacher PDI is self-contained. This is partly due to the fact that the Beginning Teacher may still be going through the application process to teach in a STEM school or has very little experience and needs to first understand the model before interacting with more experienced colleagues.

As is the case with all of the Series, each manual includes an assessment so that participants can demonstrate that they not only attended the trainings, but that the learning outcomes have been achieved. The assessment for Pedagogy is located Appendix of this manual, along with the answer key.

Professional Development Philosophy

The overall goal for Trainers during professional development is to meet the learning objectives laid out in the Trainer’s and Teacher’s Companion. By modeling the best practices and strategies that teachers are expected to learn and ultimately use in their classrooms, the

Trainer acts as a facilitator of learning. The Trainer should have a deep understanding of the terms, concepts and philosophies that are shared during the training, including those related to inquiry-based instruction, constructivist instruction, project-based teaching and learning, Understanding By Design, classroom management and learning strategies, using high quality instructional materials and the STEM schools curriculum, student-centered instruction, Capstone design, development, implementation and evaluation, assessment strategies and scaffolding in alignment with the proficiency model of teaching.

When preparing sessions for the training, Trainers must consider some main tenets of adult learning. From “Pikes Laws of Adult Learning” (1989), we know:

Adult learning is enhanced by hands-on experience that involves adults in the learning process and that adults bring a wealth of experiences that must be acknowledged and respected.

Presenting activities that generate adults’ ideas and concepts will facilitate learning more effectively than simply providing information to remember.

Humor is always an important tool and can be effective in promoting a comfortable environment for sharing and learning new ideas.

Experiences that provide an opportunity for adults to practices new skills will increase the likelihood of retention and on-the-job application

Just as we want teachers to be facilitators of learning, Trainers must be willing to model the same elements of successful facilitation.

Because the field of education is always evolving, it must be noted that Trainers should be expected to regularly follow emerging trends in education and adjust terminology and concepts as necessary.

Pedagogy Framework

Pedagogy professional development is designed to move teachers away from teacher-directed instruction and to shift the responsibility for learning from themselves to the students. Some scaffolding will be involved in terms of slowly weaning students off the teacher-directed learning toward more student-centered activities. Exemplary inquiry lessons from the STEM integrated curriculum will be referenced.

A hands-on approaching to instruction will be used throughout the sessions to encourage a more student-centered learning environment and to promote both inquiry- and project-based instruction.

Project-based instruction will be a major focus of professional development. This will include projects that are both short term and long term in the size and scope. This will include other ideas such as the development of rubrics to initially give students expectations for their project and to assess student performance. Different types of projects will be assessed for their pros and cons including presentations, building projects, written manuscripts, and laboratory work, etc. Participants will discuss the value of projects as a means for challenging students as well as for creating a more student-centered environment in the classroom. The goal is to move teachers towards cultivating a classroom environment of peer teaching – a powerful tool for creating lifelong learners; to have learned something well enough that you can teach it to someone else is the true test of understanding. It also continues to promote the theory that higher level thinking and understanding should be the goal, not merely the learning of concrete facts.

There are two types of rubrics that support STEM teaching and learning. In support of project-based design, rubrics specific to projects will be a focus of some professional development time. The design of rubrics, their use as a guide for student projects at the assignment’s commencement, and their use as a way of assessing projects will be widely covered. There will be time given to teachers to look at examples and to develop their own project specific rubrics for use in their classrooms. Additionally, rubrics will be used to support the ongoing implementation of outcome-based assessments and PARLO. These outcome-specific rubrics will support teachers to look for evidence of student learning on a day-to-day, formative basis.

There will be time given to teachers to review examples of outcomes and rubrics with indicators for mastery.

Understanding by Design (UbD) guides the philosophical approach to all curriculum and pedagogy and will be the underlying premise for the entirety of the professional development training. It is critical for STEM teachers to know how to plan with the end in mind and to ensure the learning activities and projects support the final destination in terms of knowledge and understanding. Teachers will become familiar with and start to use the UbD model as a framework. They will review specific examples from the ECASE integrated curriculum and related instructional materials and will apply the UbD ideas to their own planning of their specific subject areas. UbD helps to ensure that student learning and desired outcomes lead instruction, and that instruction without specific and thoughtful direction is avoided.

The indirect instruction model necessitates a novel classroom microenvironment to support the educational philosophy change. To shift from direct instruction to a student-centered, group-work based classroom requires teachers to have strategies for managing the classroom as well as for managing learning through a variety of means. Research-based best practices increase student engagement and depth of learning; and provide tools for dealing with difficult students, unmotivated students, bored students, and disillusioned students. Teachers will generate a toolbox of strategies from which they can choose the appropriate strategy at the appropriate time.

Sequencing

Within this manual, the sessions are presented in an order that builds on previous sessions;

therefore, the sequence is important. It is not, however, critical that all sessions are taught one immediately after the other; in other words, they can be interspersed within the other elements of the Beginning Series. The exact schedule of curriculum sessions will be determined by the training needs. For an example of how sessions can be sequenced, see the Model

Professional Development Institute in the Series Introduction.

Please note: Although the precise sequence and schedule of activities may change at the discretion of the individual facilitators of each workshop, the overall outcomes remain the same.

Learning Outcomes

The goals for Beginning Teachers in Pedagogy and Lesson Planning are:

Contribute to the school community to support a shared mission and vision

Collaborate to create an instructional experience

Identify the elements of inquiry-based instruction

Apply concepts of backward design to plan instructional experiences

Design inquiry-based instructional experiences

Design instructional experiences that check for understanding and move learning forward

Relate concepts and skills to the Grand Challenges

Explain the trans-disciplinary nature of concepts / skills in the curriculum and capstones

Differentiate between formative and summative assessments

Define the various forms of evidence connected to a learning outcome

Construct a toolbox of instructional strategies

Use multiple instructional strategies in the design of instructional experiences

Identify the deepening spiral of conceptual development in the curriculum design

Develop guidelines for the safe use of materials and equipment

Explain the journal as a process for student learning and feedback

Develop a rubric with multiple indicators to assess a learning outcome

The goals for Beginning Teachers will remain the same unless the Trainer(s) (along with guidance from PAT and the STEM Units) decide that the prior knowledge and experiences of

Beginning Teachers warrant a revision.

Overview

The topics included in this manual are specific to the method and practice of teaching. A hallmark of the Egypt STEM schools is that teaching and learning are active. Teachers and students are engaged in a variety of activities and levels of thinking to achieve their academic goals.

The participants will be engaged in activities that both prepare them to engage in upcoming training sessions and also provide them with warm-ups (those activities that can begin a class or access prior knowledge in students) and wrap-ups (those activities that can allow for teachers to appropriately conclude a lesson or class period and check for student understanding) that they can use with their students.

Introduction to STEM

Most likely the very first session that Beginning Teachers will be exposed to, this presentation introduces participants to the theory behind STEM, why STEM Schools are important to Egypt and how (and why) the teaching and learning in these schools is different from traditional schools.

Experiencing Inquiry

In order to better understand the importance of inquiry-based projects in the classroom, participants engage in hands-on activities that ask them to participate in the process of scientific inquiry. The Trainer is responsible for guiding the teacher through a series of reflective questions aimed at demonstrating why this kind of learning is beneficial for students and promotes not only active learning, but also higher levels of thinking.

Team Building and Professional Learning Communities

In STEM Schools, teachers are expected to collaborate on a regular basis and these sessions prepare them to share knowledge and to work with one another in a collegial, respectful and productive manner. Students are also expected to work in groups often and the skills learned in these sessions are transferrable to the classroom.

Teaching Strategies

Throughout the training sessions, Trainers use a variety of strategies with the participants.

These strategies are sometimes taught in specific sessions, but they are also summarized and accentuated in the “Building the Toolbox” sessions. During these sessions, participants are asked to reflect on their learning and to recognize the variety of strategies that they should be using in their classroom.

Student Centered Teaching

These sessions provide participants with an understanding of why it is important for the teacher to be “the guide on the side, not the sage on the stage”. Teachers will learn strategies for moving away from lecture and from being the sole holder of knowledge in a classroom. In the student-centered classroom, teaching and learning revolves around the participation of the students and these sessions demonstrate what that looks like and how teachers can create student-centered lessons.

Classroom Management Teaching and learning cannot happen if the teacher is not able to control the culture of their classroom. In these sessions, participants learn strategies for working with their students to create a classroom culture that fosters learning, collegiality and safety.

Lesson Elements Planning, presenting and reflecting on meaningful lessons is a hallmark of good teaching. These sessions are focused on how to plan “with the end in mind”, creating student-centered lessons that are aligned to the curriculum and includes connections to Capstones and interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

Levels of Thinking

It is essential that teachers move beyond the idea that students only need access to concrete facts and confirmed knowledge. For students to become life-long learners and the successful in post-secondary pursuits, they must be encouraged to not only identify and recall information, but also to analyze and even create valuable information. The levels of thinking which are required in the scientific process and often in project-based learning are at the center of these sessions and teachers are exposed to strategies that promote deeper student thinking.

Classroom Observation Scale The Classroom Observation Scale is the tool used by classroom supervisors to fairly and effectively observe and evaluate classroom teachers. This session is intended to introduce participants to the process of evaluation and observation and the domains involved in the observation.

Domain Competencies and Assessments

To successfully complete the training, teachers must demonstrate understanding of the learning outcomes and goals of the sessions that they attended. To do so, teachers must receive an 80% or higher on the written assessment and complete the products listed on the checklist. The trainer must sign off that each product has been completed appropriately. The quiz can be found in the Appendix.

List of products to be delivered by each participant throughout the training.

# Session Product Signature of Trainer

1 Experiencing Inquiry 1: The Top Top and poster (as part of a group)

2 Experiencing Inquiry 2: Mystery Tube

Mystery Tube and documentation showing hypothesis and scientific inquiry

3 Experiencing inquiry 3:

Newspaper Tower

Newspaper tower (as part of a group)

4 Experiencing Inquiry 4: Card Sort

Card Sort activity to be used in a class they teach

5 Experiencing Inquiry 6:

Aquaponics

Completed lesson plan with multidisciplinary project-based activity for their subject area

6 Professional Learning Communities 1: Group Norms

A plan for creating group norms with their classes (Trainer may ask for class generated norms after the training)

7 Teaching Strategies: Building Your Toolbox

Toolbox sheets completed with 10 or more strategies defined

8 Student Centered Teaching 1:

Inquiry

A complete inquiry activity for their subject area

9 Student Centered Teaching 2:

English Language Learners

A complete lesson plan that includes English language support strategies

10 Student Centered Teaching 3:

Activities in Action

A mini-book and a plan to use it in their classes

11 Student Centered Teaching 4:

Project Base Learning

A draft of a project based learning activity to do with at least one of their classes

# Session Product Signature of Trainer

12 Classroom Management Classroom management plan, that includes group norms and consequences

13 Lesson Elements At least one complete lesson plan that includes all components

14 Lesson Elements, Rubrics in Action 2

A complete performance rubric that assesses a relevant project or product

15 Levels of Thinking Formative assessment that focuses on higher levels of thinking

Resources for Teachers

List of acronyms

The following list provides an overview of acronyms that frequently appear in this manual.

ECASE Educational Consortium for the Advancement of STEM in Egypt

GRASPS Goal, Role, Audience, Situation, Product/Performance/Purpose, Standards for

Success

PARLO Proficiency-based Assessment and Reassessment of Learning Outcomes

PAT Professional Association of Teachers

PD Professional Development

PDI Professional Development Institute

PLC Professional Learning Community

STEM Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math

UbD Understanding by Design

List of concepts

Word Wall A Word Wall is a visual literacy tool designed to help students become familiar with concepts and vocabulary during a lesson, unit, or subject area.

Parking Lot In training sessions, the term “parking lot” is used to capture questions that cannot or should not be answered at the time they are asked. Often this is in the form of a blank poster or piece of chart paper that hangs on the wall during a session. Participants are asked to write their questions on a sticky note and post them to the “parking lot” for future consideration.

List of technical terms

Term Definition

Apply use a concept or skill in actual problem solving

Big Idea “A big idea … should be the focus of education for understanding. [It] is a concept, theme, or issue that gives meaning and connection to discrete facts and skills. Here are some examples: adaptation; how form and function are related in systems; the distributive property in mathematics… . In an education for understanding, a vital challenge is to highlight the big ideas, show how they prioritize the learning, and help students understand their value for making sense of all the ‘stuff’ of content (Wiggins and McTighe, p. 5).” As used in the STEM

School Integrated Curriculum it is one or two sentences describing the focus or purpose of a course.

Capstone a course in which groups of students develop a transdisciplinary project that is related to a Grand Challenge of Egypt, relates to the theme of the semester, applies multiple concepts and skills learned in other course that semester and is assessed by an outside panel of evaluators. The Capstone course requires students to write journals, produce a portfolio, a prototype of their solution to a problem, produce a scientific poster and present their work orally.

Cognitive

Demand the level of intellectual work required in a task ranging from the most simple, such as recall, to much greater levels of demand such as synthesis and evaluation.

Concepts ideas

Cross-

Disciplinary referring to a concept, skill, or activity that can be applied across two or more disciplines

Depth of

Knowledge see cognitive demand. This also refers to a handout by Webb which provides many verbs, or activities, that can be used at different levels of cognitive demand or depth of knowledge.

Essential

Questions

“Provocative [big] questions [that] will foster inquiry, understanding, and transfer of learning (Wiggins and McTighe, p. 22).” There is no single answer to an essential question.

Examples:

What is art?

What threatens life?

Can things change and still be the same?

Evidence a piece of student work or student performance that provides the teacher with insight as to how well a student is meeting the learning outcomes.

Integration the process of drawing connections between subjects through transfer, shared outcomes, interdisciplinary (between two subjects) or transdisciplinary (across many subjects) projects, and thematic alignment.

Learning

Outcomes

Statements, aligned to standards, of what we want students to learn and be able to do. Generally, there should be no more than one learning outcome per week unless outcomes are shared between subjects and/or capstone. They must be:

Observable, measureable

Achievable and grade-level

Name

Sticks sticks such as tongue depressors that doctors use. Each student in a class writes his/her name clearly on the stick. The teacher collects the sticks and keeps in a cup on his/her desk. The teacher can randomly draw a stick to call a student.

This allow for a “no hands up” class in which student volunteers are discouraged, but in which all students must be engaged because they might get called on.

Once a teacher calls on a student s/he can either put the stick of the student immediately back, in which case the student still has to pay attention because he or she may get called on again. Another strategy is to put the stick aside for the lesson, in which case the teacher will be trying to call on as many different students as possible. The teacher’s decision as to which strategy to use can have a big impact on class engagement.

Recall the simplest level of cognitive demand (depth of knowledge) in which students are requires to repeat or reproduce work that they have memorized from texts, lecture or learning activity.

Round

Robin a strategy for enabling individuals or groups of individuals to meet with every other individual or group to discuss a certain topic. Sessions are generally timed and are not designed for conversations to be exhaustive. It is generally used as an in introduction and invitation to have further discussions.

Shared

Outcomes

Use of a learning activity in one subject to fulfill an outcome in another subject as well.

Example: Write an essay using scientific evidence to argue that genetically modified organisms should or should not be used in Egyptian agriculture (Bio &

English)

Skills cognitive, manipulative or performance tasks such as drawing a graph, measuring the volume of a liquid, or speaking in a foreign language. Generally, the development of skills does require students to develop understandings about what they are asked to do. The development of proficiency of skills requires practice as well as their application of understanding.

Strategic

Thinking higher order thinking skills, such as analysis and evaluation, to solve real- world problems with predictable outcomes.

Themes concepts that are so big that they can be identified in multiple instances across many different subjects. Each theme in the STEM School Integrated Curriculum, such as Systems and Feedback, arose from an analysis of discussions in the Grand

Challenge Design Studio. This Studio was a 3-day meeting of many educators who started the first stage of curriculum design by analyzing the concepts and skills that would be necessary for students to master if they were to be able to start solving the Grand Challenges of Egypt. The themes emerged through the process of analysis of all the data that was gathered in this Design Studio. These themes also happen to be congruent with other science curriculum resources, such as the

US National Academy of Science’s publication: Next Generation Science

Standards.

Think, Pair, Share

Think - Classroom activity in which the teacher directs students to think individually about a response to a prompt and write it down. Pair - Students are then directed to share their responses with a partner. This enables them to articulate, broaden, refine and compare their thinking with another student.

Share teacher leads a large class (grand) discussion in which students now share their ideas with the whole class.

Transfer Application of concepts and skills from one discipline to another

Appendices

1. Pedagogy Level 1 Presentations

2. Templates and Task Sheets

a. Card Sort Template

b. Projects (GRASPS Example)

c. Toolbox of Teacher Strategies Task Sheet

3. Illustrative Graphics

a. Understanding by Design

b. Curriculum Structure

c. Relationships and Convergences Diagram

4. Frayer Model

5. BASELINE (Used for Pre and Post Assessment of Participants)

6. Sample Reflection Journal

7. Webb’s Depth of Knowledge

8. Lesson Plan Template

9. Classroom Observation Scale

10. Pedagogy Assessment Quiz

11. Pedagogy Assessment Answer Key

Appendix 1: Pedagogy Level 1 Presentations

Appendix 2: Templates and Task Sheets

The templates listed in this section can assist in planning lessons using projects. The first template outlines the steps in implementing an Understanding by Design structure for individual units. Notice that it starts from the desired goals of the unit and then works down to individual tasks. The second template illustrates the thinking behind GRASPS which has the user consider questions that lead teachers to creating scenarios for students that are authentic and meaningful.

Task sheets, presented here, are also embedded in the slide presentations related to their sessions.

Professional Learning Communities Discussion Protocol

Until teachers are familiar with the Protocol, it is important that time limits are adhered to and that conversations are monitored to ensure that moments for speaking and listening are being honored.

Protocol:

2 Minute Overview (Presenting Teacher)

3 minutes to Read Lesson Plan, Student Work, etc. (Other Participants)

3 minutes to ask Clarifying Questions (Other Participants and Presenting Teacher)

10 minutes to provide Feedback (Other Participants)

2 minutes to Respond to Feedback (Presenting Teacher)

Card Sort Template

Projects (GRASPS Example)

Toolbox of Teacher Strategies Task Sheet

Appendix 3: Illustrative Graphics

Understanding by Design

The Figure of the pyramid below Illustrates that Understanding by Design relies upon defining the desired results of what is to be taught as a foundation for each instructional unit. The middle layer creates a framework for evaluation and finally the top of the figure illustrates the final step of designing individual lessons. Notice that the components of the UbD

Template, included in the table at the bottom of the page, are listed at each level of the pyramid.

Curriculum Structure he figure below illustrates the components of the ECASE curriculum structure. The Grand

Challenges shape the content of individual subject areas and the Capstone process coordinates trans-Disciplinary work. Discipline areas such as English or Mathematics use the framework provided by the Grand Challenges and Capstones to develop individual units for study which are designed using the Understanding by Design Framework.

The figure on the left below shows how traditional curriculums are based upon content resources, such as textbooks that shape the course of study. The revised chart on the right illustrates how Backwards Design modifies the traditional structure by first asking essential questions to frame the learning, then designing assessments, and finally creating lesson p

Relationships and Convergences

Appendix 4: Frayer Model

Appendix 5. BASELINE (Used for Pre and Post Assessment of

Participants)

DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL CLASSROOM

HANDS-ON ACTIVITIES

PROJECT

HOW DO YOU PLAN?

Appendix 6. Sample Reflection Journal

DAILY REFLECTIONS

Day 1: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” - Benjamin Franklin

Day 2: “Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.” - Benjamin Franklin day 3: “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.”- Pablo Picasso day 4: “Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”- Confucius day 5: “ There is only one thing more painful than learning from experience and that is not learning from experience.” - Archibald McLeish

Appendix 7. Webb’s Depth of Knowledge

Appendix 8. Lesson Planning Template

Subject: Grade: Semester:

Unit:

Teacher:

Learning Outcomes

L.O.

Capstone Portfolio Connection

Textbook & Resource Materials

Goals for Lesson

3.

A.

Guiding Question

1.

Learning Activity 1

Learning Activity 2

Learning Activity 3

Evidence of Learning

Evaluation Criteria

Homework

Teacher Notes and Reflections

Appendix 9. Classroom Observation Scale

NOT PROFICIENT NOT YET PROFICIENT PROFICIENT HIGHLY PROFICEINT

PLANNING

Domain 1: Lesson Objectives

Outcomes lack rigor.

Outcomes do not represent important learning objectives in the discipline.

Outcomes are not clear or are stated as activities.

Outcomes are not suitable for many students in the class.

Outcomes represent a mixture of low expectations and rigor.

Some outcomes reflect important learning objectives in the discipline. Outcomes are suitable for most of the class.

Outcomes represent high expectations and rigor.

Outcomes are related to

“big ideas” of the discipline. Outcomes are written in terms of what students will learn rather than do. Outcomes represent a range of types:

factual knowledge, conceptual understanding, reasoning, social interaction, management, and communication.

Outcomes, differentiated where necessary, are suitable to groups of students in the class.

The teacher’s plans reference curricular frameworks or blueprints to ensure accurate sequencing. The teacher connects learning objectives to previous and future learning in teacher's class, Capstone

Project, and other classes of the same grade level.

Outcomes are differentiated to encourage individual students to take educational risks.

NOT PROFICIENT NOT YET PROFICIENT PROFICIENT HIGHLY PROFICEINT

Domain 3: Lesson Structure

Learning activities are boring and/or not well aligned to the instructional goals. Materials are not engaging or do not meet instructional outcomes.

Instructional groups do not support learning. Lesson plans are not structured or sequenced and are unrealistic in their expectations.

Learning activities are moderately challenging.

Learning resources are suitable, but there is limited variety. Instructional groups are random, or they only partially support objectives.

Lesson structure is uneven or may be unrealistic about time expectations.

Learning activities are matched to instructional outcomes. Activities provide opportunity for higher-level thinking. The teacher provides a variety of appropriately challenging materials and resources.

Instructional student groups are organized thoughtfully to maximize learning and build on students’ strengths. The plan for the lesson or unit is well structured, with reasonable time allocations.

Activities permit student choice. Learning experiences connect to other disciplines. The teacher provides a variety of appropriately challenging resources that are differentiated for students in the class. Lesson plans differentiate for individual student needs.

Domain 4: Teacher Content Knowledge

The teacher makes content errors. The teacher does not consider prerequisite relationships when planning. The teacher’s plans use inappropriate strategies for the discipline.

The teacher’s understanding of the discipline is rudimentary. The teacher’s knowledge of prerequisite relationships is inaccurate or incomplete. Lesson and unit plans use limited instructional strategies, and some are not suitable to the content.

Lesson and unit plans that reflect important concepts in the discipline. Lesson and unit plans that accommodate prerequisite relationships among concepts and skills.

Clear and accurate classroom explanations. Accurate answers to students’ questions. Feedback to

The teacher cites intra- and interdisciplinary content relationships. The teacher’s plans demonstrate awareness of possible student misconceptions and how they can be addressed.

The teacher’s plans reflect recent developments in students that furthers learning

Interdisciplinary connections in plans and practice.

content-related pedagogy.

Domain 11: Practical Application/Using Resources

The teacher uses him/herself as the only source of knowledge. Texts used are inappropriate, either because they are outdated or the language is at too low or too high a level of comprehension.

The teacher lacks the necessary knowledge to facilitate safe and effective labs.

The teacher occasionally uses outside resources but relies predominately on their own expertise or on a single text.

Teacher knowledge of available resources is limited and the teacher may not take the initiative to seek further training. The use of labs is limited or ineffective.

Texts are at varied levels.

Texts are supplemented by guest speakers and field experiences. The teacher facilitates the use of Internet resources. Resources are multidisciplinary. The teacher expands her knowledge through professional learning groups and organizations.

The teacher pursues options offered by universities. The teacher provides lists of resources outside the classroom for students to draw on. The teacher has used laboratory procedures to conduct investigations, apply knowledge and generate data for analysis, as appropriate.

The teacher provides varied resources beyond texts and students have appropriate time to access them. The teacher regularly engages outside "experts" and provides opportunities for students to do the same when appropriate. Labs are frequently used in a safe and effective manner and the teacher and students demonstrate understanding of proper procedures. The teacher takes a proactive approach to receiving further training, both in the subject area and in pedagogy.

INSTRUCTION

Domain 5: Teacher Input/Pedagogy

No evidence of STEM instructional strategies evident. The lesson does not connect to other aspect of the STEM program.

Assessment does not match instructional outcomes.

Assessments lack criteria.

No formative assessments have been designed.

Assessment results do not affect future plans.

Only some of the instructional outcomes are addressed in the planned lesson/assessments.

Teacher's use of STEM based instructional strategies is limited. Assessment criteria are vague. Plans refer to the use of formative assessments, but they are not fully developed. Assessment results are used to design lesson plans for the whole class, not individual students.

The teacher can identify important concepts of the discipline and their relationships to one another.

The teacher provides clear explanations of the content.

The teacher answers students’ questions accurately and provides feedback that furthers their learning. Instructional strategies in unit and lesson plans are entirely suitable to the content. Students were engaged in a scientific inquiry process.

Instructional strategies of the unit are trans-disciplinary and strong evidence of integration between Capstone

Big Idea, Learning Outcomes of discipline, and Learning

Outcomes of other disciplines exist.

Assessments provide opportunities for student choice. Students participate in designing assessments for their own work. Teacher-designed assessments are authentic, with real-world application as appropriate.

Students develop rubrics according to teacher-specified learning objectives.

Students are actively involved in collecting information from formative assessments and provide input.

Domain 6: Cognitive Demand

No evidence of strategies that promote higher-order thinking strategies.

Learning activities are teacher-centered and no opportunities for inquiry are available to students.

The teacher does not assess students' prior knowledge nor make connections to previous learning.

Teacher uses strategies that often do not challenge students or are unnecessarily repetitive. Learning activities are not engaging or only engage certain students.

Students are not asked to apply prior knowledge to new situations or are presented information without an inquiry component.

Strategies are rarely differentiated for students and the opportunity to analyze or evaluate solutions is limited.

Teacher uses strategies that challenge students to probe for higher-order understandings. Learning activities engage students in high cognitive ability and are differentiated for individual pupils. Students apply knowledge to a new situation.

Students engage in analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Strategies for solving complex problems are mostly student generated.

Students experience high cognitive demand throughout the lesson and are given opportunities to explain or justify their thinking. Teacher provides a variety of means and materials to represent concepts and provide ample time for students to work with these materials.

Domain 2: Anticipatory Set/Accessing Prior Knowledge

The teacher does not preview new content with students. The teacher does not use students' prior knowledge when building the lesson nor when conducting the lesson.

There are limited or no connections to other disciplines, Grand

Teacher implements an anticipatory set, but may not refer to it throughout the lesson. Connections to previous knowledge and to other disciplines may be limited or unintentional. The teacher accesses students' prior knowledge, but does not make adjustments to the

Teacher seamlessly implements & integrates the anticipatory set throughout the lesson as needed. Teacher connects information to previous knowledge and to other areas in disciplines.

The lesson is intentionally designed to activate prior knowledge (before content is delivered) and introduces content based on that input, with the teacher making adjustments as needed. The teacher makes connections between previous knowledge, current

Challenges or the

Capstone.

lesson based on it. concepts and to other disciplines. The teacher makes intentional connections between prior knowledge and the Grand

Challenges and Capstone topics.

Domain 10: Closure

Students are generally unable to communicate the goals of the lesson. There is no appropriate closing activity or the teacher does not allow appropriate time for one. Students have no opportunity to reflect on their learning or make connections to other learning.

Some, but not all, students can communicate the goals of the lesson. Teacher has not provided enough time for students to reflect on their learning or demonstrate understanding. The closing activity is not fully aligned with the goals of the lesson and may not meet the objectives necessary for students to achieve the

Learning Outcome.

All or nearly all students can communicate the goals of the lesson. Students were given opportunities to reflect on their own learning. The closing activity measures performance on objectives and help students understand where new content/skills fit with previous and upcoming objectives.

Teacher effectively organizes students to practice and depend their understanding of new knowledge. The closing activity provides students an opportunity to communicate the goals of the lesson through a variety of modalities best suited to their style of learning.

There is time provided for students to reflect on their own learning and demonstrate connections made to other disciplines, the Grand Challenges, and their work in the Capstone.

CLASSROOM ENGAGEMENT

Domain 7: Engagement of Students

Questions are rapid-fire and convergent, with a single correct answer.

Questions do not invite student thinking. All discussion is between the teacher and students;

students are not invited to speak directly to one another. The teacher does not ask students to explain their thinking. Only a few students dominate the discussion.

The teacher frames some questions designed to promote student thinking, but many have a single correct answer, and the teacher calls on students quickly. The teacher invites students to respond directly to one another’s ideas, but few students respond. The teacher calls on many students, but only a small number actually participate in the discussion.

The teacher asks students to explain their reasoning, but only some students attempt to do so.

The teacher uses open-ended questions, inviting students to think and/or offer multiple possible answers. The teacher makes effective use of wait time. Discussions enable students to talk to one another without ongoing mediation by teacher. The teacher calls on most students, even those who don’t initially volunteer.

Many students actively engage in the discussion. The teacher asks students to justify their reasoning, and most attempt to do so.

Students are behaviorally engaged and time in class is spent productively on tasks.

Students initiate higher-order questions. The teacher builds on and uses student responses to questions in order to deepen student understanding. Students extend the discussion, enriching it. Students invite comments from their classmates during a discussion and challenge one another’s thinking.

Virtually all students are engaged in the discussion.

Domain 8: Checking for Student Understanding

The teacher gives no indication of what high-quality work looks like.

The teacher makes no effort to determine whether students understand the lesson. Students receive no feedback, or feedback is global or directed to only one student. The teacher does not ask students to evaluate their own or classmates’ work.

There is little evidence that the students understand how their work will be evaluated.

The teacher monitors understanding through a single method, or without eliciting evidence of understanding from students.

Feedback to students is vague and not oriented toward future improvement of work.

The teacher makes only minor attempts to engage students in self- or peer assessment.

The teacher makes the standards of high-quality work clear to students. The teacher elicits evidence of student understanding in multiple ways throughout the lesson. Students are invited to assess their own work and make improvements; most of them do so. Feedback includes specific and timely guidance, at least for groups of students.

Students indicate that they clearly understand the characteristics of high-quality work, and there is evidence that students have helped establish the evaluation criteria. The teacher is constantly

“taking the pulse” of the class; monitoring of student understanding is sophisticated and continuous and makes use of strategies to elicit information about individual student understanding. Students monitor their own understanding, either on their own initiative or as a result of tasks set by the teacher. High-quality feedback comes from many sources, including students;

it is specific and focused on improvement.

Domain 9: Relationships with Students

The teacher does not understand child development characteristics and has unrealistic expectations for students. The teacher does not try to ascertain varied ability levels among students in the class. The teacher is not aware of students’ interests or cultural heritages. The teacher takes no responsibility to learn about students’ medical or learning disabilities.

The teacher cites developmental theory but does not seek to integrate it into lesson planning. The teacher is aware of the different ability levels in the class but tends to teach to the

“whole group.” The teacher recognizes that students have different interests and cultural backgrounds but rarely draws on their contributions or differentiates materials to accommodate those differences. The teacher is aware of medical issues and learning disabilities with some students but does not seek to understand the implications of that knowledge.

The teacher knows, for groups of students, their levels of cognitive development. The teacher is aware of the different cultural groups in the class. The teacher has a good idea of the range of interests of students in the class. The teacher has identified “high,” “medium,” and “low” groups of students within the class. The teacher is well informed about students’ cultural heritages and incorporates this knowledge in lesson planning. The teacher is aware of the special needs represented by students in the class. There is a high proportion of appropriate student talk.

The teacher uses ongoing methods to assess students’ skill levels and designs instruction accordingly. The teacher seeks out information from all students about their cultural heritages. The teacher maintains a system of updated student records and incorporates medical and/or learning needs into lesson plans.