CTESS ebook

a practice guide on data use (Hamilton et al., 2009). This diverse expert panel made the following five recommendations:

1. Make data part of an on-going cycle of instructional improvement 2. Teach students to examine their own data and set learning goals 3. Establish a clear vision for schoolwide data use 4. Provide supports that foster a data-driven culture within the school 5. Develop and maintain a districtwide data system

The first two of these items are a classrooms teacher’s responsibility and are documented as a matter of course through notes from Instructional Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings and through lesson planning evidence. As part of CTESS, teachers have an opportunity to demonstrate how they are using data to inform their instruction through lesson planning evidence and PLC notes. Standard 9: Scaffolding Instructional scaffolding is the support that teachers provide in order to assist students in accessing the curriculum content. “Scaffolding refers to a variety of instructional techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, ultimately, greater independence in the learning process (Scaffolding Definition, 2015 ).” Scaffolds are purposefully structured by the classroom teacher, and include such things as: • Explicit pre-teaching of critical vocabulary • Sentence frames and sentence starters (giving students language with which to start an acceptably sophisticated answer) • Realia (physical objects that can be seen and manipulated to aid in teaching) • Graphic organizers for structured note taking • Rubrics that make expectations explicit to students • Strategic use of questioning to elicit thought and problem-solving • Explicit instruction which incorporates “I do” and lots of “We do” with feedback, prior to going on to the “You do” phase of instruction (Archer & Hughes, 2011) • Strategic Think-Pair-Shares to make sure that all students have an opportunity to practice a response with peer feedback prior to selecting a student for a class wide response Scaffolding benefits students in a variety of ways including actively engaging learners, providing opportunities for success and positive feedback, decreasing frustration, and increasing student motivation (McKenzie, 2000). For CTESS, scaffolding refers to actions the teacher takes to make sure that all students are engaged in the curriculum at an appropriate level based on assessment information; allowing all students to struggle a little, but not too much. Teachers have an opportunity to demonstrate their use of scaffolding strategies through lesson planning evidence, direct observation on the IPOP, or by providing other written documentation. Standard 10: Professional Development Teachers are engaged in a complex and difficult profession. As with an Olympic or professional athlete, the skills and art involved come with effort and deliberate practice. Furthermore, teaching skills are never perfected but rather they are continually refined and honed. Consequently, all teachers need to not only attend professional development opportunities (which in and of themselves have not been shown to significantly improve teaching), but they should also engage in purposeful selection, goal setting, and professional feedback. All teachers work to get better, even (or perhaps especially) great teachers. Research from The New Teacher Project (TNTP), suggests that getting better at teaching is in some ways like getting in better physical shape: it is “difficult, highly individualized, and resistant to shortcuts” (TNTP, 2016, page 34). As a result of their analysis, the authors of this study recommend that teachers have clearly defined

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