Instructional Playbook

High Quality Teaching & Learning Instructional Priorities Teachers utilize high leverage strategies intentionally to maximize student learning. The following high leverage strategies have been selected as a priority for instruction, as they have high effect sizes and are easy to implement.

Identifies the standards/skills that need to be taught, clearly communicates learning expectations to students, conveys the criteria needed to be successful, ensures the relevance of the lesson, facilitates lessons in a coherent way, and determines how to assess student success. Teaches in a direct, systematic, and success-oriented way, utilizing frequent checks for student understanding and ensuring active participation by all students. Uses the CSD systematic vocabulary instructional routine to provide practice in saying and hearing a word prior to using it in context, increase reading comprehension, allow for greater access to content material, increase growth in vocabulary knowledge, and support all students’ learning. Intentionally uses support structures to maximize access to grade-level concepts and tasks and build competence and confidence through productive struggle with complex grade level content. Scaffolds are gradually removed as students learn and become more competent. Maximizes opportunities to respond to foster student engagement, rigor, and inclusivity through Writing, Inquiring, Speaking and listening, and Reading and viewing activities (WISR). Provides opportunities for frequent and sustained back-and forth rigorous dialogues in which students explore an academic topic by building, challenging, and negotiating relevant ideas using critical thinking skills and building new meaning using academic language. Clearly communicates to students whether or not a task was performed correctly, how it might be improved, provides an opportunity for correction, challenge, or expansion, and validates the correctness of the student’s new response.

Teacher Clarity (ES = 0.85) 1

Explicit Instruction (ES = 0.63) Systematic Vocabulary Instruction (ES = 0.62) 1 1

Scaffolding (ES = 0.52) 1

Opportunities to Respond (ES = 0.75) 2

Structured Classroom Discussion (ES = 0.82) 1

Feedback Cycle (ES = 0.63) 1

Hattie (2023); Van Camp et al. (2020) 1 2