Instructional Practices to Support Student Mastery By Alex LaPres

Agenda: Introduction Check-in 4 Most Common Challenges and Instructional Practices to Ensure Success Peer Experience and Gallery Walk Wrap-up

Objective Teachers will increase their teaching toolbox to ensure student success on modules and mastery of the Common Core standards.

Common Challenge 1: Task Analysis Challenge: Students do not fully understand the prompt or what the question is asking of them. Students must be taught how to: Deconstruct and internalize the prompt Understand academic vocabulary Best Practices: Annotate the prompt Diffusing RAFT Re-write the prompt Annotate the prompt- Pink for the text names, yellow for the essential question, blue for the requirements of the assignment Diffusing-Reading a passage, noting unfamiliar words, discovering meaning of unfamiliar words using context clues, dictionaries, and/or thesauruses, and replacing unfamiliar words with familiar ones. RAFT- Role, audience, format, topic

Ensuring Student Mastery PARCC Sample Item:

Common Challenge 2: Complex Text Challenge: Students struggle to comprehend complex text. Students must be taught how to comprehend and analyze a complex text. Best Practices: Essential Questions Chunking the text Multiple reads Jigsaw

Common Challenge 3: Academic Writing and Citing Evidence Challenge: Students struggle with organization and citing strong evidence in academic writing. Students must be taught how to: Structure academic writing Develop a claim Cite credible information to support their claim Best Practices: Exemplar student writing samples AECR

AECR Strategy Can be used for either constructed response or multi- paragraph essays Great for differentiation- structured and color-coded

Here, you make an argument or state your claim. AECR structure A = Assertion This is the topic sentence that relates back to the thesis or answers the questions. Here, you make an argument or state your claim. It is a clearly stated expression of purpose. The ASSERTION is GREEN.

E = Evidence This is the evidence from the text that supports your assertion. Here, you back it up (not on the dance floor). The EVIDENCE is BLUE.

C = Commentary This is the commentary on the fact that connects it to the assertion and answers the question, “so what?” Here you explain why the evidence is important enough to prove your assertion. You should have more yellow than blue or green in your paragraph. The COMMENTARY is YELLOW.

R= Relate This is where you wrap it up. Your relate should synthesize the paragraph and tell the reader how your claim supports your thesis. The RESTATE is GREEN.

Common Challenge 4: Ongoing Formative Assessment Challenge: Teachers are unable to assess student mastery of the information until the final essay. Teachers need multiple built-in formative assessments to assess students understanding of material and drive instruction. Best Practices: Assignment Check List Exit Slips Teacher-student conferences Self-assessment