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I Can Statements are family-friendly guides that can be used to help your family and ensure your students are on track for their grade level. All learning objectives for English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies are provided, written in family-friendly language. I Can Statements help make grade-level learning targets clear for families and they address the standards students of the same grade level learn in all public schools.

Multi-Grade Level Lists

The skills noted in the multi-grade level lists for science and social studies can be learned and applied to the content areas for their respective grade level groupings. These lists should be used in conjunction with the content standards. These skills can be assigned to the lessons in your personalized curriculum to demonstrate the following intellectual, reasoning, reflection, and research skills.

K-8th Grade: Science & Engineering Practices-Crosscutting Concepts

K-8th Grade: Historical & Social Studies Analysis Skills

I Can Checklists

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I Can Statements - Cabrillo Point Academy

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What is a "profession-ready teacher?"

A profession-ready teacher has had extensive opportunities to develop and learn teaching and basic classroom management skills. This teacher has demonstrated the ability to plan and deliver instruction to students with different learning styles and also to assess and support student learning. A profession-ready teacher has worked with accomplished educators to understand the value of collaboration and reflection and has learned firsthand the importance of home-school connections.

While the profession-ready teacher has not yet reached the status of a fully accomplished educator, he or she has had enough opportunities to witness, implement, and reflect on quality teaching and learning and has demonstrated classroom readiness by successfully completing a pre-service, classroom-based performance assessment prior to receiving full state licensure.

EdTPA is an assessment and support system used by teacher preparation programs throughout the United States to emphasize, measure and support the skills and knowledge that all teachers need to start their career. To help you prepare, NEA has created the resources below.

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NEA believes that all teachers should be "profession-ready" from their first day of being responsible for student learning. Use these resources to start preparing for the edTPA and other pre-service assessments.

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Think-pair-share is a cooperative learning strategy used to easily monitor student understanding of content or language objectives (Echevarria, Vogt, Short, 2014). It gives all students a chance to think and discuss.

Steps in implementing think-pair-share:
1. Teacher asks a question to the whole class.
2. Think: Students think independently about the question and form own ideas.
3. Pair: Students are grouped in pairs (elbow partners) to discuss thoughts and ideas.
4. Share: Students share ideas with a larger group or whole class.

Teachers can model the think-pair-share strategy before students participate. This step is beneficial for students who are ELL because each step is explicitly explained and demonstrated. In using think-pair-share, students are allotted silent think time, which improves the quality of student responses. This time to process ideas is especially important for students who are ELL. Oral communication skills are built as students of any age share with classmates in a low-risk environment. This provides all students with opportunities to elaborate on ideas through talk and practice language skills, which highly benefits students who are ELL. According to Wright, students who are ELL can receive clarification of misunderstandings from their partner and can answer with greater confidence in a whole group setting after practicing their answer (2015). Think-pair-share is based on the social constructivist learning theory, which emphasizes collaborative learning. As students collaborate to reflect and discuss in a think-pair-share, information is retained at a higher level. This strategy also fosters student ownership of learning and promotes participation.

In the video above, steps in implementing the think-pair-share in the classroom are described. The video suggests helpful tips to using this strategy and ways it can be varied. This includes having individual students raise their hands during step 3, which is sharing, or calling on groups to share. Another variation to this strategy is writing student responses on the whiteboard for the rest of the class to see. Students who are visual learners or those who are ELL will then be able to easily see each response as it is offered. Another variation discussed in the video is having students write their answers down. This way, students remember their original ideas and become more confident in sharing ideas after they are written down on paper. Lastly, wait time is described as being used to slow down the question and answer process, which is important in giving all students a voice.

The picture above shows a think-pair-share anchor chart that can be displayed in a classroom for students of any grade level and used for any content area. This anchor chart includes guiding questions such as, "what experiences have you had?" and "what connections can you make?" during the first "think" step. For the other steps, "pair" and "share," this chart sets guidelines to follow when listening and sharing ideas with others. The picture next to each step serves as a visual that would help students who are ELL better understand what each part of the strategy looks like.

The video above shows a teacher at Roosevelt Elementary in Willmar, Minnesota implementing the think-pair-share strategy in her second grade classroom. The example shown is used with the reading curriculum to introduce a new topic. Mrs. Johns asks students, "what can families do to work together?" Students then pair with one partner and share their ideas. Mrs. Johns calls on individual students to respond, then uses the think-pair-share strategy once more to ask, "why is it important that they work together?" All students have an equal opportunity to voice their opinion in this example, which encourages students who tend to avoid speaking in front of the class to share.

Reading- Think-pair-share can be used in reading when discussing a variety of topics. Students can participate in a think-pair-share to make predictions before reading a new story or during reading. This is beneficial for struggling readers or students who are ELL because they begin thinking about the text and can anticipate what might happen next, increasing comprehension. Think-pair-shares can also be used to discuss the theme of a book. Students who are ELL benefit from using this strategy when it comes to discussing new vocabulary words based on context clues in a particular story. Students are able to better comprehend text as they discuss and build vocabulary.

Math- Think-pair-shares can be used in math as students complete word problems. Students can think about a given word problem and the steps that could be used in order to solve it. Without solving the problem, students can share the problem-solving strategies they thought of with a partner. After discussing, students can solve the problem on their own and compare answers with a partner. This is beneficial for those who are ELL because they are given an opportunity to discuss their thinking prior to solving the problem. Students can think aloud their understanding with a peer, and receive feedback in solving the given problem.

Science- This strategy can be used in science as a means of discussing experiments. While students are conducting an experiment, a think-pair-share can be used to form hypotheses. For example, prior to completing an experiment on density, students could think about which items will float when placed in a tub of water. Students could then discuss their predictions with an elbow partner. This fosters learning especially for students who are ELL because they are given an opportunity to listen to and offer ideas, and ask questions they may have. That way, they begin to create understanding prior to conducting an experiment. The think-pair-share strategy could also be used in drawing conclusions after an experiment is performed.

Social Studies- Students can participate in a think-pair-share when presented with a new topic or lesson, when discussing prior knowledge of a given topic, or when analyzing causes and effects of important events. When introducing the United States government for example, students can think independently about what they already know about the government and share with a peer. There may be a range of background knowledge students have on a given topic. Students who are unfamiliar with the topic, which could include students who are ELL, benefit from discussing a broad range of topics because it builds background and fosters connections to past learning. As students share ideas, they build off one another and students' learning is maximized as they think aloud ideas.

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Think-pair-share is a cooperative learning strategy used to easily monitor student understanding of content or language objectives (Echevarria, Vogt, Short, 2014). It gives all students a chance to...

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Effective vocabulary teaching has five key principles.

1. Focus on rich meanings, not just dictionary definitions.

Too often vocabulary instruction is no more than kids copying definitions from the dictionary. But researchers have identified a number of instructional approaches that outdo any learning that may accrue from copying definitions.

One of those key principles is that students work with more extensive or complex definitions or explanations of word meanings. Encourage the encyclopedia explanation over the dictionary meanings.

When I teach vocabulary, I often have the kids engage in trying to provide several different versions of a word's definition.

1. Dictionary definition

2. Synonyms for the word

3. Antonyms (if there are any)

4. Part of speech

5. Classification (what semantic group does it belong to, like tools or ways of talking)

6. Comparison (it is like____, but different because______)

7. Real-life examples

8. Graphic version (drawings, pictures, representations)

9. Acting it out

By the time you've come up with nine different explanations of a word you are more likely to remember it (and, of course, we can do more than just these nine if we want to get into analogies, part-whole relationships, and the like).

2. Emphasize the connections among words.

Many vocabulary programs introduce words by category, such as focusing on words from health and medicine or about transportation, including some that have research showing that they can be effective. However, direct research specifically on this aspect of teaching, suggest that word learning goes slower and without evident later advantage from the extra work that mastering these words entails needed to master these sets of words.

And, yet, evidence reveals that the lexicons in our heads are organized in various networks, not like dictionaries. When you remember a word, you draw from memory a plethora of related ideas-attributes, functions, and synonyms related to that word.

Start thinking diesel trucks and words like wheel, tire, dump truck, gasoline, and highway will not be far behind.

There are circumstances in which it is necessary to simultaneously introduce collections of closely related words that may require fine or subtle distinctions, such as when kids are learning about the structure of cells or atoms. I'll give that a pass, since such introductions are likely to be accompanied by a much deeper dive into the underlying concepts in such cases.

I also think it is quite reasonable when teaching words to get kids thinking about words about that concept that they may already have mastered. Linking a new word to a concept, is very different than trying to learn and link a whole collection of words.

I would avoid introducing together plethora, dearth, scarcity, cornucopia, shortage, plenty, sufficient, abundant, and liberal as some programs do. Collect such words over time as they are learned and then later you can have kids comparing the ideas or fitting them into continuum or network.

One teacher I know has her students classifying the vocabulary each week in bulletin board folders, and when a folder accumulates several related words, they revisit them as a set.

3. Promote usage of the words.

It is not enough that kids study word meanings, but they have to learn to use these words in their reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Instruction should create opportunities for kids to use words in all of these ways.

For instance, that rich vocabulary assignment that was described earlier can be done by groups of kids working together to come up with those multiple definitions. That kind of cooperation requires that kids talk with each other about the words. Additionally, I often assign small numbers of words to each group and then have them get together to teach each other the words that their groups studied... more speaking and listening.

One might reward kids for using the studied vocabulary in their writing - or that can be required in various ways.

Isabel Beck and Moddy McKeown came up with the idea of "word wizards," which gave kids extra points in vocabulary if they could bring in evidence that they had confronted or used the words of interest. Kids get very turned on if they run across some of the vocabulary when watching television or playing their favorite computer game.

4. Review is important.

It can be hard to retain vocabulary if you don't get a lot of opportunity to use it. We may teach vocabulary because certain words were prominent in the texts, we were reading this week, but then kids might not see them for a long time.

There are many ways to deal with vocabulary, such as having one day a week when you only work with words that have been taught (and supposedly learned) in the past - or perhaps entire weeks might be devoted to this throughout the year.

I'm a fan of including words from past weeks on vocabulary quizzes and for the use of vocabulary notebooks to help punch up kids' writing during revision.

Another way of ensuring the words stick, is to see how many additional words students can construct morphologically, adding prefixes or suffixes or altering parts of speech and so on. I've written about some of the important work being done on morphology by Peter and Jeffrey Bowers before (and you can search for that on my site or on Google).

5. Involve students in identifying some of the words to be studied.

I noted earlier that much vocabulary learning is incidental and, therefore, largely out of the province of schools. However, not all kids are equally good at such learning and even for those who it is easier, it can still be a tough slog requiring many experiences with a word to get it to stick.

One thing that we can do to help develop a "word consciousness" among our students is to involve them in identifying unknown words from their own reading - and to include these in your classroom curriculum. When readers get used to noticing their lack of knowledge of particular words, they will be more likely to try to resolve those gaps when reading. Kids will also be more motivated if they have some say so over the curriculum as well.

This article is excerpted from the longer blog post, Five Things Every Teacher Should Know About Vocabulary Instruction .

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Five Key Principles for Effective Vocabulary Instruction

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Much vocabulary is learned without formal teaching. We gain words from conversation, observation, television/media, and reading. However, research shows that explicitly teaching vocabulary can measurably improve reading comprehension - if we teach the right words well enough. Here are five key principles to effective vocabulary instruction.

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Consider some excellent lesson models for teaching vocabulary, explaining idioms, fostering word consciousness, instruction for English Language Learners, and mnemonic strategies.

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Did you know that typically, only 5% to 10% of instructional time is devoted to vocabulary instruction, yet students, especially struggling students and English learners (ELs), need between 12 and 14 exposures to words and their meanings to fully learn them (Durkin, 1978/79; Roser & Juel, 1982; Scott, Jamieson, Noel, & Asslin, 2003)? Teaching the meanings of important words before learning new content activates students' background knowledge and prepares them for learning and comprehending. In other words, teaching vocabulary provides the "Velcro" for new information to "stick to."

What Research Says About Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary instruction must be explicit. Explicit vocabulary instruction includes an easy-to-understand definition presented directly to students along with multiple examples and nonexamples of the target word, brief discussion opportunities, and checks for understanding.

Vocabulary instruction must include multiple practice opportunities for using words within and across subjects. That is, instruction must be extended over time with opportunities for students to hear, speak, read, and write words in various contexts. This builds students' breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge.

Vocabulary should be taught schoolwide and across all subject areas. Each subject has a unique set of vocabulary terms, and students need to know their meanings and how to use them in various contexts.

Word Selection

Instructional time is precious, and teachers are not able to address every unknown word students might encounter, so careful word selection is key. When deciding which words to target for explicit instruction, consider words that are

essential to understanding the main idea of the text or unit,

used repeatedly or frequently encountered across domains, and

not part of students' prior knowledge.

ELs may require even more careful word selection and extensive vocabulary instruction because they may be learning conversational language and academic language at the same time. Colorín Colorado provides additional information about selecting vocabulary words to teach ELs.

Some of Our Favorite Vocabulary Instructional Activities for ALL Content Areas

The five activities described below are effective ways to teach vocabulary for all students, but especially for struggling students, students with learning disabilities, and ELs.

1. Essential Words Routine

Teachers use a simple graphic organizer to preteach the meanings of important words in about 5 minutes per word. During this routine, teachers introduce target words with definitions, visual cues, and examples. Students engage in immediate practice using the words through collaborative student turn-and-talk activities.

Resources

2. Frayer Model

One way to have students extend their knowledge of important words is through a Frayer model. This graphic organizer builds vocabulary and conceptual knowledge across content areas. The strategy requires students (not the teacher) to define a vocabulary word and then list its characteristics, examples, and nonexamples. Frayer models can be completed in collaborative groups using textbooks and other subject-matter materials while the teacher circulates around the classroom and assists students.

Resource

Online module, examples, and templates from the IRIS Center

3. Semantic Mapping

Semantic maps visually display and connect a word or phrase and a set of related words or concepts. Implementing semantic map activities in your classroom will help students, especially struggling students and students with learning disabilities, recall the meanings of words and understand how multiple words or concepts "fit together." Teachers will find that using a semantic map, combined with explicit instruction and practice opportunities, is an effective way of expanding students' vocabulary and supporting their content knowledge.

Resources

4. Vocabulary Review Activities

Multiple opportunities to practice using new words is an important part of vocabulary instruction. In previous TCLD research studies, brief review activities were built into novel unit lesson plans to help students practice (and remember) the meanings of important words. Each of these activities takes 5 to 10 minutes and is easy to prepare.

Partner Review Routine: Partners work together to quickly review words learned the previous day.

Sentence Review Routine: Partners create sentences using words assigned by the teacher.

Examples and Nonexamples: The teacher tells students scenarios or shows pictures and students respond chorally to each scenario, indicating whether it is an example or nonexample.

What Word Fits? The teacher asks a question and student partners hold up an index card with the word that fits or answers the question.

Resource

Each activity is described in more detail beginning on page 33 of the TCLD booklet Reading Instruction for Middle School Students: Developing Lessons for Improving Comprehension

5. Morphemic Analysis Routine

Explicit instruction of words is important, but it is impossible to teach all the unfamiliar words students will encounter. One way to help students develop strategies for approaching unfamiliar vocabulary is to teach morphemes (prefixes, roots, and suffixes). Students can be taught the following morphemic analysis routine to help them engage in independent word study.

Resource

Learn more about the morphemic analysis routine by reviewing this online learning module from the Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies.
Have questions? Feel free to drop us a line!

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Five Research-Based Ways to Teach Vocabulary

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Did you know that typically, only 5% to 10% of instructional time is devoted to vocabulary instruction, yet students, especially struggling students and English learners (ELs), need between 12 and 14 exposures to words and their meanings to fully learn them (Durkin, 1978/79; Roser & Juel, 1982; Scott, Jamieson, Noel, & Asslin, 2003)?

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Early elementary teachers can use these fun activities to help make vocabulary lessons accessible for all of their students.

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At a glance

RTI aims to identify kids who are struggling in school.

It uses targeted teaching to help them catch up.

An important part of RTI is measuring progress and providing more support to kids who need it.

If you look inside any general education classroom, chances are good that you'd see different students struggling for different reasons. It can be hard for a teacher to tell right away which students are struggling or why.

Response to intervention (RTI) aims to identify struggling students early on and give them the support they need to thrive in school. The word intervention is key to understanding what RTI is all about. The goal is for the school to intervene, or step in, and start helping before a student falls really far behind.

Teachers can provide targeted teaching - called interventions - to help struggling students catch up. A big part of the RTI process involves closely monitoring student progress. That way the school can see which students need more academic support.

RTI isn't a specific program or type of teaching. It's a proactive approach: RTI measures students' skills and uses this data to decide which interventions to use.

About the author

About the author

Amanda Morin is the author of "The Everything Parent's Guide to Special Education" and the former director of thought leadership at Understood. As an expert and writer, she helped build Understood from its earliest days.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Elaine M. Niefeld, MA, MBA is a consultant and former associate director of the RTI Action Network.

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Response to intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier approach that aims to identify struggling students early and help them catch up. Learn what RTI is and how it works.

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Response to Intervention (RTI) is a system of supports that schools put in place to provide high-quality education to students with disabilities. It was originally developed as an overall framework for prediction, remediation and prevention of negative outcomes common for students with disabilities. It derives from the foundational components of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), including nondiscriminatory evaluation, appropriate education and procedural due process.

RTI is designed to aid in the identification of learning disabilities and other learning and behavior problems and learning disabilities, improve instructional quality, and provide students with academic opportunities. It calls for the implementation of a differentiated curriculum with different instructional methods and tiers of increasingly intensive, scientific, research-based interventions.

"When RTI is implemented on a consistent, ongoing basis, students with disabilities thrive, as do other students [who] have no label but who may hit some bumps in the roads along the way. RTI puts into place a system that is sensitive to the learning needs, growth and progress of all students," says Don Deshler, the Williamson Family Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Special Education who has served as the director of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas.

The high-quality instruction for which RTI is designed is characterized by cultural and linguistic responsiveness, assessment, and evidence-based intervention. RTI has four components:
1) Universal Screening
Universal screening is used to understand how each student is performing on critical academic tasks in the core curriculum. Teachers provide a universal probe which assesses the student's understanding of essential skills and content. Once complete, a better understanding emerges of which students are succeeding and which are struggling, providing a baseline for educators.
2) Teaching With Evidence-Based Practices & Curriculum
Instructional methods for students engaged with RTI are based on those which have been shown to work with students in the past. If educators use established, evidence-supported methods, they can have reasonable confidence that students should respond to their instruction.
3) Monitoring
Periodically, educators reassess their students, in a manner similar to the initial screening, to see if they are absorbing the content that is being taught to them. This provides a cue to teachers to look more closely at any students that are still having difficulties and make adjustments or minor modifications to their educational plan.
4) Tiered Interventions
If minor adjustments fail to make a difference, educators may need to consider more intensive delivered instruction. RTI creates a tiered framework in which the number of tiers can depend on the specific way in which RTI is being implemented in a given educational system. Typically, though, they can be generalized into three levels:

Tier 1 - Level of instruction found in general education classrooms

Tier 2 - More deliberate, direct and explicit in how students are taught and how feedback is modeled and details provided

Tier 3 - Intensive instruction, including the introduction of a specialist with specific expertise to weigh in on the situation

Depending on your state, RTI may be called different names and different acronyms, but the important and consistent element across all of these programs is the idea of tier-based support. Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) is a specific implementation of RTI that has been designed for all students, not just those with disabilities.

MTSS supports four core beliefs:

1) Every child learns and achieves to high standards.
2) Learning includes both academic and social competencies.
3) Every member of the education community continues to grow, learn and reflect.
4) All leaders at all levels are responsible for every student.

According to KansasMTSS.org, "When implemented fully, an effective MTSS results in a self-correcting feedback loop that uses universal screening assessment data to not only intervene at the student level but also to continuously refine the system by analyzing grade, building and district level data for the purpose of school improvement." ¹

To learn more about RTI and MTSS, visit the resources below:
RTI http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/rti01-overview/ MTSS
If you would like to learn more about how to implement these crucial tools for student success in your classroom, consider a master's degree, graduate certificate or licensure endorsement in a special education discipline from the #1 special education graduate program in the country at the University of Kansas School of Education and Human Sciences. ²

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Understanding Response to Intervention (RTI) and Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS)

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Explore Response to Intervention (RTI) & Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) protocols for providing quality education to students with disabilities.

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Response to Intervention (RTI) is a proactive method of identifying and supporting students with behavior or learning needs.

RTI begins with high-quality, evidence-based whole class instruction. Struggling learners identified through assessment are provided with interventions. Adults closely monitor student progress toward learning goals, adjusting interventions as needed. Variables such as the intensity and duration of the interventions are based on the student's response.

If a child doesn't show progress, he may be referred for further testing for a learning disability. At any point in this process, parents may request a formal evaluation to determine eligibility for special education.

In this article, we'll provide useful information, tips, and sample interventions to use at your school.

Levels of Intervention

Typically, the RTI process follows a three-tiered model of support. Some schools call this Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) instead of Response to Intervention.

Tier 1-High Quality Instruction and Screening

In Tier 1, all students receive high-quality instruction. This ensures that learning difficulties are not related to inadequate instruction.

Effective Tier 1 strategies may include:

State the objective (goal for the day)

Use visuals and hands-on representations

Provide feedback and reinforcement

Utilize graphic organizers

Assign summaries and note-taking

Create structured groups

Give appropriate wait time

Accommodate different learning styles

Restate and reinforce the learning objective

All students are periodically screened to identify struggling learners. Students who do not respond well to Tier 1 strategies move to Tier 2.

Tier 2- Targeted Intervention

About 15 percent of students fall into this category at any given time. Tier 2 interventions take place in small groups, with interventions tailored to the needs of the students.

Tier 2 strategies may include:

Increased direct instruction

Break information into "chunks" or steps

More opportunities for practice

Slower pace

More time spent modeling

No new skills taught until the old skill is mastered

Frequent progress monitoring and re-teaching

Often, Tier 2 instruction is delivered to small groups of students 2 or 3 times weekly for 30-minute sessions. The group may receive instruction from the general teacher or move to a different classroom with a different teacher. Tier 2 interventions do not replace regular instruction; they complement it.

Length of time for these interventions varies but generally does not exceed a grading period.

Tier 3-Intensive Individualized Interventions

If students don't respond well to Tier 2 interventions, they move to Tier 3. Tier 3 comprises about 5 percent of students at any given time.

Tier 3 interventions are individualized based on learning styles. Students may still learn in very small groups, but many students receive one-on-one instruction at this point. Teachers trained to help students with cognitive learning difficulties often deliver these interventions.

Tier 3 strategies include:

Students talk through their thought process; teacher troubleshoots

More time allotted for interventions

Teacher works through problems and models think-aloud

Many opportunities to give and receive feedback

Student works on memory skills

Student learns to ask and answer questions about material

If the student is successful with these intensive interventions, he returns to Tier 2. If not, he may be screened for special education.

Pair Response to Intervention with Connection

Jill Molli, a former guidance counselor and behavior disorder instructor who now works with a top SEL program, emphasizes pairing safety and connection with RTI.

Molli explains that learning and behavior occur in the context of relationships. If the child does not have positive relationships and does not feel safe or comfortable, interventions are unlikely to succeed. This is especially true for children with behavioral needs.

A child who exhibits physical behaviors needs safety. Safety can be established through strategies like:

Structure and visual routines

Adult assertiveness (not passiveness or aggressiveness)

Strategies to teach active calming

Calm, empathetic, and nonjudgmental responses from adults

Language of safety (e.g., "My job is to keep you and the other students safe")

Children who engage in power struggles need connection. Often, behaviors described as "attention-seeking" are actually "connection-seeking." Strategies to provide connection include:

Classroom rituals that bond students and teacher (e.g. greeting ritual, goodbye ritual, ritual to welcome back an absent child)

Encouragement for even small successes

A classroom job that allows the child to be of service to others

Offer empathy, helping to end the power struggle

Provide 2-3 choices to narrow focus in overwhelming situations

Help the child connect with other students

Once the child feels safe and connected to others, interventions are more likely to be successful. In writing an RTI plan, Molli suggests focusing on the behaviors you do want to see rather than the behaviors you don't want to see. Then, think about how you can help the child succeed in reaching these goals. What skills does he need to learn? What strategies may help?

Response to Intervention: Final Thoughts

Whether a child's needs are academic or behavioral, effective RTI plans can help. RTI helps schools allocate resources to improve student outcomes. The proactive process identifies struggling learners so that schools can intervene before the child falls behind. It also helps identify those who may need additional services.

Successful Response to Intervention programs share quality instruction, frequent assessment and progress monitoring, and the ultimate goal of helping students succeed.

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Response to Intervention: The Complete Guide | TUIO

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Response to Intervention (RTI) is a proactive method of identifying and supporting students with behavior or learning needs. RTI begins with high-quality, evidence-based whole class instruction. Struggling learners identified through assessment are provided with interventions. Adults closely monitor student progress toward learning goals, adjusting interventions as needed.

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Response to Intervention Strategies | A Guide for Teachers

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We researched response to intervention strategies for students in tier one, two, and three. Learn about RTI and when a child will require special education.

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The California Department of Education's (CDE) definition of Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) provides a basis for understanding how California educators can work together to ensure equitable access and opportunity for all students to achieve the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). MTSS includes Response to Instruction and Intervention (RtI ²) as well as additional, distinct philosophies and concepts.

CDE's Definition of MTSS

In California, MTSS is an integrated, comprehensive framework that focuses on CCSS, core instruction, differentiated learning, student-centered learning, individualized student needs, and the alignment of systems necessary for all students' academic, behavioral, and social success. California has a long history of providing numerous systems of support. These include the interventions within the RtI ² processes, supports for Special Education, Title I, Title III, support services for English Learners, American-Indian students, and those in gifted and talented programs. MTSS offers the potential to create needed systematic change through intentional design and redesign of services and supports that quickly identify and match the needs of all students.

California's Multi-Tiered System of Support

Comparing MTSS to RtI²

CDE's RtI ² processes focus on students who are struggling and provide a vehicle for teamwork and data-based decision making to strengthen their performances before and after educational and behavioral problems increase in intensity. Please visit the CDE Web site on RtI² for further information.

MTSS Differences with RtI²

MTSS has a broader scope than does RtI ². MTSS also includes:

Focusing on aligning the entire system of initiatives, supports, and resources.

Promoting district participation in identifying and supporting systems for alignment of resources, as well as site and grade level.

Systematically addressing support for all students, including gifted and high achievers.

Enabling a paradigm shift for providing support and setting higher expectations for all students through intentional design and redesign of integrated services and supports, rather than selection of a few components of RtI and intensive interventions.

Endorsing Universal Design for Learning instructional strategies so all students have opportunities for learning through differentiated content, processes, and product.

Integrating instructional and intervention support so that systemic changes are sustainable and based on CCSS-aligned classroom instruction.

Challenging all school staff to change the way in which they have traditionally worked across all school settings.

MTSS is not designed for consideration in special education placement decisions, such as specific learning disabilities. MTSS focuses on all students in education contexts.

MTSS Similarities to RtI²

MTSS incorporates many of the same components of RtI ², such as

Supporting high-quality standards and research-based, culturally and linguistically relevant instruction with the belief that every student can learn including students of poverty, students with disabilities, English learners, and students from all ethnicities evident in the school and district cultures.

Integrating a data collection and assessment system, including universal screening, diagnostics and progress monitoring, to inform decisions appropriate for each tier of service delivery.

Relying on a problem-solving systems process and method to identify problems, develop interventions and, evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in a multi-tiered system of service delivery.

Seeking and implementing appropriate research-based interventions for improving student learning.

Using school-wide and classroom research-based positive behavioral supports for achieving important social and learning outcomes.

Implementing a collaborative approach to analyze student data and working together in the intervention process.

Venn Diagram of MTSS and RtI²

The following figure displays similarities and differences between California's MTSS and RtI ² processes. Both rely on RtI ² 's data gathering through universal screening, data-driven decision making, problem-solving teams, and are focused on the CCSS. However, the MTSS process has a broader approach, addressing the needs of all students by aligning the entire system of initiatives, supports, and resources, and by implementing continuous improvement processes at all levels of the system.
Return to Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) home page
Last Reviewed: Tuesday, February 21, 2023

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The California Department of Education's definition of Multi-Tiered System of Support and a comparison between it and Response to Instruction and Intervention.

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RTI², PBIS, and MTSS

MTSS, Response to Instruction and Intervention (RtI²), and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) are often spoken of synonymously, and for those new to MTSS, it can be difficult to determine what people mean when these terms are used interchangeably. It is important to keep in mind, though, that MTSS is a framework for aligning resources and initiatives; it is a method of organization. As such, MTSS encompasses both RtI² and PBIS, and systematically addresses support for all students.

Since MTSS is a framework that brings together both RtI² and PBIS and aligns their supports to serve the whole child, it also relies on data gathering through universal screening, data-driven decision making, and problem solving teams, and focuses on content standards. MTSS aligns the entire system of initiatives, supports, and resources, and implements continuous improvement processes throughout the system.

In particular, MTSS assists LEAs in:

Promoting LEA participation in the focus to align the entire system of initiatives, supports, and resources

Relying on a problem-solving systems process and method to identify problems, develop interventions, and evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in a multi-tiered system of service delivery

Transforming the way LEAs provide support and setting higher expectations for all students through intentional integration of instruction and intervention services and supports so that systemic changes are sustainable and based on standards-aligned classroom instruction

Endorsing Universal Design for Learning instructional strategies so that all students have opportunities for learning through differentiated content (i.e., teachers reacting responsively to a learner's needs), processes, and products

Challenging all school staff to change the way in which they have traditionally worked both in and out of the classroom

Supporting high-quality standards and research-based, culturally and linguistically relevant instruction with the belief that every student can learn and excel, including students of poverty, those who are gifted and high achievers, students with disabilities, English learners, and students from all ethnicities evident in the school and LEA cultures

Implementing a collaborative approach to analyze student data and work together in the intervention process

RtI² is an approach that focuses on individual students who are struggling academically and pulls together resources from the LEA, school, and community to promote students' success before they fall behind. It is systematic and data-driven with tiered levels of intervention to benefit every student.

PBIS is an approach that focuses on the emotional and behavioral learning of students, which leads to an increase in engagement and a decrease in problematic behavior over time. It assists the LEA in adopting and organizing evidence-based behavioral interventions that improve social and emotional behavior outcomes for all students.
So, while RtI² focuses on academics and PBIS focuses on social and emotional learning, MTSS encompasses them all. It acts as a way of organizing supports within an LEA so that both the academic side and the social-emotional-learning side are aligned to serve the whole child.
Statewide Initiative

The focus of the Scaling Up MTSS Statewide (SUMS) Initiative is to develop resources for MTSS within an LEA that align the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional supports in an LEA in order to serve the whole child. It involves family and community engagement, administrative leadership, integrated education frameworks, and inclusive policy and practice.

Background

In 2015, Assembly Bill 104, Chapter 13, Statutes of 2015, appropriated $10,000,000 for developing, aligning, and improving systems of academic and behavioral supports (ISABS). The CDE conducted a competitive grant process and awarded the funds to the OCDE for their SUMS proposal, which included the Butte County Office of Education (Butte COE) as a rural partner. In 2016, an additional $20,000,000, appropriated by Senate Bill 828, Chapter 29, Statutes 2016, augmented the original grant award. The Budget Act of 2018 authorized an additional $15,000,000, appropriated by AB 1808, Chapter 32, Statues of 2018 and SB 840, Chapter 29, Statutes of 2018. This phase of the grant focuses on improving school climate statewide.

The purpose of the full $95,000,000 awarded to date is to encourage LEAs to establish and align schoolwide, data-driven systems of academic and behavioral supports to more effectively meet the needs of California's diverse learners in the most inclusive environment. The SUMS initiative enables the OCDE and its partners to develop and disseminate statewide resources and technical assistance for this purpose. Finally, the Budget Act of 2021 appropriated an additional $50,000,000 to the SUMS initiative. The legislation required the OCDE to award $30,000,000 of these funds as subgrants to LEAs. The legislation also required the CDE to conduct a process to select a partner entity to work with the OCDE and the Butte COE to support high quality professional learning for educators.

Additional information about the application process for each phase of the grant funding is available below:

OCDE MTSS SUMS Funding

For the first two funding phases of the SUMS grant, the OCDE subcontracted with the Schoolwide Integrated Framework for Transformation (SWIFT) Technical Assistance Center at the University of Kansas and the Butte COE to partner with the SUMS effort. The Butte COE shares SUMS professional learning resources through an online platform, and engages rural areas of the state to support their unique needs. SWIFT is a technical assistance center that builds school capacity to support all students both academically and behaviorally. The SWIFT staff supports the SUMS grant by providing technical assistance and professional learning opportunities to participating LEAs.

During the first two funding phases, the OCDE provided subgrants to LEAs to engage them in a process to assess their strengths, coordinate supports to their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAP) and align their MTSS efforts with the eight state priorities. The OCDE distributed the grant funding into three separate cohorts with up to $6,000,000 awarded in each round of applications.

For the third funding phase, the OCDE and the Butte COE partnered with the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Center for the Transformation of Schools to expand the state's MTSS framework. Through this collaborative effort, they developed evidence-based tools and training for educators and school systems. Their work expands restorative justice, bullying prevention and positive behavior interventions and minimize the use of emergency interventions. Their joint effort also established a pilot program to help LEAs to promote positive school climates by improving student-teacher relationships, increasing student engagement, and promoting alternative discipline practices.

The Budget Act of 2021 appropriated $50,000,000 to the OCDE for the SUMS project. The OCDE will award $30,000,000 as subgrants to LEAs. Additionally, $12,500,000 was awarded to the CDE will also selected Placer County Office of Education as the partner entity to expand the state's capacity to support LEAs' implementation of social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, and culturally relevant, affirming, and sustaining practices. To learn more about the SUMS Partner Entity Request for Applications, visit the CDE's SUMS Partner Entity Request for Application web page.

Visit the OCDE's MTSS SUMS web page for more information about SUMS.

OCDE MTSS Phase Three Subgrants: Request for Applications

The CDE, in partnership with the OCDE and the Butte COE, is pleased to announce that the Phase Three California MTSS grant opportunity is now open. This grant will provide an opportunity for school sites, LEAs, and county offices of education to build capacity toward full implementation of the California MTSS framework to improve outcomes for all learners. This grant is open to public schools and LEAs, public charter schools or county offices of education and county run schools in California.

Review the criteria for the application on the attached flyer and on the OCDE Phase Three web page . For questions, please email the OCDE Leadership team at camtss@ocde.us.

Application Deadline: October 15, 2022

Preliminary Award Announcement: November 15, 2022

Appeal Deadline: November 18, 2022

Final Award Announcement: December 1, 2022

Grant Period: March 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026

ISABS/SUMS Legislative Reports

ISABS Grant Annual Reports are required pursuant to AB 104 (Chapter 13, Statutes of 2015) and amended by SB 828 (Chapter 29, Statutes of 2016), beginning in the 2015-16 fiscal year and continuing until all grants funds are expended. Included in these reports are: an overview of the ISABS grant reporting requirements; a summary of the ISABS annual reports; and a copy of the annual reports, in their original form as submitted to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction by the OCDE. The ISABS Grant Annual Reports provide details regarding how the OCDE used the grant funds. The OCDE's fiscal reporting for each year includes an expenditure narrative, a budget narrative, and a budget detail report. The ISABS Annual Reports also include a description of how OCDE met the legislative requirements of the grant. These reports are available through the following links:

Frequently Asked Questions for the SUMS Grant and Other Resources

Frequently Asked Questions
This CDE document provides answers to questions regarding the 2015-16 Request for Applications.

For additional information on the SUMS grant, contact Julia Agostinelli by phone at 916-322-9503 or by e-mail at jagostinelli@cde.ca.gov. The OCDE also has a Questions and Inquiries web page .

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A framework that aligns Response to Instruction and Intervention with the California State standards and the systems necessary to ensure academic, behavior, and social success.

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What Is MTSS? Multi-Tiered System of Supports

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What is MTSS? This ultimate guide explains the Multi-Tiered System of Supports, including tiers, data, interventions, and implementation strategies for schools and districts.

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Every student comes into the classroom with their own experiences and needs. As educators, we can support students by choosing intervention strategies designed to help them succeed. A strong . Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) depends on individualized, evidence-based intervention strategies. Intervention plans must be relationship-informed as well as data-informed, building on what we know about our students and determining how best to support them. " Relationships don't support the learning, relationships are the learning," says Travis Hamblin, Director of Student Services at Jordan School District (UT). Students need connection and support now more than ever, whether it be with academic learning recovery, behavior, or social-emotional learning. To help your MTSS teams choose the right strategies for your students, here's a (non-exhaustive) list of intervention ideas curated from our school and district partners and the Panorama Student Success intervention library

Table of Contents
Targeted Intervention Strategies for Individual Students Deep Dive on Three MTSS Intervention Strategies 2x10 Relationship Building Phone Call Home Homework Club

Key Takeaways:

Customized intervention strategies based on individual student needs and data are crucial within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS).

Building strong relationships with students is essential for their learning and overall success in school.

There are numerous intervention strategies available for educators to choose from, ensuring a comprehensive approach to student success.

Implementing simple yet consistent practices like the "2x10 Relationship Building" method or "Phone Call Home" can significantly enhance student engagement and support.

Regularly assessing student progress and adjusting intervention plans accordingly is key to ensuring effectiveness within an MTSS framework.

Want more strategies? Download our toolkit of 18 MTSS interventions.

Targeted Intervention Strategies for Individual Students

1. Phone call home

2. Home visit

3. Classroom observation

4. Pre-correction conversation

5. Preventative problem-solving plan

6. Student and/or parent meeting with Support Team

7. WOOP (student goal-setting)

8. Review cumulative folder

9. 2x10 relationship building

10. Two Word Check-In

11. Enroll in a positive activity

12. Student self-advocacy email to teachers

13. Binder or locker organization session

14. Buddy student

15. Substance abuse counseling

16. Weekly academic check-in

17. Homework club

18. Before/after school meetings

19. Lunch Bunch

20. "Rose, Bud, Thorn" journaling

21. Working lunch (make-up work)

22. Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) plan

23. Match with a role model/mentor

24. Small group SEL lessons (social skills)

25. Peer tutor

26. Schedule/class change

27. Behavior contracts

28. Class passes

29. Self-monitoring

30. Talk ticket

31. Accelerated Reader (Literacy)

32. Corrective Reading (Literacy)

33. Fast ForWard (Literacy)

34. Lexia PowerUp (Literacy)

35. Reading Horizons Elevate (Literacy)

36. Wilson Reading (Literacy)

37. Accelerated Math

38. ALEKS (Math)

39. Bridges (Math)

40. Exact Path (Math)

41. Voyager Math

42. Study Island

If you use Panorama: You can select from our full library of strategies when creating an intervention plan for a student. Monitor the student's progress over time by logging notes. Everything will be saved to the student's profile and visible to other educators with access to Panorama.

Example of a student intervention plan in Panorama (mock data pictured)

Deep Dive on Three MTSS Intervention Strategies

Description: Spend two minutes for 10 consecutive school days developing a positive relationship with one student. Provide positive attention through encouragement and recognition of the student's strengths and interests.

Goal: To connect with a student and to ensure that the student feels safe coming to you for help.
How an Educator Is Using This Intervention:
"I first came across this strategy and was inspired by the article, "The Two-Minute Relationship Builder" published by ASCD. Originally presented by Grace Dearborn, an educator and consultant, this "Two-By-Ten" approach has worked for me as quick, two-minute conversations that are done consistently over 10 days.

It doesn't always have to be a formal scheduled meeting with the student. Instead, I try to make an effort to walk around the building, drop in where the student might be, and then engage them in brief conversations to see what they're up to and ask how they're doing.

For example, when my student comes in the library in the mornings, I'll reach out and ask questions like, "How are things going?" and "How have your grades been in this class?" and "Anything I can do to help?"

I will also connect with the student through impromptu interactions in other settings, such as attending their extracurricular events or classroom presentations. This can be just as powerful because you are showing the student that you care about their interests both in school and outside of school. It shows that you are there for them and want to support them."

-Lucy Clerkin, Library Teacher at McDevitt Middle School

Phone Call Home

Description: Call the student's home to share an update with their family. When possible, identify something positive about the student's behavior or school performance to share with the family member. Leave a message if they don't answer and encourage them to call you back.

Goal: Toengage a student's family as partners in the student's success. Parents and guardians can play a key role in student progress when provided regular updates and information about their child.
How an Educator Is Using This Intervention:
"When calling a student's parent or guardian, I usually follow this conversation template:

1. Share one positive thing about the student's behavior or academic performance
2. Share areas of concern about the student, such as recent attendance issues, failing grades, or missing assignments
3. Reiterate why it's important to address the student's academic, attendance, behavioral, or social-emotional issues
4. Ask the parent or guardian why the student might be experiencing challenges at school
5. Ask the parent or guardian if there are specific things the school or class could do better
6. Discuss ideas and action steps for working together to get the student back on track
7. Share more about yourself and your experiences to build trust with the family

Once you've established an initial connection with a student's parents or guardians, you might call or text them on a weekly basis to check-in and share the student's recent progress. When the student does a good job on a project or shows positive behavior, you could even tell the student that you can't wait to let his or her family know about it!

These small, consistent interactions create a cycle of positive reinforcement between the student, the family, and their experience with school."
-Nick Freehling, Special Education Teacher at McDevitt Middle School
Homework Club

Description: Invite students to complete homework during a designated time outside of school hours.

Goal: To improve academic performance by setting aside time for students to finish homework assignments or make up missed work in a controlled environment.
How an Educator Is Using This Intervention:
"For our school, Homework Club is a 60-minute period after school where students complete their work and have access to educators or other students for extra support.

When inviting the student to attend, consider framing Homework Club as an opportunity to get homework done so that they have more free time to spend at home or in extracurricular activities. This way, the student doesn't view Homework Club as a punishment or negative consequence.

I do require that students attend Homework Club if I'm noticing that their low grades are due to incomplete classwork or not doing homework. If the student reacts negatively by skipping or refusing to attend Homework Club, consider getting their parents or guardians involved to talk about the consequences of skipping mandatory school events."
-Margaret Simeone, ELA Teacher at McDevitt Middle School

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How can educators ensure that intervention strategies are culturally responsive and inclusive?

Culturally responsive intervention strategies acknowledge and respect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of students. Educators should strive to incorporate culturally relevant content, perspectives, and examples into their interventions. Additionally, seeking input from students, families, and community members can help ensure that interventions are inclusive and respectful of cultural differences.

2. What role do families play in supporting intervention efforts?

Families are critical partners in supporting student success through interventions. Educators should communicate regularly with families, provide them with information about intervention strategies and progress, and involve them in decision-making processes. Collaborating with families can help ensure that interventions are consistent across home and school settings and that students receive the support they need to thrive.

3. How can educators monitor the effectiveness of intervention strategies and make adjustments as needed?

Educators can monitor the effectiveness of intervention strategies by collecting and analyzing data on student progress. This may include academic performance, behavior observations, and feedback from students and families. Based on this data, educators can identify trends, make adjustments to interventions as needed, and determine when additional support may be necessary. Regular communication and collaboration among intervention team members are also essential for ongoing monitoring and evaluation.

Download the toolkit of 18 research-based interventions for your MTSS.

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42 MTSS Intervention Strategies for Your Student Support Team

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Explore effective MTSS intervention strategies for supporting students across academics, behavior, and social emotional learning.

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Best practices to support MTSS instruction in education

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MTSS in education stands for Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. Explore MTSS best practices and examples for instruction in schools.

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The question-answer relationship (QAR) comprehension strategy teaches students how to ask key questions about their reading, and then how to find the answers to their questions — whether it means locating a specific fact, drawing an inference, or connecting the reading to their own experience.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

Reenvisioning the UDL Guidelines

Because the UDL Guidelines are meant to be informed by feedback from the field as well as new research, they have been updated several times in the past. We are in the process of updating the Guidelines once again in our UDL Rising to Equity initiative.

This update will focus specifically on addressing systemic barriers that result in inequitable learning opportunities and outcomes. CAST aims to develop a transparent, inclusive, and community-driven process. If you are interested in collaborating and staying updated on our progress, we invite you to complete a brief survey.

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The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

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1. Define "Think-Pair-Share." Explain to students that a Think-Pair-Share allows them to activate their prior knowledge and share ideas about content or beliefs with peers. This structure gives students a chance to organize their ideas-first in their own minds, then in a smaller group setting before sharing with the entire group. In a Think-Pair-Share, students Think individually about the question or idea(s) put forth, Pair up with someone to discuss their thinking, and then Share their conversation with their table group, and then finally with the whole group.

2. Display Think-Pair-Share prompts about a concept or topic. Give students 1-2 minutes to think about the prompt on their own. Then discuss with a partner for another few minutes.

3. Facilitate a whole group discussion.

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LibGuides: Universal Design for Learning (UDL): UDL Aligned Strategies

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Universal design for learning (UDL) is an innovative approach to teaching and learning that "designs to the edges." No longer the average, but a tapestry woven into the uniqueness of the individual. Breaking free from the "myth of average," standardized c

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Strategies

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Education Opportunity Act of 2008, P.L. No. 110-315, 122nd Cong., §3079 (2008).

Hitchcock, C.G., Meyer, A., Rose, D., & Jackson, R. (2005). Equal access, participation, and progress in the general education curriculum. In D. Rose, A. Meyer, & C. Hitchcock (Eds). The universally designed classroom: Accessible curriculum and digital technologies (pp. 37-68). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

National UDL Center. (2011). UDL examples and resources. Retrieved on May 28, 2011 from www.udlcenter.org/implementation/examples.

Rose, D. H., & Gravel, J. W. (2010). Universal design for learning. In P. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGraw, (Eds.), International encyclopedia of education (pp. 119-124). Oxford: Elsevier. Retrieved April 23, 1011 from www.udlcenter.org/sites/udlcenter.org/files/TechnologyandLearning.pdf [PDF].

Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal design for learning. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2005). The future is in the margins: The role of technology and disability in educational reform. In D. H. Rose, A. Meyer, & C. Hitchcock (Eds.), A practical reader in universal design for learning (pp. 13-35). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2006). A practical reader in universal design for learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Rose, D. H., Meyer, A., & Hitchcock, C. (Eds). (2005). The universally designed classroom: Accessible curriculum and digital technologies. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Rose, D. H., & Vue, G. (2010). 2020's Learning landscape: A retrospective on dyslexia. International Dyslexia Association, Perspectives on Language and Literacy, 36(1), 33-37. Retrieved on April 23, 2011 from http://www.udlcenter.org/resource_library/articles/2020.

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Universal Design for Learning: Meeting the Needs of All Students

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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides the opportunity for all students to access, participate in, and progress in the general-education curriculum by reducing barriers to instruction. Learn more about how UDL offers options for how information is presented, how students respond or demonstrate their knowledge and skills, and how students are engaged in learning.

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The Whatfix Blog | Drive Digital Adoption

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6 Levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, Explained (+Examples) - Whatfix

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Bloom's Taxonomy is a classification system that arranges learning objectives into six hierarchical levels.

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All Posts

In theory, Norman Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DoK) makes sense. But, many teachers feel they're missing a puzzle piece.

That's because there are hurdles to consistently applying each of the four DoK levels in your classroom, from recall and reproduction to extended critical thinking.

Above all, it demands creativity and calculated preparation to deliver engaging tasks that range in complexity - all while providing scaffolding.

This resource will help.

All about applying Webb's Depth of Knowledge in your classroom at different DoK levels, it offers definitions, questions, examples, activities and strategies you can use.

What is Webb's Depth of Knowledge definition?

Based on his 1997 study, Webb's Depth of Knowledge is a framework that categorizes contexts - prompts, scenarios and challenges - into four levels of rigor. As students progress through the DoK levels, they will face contexts in assessments that demand learning and thinking at deeper cognitive stages.

A first-level challenge may only require reciting a math fact. A final-level scenario may involve solving a real-world issue using content from different subjects. Keep in mind:

In action, these context levels look different between subjects and age groups

A student doesn't have to "master" learning and thinking at one level to progress to the next

As a teacher, you can deliver different levels to your students through diverse activities, assessments and assignments

The Depth of Knowledge wheel (and why educators shouldn't use it)

As you'll soon see below in depth, there are four DoK levels:

1. Recall

2. Knowledge application

3. Strategic thinking

4. Extended thinking

Referencing DoK levels should help you create an engaging classroom environment, filled with distinct thinking and learning experiences.

But, before we go on, there's something you should know about the "Depth of Knowledge wheel". You've likely seen the circular DOK diagram, broken into four parts, with accompanying activities attributed to each level.

Webb does not endorse the DOK Wheel Chart

Fun fact: While it may be an interesting (and popular) visual, the DOK wheel that's commonly referenced as Webb's work was not actually endorsed by Webb himself.

As John Walkup, Ph.D. and founder of The Standards Company, writes:

Understanding DoK levels 1 to 4

Recall: DoK level 1

The first Depth of Knowledge level is defined as recollection and reproduction.

Rooted in simple exercises and procedures, students must remember facts, terms and formulas. There is little to no need for extended processing, as there aren't opportunities to "solve" anything. A student will or will not know the answer.

Application: DoK level 2

The second Depth of Knowledge level is defined as knowledge application.

Students must choose the appropriate route to correctly solve a question, making decisions and completing distinct steps along the way. For example, as opposed to reciting a math fact, they may have to solve a multi-step equation. To successfully do so, they may have to apply information in a different way or scenario than they learned it.

Strategic thinking: DoK level 3

The third Depth of Knowledge level is defined as strategic thinking.

Students must face problems and scenarios that are more abstract than those in the previous level. Often, there may be different correct steps and answers. For example, writing an essay based on a defined topic can lead students in unique directions. As a result, they'll likely reach dissimilar conclusions.

Critical thinking: DoK level 4

The fourth Depth of Knowledge level is defined as extended critical thinking.

Students will get a mental workout. To complete a given challenge, they must typically gather information from different sources and disciplines.

These challenges - such as problem-based learning activities - are usually linked to real-world problems without clear solutions, requiring students to justify their ideas and address counterpoints. As a result, students must critically think over relatively-long periods of time.

Webb's Depth of Knowledge questions for every level

1st level Depth of Knowledge question stems

Asking specific questions can launch activities, exercises and assessments that only require recollection and reproduction. For example:

How would you use these questions in, for example, math class? You could ask each student to reproduce a specific formula on paper. Then, test recollection of math facts by calling out numbers for them to plug into the formula.

How about language arts class? If the class recently explored a book's theme, ask students if they remember the activity. Then, everyone can write down steps the class took to identify the theme. As a bonus, the product serves as a template to help them determine elements of future stories.

Just make sure your questions are basic. This helps ensure exercises don't require deep thinking levels.

2nd level Depth of Knowledge question stems

Like the first Depth of Knowledge level, you can ask specific questions to launch exercises that build skills and understandings of concepts.

To get students in the proper mindset, ask:

Returning to the example of math class, you can reinforce concepts by holding a classwide discussion around the different ways to use a formula. You can subsequently provide worksheets that require solving questions with the formula.

In language arts or a similar subject, you can ask students to work in small groups to identify and explain a book's core plot points. This helps them understand concepts surrounding plot devices while developing analytical skills to dissect them.

You can use such questions to frame activities across grades and disciplines.

3rd level Depth of Knowledge question stems

Question stems that promote strategic thinking include:
Strategic Thinking
How would you test ____?

What would happen if ____? Why?

Can you predict the outcome of ___? How?

What conclusions can you draw from ____? What

facts would you use to support the argument that ____?

What is your interpretation of ____? Support your theory or ideas.

Explain and justify the single best answer to this open question: ____?

The goal of such questions isn't solely to gauge a student's understanding of lesson material, but to have them link concepts through independent thought.

Active learning strategies use a similar tactic.

4th level Depth of Knowledge question stems

To encourage continuous strategic thinking, questions must be open-ended. This requires students to independently research and - in the spirit of interdisciplinary learning - fuse information from different classes and subjects.

Some examples include:
Extended Critical Thinking
What information can you find and use to support your idea about ____?

Follow the scientific method to design and conduct an experiment, using ____.

Write and defend a thesis, forming your conclusion based on at least __ number of sources.

Apply information from one source to another source in a different subject. Develop an argument about the overarching topic.

From this list of topics I provide, pick one you know nothing about. Research the topic using at least __ number of sources.

Whereas the third level aims to spur strategic thinking, fourth-level questions should result in products born from longer periods of critical thought.

DoK questions for math

Adaptive and curriculum-aligned, Prodigy Math delivers questions that reflect Webb's DoK levels one to three.

This helps students build skills and exercise strategic thinking in an exciting fantasy world where answering math questions correctly allows them to progress through the story.

Plus you can make your teacher account for free and start enjoying all of its time-saving tools and features.

Try Prodigy today! 🎉

Depth of Knowledge activities for any subject

Level 1 DoK

Despite a question's simplicity, you can still provide your class with many activities, having them finish a range of products. Depending on the question's purpose, students can:

Paraphrase a passage or chapter of a book

Outline and re-iterate the main points of a recent lesson

Complete a quiz or series of questions that only requires fact recall or fluency

Make a timeline that maps historical or storybook events in relation to each other

Deliver a short presentation to classmates that doesn't require independent research

While focusing on the first Depth of Knowledge level, you can differentiate your instruction by rotating through this blend of exercises.

Level 2 DoK

Requiring deeper thought than recollection and reproduction, there are many activities that stop just short of the third Depth of Knowledge level. Using questions as starting points, your class can:

Write blog, diary or journal entries

Review texts in pairs or small groups

Complete isolated, multi-step calculations

Synthesize an explanation of a complex concept

Create mind maps that show relationships between topics

Design a physical model to demonstrate a scientific concept or historical event

These activities are time-flexible, lending themselves to many kinds of lessons and assignments.

Level 3 DoK

Activities and products associated with the above questions shouldn't inherently involve long-term research or drawing ideas from different subjects. That would extend into the final Depth of Knowledge level. Keeping this in mind, third-level activities include:

Writing an essay

Composing venn diagrams

Exploring a research question

Delivering a persuasive speech

Preparing and participating in a debate

Completing complex equations related to real-world problems

These may all seem like solo assignments, but some - such as preparing debate points - can involve cooperative learning. Keep this in mind if you feel classroom engagement dwindle due to lack of group work.

Level 4 DoK

Activities that require these longer periods of critical thought lend themselves to high school or older elementary students. But, with a few changes, you can offer similar activities to younger pupils. For example, students can work in small groups to form and test hypotheses under in-class supervision. They can also:

Debate on one side of a contentious issue

Partner or group with other students to complete a cross-subject research report and presentation

Apply lessons from different subjects to pinpoint a problem's underlying issues, subsequently solving it

As they finish products, you'll gain clear insight into each student's distinct thought processes.

Additional Depth of Knowledge questioning strategies to apply in the classroom

Referencing question stems and activity lists are useful steps in designing lessons, but there are other helpful strategies for teaching at each Depth of Knowledge level. Consider:

Keep these strategies in mind as you strive to establish an environment rich with distinct learning and thinking levels.

Final thoughts about Webb's Depth of Knowledge and DoK levels

Whether you see it as basic or complex, effectively applying Depth of Knowledge theory in your classroom takes practice.

Using the questions, examples, activities and strategies in this guide should help you consistently craft engaging lessons that vary in cognitive effort.

So, don't be skeptical if a colleague's strategic thinking exercises have little in common with yours.

It's likely a sign of properly recognizing your students' distinct learning needs and styles.
Join over 2.5 million teachers who also use Prodigy to help engage their students' learning.
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This resource will help.

The problem with the DOK wheel chart rests on the fundamental, but completely false, premise that teachers can simply select certain action verbs to raise and lower the DOK level of their instruction... In December 2013, I emailed Norman Webb for his views on the DOK wheel chart. Apparently, he is asked quite regularly for permission to use the chart in the mistaken belief that he created it. In his response, Webb explicitly stated that he considers the wheel chart misleading and has always discouraged its use.

Strategic Thinking
How would you test ____?

What would happen if ____? Why?

Some examples include:
Extended Critical Thinking
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Depth of Knowledge: 4 DoK Levels & Proven Strategies to Increase Rigor

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All Posts In theory, Norman Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DoK) makes sense. But, many teachers feel they're missing a puzzle piece. That's because there are hurdles to consistently applying each of the four DoK levels in your classroom, from recall and reproduction to extended critical thinking.

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Note: Some links in this post may be affiliate links. If you click on these links, at no additional cost to you, Ditch That Textbook may receive a commission from your purchase.
Norman Webb's Depth of Knowledge model can help teachers create learning opportunities that hit a variety of complexity levels. It is a framework for evaluating the level of complex thinking required to complete a task.

The four levels of the Depth Of Knowledge framework.

From Now THAT'S a Good Question! by Erik Francis

DOK level 1: Recall. What is the knowledge? Who? What? When? Where?

DOK level 2: Skill/concept. How can the knowledge be used? How can you arrive at the answer?

DOK level 3: Strategic thinking. Why does it happen the way it does? How/why could the knowledge be used?

DOK level 4: Extended thinking. How else could you use the knowledge? What can you design, develop, do with it?

This DOK model provides us with a guide as we develop lessons that create opportunities for complex thinking. And it is a useful tool for evaluating the level of rigor we are adding to our lessons.
But we don't need to be at DOK level 4 all of the time.
In his article Using Webb's Depth of Knowledge to Increase Rigor, Gerald Aungst states, "DOK levels are not sequential. Students need not fully master content with Level 1 tasks before doing Level 2 tasks. In fact, giving students an intriguing Level 3 task can provide context and motivation for engaging in the more routine learning at Levels 1 and 2."

So how do we provide opportunities for students to complete tasks at all DOK levels? And what are the best strategies and activities at each depth of knowledge level?

In a past #Ditchbook chat, we asked the community to share their best strategies or activities to help students at each DOK level. And once again they came through!

Below you will find 30 activities for ANY Depth of Knowledge level. Note that the personalized instruction before, during, and after these activities can take an activity from one level to another. Also, be sure to check out this Wakelet collection to see the entire chat.

30 activities for ANY DOK level

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30 activities for any Depth of Knowledge level

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Webb's Depth of Knowledge model is a useful tool for evaluating our lessons. What are the best strategies or activities to help students at each DOK level? Here are lots of ideas.

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How To Write Clear Lesson Objectives | Ozobot

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Lesson Objectives. As educators, we use them everyday to guide our practice and student learning. We read them, write them, and post them in our classrooms. They should be simple enough to write, right? Think again! While objectives seem simple enough to execute, they can be quite tricky to write.

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Lesson Objective: The lesson objective states what students will know or be able to do at the end of the lesson. The strategies, materials, assignments, and assessments used in a lesson are determined by, and must align with, the lesson objective. Therefore, lesson planning begins with the end in mind.

When planning lessons, GOALS describe the lesson's summative outcomes (where students will go) and the OBJECTIVES describe how students will get there.

Include SMART attributes when writing objectives:

S-Specific: Concise, well-defined statements of what students will know, understand, and be able to do at the end of the lesson. The objective should state exactlywhat is to be accomplished by the student and the conditions in place, such as, "Given a topic on American history", "Provided with a calculator and a three minute time limit", or "Independently, following the five-step scientific method".

Learning outcomes should be simply stated in student-centered terms. If students are aware of the intended outcome, then they know where their focus should lie. This clarity helps decrease anxiety about their ability to succeed and helps build intrinsic motivation.

M-Measurable: Learning objectives must be quantifiable. Measurable objectives state the outcomes that can be assessed in definite and specific ways; the quality or level of performance that will be considered acceptable (mastery level). The criterion can be expressed by describing the performance standard to be met, such as, "Write a descriptive paragraph that includes a topic sentence, three supporting detail sentences, and a closing sentence." When writing mastery level, you often begin with the word "with", then add description, such as "90% accuracy", "no errors", "appropriate punctuation" or "accurate vocabulary".

Start with behavioral verbs (action verbs) that can be observed (either informally or formally) and measured. Using concrete verbs will help keep your objectives clear and concise. Bloom's Taxonomy provides a list of such verbs and these are categorized according to the level of achievement at which students should be performing.

While the verbs above clearly distinguish the action that should be performed, there are verbs to avoid when writing a learning objective. The following verbs are too vague or difficult to measure: appreciate, cover, realize, be aware of, familiarize, study, become acquainted with, gain knowledge of, comprehend, know, learn, understand, learn.

A-Attainable: Learning objectives should be written at the appropriate developmental level for student success. It is essential that students have the pre-requisite knowledge and skills and that the lesson's time frame supports achievement of the objective. You can determine the appropriate level of challenge by referring to pre assessment results. Learning activities should be challenging, yet offer students a realistic chance to master the objective.

R-Relevant: The skills or knowledge described must be appropriate for the grade level and subject area or an individual's IEP goals. The process of setting learning objectives begins with knowing the specific standards, benchmarks, and supporting knowledge students in your school or district are required to learn. Common Core State Standards and curriculum documents are the source for this information. This is essential to ensure students receive the same important content from teacher to teacher.

T-Time-bound: Time-bound - State when students should be able to demonstrate the skill ("By the end of the lesson" , etc.).

Note: As you complete your clinical experiences, it will be expected that written lesson objectives present all of the attributes of a SMART Goal. You may write more than one lesson objective for a single lesson as a result of grouping your students in response to their needs. Determination of the need for more than one objective will be the result of your analysis of students' current performance (formative assessment).

After reading the book "Life in the Rainforest" and participating in a class discussion, students will accurately identify three specific similarities and three specific differences of plants and animals as demonstrated through written completion of a Venn diagram.

At the conclusion of this lesson and following class discussion, students will accurately present, in writing or explanation with illustrations, three roles of local government and the responsibilities of each.

After two lessons on the pattern of digestion, students will accurately identify, in writing, the digestive function of each area of the alimentary digestive system as demonstrated in a student generated labeled diagram.

(Center for Educational Resources - John Hopkins University, The Innovative Instructor Blog-Marcia Hall, July 2016; Designing Lessons for the Diverse Classroom, Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services, Division of Public Schools and Community Education, Florida Department of Education)
Additional examples:

Following this 30 minute lesson, provided with 5 index cards containing two-syllable nonsense words ending with the "consonant-le" syllable pattern, students will correctly read at least 4 of the 5 words without visually marking them.

By the end of two lessons on bullying, students will correctly explain the difference between a bully and a friend. Students will have a choice of writing a short paragraph that includes a thesis statement and call to action or providing an oral presentation that includes a thesis statement and call to action.

At the conclusion of this lesson on measuring volume, in which students will work in pairs to measure the volume of a cone, sphere, and cylinder, students will individually measure the volume of each correctly. Students will choose one object of each shape from a variety of everyday objects, correctly identify each shape, and choose the correct formula for measuring as well as label each measurement accurately.

Section 1a calls for a lesson goal/objective, an introductory criteria to lesson planning. As discussed above, this lesson goal should be written as a SMART goal and clearly articulate what students should know and/or be able to do at the end of the lesson.

In subsequent lessons, this objective will be revised and adapted based on evidenced student progress toward the objective. In other words, students who master the objective move on to more complex and/or new skills in subsequent lessons. Others who are unable to demonstrate mastery yet might continue to target this lesson objective in upcoming small group lesson activities that provide remediation and support.

The best lesson objectives require that students utilize higher order/deep thought processes. Goals that target learning (versus completion) are more likely to be connected to quality learning experiences that stretch students' thinking, foster self-reflection, and encourage transfer of skills. Lesson objectives that are learning oriented (EX: "Students will accurately describe four cause and effect relationships" vs "Students will accurately answer four of five comprehension questions") focus on the actual skill that the lesson objective targets.

GSC's

As stated above, Common Core State Standards or, as necessary, curriculum documents are referred to when planning lessons. The lesson objective is the appropriate 'next step' in moving towards mastery of a standard or goal. While more than one standard may be addressed by an objective, identifying one is sufficient. This must be a standard in the subject area in which the lesson is being taught. For example, if you are teaching a science lesson, note a science standard you are specifically addressing.

State the 'big understanding' your lesson is targeting. Identify the reason this lesson is important in real life, outside of the classroom. This should be a higher level thinking question that presents the 'why' of the lesson. Essential questions are not answerable with finality in a single lesson or a brief sentence. Their aim is to stimulate thought, to provoke inquiry, and to spark more questions.

Math:

How do we identify patterns and use them to predict what will happen next?

When and why should we estimate?

What are all of the ways to represent a number?

How does what we measure influence how we measure?

How can you use equations to solve real-world problems?

Social Studies:

How should governments balance the rights of individuals with the common good?

How do we overcome prejudice and social bias?

What is worth fighting for?

What can we learn from the past?

What remains the same?

English Language Arts:

What strategies can you use to make writing come alive for a reader?

What do good readers do, especially when they don't recognize a word?

How does what I am reading influence how I should read it?

What impact does fluency have on comprehension?

How does word choice affect meaning?

Science:

How do we create, test, and validate a scientific model?

When and how do scientific theories change?

How are structure and function related in living things?

Why are scientists concerned with cause and effect?

How can we determine what is truly "real" and what is not?

Essential Questions by Jay McTighe & Grant Wiggins, ASCD 2013

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Lesson Objective: The lesson objective states what students will know or be able to do at the end of the lesson. The strategies, materials, assignments, and assessments used in a lesson are determined by, and must align with, the lesson objective. Therefore, lesson planning begins with the end in mind.

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Teaching handwriting to children - what every teacher must know

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If you are teaching handwriting to children this article will explain the best ways to support them to be successful with their writing.

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Neat Handwriting Checklist - visual cue for children to self-check their work

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A simple, easy to use Handwriting Checklist for children to self-check their work.

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The new question-of-the-week is:
How should we teach grammar to students?
Our students need to learn grammar, but the real question is how to teach it in ways that don't bore them out of their minds.

Today, Jeremy Hyler, Sean Ruday, Joy Hamm, and Sarah Golden share their recommendations.

I'd also like to share my favorite grammar-instruction strategy-concept attainment.

The teacher starts by covering up the examples and shows them one by one. After students see each new one, they work in pairs to try to determine why some examples are under "Yes" and others under "No" until they identify the "rule."

The class constructs their own understanding of why the examples are in their categories. It's a great tool for many lessons, and I like it especially for grammar and other writing.

Here's an example I used in my English-language learner class to teach about the appropriate placement of adjectives:

Concept attainment effectively turns instruction into sort of a "puzzle."

You can see more examples of concept attainment here and here.

Now, it's time for today's guests:

Using Social Media

Jeremy Hyler is a middle school English and science teacher in Michigan. He has co-authored Create, Compose, Connect! Reading, Writing, and Learning with Digital Tools (Routledge/Eye on Education), From Texting to Teaching: Grammar Instruction in a Digital Age, as well as Ask, Explore, Write. Jeremy blogs at MiddleWeb. He can be found on Twitter @jeremybballer and at his website jeremyhyler40.com:

The question on how we approach grammar instruction has been debated for over 100 years. The debate has always been whether grammar should be taught in isolation or in context with the reading and writing that is being done in the classroom. Even the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) has a position statement on not teaching grammar in isolation.

Let's be honest, it is impossible to try to shove every grammar skill into our students' brains. And, yes, that is what often happens as we try to rush through the curriculum we have in front of us. As an educator with over 20 years experience, I don't know every grammar skill in my heart. We have to begin very simply with two practices: Teach students the difference between formal and informal spaces and show students how the grammar skills they are learning can be applied to their own writing. Students will not see the value in grammar unless we actually show them how it's applied. Furthermore, as teachers, we need to respect the spaces students write in day to day.

Students not only need to understand the different writing spaces they themselves write in, but how authors are using grammar and why authors might choose to make certain moves in the books we are reading. Once this is established, students then get to "play" with the mentor sentence and how it might look in the different spaces they write in on a daily basis. The template is a way for teachers to formatively assess student writing, and at the same time, it gives students a way to see how skills could be applied to different writing spaces.

As students grasp the current grammar lesson through the template, I then have them apply the skills to a formal piece of writing in class such as a literary analysis, compare/contrast, or argument paper. While students are writing, I ask them to use the highlight feature in Google Docs, so I can see they have correctly applied the skill they learned to their own writing. Plus, it makes it easier for me as their teacher to grade.

Though what I do takes more time than what most teachers want to take, students do grasp the concepts and retain the skills I am trying to teach them more so than if I were rapidly going through grammar and flooding their backpacks with worksheets. By scaffolding, I am building students toward the reason grammar is important while at the same time respecting the spaces they write in daily.

Five-Step Process
Sean Ruday is an associate professor of English education at Longwood University and a former classroom teacher. He has written 11 books on literacy instruction, all published by Routledge Eye on Education. His website is www.seanruday.weebly.com:
When I conduct workshops for teachers on grammar instruction, I ask participants to begin with a fast write on "teaching grammar." A theme that often emerges from these responses is the challenge of teaching grammar in ways that are both engaging and effective.

For example, one teacher expressed, "Sure, I know some ways to teach grammar, but I definitely don't know the best way. I can use textbooks and workbooks, but that doesn't get any kind of results with my students." This insightful point is reflected in research on grammar instruction, which has found that out-of-context grammar instruction with no connection to authentic writing often leads to student disengagement (Woltjer, 1998) and has very little impact on student writing (Weaver, 1998).

To address this issue, I use a five-step approach to grammar instruction that uses mentor texts to help students see grammatical concepts as tools that authors purposefully and authentically use to maximize the effectiveness of writing. After students are able to think of grammatical concepts in this way, they can analyze the importance of these concepts in published works, use them strategically in their own writing, and reflect on the impact those concepts had on the effectiveness of their pieces. The steps of the process and their descriptions follow:
1. Discuss the fundamental components of a grammatical concept.
Before students begin thinking about how published authors use a specific grammatical concept and why it is important to effective writing, they must understand the fundamentals of that concept. To facilitate this, I recommend conducting mini lessons with anchor charts and accessible examples to illustrate key attributes of grammatical concepts such as prepositional phrases, subordinate clauses, or specific nouns. Knowledge of these fundamentals will then enable students to think more analytically about grammatical concepts.
2. Show students examples from literature of that concept.
The next step in this process is to show students examples from literature of the grammatical concept you're discussing. It's best to select examples from texts that interest your students and are at their general reading levels. This practice is especially effective because it shows students that grammatical concepts don't just exist in isolated grammar exercises-instead, they are found in literature and are tools published writers use authentically.
3. Talk with students about why the grammatical concept is important to the piece of literature.
This instructional practice is a logical follow-up to the previous one; after you show students examples from literature of a particular grammatical concept, talk with them about why that grammatical concept is important to the pieces of literature. The specific conversation you'll have about this topic will vary based on the grammatical concept, but each conversation should be based on the same "big idea": How does the use of this grammatical concept enhance this piece of literature?
4. Work with students as they apply the concept to their own writing.
After students understand why a specific grammatical concept enhances a published text, the next step is to ask them to strategically use that concept in their own writing. To do this, students identify instances in their works where the piece could be enhanced by the concept and use it in those situations; this requires students to approach the concept as a purposefully used tool just as published authors do.
5. Ask students to reflect on the concept's impact.
Finally, I recommend asking students to reflect on the importance of the focal grammatical concept. To engage students in this kind of reflection, I first ask them to think about how they used the grammatical concept in their own writing. To facilitate this, I ask the students to find an example of the concept in their writing and explain what it does to enhance the piece. After students share their responses with the class, I ask them to reflect on why this concept is an important tool for effective writing.

Teaching English-Language Learners
Joy Hamm has taught 11 years in a variety of English-language settings, ranging from kindergarten to adult learners. The last few years working with middle and high school Newcomers and completing her M.Ed. in TESOL have fostered stronger advocacy in her district and beyond:
Grammar is best embedded through targeted expressive and receptive practice in the context of content. Begin with formatively assessing students' prior grammar knowledge by gathering at least three writing samples per student in order to analyze grammar patterns. Often multiple proficiency levels are in the same ESOL class, so target one grammar error largely observed, such as past tense irregular verbs or repetitive sentence structure. Next, provide students with multiple opportunities and modalities to learn and practice the new grammar concept using the four language domains.

Once students have lots of receptive exposure to the grammar concept, begin their expressive application through typed writing prompts or peer speaking activities which are related to your content material. Your EQ should emphasize using a variety of conjunctions along with answering the content prompt. (Continue to exhibit the anchor chart of conjunction vocabulary as a scaffold!) Additionally, provide students with ownership by modeling your own writing. Display your PC computer screen and use the Ctrl+F keys to search how many times you used different conjunctions throughout your writing. Discuss with students how you could combine sentences or create new meaning by using a different conjunction from the anchor chart. Finish with students going back to their own writing and using the Ctrl+F keys to revise their own writing.

During speaking practice, have ELs record using speakpipe.com, another free online tool, or their phone. After recording their responses to the EQ content prompt, students will relisten to themselves or another student's recording and focus on the variety of conjunctions or complex sentences heard. After students evaluate and provide feedback for one another, they will rerecord themselves and send me both recorded links. I always require both because I often grade my ELs on the progress made between the first and second recording. This is also more equitable for multiproficiency levels in one class.

'Sentence Expansion'
Sarah Golden is currently the coordinator of language arts for the lower and middle school divisions at The Windward School's Manhattan campus. She is on the faculty of The Windward Institute and presents the workshop Expository Writing Instruction: Part Two - Grades 4-9:
Grammar should be taught to students in context using specific sentence activities such as sentence combining and expansion. I have found this to be most effective in my own practice teaching students of all ages, and it is also supported by research. Utilizing the direct (explicit) teaching model, a specific grammatical concept should first be taught and modeled by the teacher, in the context of a specific sentence activity. This is most effective when done in a whole-class lesson that promotes a high level of student participation. Then, students should practice the newly learned concept, so they may reach mastery and generalization of the skill. With plenty of guided practice at the sentence level, students will ultimately begin to incorporate the learned structures and concepts into their independent writing.

Very young students could begin learning basic sentence structure, sentence boundaries, and the components of a sentence by engaging in oral or written activities that require them to identify sentences and fragments. When students identify fragments, they must always be required to change the fragments into a sentence (MacDermott-Duffy, 2018). As students move up through the grades, this activity can be used to teach other grammatical structures such as dependent clauses.

Another way to introduce students to or reinforce grammatical concepts used in writing is through a strategy, which in the Windward Expository Writing Program (MacDermott-Duffy, 2018) is called sentence expansion. In this strategy, students are provided with a short unelaborated sentence and prompted, using question words, to add words, phrases, or clauses to the given simple sentence. This enables students to learn and practice skills like appropriate pronoun use, adverbial clauses, and the use of appositive phrases or relative clauses. Additionally, students can practice different sentence structures if they are prompted to start with, for instance, the subordinating clause or information generated by a specific question word.

A third strategy, and one which is particularly effective and strongly supported by research (Saddler, 2007 as cited in MacDermott-Duffy 2018), is sentence combining. In this strategy, students combine simple sentences into more complex, and therefore longer, sentences using a variety of strategies that help students learn grammatical concepts including punctuation, tense and number agreement, parts of speech, coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, and relative clauses (MacDermott-Duffy, 2018; Scott, C. et al., 2006 as cited in MacDermott-Duffy, 2018).

Thanks to Jeremy, Sean, Joy, and Sarah for their contributions!

Please feel free to leave a comment with your reactions to the topic or directly to anything that has been said in this post.
Just a reminder; you can subscribe and receive updates from this blog via email (The RSS feed for this blog, and for all Ed Week articles, has been changed by the new redesign-new ones are not yet available). And if you missed any of the highlights from the first nine years of this blog, you can see a categorized list below. I am also creating a Twitter list including all contributors to this column.

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Seven Strategies for Grammar Instruction (Opinion)

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Five educators share instructional strategies for engaging and effective grammar instruction.

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Blog post: Best Practices for Teaching Grammar

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Students often associate grammar with a complicated set of rules and terms instead of an avenue for clear and powerful writing. Unfortunately, this misconception often stems from traditional ways of teaching grammar. (Think of sentence diagrams and red ink.) You can create better conditions in your classroom. Make grammar relevant and useful to your students with these research-supported practices. 1. Teach grammar with authentic writing. To make grammar instruction stick, connect it to students’ writing. Introduce new concepts as students reach the editing stage of writing projects. That way, they apply the concepts in an authentic context. For example, if students are writing narratives, teach and practice how to punctuate dialogue. Then have students correctly punctuate the dialogue in their own writing.

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Instructors have many tasks to perform during the semester, including grading assignments and assessments. Feedback on performance is a critical factor in helping students improve and succeed. Grading rubrics can provide more consistent feedback for students and create efficiency for the instructor/grader.

A rubric is a scoring tool that identifies the different criteria relevant to an assignment, assessment, or learning outcome and states the possible levels of achievement in a specific, clear, and objective way. Use rubrics to assess project-based student work, including essays, group projects, creative endeavors, and oral presentations. Rubrics are helpful for instructors because they can help them communicate expectations to students and assess student work fairly and efficiently. Finally, rubrics can provide students with informative feedback on their strengths and weaknesses so that they can reflect on their performance and work on areas that need improvement.

How to Get Started

Step 1: Define the Purpose

The first step in the rubric-creation process is to define the purpose of the assignment or assessment for which you are creating a rubric. To do this, consider the following questions:

What is the assignment?

Does the assignment break down into different or smaller tasks?

Are these tasks equally important as the main assignment?

What are the learning objectives for the assignment?

What do you want students to demonstrate through the completion of this assignment?

What would an excellent assignment look like?

How would you describe an acceptable assignment?

How would you describe an assignment that falls below expectations?

What kind of feedback do you want to give students for their work?

Do you want/need to give them a grade? If so, do you want to give them a single overall grade or detailed feedback based on a variety of criteria?

Do you want to give students specific feedback that will help them improve their future work?

Step 2: Decide What Kind of Rubric You Will Use

Types of rubrics: holistic, analytic/descriptive, single-point

Holistic Rubric. A holistic rubric consists of a single scale with all the criteria to be included in the evaluation (such as clarity, organization, mechanics, etc.) being considered together. With a holistic rubric, the rater or grader assigns a single score (usually on a 1-4 or 1-6 point scale) based on an overall judgment of the student's work. The rater matches an entire piece of student work to a single description on the scale.

Advantages of holistic rubrics:

Place an emphasis on what learners can demonstrate rather than what they cannot

Save time by minimizing the number of decisions to be made

Can be used consistently across raters, provided they have all been trained

Disadvantages of holistic rubrics:

Do not provide specific feedback for improvement

Can be difficult to choose a score when a student's work is at varying levels across the criteria

Criteria cannot be weighted

Analytic/Descriptive Rubric. An analytic rubric resembles a grid with the criteria for an assignment listed in the left column and with levels of performance listed across the top row, often using numbers and/or descriptive tags. The cells within the center of the rubric may be left blank or may contain descriptions of what the specified criteria look like for each level of performance. When scoring with an analytic rubric, each of the criteria is scored individually.

Advantages of analytic rubrics:

Provide feedback on areas of strength or weakness

Each criterion can be weighted to reflect its relative importance

Disadvantages of analytic rubrics:

More time-consuming to create and use than a holistic rubric

May not be used consistently across raters unless the rubrics are well defined

May limit personalized feedback to help students improve

Single-Point Rubric. Similar to an analytic/descriptive rubric in that it breaks down the components of an assignment into different criteria. The detailed performance descriptors are only for the level of proficiency. Feedback space is provided for instructors to give individualized comments to help students improve and/or show where they excelled beyond the proficiency descriptors.

Advantages of single-point rubrics:

Easier to create than an analytic/descriptive rubric

More likely that students will read the descriptors

Areas of concern and excellence are open-ended removes a focus on the grade/points

May increase student creativity in project-based assignments

Disadvantages of analytic rubrics:

Requires more work for instructors writing feedback

Step 3: Define the Criteria

Ask yourself: What knowledge and skills are required for the assignment/assessment? Make a list of these, group and label them, and eliminate any that are not critical.

Helpful strategies for defining grading criteria:

Review the learning objectives for the course; use the assignment prompt, existing grading checklists, peer response sheets, comments on previous work, past examples of student work, etc.

Try describing A/B/C work.

Consider "sentence starters" with verbs describing student performance from Bloom's Taxonomy or other terms to indicate various levels of performance, i.e., presence to absence, complete to incomplete, many to some to none, major to minor, consistent to inconsistent, always to usually to sometimes to rarely

Collaborate with co-instructors, teaching assistants, and other colleagues

Brainstorm and discuss with students

Consider the effectiveness of the criteria:

Can they be observed and measured?

Are they important and essential?

Are they distinct from other criteria?

Are they phrased in precise, unambiguous language?

Revise the criteria as needed

Consider how you will weigh them in relation to each other

Step 4: Design the Rating Scale

Most ratings scales include between 3 and 5 levels. Consider the following questions:

Given what students are able to demonstrate in this assignment/assessment, what are the possible levels of achievement?

Will you use numbers or descriptive labels for these levels?

If you choose descriptive labels, what labels are most appropriate? Will you assign a number to those labels?

In what order will you list these levels - from lowest to highest or vice versa?

Step 5: Write Descriptions for Each Level of the Rating Scale

Create statements of expected performance at each level of the rubric. For an analytic rubric, do this for each particular criterion of the rubric. These descriptions help students understand your expectations and their performance in regard to those expectations.

Start with the top/exemplary work category -what does it look like when a student has achieved excellence in each category? Then look at the "bottom" category -what does it look like when students have not achieved the learning goals in any way? Then add the categories in between.

Also, take into consideration that well-written descriptions:

Describe observable and measurable behavior

Use parallel language across the scale

Indicate the degree to which the standards are met

Step 6: Create your Rubric

Develop the criteria, rating scale, and descriptions for each level of the rating scale into a rubric

Include the assignment at the top of the rubric, space permitting

For reading and grading ease, limit the rubric to a single page, if possible

Consider the effectiveness of your rubric and revise accordingly

Create your rubric in a table or spreadsheet in Word, Google Docs, Sheets, etc., and then transfer it by typing it into Moodle. You can also use online tools to create the rubric, but you will still have to type the criteria, indicators, levels, etc., into Moodle. Rubric creators: Rubistar, iRubric

Step 7: Pilot-test your Rubric

Prior to implementing your rubric on a live course, obtain feedback from:

Colleagues

Teacher Assistants

Students

Also, try out your new rubric on a sample of student work. After you pilot-test your rubric, analyze the results to consider its effectiveness and revise accordingly.

Best Practices

Use Parallel Language. Make sure that the language from column to column is similar and that syntax and wording correspond. Of course, the words will change for each section or assignment, as will the expectations, but in terms of readability, make sure that the rubric can be easily read from left to right or vice versa. In addition, if you have an indicator described in one category, it will need to be described in the next category, whether it is about "having included" or "not having included" something. This is all about clarity and transparency to students.

Use Student-Friendly Language. If students can't understand the rubric, it will not be useful for guiding instruction, reflection, and assessment. If you want students to engage in using the rubric, they have to understand it. Make sure the language is learning-level appropriate. If you use academic language or concepts, you will need to teach those concepts.

Use the Rubric with Your Students. You have to use the rubric with the students. It means nothing to them if you don't. For students to find the rubric useful in terms of their learning, they must see a reason for using it. Students should understand that the rubric is there to help them learn, reflect, and self-assess. If students use a rubric, they will understand the expectations and their relevance to learning.

Don't Use Too Many Columns. The rubric needs to be comprehensible and organized. Pick the right amount of columns so that the criteria flow logically and naturally across levels.

Common Rubrics and Templates are Awesome. Avoid rubric fatigue, as in creating rubrics to the point where you just can't do it anymore. This can be done with common rubrics that students see across multiple classroom activities and through creating templates that you can alter slightly as needed. Design those templates for learning targets or similar performance tasks in your classroom. It's easy to change these types of rubrics later. Figure out your common practices and create a single rubric your team can use.

Rely on Descriptive Language. The most effective descriptions are those that use specific descriptions. This means avoiding words like "good" and "excellent." At the same time, don't rely on numbers, such as a number of resources, as your crutch. Instead of saying, "find excellent sources" or "use three sources," focus your rubric language on the quality use of whatever sources students find and on the best possible way of aligning that data to the work. It isn't about the number of sources, and "excellent" is too vague for students. Be specific and descriptive.

Examples

Example of an analytic rubric for a final paper

Needs Improvement (1) Developing (2) Sufficient (3) Above Average (4)

Clarity (Thesis supported by relevant information and ideas)

The purpose of the student work is not well-defined. Central ideas are not focused to support the thesis. Thoughts appear disconnected.

The central purpose of the student work is identified. Ideas are generally focused in a way that supports the thesis.

The central purpose of the student work is clear and ideas are almost always focused in a way that supports the thesis. Relevant details illustrate the author's ideas.

The central purpose of the student work is clear and supporting ideas always are always well-focused. Details are relevant, enrich the work.

Organization (Sequencing of elements/ ideas)

Information and ideas are poorly sequenced (the author jumps around). The audience has difficulty following the thread of thought.

Information and ideas are presented in an order that the audience can follow with minimum difficulty.

Information and ideas are presented in a logical sequence which is followed by the reader with little or no difficulty.

Information and ideas are presented in a logical sequence which flows naturally and is engaging to the audience.

Mechanics (Correctness of grammar and spelling)

There are five or more misspellings and/or systematic grammatical errors per page or eight or more in the entire document. The readability of the work is seriously hampered by errors.

There are no more than four misspellings and/or systematic grammatical errors per page or six or more in the entire document. Errors distract from the work.

There are no more than three misspellings and/or grammatical errors per page and no more than five in the entire document. The readability of the work is minimally interrupted by errors.

There are no more than two misspelled words or grammatical errors in the document.

Example of a holistic rubric for a final paper

Articulating thoughts through written communication- final paper.

1. Above Average: The audience is able to easily identify the focus of the work and is engaged by its clear focus and relevant details. Information is presented logically and naturally. There are no more than two mechanical errors or misspelled words to distract the reader.

2. Sufficient: The audience is easily able to identify the focus of the student work which is supported by relevant ideas and supporting details. Information is presented in a logical manner that is easily followed. There is minimal interruption to the work due to misspellings and/or mechanical errors.

3. Developing: The audience can identify the central purpose of the student work without little difficulty and supporting ideas are present and clear. The information is presented in an orderly fashion that can be followed with little difficulty. There are some misspellings or mechanical errors, but they do not distract from the work.

4. Needs Improvement: The audience cannot clearly or easily identify the central ideas or purpose of the student work. Information is presented in a disorganized fashion causing the audience to have difficulty following the author's ideas. There are many misspellings and/or mechanical errors that negatively affect the audience's ability to read the work.

Single-Point Rubric

Moodle How-To Guides

Technology Tools: Rubrics in Moodle

Resources

Supplemental Tools with Rubrics in Moodle

DELTA - Rubrics: Making Assignments Easier for You and Your Students (2/1/2022)

DePaul University (n.d.). Rubrics. Retrieved from http://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/feedback-grading/rubrics/Pages/default.aspx

Gonzalez, J. (2014). Know your terms: Holistic, Analytic, and Single-Point Rubrics. Cult of Pedagogy. Retrieved from https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/holistic-analytic-single-point-rubrics/

Goodrich, H. (1996). Understanding rubrics. Teaching for Authentic Student Performance, 54 (4), 14-17. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/dec96/vol54/num04/Understanding-Rubrics.aspx

Miller, A. (2012). Tame the beast: tips for designing and using rubrics. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/designing-using-rubrics-andrew-miller

Ragupathi, K., Lee, A. (2020). Beyond Fairness and Consistency in Grading: The Role of Rubrics in Higher Education. In: Sanger, C., Gleason, N. (eds) Diversity and Inclusion in Global Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1628-3_3

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Rubric Best Practices, Examples, and Templates

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Instructors have many tasks to perform during the semester, including grading assignments and assessments. Feedback on performance is a critical factor in helping students improve and succeed. Grading rubrics can provide more consistent feedback for students and create efficiency for the instructor/grader.

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Formative Assessments for Social Studies

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Choose the formative assessments for social studies that work best for your classroom to improve student learning.

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Distinguishing formal evaluation from informal assessment can be challenging. For one, both methods use similar tools like quizzes and surveys. But how they apply these tools to specific questions separates one from the other.

In this article, we will consider 15 key similarities and differences between formal and informal assessments.

What is a Formal Assessment?

Depending on the context, formal assessments can be norm-referenced or criterion-referenced. For example, if you want to know how a learner's score compares to the average class score, then a norm-referenced is your best bet.

What is Informal Assessment?

Informal assessment is an intuitive evaluation method, where the teacher assesses students without measuring their performance against some rubric or metric. The structure of informal evaluation methods allows teachers to observe the student's progress at different points in the learning period.

The instructor can also ask students to take part in group quizzes or brief presentations about a particular subject. Informal assessments allow instructors to provide immediate feedback to students and address any learning gaps in time.
Read: Motivation Assessment: Definitions, Types, Tools + [Questionnaire Examples]
Differences Between Formal and Informal Assessments

Definitions

A formal assessment is an evaluation method that uses a grading system to score a student's level of knowledge. Typically, students respond to the same questions under the same conditions, and the instructor grades them based on the extent to which they satisfied pre-defined requirements.

An informal assessment measures students' progress and performance with no standard grading criteria. The instructor uses different methods that allow students to show their knowledge while providing feedback on learning gaps.

Types

Common types of informal assessment include quizzes, writing samples, and project-based assignments. In informal assessment, quizzes are used to improve class engagement and participation. So, you'd find the instructor splitting the class into groups while every student has a go at the questions.

Project-based assignments and writing samples are intertwined. For example, the teacher can ask students to create a science project and write a summary of their ideas for the project.

Examples

Common examples of formal assessment include tests, quizzes, surveys, and questionnaires. Exit surveys, observation, and oral presentations are examples of informal assessment.

In some sense, formal and informal assessments can use the same methods. What matters is how the instructor applies these methods to achieve specific objectives. For example, the structure of a quiz for formal assessment significantly differs from a quiz for informal evaluation.

When to Use

Teachers use formal assessments when they want to determine students' knowledge based on specific standards and criteria. Instructors use traditional assessment methods when they need factual data that qualifies a student for the best learning phase, for example, moving from high school to college.

Advantages of Formal Assessment Over Informal Assessment

Since formal assessments have standard evaluation criteria, there's little or no opportunity for examiner bias. This differs significantly from informal evaluations, where the instructor's subjectivity determines how they rate the student and the type of feedback given.

Another advantage of formal assessment over informal evaluation is it spurs students to pay keener attention during classes. Since a formal assessment is high stakes, it motivates students to perform better to get higher grades.

Also, formal evaluation determines whether a student moves to the next phase in the learning process. An individual who wants to gain admission into college needs to ace the required promotional examination.

Advantages of Informal Assessment Over Formal Assessments

Also, informal assessment gives room for improvement, unlike one-off tests. Since there's little or nothing at stake, students can make mistakes and improve their knowledge without undue pressure. Informal evaluation methods allow students to explore different angles of a particular subject.

Use of a Grading System

The significant difference between both forms of assessment is while formal evaluation uses a rubric or standard assessment criteria, the other doesn't. A rubric is an assessment tool used for judging a particular type of work. More than stating different grade levels, a rubric provides details on the requirements for each grade.

During informal assessments, the instructor doesn't use a set of predetermined criteria for grading. Instead, they compare a student's performance with their past presentations to know if they've made any progress.

Purpose of Assessment

The formal evaluation aims to assess a student's overall knowledge, usually at the end of a learning experience. Sometimes, formal assessments allow the instructor to compare a student's performance with others in the same age group or class.

Informal assessment is used to track learners' progress and identify any challenges they might face with the subject.

Scope

Formal assessments provide a broad view of a student's knowledge, while informal assessments provide detailed information. In formal evaluation, the instructor measures a student's performance at the surface level. The aim is to have enough evidence for assigning a specific score and grade to the learner.

Informal assessments are different. It allows the instructor to do a thorough analysis of the specific experiences of individual students. The teacher can make adjustments to instructional methods based on the specialized needs of each learner.

Flexibility

The instructor can adjust informal assessments based on context and the specific needs or set of students. For example, if a student cannot communicate their thoughts via summary writing, the teacher might ask them to give an oral presentation.

A formal assessment uses well-defined criteria for performance evaluation. So, the instructor cannot deviate from the grading system, even if this system doesn't work for some students.

Score Comparison

Depending on the type of formal assessment, the instructor might compare students' performances in the same class or age group. However, for informal evaluation, the instructor assesses students individually. While the instructor might compare a student's present performance with their past ones, there's no room for student-to-student comparison.

Tools

For formal assessments, an essential tool is a rubric or some other well-defined grading system. Formal assessments also use online quiz platforms, surveys, questionnaires, or presentation tools like Google Slides and PowerPoint. Teachers use straw polls, exit surveys, and observation methods for informal assessment on the flip side.

Similarities Between Informal and Formal Assessment

Feedback

Another thing to note here is feedback is always personalized in informal assessment, while formal assessment can provide generic feedback to students at different grades. For example, the instructor can send a general feedback email to everyone who scored a "B" in a test.

Educational Assessment

Instructional Needs

Teachers use formal and informal assessments to improve their instructional methods. Based on results and feedback from both forms of educational assessment, educational stakeholders can change the subject curriculum, grading system, and instructional design for the classes.

How to Use Formplus as an Online Assessment Tool

Formplus allows you to create quizzes, polls, surveys, and questionnaires for formal and informal evaluation as an online assessment tool. Here is a simple step-by-step guide on how to do this.

Step 1: Log into your Formplus account.

Step 2: On the dashboard, choose the "create new form" button. This takes you to the form builder.

Step 3: On the left side of the builder, you'd find different form field options like rating scales, text fields, and other advanced fields like signature and payment fields.

Step 4: Click any field you'd want to add to your form. Alternatively, you can drag-and-drop fields into the work area from the builder's inputs section.

Step 5: After adding the fields, click on the edit icon beside each to access the editing tab. Here, you can add the specific questions to each field and make other changes like setting fields as "compulsory" or "read-only."

Step 6: Click on the "save" icon, so you don't lose all the changes you've made. This also takes you to the builder's customization section automatically.

Step 7: Use the different options in the customization section to change the appearance of your form. Since you're using this for assessments, it's a great idea to add your school's logo to the survey or questionnaire. You can also create a custom theme from scratch for your form.

Step 8: Go to the "share" section and choose your preferred form sharing option. You can copy the form link or share it via email invitations.
Conclusion
When it's time to choose one form of educational assessment over the other, the most important thing teachers should consider is context. Ask questions like, "what do I want to achieve with this?" and "how does this fit into the existing learning system?"

In many cases, teachers combine formal and informal assessment methods for evaluation. During the learning process, informal evaluation methods like concept mapping and straw polls help the instructor track each student's progress. At the end of the learning period, the instructor uses formal evaluations like end-of-term examinations to assess each student's knowledge and make high-stakes decisions.

Create Assessments with Formplus for Free

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Formal vs. Informal Assessment: 15 Key Differences & Similarities

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Distinguishing formal evaluation from informal assessment can be challenging. For one, both methods use similar tools like quizzes and surveys. But how they apply these tools to specific questions separates one from the other. In this article, we will consider 15 key similarities and differences between formal and informal assessments.

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You are welcome to print copies or republish materials for non-commercial use as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact info@readingrockets.org.

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Types of Informal Classroom-Based Assessment

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There are several informal assessment tools for assessing various components of reading. The following are ten suggested tools for teachers to use.

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Cite this guide: Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.

Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy? | Further Information

The above graphic is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You're free to share, reproduce, or otherwise use it, as long as you attribute it to the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. For a higher resolution version, visit our Flickr account and look for the "Download this photo" icon.

Background Information

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as Bloom's Taxonomy, this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college instructors in their teaching.

The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as "skills and abilities," with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills and abilities into practice.

While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, the taxonomy is popularly remembered according to the six main categories.

The Original Taxonomy (1956)

Here are the authors' brief explanations of these main categories in from the appendix of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives ( Handbook One, pp. 201-207):

Knowledge "involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting."

Comprehension "refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications."

Application refers to the "use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations."

Analysis represents the "breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit."

Synthesis involves the "putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole."

Evaluation engenders "judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes."

The 1984 edition of Handbook One is available in the CFT Library in Calhoun 116. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

Barbara Gross Davis, in the "Asking Questions" chapter of Tools for Teaching, also provides examples of questions corresponding to the six categories. This chapter is not available in the online version of the book, but Tools for Teaching is available in the CFT Library. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom's Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of "educational objectives" (in Bloom's original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These "action words" describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:

Remember

Understand

Interpreting

Exemplifying

Classifying

Summarizing

Inferring

Comparing

Explaining

Apply

Analyze

Differentiating

Organizing

Attributing

Evaluate

Create

In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six cognitive processes, but its authors created a separate taxonomy of the types of knowledge used in cognition:

Factual Knowledge

Knowledge of terminology

Knowledge of specific details and elements

Conceptual Knowledge

Knowledge of classifications and categories

Knowledge of principles and generalizations

Knowledge of theories, models, and structures

Procedural Knowledge

Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms

Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods

Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures

Metacognitive Knowledge

Strategic Knowledge

Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge

Self-knowledge

Mary Forehand from the University of Georgia provides a guide to the revised version giving a brief summary of the revised taxonomy and a helpful table of the six cognitive processes and four types of knowledge.

Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

The authors of the revised taxonomy suggest a multi-layered answer to this question, to which the author of this teaching guide has added some clarifying points:

1. Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.

2. Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.

3. Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers to:

"plan and deliver appropriate instruction";

"design valid assessment tasks and strategies";and

"ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives."

Citations are from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Further Information

Section III of A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, entitled "The Taxonomy in Use," provides over 150 pages of examples of applications of the taxonomy. Although these examples are from the K-12 setting, they are easily adaptable to the university setting.

Section IV, "The Taxonomy in Perspective," provides information about 19 alternative frameworks to Bloom's Taxonomy, and discusses the relationship of these alternative frameworks to the revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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by Patricia Armstrong Print Version Cite this guide: Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/. Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy? | Further Information The above graphic is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

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Are you trying to teach people without identifying educational objectives? If you keep doing that, your learners may waste their time succeeding in things that are of no use to them. To avoid that, clarify your instructional goals using Bloom's Taxonomy.

This article will help you learn:

What is Bloom's Taxonomy?

Bloom's Taxonomy attempts to classify learning stages from remembering facts to creating new ideas based on the acquired knowledge.

The idea of Bloom's Taxonomy is that learning is a consecutive process. Before applying a concept in real life, we must understand it. Before we understand a concept, we must remember the key facts related to it.

Therefore, although initially described as a framework, it is now often depicted as a pyramid.

The basis of the pyramid is Knowledge, the first level of learning. Above it lies Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. Each level above builds upon the one below, so you can only move up the pyramid one step at a time.

Original Bloom's Taxonomy

The original taxonomy was first described in 1956 in the book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives by American educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom and his coauthors Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl. Their book classifies learning goals into one of the categories mentioned above (from Knowledge to Evaluation).

Their goal was to provide teachers with a common vocabulary to discuss curricular and evaluation problems with greater precision.

The language teachers had been using to explain what they expected of their students was, according to the authors, no more than "nebulous terms."

"For example, some teachers believe their students should 'really understand,' others desire their students to internalize knowledge, still others want their students to grasp the core or essence or comprehend. Do they all mean the same thing?" asked the authors.
The taxonomy of educational objectives was supposed to help teachers speak the same language and thus "facilitate the exchange of information about their curricular developments and evaluation devices."
Though it was designed primarily for college professors, it finally became popular among educators, from K-12 teachers to corporate trainers.

Since its publication, the book has been translated into more than twenty languages and is now used for instructional design worldwide. However, it is currently more often applied in its revised version.

Revised Bloom's Taxonomy

To provide learners with clearer instructional goals, a group of researchers led by Bloom's colleague David Krathwohl and one of Bloom's students, Lorin Anderson, revised the taxonomy in 2001.

In the new variant, nouns were replaced by action verbs. Also, the two highest levels of the taxonomy were swapped. The new learning stages are Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate and Create. The authors also defined cognitive processes associated with these instructional goals. For example, the ability to remember requires recognizing and recalling.

Bloom's Taxonomy levels

Let's take a closer look at each learning stage, based on the book describing the revised framework A Taxonomy For Learning, Teaching and Assessing by Krahtwohl and Anderson. The authors recommend reading the name of each learning category as though preceded by the phrase "The student is able to..." or "The student learns to..."

1. Remember

This stage of learning is about memorizing basic facts, dates, events, persons, places, concepts and patterns.

At this level, educators might ask learners simple questions like:

What are the most spoken languages of Latin America?

What is the chemical formula of water?

Who was the first president of the United States?

The associated cognitive processes, as already noted, are:

Recognizing means locating knowledge in long-term memory related to presented material (e.g., recognizing the dates of important historical events).

Recalling is retrieving knowledge from long-term memory (e.g., recalling the dates of important historical events).

2. Understand

At this point, learners might be asked to explain a concept in their own words, describe a mathematical graph or clarify a metaphor.

The processes associated with understanding are:

Interpreting implies changing from one form of representation to another. It might be transforming numerical information into verbal.

Exemplifying is finding a specific illustration of a concept or principle. It may be giving several examples of Suprematist paintings.

Classifying is determining a category of something. An example is the classification of mental disorders.

Summarizing means retrieving a general theme of significant points (e.g., writing a short summary of a story).

Inferring is drawing a logical conclusion from given information. It may be formulating grammatical principles of a foreign language from the presented examples.

Comparing is finding correspondences between two ideas or objects (e.g., comparing historical events to their contemporary analogues).

Explaining is constructing a cause-and-effect model of a system, for example, explaining the causes of the French Revolution.

3. Apply

Now, it's time to use learned facts and abstractions in new contexts and particular situations.

For example, students might be asked to discuss phenomena described in one scientific paper using terms and concepts of another paper.

The processes of cognition corresponding to this stage are:

Executing is applying a procedure to a familiar task (e.g., calculating the root of a number).

Implementing is about applying a procedure to an unfamiliar task (e.g., using Newton's Second Law in a new situation).

4. Analyze

At this level, students are supposed to break down concepts and examine their relationships.

For instance, they might be asked to recognize the genre of a painting or describe the leading causes of the Great Depression.

The three particular processes associated with this stage are:

Differentiating means distinguishing important from unimportant parts of presented material (e.g., distinguishing between relevant and irrelevant numbers in a mathematical word problem).

Organizing involves identifying how elements fit or function within a structure (e.g., finding the hypothesis, method, data and conclusion in a research report).

Attributing means determining a point of view, bias, values, or intent underlying presented material. An example would be to identify the author's point of view of an essay.

5. Evaluate

In this stage, learners are expected to use their knowledge and skills to appraise a situation, justify their stand or criticize others' opinions. They should be able to point out logical fallacies in arguments or compare a work to the highest standards in its field.

They might be asked, for example:

In your opinion, is online piracy ethical?

Do you consider jazz music to be high art?

What are the most absurd arguments against vegetarianism?

Evaluating is divided into checking and critiquing.

Checking means detecting inconsistencies or fallacies in a process or product. For example, it's determining if a scientist's conclusions follow from observed data.

Critiquing involves finding inconsistencies between a product and external criteria. For instance, it's judging which of two methods is the best for solving a problem.

6. Create

This is the most complex stage of the learning process and the top of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

At this level, learners combine known patterns, ideas and facts to create original work or formulate their solution to a problem.

They might be asked to compose a song, rewrite a story in another setting or formulate a hypothesis and propose a way of testing it.

The three associated cognitive processes are:

Generating involves coming up with alternative hypotheses based on criteria. An example might be devising multiple solutions for a social problem.

Planning is about coming up with a procedure for completing a task (e.g., preparing an outline of an article).

Producing means inventing a product (e.g., writing a short story that takes place during the American Revolution).

Why Bloom's Taxonomy is important

Bloom's Taxonomy can help educators map learning within a single lesson or even a whole course.

Using the taxonomy as a guide, trainers can identify clear instructional goals corresponding to each taxonomy level and create plans to achieve them.

By setting achievable objectives for learners, instructors make them more active and responsible for their education.

The taxonomy can also be useful for evaluating learners correctly. An essay, for example, is probably not the best form of testing when learners only need to remember basic facts and terminology related to the topic. But it will be appropriate at the evaluation stage when they are expected to formulate their opinion on an issue.

Bloom's taxonomy allows educators to gauge the learners' progress. It helps teachers determine which level every learner is on and assign them an individual task.

Bloom's Taxonomy verbs

When talking about Bloom's taxonomy, action verbs associated with the categories and cognitive processes are often mentioned. Instructors use these verbs to describe activities required for achieving educational objectives corresponding to each level.

For instance, at the analyzing level, the Azusa Pacific University recommends using verbs like "compare", "distinguish", and "simplify" when formulating instructional tasks.

There is a list of Bloom's taxonomy verbs, created by the University of Arkansas. Using these verbs can help learners explicitly navigate what they must do to demonstrate their mastery of the objective.

However, neither Bloom's original book nor his followers' book contains a list of such verbs. The authors of a study of 47 verb lists collected from 35 universities and textbooks note: "There was very little agreement between these lists, most of which were not supported by evidence explaining where the verbs came from."

Nevertheless, given that such lists of verbs are being created anyway, the authors identified verbs that appeared in more than 50% of the listings. Then they identified verbs for which 50% of their appearances were in one specific tier. Using these verbs, the authors constructed "A Master List of Action Verbs for Learning Outcomes."

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Bloom's Taxonomy: Revised Levels, Verbs for Objectives [2023]

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Learn what Bloom's Taxonomy is and the differences between original vs. revised levels. Discover a list of action verbs that you can use to form learning objectives.

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Bloom's Taxonomy was developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 and revised by Anderson and Krathwohl in 2001 as a framework for classifying learning based on different levels of cognitive rigor and complexity.

The Depth of Knowledge (DOK) was developed in 1997 by Norman Webb, a research scientist from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, to analyze how deep students think to answer questions and complete activities.
Do we use Bloom's Taxonomy or DOK with our students or can both work together?
Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is about classifying learning at different levels. Teachers can use these levels to write learning objectives and tasks to meet those objectives. The revised Bloom's by Anderson and Krathwohl's Taxonomy in 2001 focuses on the verbs to classify the levels of thinking and various levels of the taxonomy. Both versions classify the levels focusing on the verbs.

Taxonomies of the Cognitive Domain

Bloom's Taxonomy 1956 Anderson & Krathwohl's Taxonomy 2001

1. Knowledge: Remembering or retrieving previously learned material with example verbs.
know, identify, relate, list, define, recall, memorize, repeat, record, name, recognize, acquire

1. Remember
Recognizing or recalling knowledge from memory. Remembering is when memory is used to produce or retrieve definitions, facts, or lists, or to recite previously learned information.

2. Comprehension: The ability to grasp or construct meaning from the material with example verbs.
restate, locate, report, recognize, explain, express, discuss, describe, review, infer, illustrate, interpret, draw, represent, differentiate, conclude

2. Understand
Construct meaning from different types of functions either as written or graphic messages or activities like interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, or explaining.

3. Application: The ability to use learned material, or to implement the material in new and concrete situations with example verbs.
apply, relate, develop, translate, use, operate, organize, employ, restructure, interpret, demonstrate, practice, calculate, show, exhibit, dramatize

Carry out or use a procedure through executing, or implementing. Apply relates to or refers to situations where learned material is used through products like models, presentations, interviews, or simulations.

4. Analysis: The ability to break down or distinguish the parts of material into its components so that its organizational structure may be better understood with example verbs.
analyze, compare, probe, inquire, examine, contrast, categorize, contrast, investigate, detect, survey, classify, deduce, experiment, scrutinize, discover, inspect, dissect, discriminate, separate

4. Analyze
Break materials or concepts into parts to determine how the parts relate to one another or how they interrelate, or how the parts relate to an overall structure or purpose. When learners analyze, they can illustrate a mental function by creating spreadsheets, surveys, charts, or diagrams, or graphic representations.

5. Synthesis: The ability to put parts together to form a coherent or unique new whole with example verbs.
compose, produce, design, assemble, create, prepare, predict, modify, tell, plan, invent, formulate, collect, set up, generalize, document, combine, relate, propose, develop, arrange, construct, organize, originate, derive, write, propose

5. Evaluate
Evaluate is about making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing to demonstrate the processes of evaluation. The revised taxonomy puts evaluate before create to be a necessary action before one creates anything.

6. Evaluation: The ability to judge, check, and even critique the value of material for a given purpose with example verbs.
judge, assess, compare, evaluate, conclude, measure, deduce, argue, decide, choose, rate, select, estimate, validate, consider, appraise, value, criticize, infer

6. Create
Create is about reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing. Create requires users to put parts together in a new way, or synthesize parts into something new and different creating a new form or product.

Bloom vs. Anderson/Krathwohl [source: The Second Principle]

Webb's Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

DOK is the degree of depth or complexity of knowledge standards and assessments require; this criterion is met if the assessment is as demanding cognitively as the standards of the expectations are set for students. DOK refers to the complexity of thinking skills that a task requires.
DOK is about...

what FOLLOWS the verb. What comes after the verb is more important than the verb itself.

the complexity of mental processing that must occur to complete a task.

DOK is NOT about...

verbs. The verbs are a valuable guide, but they can sometimes be used at more than one level.

the difficulty of what they are learning. All levels of DOK have a place in a rigorous curriculum.

Completely aligned standards and assessments require an assessment system designed to measure in some way the full range of cognitive complexity within each specified content standard. Norman Webb identified four levels for assessing the DOK of content standards and assessment items.

Image source: Francis, Erik. ASCD book Now That's a Good Question!
http://www.tinyurl.com/nowthatsagq

DOK implies the interaction of how deeply a student needs to understand the content with different ways of responding and interacting with the content. [ Chart source]

DOK levels are not related to the score points. DOK levels are a ceiling, not a target. Why is this distinction between "ceiling" and "target" important?

If assessed only at the "target," all learners with a Level 3 as their highest demand would only be assessed at Level 3. This would potentially have two negative impacts on the assessment:

1. The assessment as a whole could be too difficult; and

2. important information about student learning along the achievement continuum would be lost.

How do you determine the DOK ceiling?

The level of a DOK item is determined by the task (defined by complex thinking and reasoning skills), not grade level or the ability of the student.

Therefore, the DOK of the task does not change with the grade or ability of the student.

Verbs alone do not determine the DOK's level of an assessment task. DOK's focus is on how deeply students need to know content for a given response.

Multiple-choice questions can be written at a DOK 3 or 4 level; however, to design a question in this format is difficult. An Item at DOK level 3 or 4 requires complex reasoning, strategic and extended thinking about the concepts of the content and a real-world context, and especially at a level 4 that requires research, investigation, and application often over an extended period of time.

A comparison of Webb's DOK vs Bloom's Taxonomy:

Consider reviewing both Bloom's and DOK when designing activities especially project-based or passion-based learning activities. You can use Bloom's in designing and guiding activities that scaffold learning about the content. Ask yourself these questions:

what prior knowledge do they have about the content?

do you have to review the information or can you offer multiple ways to provide the content?

how do you know they understand the concepts? Will you have to repeat the information for some students while others move on?

how will you measure their understanding before moving on to the next content area?

After learning about who your students are and how they learn best, you can use DOK to go deeper into how they think about their learning. Ask yourself some of these questions:

do your students have the skills and dispositions to work independently and collaboratively?

can they find and use the appropriate tools and resources to do research without your support?

how will you know that your students have developed a plan for learning the concepts and can demonstrate the process?

You can use Bloom's as a guide for teaching and designing instruction and Depth of Knowledge as a guide for developing skills and encouraging deeper thinking and learning.

How do you see both either working together or separately to support your
teaching practice and the different needs of your learners?

Resources

Webb DOK Guide: This pamphlet begins with an overview of the different levels in Webb's taxonomy, then devotes several pages to each level. There are many suggested activities for each level of DOK which can help you develop activities in your class.

Francis, Erik. (2016) Now That's a Good Question! ASCD/
http://www.tinyurl.com/nowthatsagq

Miller, K. Bloom's Taxonomy and Webb's Dep of Knowledge. Retrieved. Nov. 2018. https://www.synergiseducation.com/blooms-taxonomy-and-webbs-depth-of-knowledge/

YouTube Video - DOK - Rose Marsh, NYC DOE Promising Practice Plus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMqKN7edRcU

Karen Hess' Cognitive Rigor Matrix comparing Bloom's and DOK (PDF chart)

About the author

Barbara Bray is a Creative Learning Strategist and owner/founder of Computer Strategies, LLC with its divisions My eCoach (my-ecoach.com) and Rethinking Learning where she shares her resources, stories, and more about learning and life. Barbara is the host of the Rethinking Learning Podcast where she has conversations on learning and reflections with inspirational educators, thought leaders, and influencers! She is the co-author of Make Learning Personal and How to Personalize Learning. Barbara recently launched her new book, Define Your WHY, that is all about owning your story so you live and learn on purpose.

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Bloom's Taxonomy and Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

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Bloom's Taxonomy was developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 and revised by Anderson and Krathwohl in 2001 as a framework for classifying learning based on different levels of cognitive rigor and complexity. The Depth of Knowledge (DOK) was developed in 1997 by Norman Webb, a research scientist from the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, to analyze how deep students think to answer questions and complete activities.

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What Is Language Register?, Frozen Register, Consultative Register, Consultative register, Intimate Register, Types of Register, Formal Register, Casual Regi...

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Teaching Strategies for Students With Special Needs

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In the United States, special education is free in the public education system, thanks to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

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Top 5 Assistive Technology Tools & Resources - Da Vinci Collaborative

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We explore several assistive technology resources and how these can they help students with special needs excel at school.

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Resources for Supporting Learners with Disabilities - Digital Promise

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Looking for an organization or website to provide you with more information on a special education or disability topic? Start here!

Support Organizations for Families

The Federation for Children with Special Needs ( http://fcsn.org/index.php)
The Federation for Children with Special Needs provides information, support and assistance to parents of children with disabilities, their professional partners and their communities. We are committed to listening to and learning from families, and encouraging full participation in community life by all people, especially those with disabilities.

Family Voices ( http://www.familyvoices.org)
Family Voices aims to achieve family-centered care for all children and youth with special health care needs and/or disabilities. Through our national network, we provide families with tools to make informed decisions, advocate for improved public and private policies, build partnerships among professionals and families, and serve as a trusted resource on health care. For example, since 1982, Support for Families of Children with Disabilities has offered information, education, and parent-to-parent support free of charge to families of children with any kind of disability, concern, or special health care need in San Francisco. Support for Families is the coordinating office for Family Voices of California, a statewide collaborative of locally-based parent-run centers working to ensure quality health care for children and youth with special needs.

Assistive Technology

Learning Disabilities

Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Autism Spectrum Disorder/Pervasive Development Disorder

Communication Disabilities

Visual Impairment

Brain/Spinal Cord Injury

Epilepsy Foundation ( http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/)
The mission of the Epilepsy Foundation is to stop seizures and SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy), find a cure and overcome the challenges created by epilepsy through efforts including education, advocacy and research to accelerate ideas into therapies.

Teacher Resources

DREAMMS for Kid( http://www.dreamms.org/)
DREAMMS for Kids is an Assistive Technology information clearinghouse and search facility. Founded in 1988 by the parents of a child with Down syndrome, DREAMMS (an acronym for Developmental Research for the Effective Advancement of Memory and Motor Skills), is committed to increasing the use of computers, high-quality instructional technology and assistive technologies for children with special needs in schools, homes and the workplace.

Legal/Advocacy Information and Resources

National Disability Rights Network ( http://www.ndrn.org/index.php)
Every single day, our Network protects and advocates for the rights of people with disabilities across the United States and the territories. We fight to end abuse and neglect where we find it. We assist people in finding and keeping their jobs and work with kids, parents and schools to combat bullying and ensure educational opportunities for students with disabilities.

Wrightslaw ( http://www.wrightslaw.com/)
Parents, educators, advocates and attorneys come to Wrightslaw for accurate, reliable information about special education law, education law and advocacy for children with disabilities.

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Special Education Resources and Links for Parents and Teachers

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Looking for an organization or website to provide you with more information on a special education or disability topic? Start here! The Federation for Children with Special Needs ( http://fcsn.org/index.php) The Federation for Children with Special Needs provides information, support and assistance to parents of children with disabilities, their professional partners and their communities.

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Navigating the world of special education can be challenging for both parents and teachers.

Knowing where to find valuable resources is essential for providing the best support to children with special needs. This article will highlight key resources to help you enhance learning experiences and advocacy.

Whether you are a parent seeking guidance or a teacher looking for practical tools, having access to the right information makes a significant difference.

With reliable resources, you can address various aspects of special education more effectively and confidently.

1) Understood.org

Understood.org is a leading nonprofit organization that supports people with learning and thinking differences.

It provides a wealth of free resources for parents, teachers, and caregivers.

The site offers practical advice on various topics, including special education.

You can find articles on how to support children in general education settings and how to track progress toward IEP goals.

For parents, Understood.org has a dedicated section that helps with identifying signs of learning disabilities.

It also offers guidance on how to seek proper evaluation and support for your child.

Teachers can benefit from a variety of tools and strategies to enhance their teaching methods.

The site covers how to provide "pull-out" services in small groups and one-on-one settings.

The Wunder app from Understood.org is another valuable resource.

This app allows parents to connect with licensed therapists, psychologists, and special education experts.

You can ask questions, share concerns, and get expert advice all in one place.

Additionally, Understood.org has a strong community focus.

It aims to build a supportive network where everyone feels understood and empowered.

This community aspect is vital for families navigating the challenges of learning and thinking differences.

If you're seeking resources, guidance, or just a sense of community, Understood.org is an excellent place to start.

Explore their offerings and find the tools you need to help your child thrive.

2) Wrightslaw

Wrightslaw is a valuable resource for parents and teachers involved in special education.

The website offers comprehensive information about special education law and advocacy.

One of the key features is their extensive library of books.

These books are available in print and e-book formats.

Popular titles include Wrightslaw: Special Education Law and Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy.

You can also subscribe to The Special Ed Advocate, a free online newsletter.

It provides regular updates on special education laws, advocacy tips, and other relevant topics.

Wrightslaw hosts an online community where parents, educators, and advocates can share questions, suggestions, and advice.

This community aspect is enhanced by their Wrightslaw Way Blog.

For teachers, principals, and paraprofessionals, Wrightslaw offers a range of resources focused on education improvement priorities like reading, family involvement, and technology.

The Information Resource Center is a helpful tool.

Additionally, Wrightslaw provides specific resources related to COVID-19, covering topics like waivers to rights under the IDEA and Section 504, and IEP meetings.

These can be found on the Educating All Learners Alliance page.

Books and resources from Wrightslaw can be purchased directly through their store or other booksellers like Amazon.

3) Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets is a valuable resource for parents and teachers involved in special education.

This website offers research-based information on how children learn to read.

You can find tips, strategies, and tools to support struggling readers.

The special education section covers the basics.

It helps you understand the special education process, including legal requirements and steps for getting help for your child.

For teachers, the resource library is filled with evidence-based teaching strategies.

You can learn more about classroom texts, comprehension, and whole-child literacy instruction.

Parents can benefit from the guidance for families.

This section provides information on how to help your child with reading at home and what to do if your child struggles despite good classroom teaching.

The Reading Rockets series on PBS includes a nine-part public television series.

This series is designed for anyone involved in a child's reading journey, including parents, grandparents, and caregivers.

Overall, Reading Rockets is a comprehensive tool.

It can help you navigate the challenges of teaching and supporting children with learning disabilities.

4) National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY)

The National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY) offers a wealth of information for families and educators.

NICHCY helps you understand disabilities and navigate the special education process.

This center provides detailed guides on eligibility for special education services.

It offers resources that explain how evaluations are conducted in public schools.

You can access these guides for free.

NICHCY also shares evidence-based information and resources.

These resources help you stay informed about the latest developments in special education.

NICHCY distributes this information through various formats, including their website and downloadable documents.

NICHCY is funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education.

This partnership ensures the materials are current and accurate.

You can rely on this center for the most up-to-date information.

The center connects you with disability organizations across America.

These include state agencies, parent groups, and other support networks.

By providing these connections, NICHCY helps you find local support and resources.

To explore more, you can visit their website NICHCY information.

This site contains a vast amount of useful data, catering to families and educators alike.

It's a valuable tool for anyone involved in special education.

5) Pacer Center

The Pacer Center is dedicated to helping families of children with disabilities.

Based in Minneapolis, it serves not only local families but also those across the nation.

You can access a variety of resources here to assist with your child's education and development.

Pacer Center provides information through workshops, both live and recorded.

These resources cover a wide range of topics related to disability and education.

If you need more detailed guidance, you can engage with their Handouts and Publications.

When you need personalized assistance, Pacer advocates are available to help you.

They can guide you in obtaining appropriate benefits and services for your child.

You can contact them by email or phone for support and advice.

For urgent matters, quick communication is encouraged.

Emailing them with specific information about your child's needs and any approaching deadlines will ensure a rapid response.

Taking these steps helps you get the timely assistance you require.

Explore more about their services and educational support at their Special Education - Learning Center page.

The Pacer Center stands as a strong ally for parents navigating the complexities of special education.

6) Friendship Circle Special Needs Resources

Friendship Circle provides a wealth of resources for both parents and teachers involved in special education.

One key feature is their detailed information about special education law and interventions.

This can help you understand your rights and the legal framework surrounding special education.

They also offer practical classroom tips and strategies for teaching students with special needs.

These can be invaluable in creating an inclusive and effective learning environment.

For parents, the blog provides advice on how parents can support special education teachers.

This can improve communication and collaboration between home and school.

Additionally, Friendship Circle hosts events like the Great Bike Giveaway, which provides adaptive bicycles for children with special needs.

This initiative promotes inclusion and physical activity.

Their resources cover a wide range of topics, ensuring you have the tools and knowledge to support the special needs community effectively.

Whether you're looking for legal advice, teaching strategies, or ways to support teachers, you can find valuable information here.

7) Autism Internet Modules

Autism Internet Modules (AIM) are an excellent resource for parents and teachers.

These modules cover important topics related to autism, including home life, classroom settings, and the workplace.

Each course consists of several modules that you can complete at your own pace.

The modules include pre- and post-assessments, as well as reflection questions to help reinforce your learning.

Developed by the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence Disabilities (OCALI), these modules offer high-quality information.

With over 50 modules available, you can find topics ranging from social skills to sensory differences.

For educators, AIM provides resources like Discrete Trial Training and Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS).

These teaching strategies can be very beneficial in a classroom setting.

Parents also benefit from AIM by gaining foundational knowledge about autism.

This can help you support your child more effectively in various aspects of life.

Graduate credit is available through OCALI's partnership with Ashland University.

This means you can further your education while also learning more about autism.

To start using Autism Internet Modules, visit the OCALI website and register.

This will give you access to these valuable resources at no cost.

8) TeachingLD

TeachingLD is an excellent resource for parents and teachers working with students who have learning disabilities.

The site offers a variety of tools to understand and support children with learning challenges.

One major advantage of TeachingLD is its practical approach.

It provides research-based strategies that educators can easily implement in the classroom.

This helps in creating an effective learning environment.

Parents can also benefit from TeachingLD.

The site offers guidance on how to support their children at home.

This includes tips on homework, reading strategies, and emotional support.

TeachingLD is well-organized and easy to navigate.

You can browse through different sections, such as instructional strategies, classroom management, and understanding learning disabilities.

This makes it easy to find the specific help you need.

Additionally, the site includes a range of downloadable resources.

You can find worksheets, templates, and guides to aid both teaching and learning processes.

Using TeachingLD can help bridge the gap between teachers and parents.

By being on the same page, both can work together to support the student's learning journey.

For more information, you can explore other resources that complement TeachingLD's offerings to further aid in special education efforts.

Understanding Special Education Laws

Special education laws help ensure that children with disabilities get the support and services they need.

These laws outline rights and responsibilities for schools, parents, and students.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law ensuring services to children with disabilities.

IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services.

It covers children from birth to age 21.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in programs that receive federal financial assistance.

This law ensures that a child with a disability has equal access to an education.

They might receive accommodations and modifications.

Differences Between IEPs and 504 Plans

Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and 504 Plans are tools used to support children with disabilities, but they have key differences:

IEP: Customized to meet the unique needs of a child who qualifies for special education under IDEA. Requires a detailed plan with specific educational goals.

504 Plan: Provides accommodations to ensure a child with a disability has equal access to learning. Does not require special education services, only ensures accommodations.

Understanding these differences can help you advocate for the best support system for your child.

Effective Communication Strategies

Effective communication is essential when collaborating with teachers, engaging with support staff, and building an effective IEP team.

Here are specific strategies to ensure productive and positive interactions.

Collaborating with Teachers

Building a strong relationship with teachers is crucial.

Regular communication via phone calls, emails, or scheduled meetings helps keep everyone on the same page.

Share updates on the child's progress and address any concerns early.

Schedule Regular Meetings: Set up monthly or bi-weekly meetings. This keeps communication consistent.

Use Technology: Tools like email, school apps, or communication platforms make sharing information easier.

Stay Positive: Focus on the child's strengths and progress, not just issues.

Engaging with Support Staff

Support staff like counselors, speech therapists, and special educators play a key role.

Keep them informed about the child's needs and progress.

Create a Communication Plan: Establish how and when to share updates.

Be Involved: Attend meetings and training sessions if possible.

Provide Feedback: Share what works well at home to help support staff adapt strategies at school.

Building an Effective IEP Team

An Individualized Education Program (IEP) team includes teachers, parents, and specialists.

Effective communication ensures the IEP meets the child's needs.

Prepare for Meetings: Review the child's current progress and have a list of goals and questions ready.

Include the Child: When appropriate, involve the child in discussions about their goals and progress.

Stay Organized: Keep detailed records of meetings, communications, and IEP documents.

By focusing on these specific strategies, you can support your child's learning and development effectively.

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8 Special Education Resources for Parents and Teachers: Essential Tools for Success

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Knowing where to find valuable resources like Understood.org and Wrightslaw is essential for providing the best support to children with special needs.