Becoming the Instructional Leader of Your Building: A Critical Action Guide Leaders who have a high impact on student outcomes understand the need to focus on learning and the impact of learning and believe their fundamental task is to evaluate the effect of everyone on student learning. Instructional leaders: Develop, support and maintain a collaborative [...]
Metacognition is thinking about thinking. Metacognitive practices help students learn how to gain active control over the cognitive processes engaged in learning. "Activities such as planning how to approach a given learning task, monitoring comprehension, and evaluating progress toward the completion of a task are metacognitive in nature. Because metacognition plays a critical role in [...]
Assessment capable learners are students who Know the learning target for a lesson. Can describe where they are in relation to the criteria. Use that information to select learning strategies to improve their work. "Assessment capable" does not focus on how well students perform on tests. Rather, it means that students are able to gauge [...]
Description Research shows the same amount of information is remembered better if study practice sessions are spaced in time rather than done at one time. To successfully implement spaced study, teachers choose and structure practice sessions for information connection that strengthens understanding and retention. Outcomes At the end of this lesson, you should be able [...]
Description After modeling and instructing students to summarize, question, clarify, and predict text, teachers create small groups where individual students take turns teaching the four-skill process. The activity provides students with reading comprehension strategies and encourages them to think about their own thought processes while using the strategies. Outcomes At the end of this lesson, [...]
Common Formative Assessments... Assessing student progress is an important part of effective teaching and learning. Traditional assessments have been used to “test” students at the end of an established time of teaching. Such summative assessments provide information of learning (Dodge, 2009). In the Data-Based Decision Making module you learn that teachers gain critical information about [...]
Collaborative Team Structures In 1989, Dr. Stephen R. Covey released his revolutionary book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey, 1990), in which he shared strategies designed to help improve the efficiency of individuals and teams of people. One of the habits popularized by his book is the concept of “synergy.” To put [...]
Description The research on college and career competencies, which is discussed in the specific competency lessons, consistently supports two key points. First, intra- and interpersonal competencies contribute to improved post-school outcomes. Second, to be effective, the competencies must be integrated systematically on a universal basis. For that reason, the overall focus of this training is [...]
Description This course provides information for Tier 2 teams to develop a system for identifying students who may need additional support. Systematic early identification can be conducted in several different ways. No single method is likely to identify all students who may need Tier 2 support, therefore it is recommended that teams develop at least [...]
Description This course provides information on the practices needed to build a comprehensive system to discouraging the full range of inappropriate behaviors. In order to develop a comprehensive schoolwide system to discourage inappropriate behavior, you will need to: 1) know strategies to respond to minor or staff-managed behaviors, 2) define what constitutes major or office-managed [...]
Description This course provides information necessary for the development of schoolwide expectations and specific behaviors/rules that make up the building matrix. This social behavioral curriculum defines the social skills that we expect all students and staff to display. Schoolwide expectations reflect the language and culture of each school. They will become the language all staff [...]
Description This course provides information on the practices needed to build a comprehensive system to encourage and motivate students, both as they are learning the expected behaviors and then to maintain those skills as students become more fluent with their use. There are four interrelated topics that will be explored to develop a comprehensive schoolwide [...]
Description This course provides information about the Check-In, Check-Out (CICO) Tier 2 intervention, steps for developing a CICO program, and strategies for effective implementation. Adaptations for Preschool and High School implementation will be presented along with considerations for making the intervention culturally relevant for all stakeholders. Check-In, Check-Out is designed for students whose problem behaviors: [...]