Standards and

Objectives

• All learning objectives and state content standards
  are explicitly communicated.
• Sub-objectives are aligned and logically sequenced
  to the lesson’s major objective.
• Learning objectives are: (a) consistently connected
  to what students have previously learned, (b) know
  from life experiences, and (c) integrated with other
  disciplines.
• Expectations for student performance are clear,
  demanding, and high.
• State standards are displayed and referenced
  throughout the lesson.
• There is evidence that most students demonstrate
  mastery of the objective.

Motivating

Students

• The teacher consistently organizes the content so
  that it is personally meaningful and relevant to
  students.
• The teacher consistently develops learning
  experiences where inquiry, curiosity, and
  exploration are valued.
• The teacher regularly reinforces and rewards
  effort.

Presenting

Instructional

Content

• visuals that establish the purpose of the lesson,
  preview the organization of the lesson, and include
  internal summaries of the lesson;
• examples, illustrations, analogies, and labels for
  new concepts and ideas;
• modeling by the teacher to demonstrate his or her
  performance expectations;
• concise communication;
• logical sequencing and segmenting;
• all essential information;
• no irrelevant, confusing, or non-essential
  information.

Lesson

Structure and

Pacing

• The lesson starts promptly.
• The lesson's structure is coherent, with a
  beginning, middle, end, and time for reflection.
• Pacing is brisk and provides many opportunities for
  individual students who progress at different
  learning rates.
• Routines for distributing materials are seamless.
• No instructional time is lost during transitions.

Activities

and Materials

• support the lesson objectives;
• are challenging;
• sustain students’ attention;
• elicit a variety of thinking;
• provide time for reflection;
• are relevant to students’ lives;
• provide opportunities for student-to-student
  interaction;
• induce student curiosity and suspense;
• provide students with choices;
• incorporate multimedia and technology; and
• incorporate resources beyond the school
  curriculum texts (e.g., teacher-made materials,
  manipulatives, resources from museums, cultural
  centers, etc).
• In addition, sometimes activities are game-like,
  involve simulations, require creating products, and
  demand self-direction and self-monitoring.

Questioning

• Teacher questions are varied and high quality, providing a
  balanced mix of question types:
  • knowledge and comprehension;
  • application and analysis; and
  • creation and evaluation.
• Questions are consistently purposeful and coherent.
• A high frequency of questions is asked.
• Questions are consistently sequenced with attention
  to the instructional goals.
• Questions regularly require active responses (e.g.,
  whole class signaling, choral responses, written and
  shared responses, or group and individual answers).
• Wait time (3-5 seconds) is consistently provided.
• The teacher calls on volunteers and nonvolunteers
  and a balance of students based on ability and sex.
• Students generate questions that lead to further
  inquiry and self-directed learning.

Academic Feedback

• Oral and written feedback is consistently academically focused, frequent, and high quality.
• Feedback is frequently given during guided practice and homework review.
• The teacher circulates to prompt student thinking, assess each student’s progress, and provide individual feedback.
• Feedback from students is regularly used to monitor and adjust instruction.
• Teacher engages students in giving specific and high quality feedback to one another.

Grouping

Students

• The instructional grouping arrangements (either whole class, small groups, pairs, individual; heterogeneous or homogenous ability) consistently maximize student understanding and learning efficiency.
• All students in groups know their roles, responsibilities, and group work expectations.
• All students participating in groups are held accountable for group work and individual work.
• Instructional group composition is varied (e.g., race, gender, ability, and age) to best accomplish the goals of the lesson.
• Instructional groups facilitate opportunities for students to set goals, reflect on, and evaluate their learning.

Teacher

Content

Knowledge

• Teacher displays extensive content knowledge of all the subjects she or he teaches.
• Teacher regularly implements a variety of subject specific instructional strategies to enhance student content knowledge.
• The teacher regularly highlights key concepts and ideas and uses them as bases to connect other powerful ideas.
• Limited content is taught in sufficient depth to allow for the development of understanding.

Teacher Knowledge of Students

• Teacher practices display understanding of each student’s anticipated learning difficulties.
• Teacher practices regularly incorporate student interests and cultural heritage.
• Teacher regularly provides differentiated instructional methods and content to ensure children have the opportunity to master what is being taught.

Thinking

• The teacher thoroughly teaches two or more types of thinking:
  • analytical thinking, where students analyze, compare and contrast, and evaluate and explain information;
  • practical thinking, where students use, apply, and implement what they learn in real-life scenarios;
  • creative thinking, where students create, design, imagine, and suppose; and
  • research-based thinking, where students explore and review a variety of ideas, models, and solutions to problems.
• The teacher provides opportunities where students: generate a variety of ideas and alternatives;
  • analyze problems from multiple perspectives and viewpoints;
  • and monitor their thinking to insure that they understand what they are learning,
  • are attending to critical information,
  • and are aware of the learning strategies that they are using and why.

Problem

Solving

• The teacher implements activities that teach and reinforce three or more of the following problem-solving types:
  • Abstraction^[1]
  • Categorization^[2]
  • Drawing Conclusions/Justifying Solutions^[3]
  • Predicting Outcomes^[4]
  • Observing and Experimenting^[5]
  • Improving Solutions^[6]
  • Identifying Relevant/Irrelevant Information^[7]
  • Generating Ideas^[8]
  • Creating and Designing^[9]