Instructional Playbook

Teacher Clarity

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Teacher clarity requires that teachers know what standards/skills need to be taught, communicate those expectations to students, convey the criteria needed for student success, facilitate lessons in a coherent way, and determine how to assess student learning. Teacher clarity is particularly crucial for multilingual learners and special populations, as clear and explicit expectations helps mitigate barriers to learning and promotes equitable educational experiences (Brozo & Hargis, 2003). Teachers with higher expectations tend to talk less, supporting learners to talk more and allow for assessing learners at deeper levels of understanding. Teacher expectations have a powerful influence on learner achievement with an effect size of 0.85 (Hattie, 2009), and include the following components: Learning Intentions - a daily statement of what a learner is expected to learn in a given lesson. Relevance - how the learning intention is related to a larger concept or how it could be used outside the classroom. Success Criteria - a daily statement of how a learner will show proficiency of the learning intention. A given learning intention could have multiple success criteria. Success Criteria make learning visible. The cognitive complexity (rigor) required by the grade level standard should be considered when determining learning intentions and success criteria. Creating rigorous learning intentions and success criteria help ensure that learners delve more deeply and extend their thinking around the standard, ideally using real world applications.

Increase Your Impact

Maximize

Determining the most essential standards and skills Including WISR skills when posting and annotating the learning intention and success criteria Having students frequently refer back to the learning intention and success criteria throughout the lesson and reflecting upon their progress Creating learning intention and success criteria that are task based only and that do not refer to the standard and/or skill Introducing new concepts and/or skills without previewing resources ahead of time

Minimize

Learning Intention

I am learning ___,

so I can ____.

Relevance

I will know I am successful when ___.

Success Criteria

Effect Size: 0.85