12 High Leverage Practices

Question 1

1. Leading a group discussion: Goals

Answer 1

• Build collective knowledge and capability in relation to specific instructional goals
• Practice listening, speaking, interpreting, agreeing and disagreeing
• Students contribute orally, listen actively, and respond to and learn from others’ contributions

Question 2

1. Leading a group discussion: Methods

Answer 2

*Teachers work to ensure students are positioned as competent among their peers, are respectful, and use the strengths of and benefits each student

Question 3

2. Explaining and modeling content, practices, and strategies: Goals

Answer 3

*Makes a wide variety of topics, academic practices, and strategies explicit to students

Question 4

2. Explaining and modeling content, practices, and strategies: Methods

Answer 4

Teachers choose between:
i. simple explanations for straightforward content,
or
ii. modeling (thinking aloud, demonstrating) to share the metacognitive process

Question 5

3. Eliciting and interpreting student thinking: Goals

Answer 5

Questions create space for students to share their thinking about specific academic content.

Seek to understand student thinking

Position Students as sense makers

Question 6

3. Eliciting and interpreting student thinking: Methods

Answer 6

Teachers draw out student thinking

Teachers use what they learn about students to guide instructional decisions, and to surface ideas that will benefit other students

Question 7

4. Diagnosing particular common patterns of student thinking and development in a subject-matter domain

Answer 7

Identify common patterns of thought

Address and/or anticipate misconceptions

Question 8

5. Implementing norms and routines for classroom discourse and work

Answer 8

I. Organizational Norms & Routines - Unique to subject, scaffolding of common practice
II. Classroom Norms & Routines - Specific to a classroom, praxes used to manage student’s resources

Question 9

6. Coordinating and adjusting instruction during a lesson

Answer 9

Flexibility to use feedback to optimize efficiency of instruction, managing structure and transitions to make the most of time

Question 10

7. Specifying and reinforcing productive student behavior

Answer 10

I. Set clear expectations
II. Redirect disruptive behavior
III. Identify student engagement level

Question 11

8. Implementing organizational routines

Answer 11

I. Implement routines to set expectations
II. Provide time to practice, analyze, and modify
III. Be aware of affects on diverse learners

Question 12

9. Setting up and managing small group work

Answer 12

I. Use when collaboration is beneficial
II. Clear direction & accountability
III. Be intentional about help
IV. Ensure competency, respect, and strength-utilization

Question 13

10. Building respectful relationships with students

Answer 13

I. Respectful teacher-student relationships are characterized by trust, care, joy, and appreciation of students’ cultures and communities
II. Small conversations with individuals, notes to students, nonverbal signals, and how they respond to and acknowledge students during lessons.

Question 14

11. Talking about a student with parents or other caregivers

Answer 14

I. Work with families
II. Learn about background
III. Provide updates
IV. Strategize together

Question 15

12. Learning about students’ cultural, religious, family, intellectual, and personal experiences and resources for use in instruction

Answer 15

I. Understand norms of conversation and collaboration

II. Be aware of students’ life out of school

Question 16

13. Setting long- and short-term learning goals for students

Answer 16

I. Clear goals referenced to external standards
II. Maintain coherent, purposeful, and equitable instruction over time
III. Ensure steady progress toward larger goals

Question 17

14. Designing single lessons and sequences of lessons

Answer 17

I. Carefully sequenced lessons develop deep knowledge and sophisticated skills
II. Encourage inquiry and discovery
III. Cultivate appreciation
IV. Effectively-sequenced lessons maintain a coherent focus while keeping students engaged

Question 18

15. Checking student understanding during and at the conclusion of lessons

Answer 18

I. Informal but deliberate methods to assess learning during a lesson or between lessons

Question 19

16. Selecting and designing formal assessments of student learning

Answer 19

I. Summative assessments provide rich information about student learning ad struggles
II. Teachers consider validity, fairness, and efficiency

Question 20

17. Interpreting the results of student work, including routine assignments, quizzes, tests, projects, and standardized assessments

Answer 20

I. Student work is the most important source of information about the effectiveness of instruction
II. Varied forms of assessment
III. Looking for patterns, and individual struggles

Question 21

18. Providing oral and written feedback to students

Answer 21

I. Specific, focused, and not overwhelming in scope

II. Understandable by students

Question 22

19. Analyzing instruction for the purpose of improving it

Answer 22

I. Constantly analyzing and improving instruction