Read The Room
You are starting a new lesson. Before deciding who needs extra support, what should you find out about your students?
What they already know and are ready to do.
You are starting a lesson plan. What tells you what students are expected to know and be able to do?
The SOL.
You ask a question and realize several students are confused. What should you do before moving on?
Stop, clarify or reteach, and check their understanding again.
Two students are working toward the same learning goal. One uses a graphic organizer, and the other does not. Is this differentiation?
Yes. The learning goal is the same, but one student receives additional support.
You are forming groups for a class activity. What should you think about first?
The purpose of the activity and what students need to learn.
A student rarely raises her hand during whole-class discussion but shares strong ideas in a small group. What does this tell you?
She may participate more comfortably or successfully in a smaller setting.
Your objective says, “Given a short passage, students will identify the main idea.” What part of CBC is missing?
The Criterion — how well students must perform (measurable).
Most students are ready to practice independently, but a few still need help getting started. What would you do?
Let the class begin practicing and provide extra support to the students who need it.
Students are learning to identify the main idea and supporting details. Some students use a highlighted passage and a graphic organizer. What did the teacher change?
The support students use to access and organize their learning.
Yesterday’s exit ticket shows that some students are ready to apply the skill independently, while others would benefit from more guided practice. How could you organize today’s instruction (consider grouping)?
Use flexible groups based on the exit-ticket results so students receive the practice or support they need.
A student finishes an assignment before everyone else. How will you know that the student has mastered the skill?
Check the student’s work or use other evidence.
Your SOL requires students to explain the causes of an event. Before choosing activities, you identify the facts students need to know and the skills they need to explain those causes. What part of the VUU lesson plan are you working on?
Essential Knowledge & Skills.
During a lesson, students can give correct answers, but when you ask them to explain their thinking, several cannot. What would you do next?
Give students another opportunity to explain their thinking and provide support, modeling, or questions to help them do it.
Students must explain how they solved a math problem. One student writes the explanation, while another explains the thinking orally. Both must show the same mathematical understanding. What area of differentiation did the teacher change?
Provide writing supports, such as sentence starters or a graphic organizer, to help the student turn the oral explanation into a written one.
A teacher uses the same high, middle, and low groups for every lesson, and students rarely move between them. What type of grouping is this, and what would be a better approach? Explain
This is fixed grouping. Use flexible grouping so groups can change based on the purpose of the lesson and current student needs.
A student can explain a math concept correctly out loud but struggles to write the explanation. What does that tell you?
The student may understand the math but need support communicating the thinking in writing.
Your SOL asks students to compare two characters, but your CBC objective asks students to list facts about each character. What needs to be fixed?
The Behavior in the objective. It should require students to compare, so it matches the SOL.
A student struggles to read the directions for a science task, but when the directions are read aloud, the student clearly understands the science. What would you do?
Support the student with additional reading supports while keeping the same science learning goal.
A student quickly demonstrates mastery of the day’s learning goal and is ready to go further. What should the teacher provide?
Provide an extension that challenges the student to apply the learning at a deeper or more complex level.
A teacher uses flexible grouping for a lesson. During group work, one student takes over while others have little opportunity to contribute. Does the teacher automatically need to regroup the students? What could the teacher do first?
No. The teacher could adjust roles, expectations, or the structure of the activity so everyone has a meaningful opportunity to participate.
Last week, a student needed a lot of support. This week, the student completes the work independently and explains the thinking correctly. What should the teacher do next?
Adjust the support based on the new evidence—possibly reduce the support or provide more challenge.
Your SOL, Essential Knowledge & Skills, and CBC objective all line up. Your class information shows that several students understand the content but need support organizing their ideas. What should you do when planning the lesson?
Keep the same learning goal and plan support that helps those students organize and show what they know.
Your exit tickets show three different needs: some students still have a misconception, most are ready to move on, and a few are ready for more challenge. What would you do when planning the next lesson?
Use the exit-ticket evidence to provide different support or challenge based on what each group needs while keeping the learning focused on the goal.
Students are learning to solve two-digit addition problems. One student consistently gets the correct answer but always uses the same strategy. How could the teacher extend the learning without simply giving the student more problems?
Challenge the student to solve the problem using another strategy and explain or justify which strategy is more efficient.
A teacher created flexible groups based on last week’s assessment. New evidence shows that several students have mastered the skill, while others now need a different type of support. What should happen to the groups, and why?
The teacher should regroup the students because flexible grouping should change when new evidence shows that students’ learning needs have changed.