Rose Ferrero School
Week Of: March 7-18, 2022
QUOTES OF THE WEEK WE SHARED WITH OUR STUDENTS
LCAP GOAL 5: SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS – Communicating High Expectations
If you've been in education for more than a month, you have undoubtedly heard some version of the sentiment, “I believe all children can learn.” Here at Rose Ferrero, we consistently speak of the high expectations we have for all our students. However, do our practices match our words? It comes as no surprise that students whose teachers have lower expectations of them learn less than peers in high-expectation classrooms. These beliefs are telegraphed by our behaviors. Research has found that low-expectation teachers:
· Use ability grouping for activities.
· Rarely provide students with choice.
· Ask more closed rather than open-ended questions.
· Praise or criticize students based on accuracy.
· Ask other students for the correct answer when a student answers incorrectly, rather than trying responses (prompts/cues) that might draw out the student's thinking.
· Manage behavior reactively.
Don'ts and Do's of High-Expectation Practices
The ways we organize our classrooms for instruction, partner with students in their learning (or don't), and use language, have the cumulative effect of communicating what we expect of our students. Teachers' actions along these three dimensions of practice (which we identified based on the research) can indicate whether they are more a high- or low-expectation educator. Specifically, high-expectation teachers:
Don't differentiate learning (as opposed to instruction). High-expectation teachers avoid ability-grouping students within the classroom during learning tasks. A central principle of Carol Ann Tomlinson's work—unfortunately one often misinterpreted—is that all learners should engage in complex and challenging tasks. In low-expectation classrooms, the misapplication of differentiation is used as an excuse for assigning low-level, repetitive assignments to some students as a tool for remediation. High-expectation teachers adopt an acceleration mindset for all learners and create a range of experiences that students can choose from. When students can choose, they often select work that's both appealing and challenging yet achievable for them. When this occurs, students are more likely to complete their selected, challenging learning tasks.
Do create a warm classroom environment. In high-expectation classrooms, the emotional climate is caring and nonthreatening. There's an emphasis on knowing each child well and developing a positive relationship with them. High-expectation teachers are emotionally responsive and use respectful, caring language with all their students. Because these teachers use a proactive approach to potential problematic behaviors, they spend less time reprimanding, repeating directions, and reteaching procedures. Practices like these help ensure all students have opportunities to learn.
High Expectations in Action
High expectation teachers also set the learning intention for students, they foster inquiry and discussion, and allow students to wrestle with a problem rather than providing the correct answer themselves. All this happens within an emotionally warm classroom climate created by teachers who ensure students are comfortable taking intellectual risks and supporting each other.
Are You a High-Expectations Teacher?
So how does one get a sense of whether one’s teaching practices and the ways one interacts with all students communicate high expectations? There are several ways to explore this. One way would be to watch a video of yourself teaching and look for how you're doing on key actions that research shows relate to high expectations. Education Hub has a self-assessment checklist of 25 actions associated with high-expectation teaching based on the latest research that any teacher can use to monitor their own practice in this regard. The checklist includes practices associated with giving feedback (i.e., praise effort rather than correct answers); using formative assessment; and helping learners set goals, as well as taking the time to regularly review your students’ goals). One can then do a self-assessment as to whether or not one does the practice rarely, sometimes, or often. If recording yourself is not really something you are interested in, the researchers encourage teachers to at least think about their teaching or the way they work with students, and then review the self-assessment in hand. Finally, ask yourself, “What did I learn about what I am communicating to my students?” Could I set some goals to make my practice and ways of interacting with my students more aligned with high-expectations teaching? In this way, we will always ensure that high expectations is what we talk about as well as what we practice in our classrooms.SECOND TRIMESTER REPORT CARD WINDOW
“Man! Time flies by quickly!” That statement definitely applies when one takes into consideration that the Second Trimester ends today, Friday, March 4th. It is hard to believe that two-thirds of the 2021-22 school year has already passed. In any case, the end of the Second Trimester means Report Card time, and for this trimester, I want our teachers to understand that the report card window for the second trimester has been extended! Instead of Aeries closing on the 9th of March, Aeries now stays open until the 20th of March, which provides you plenty of time to complete your students’ report cards before Parent-Teacher Conferences begin on Thursday, March 24th. See the graph below for more information.
Three Reminders:
1). Teachers: Whenever the opportunity arises, model your thinking in front of your students using “I” statements, and try to include some metacognition (thinking about our thinking) …. at minimum, it would involve using a “because, why, or how”. In this way, your students will soon learn how an expert thinker (you) begins to tackle questions/problems that they encounter.
2). Teachers: Please remember that assessment capable learning means that students can assess their own learning – they are aware of their current level of understanding in a learning area, they understand their learning path and are confident enough to take on the challenge. In order for students to understand how to do this, they need to have clear learning intentions and success criteria.
3). Teachers: Please make sure your Learning Target comes from your Essential Standard, it has a purpose, and it matches the task/activity you have your students engaged in.