LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

• Core Issues of Lesson Design and Reflection a framework for rigorous instruction
• Criteria for Coaching Practice a framework for effective coaching
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

®
Content-Focused Coaching
® is the regular, on-going examination of classroom practice in a content area through the lens of the Core Issues.
•Focuses on the concrete, actual tasks, questions, and problems of practice
•Provides educators with an opportunity to learn from each other and develop common habits of reflective practice
•Contributes to the development of a collaborative learning community
•Promotes high achievement for all students
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

• To become familiar with the Content-Focused
Coaching
®
Core Issues of Lesson Design and
Reflection.
• To understand the relationship between the Core
Issues and the Principles of Learning.
• To consider how teachers and coaches can become more familiar with and comfortable using the Core Issues.
• To begin to understand how the Core Issues can assist teachers and coaches in providing rigorous instruction for all students.
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Framework for Rigorous, Standards-based Instruction
Standards
WHAT?
Curriculum
HOW?
Teaching Models
WHO?
WHY?
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Framework for Rigorous, Standards-based Instruction
What will be the specific content of this lesson?
WHO?
How will that content be taught?
Why is this the content to be taught?
Why is the content taught in this particular way?
Klafki (1958,1995)
Aebli (1951, 1987)
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Core Issues of Lesson Design and Reflection
WHAT?
1. What is the intended student learning?
What are the concepts and habits/skills being developed?
2. To what standard(s) is the lesson content connected?
3. What difficulties, misunderstandings, or misconceptions might students have about this content?
4. What theories of teaching and learning support this lesson design?
HOW?
5. How will the teacher model/explain clear expectations for the students’ learning?
6. How will each activity promote rigorous thinking?
7. How will each activity apprentice students in using the intended concepts and habits?
8. How will students be grouped for learning? How it the grouping related to the concepts and habits?
9. How will students be engaged in talk that holds them accountable to the intended learning in a collaborative community of mutual respect?
10. How will students make public their thinking and learning?
11. How will differentiated assistance be provided to individual students (struggling students as well as those needing an extra challenge)?
12. How will student learning be assessed by the teacher and by the students themselves?
13. How will student accomplishment be recognized?
14. How will the teacher do things differently the next time? How will instruction proceed from here?
WHY?
15. Why are these concepts and habits appropriate to the students’ learning needs and prior knowledge at this time?
16. Why are these instructional strategies/learning activities appropriate to the lesson goals for these students?
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

WHAT?
• What is the intended student learning?
• To what standards is the lesson connected?
• What difficulties might the students have with this content?
4. What theories of teaching and learning support this lesson design?
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

HOW?
5. How will teacher model/explain clear expectations for student learning?
• How will each activity promote rigorous thinking?
• How will each activity apprentice students?
8. How will students be grouped for learning?
9. How will accountable student talk and collaboration be encouraged in atmosphere of respect?
10. How will students make public their thinking and learning?
11. How will differentiated assistance be provided?
12. How will student learning be assessed?
13. How will student accomplishment be recognized?
14. How will teacher do things differently the next time?
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

WHY?
• Why are the lesson concepts and habits appropriate to the students’ learning needs and prior knowledge?
16. Why are these instructional strategies/ learning activities appropriate to the lesson goals for these students?
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Core Issues as a Framework for Rigorous
Instruction
Content
Instruction
• intended learning
• standards
Students
• expectations
• model
• group
Assessment
• why this content
• why this way
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

•
Organizing for Effort
•
Clear Expectations
•
Fair and Credible Evaluation
•
Recognition of Accomplishment
•
Academic Rigor in a Thinking Curriculum
•
Accountable Talk
®
Practices
•
Socializing Intelligence
• Self-Management of Learning
•
Learning as Apprenticeship
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Core Issues #1,2,3,4,6,12: Academic Rigor
Core Issue #5, 12: Clear Expectations
Core Issues #7, 9: Learning as Apprenticeship
Core Issue #6, 7, 8, 11: Organizing for Effort
Core Issue #9, 10: Accountable Talk
®
Practices
Core Issue #8, 9, 10: Socializing Intelligence
Core Issues #10,11,13,15: Fair and Credible
Evaluation
Core Issue #12:
Core Issue #13:
Self-Management of
Learning
Recognition of
Accomplishment
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Principles of Learning
• general principles that should guide instruction
Core Issues
• a tool to help plan lessons that embody the Principles of Learning
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

• To become familiar with the Core Issues by identifying them in the context of a reading lesson pre-conference.
• To understand the relationship between the Core
Issues and the Principles of Learning.
• To consider how teachers and coaches can become more familiar with and comfortable using the Core
Issues.
• To begin to understand how the Core Issues can assist teachers and coaches in providing rigorous instruction for all students.
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Content: Teaching Self-Monitoring to Promote
Comprehension in Reading
Workshop
Grade:
Teacher:
Coach:
School:
4
Stacey Paulson
LaDawn Baity
McMeen Elementary School
Denver Public Schools
Segment : Pre-conference
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Goal of all professional conversations: to advance our own learning, not “fix” the practice of others
•Facilitator chooses lens for study.
•Agree to read/watch through the designated lens.
•Cite specific examples from text or video.
•Build on others’ ideas.
•Use language that is respectful of those in video and in group
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

• Review the Core Issues.
• Watch the videotape and study the transcript to identify the Core Issues being addressed by the coach and teacher, as a whole group and with a partner. Capture the language on the Core Issues form.
• Each table will present its thinking about a set of the
Core Issues.
• The whole group will discuss the final questions on the task sheet.
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Which Core Issues were addressed in this preconference by the coach and the teacher?
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Which Core Issues were Addressed?
LaDawn: Stacey, you’ve been doing a lot of work, and you and I have worked together on thoughtful considerations for lesson design, so I wanted you to talk to me a little bit today about what you planned and why you planned it. So could you talk first of all about the intended student learning?
Stacey: Well, a little bit of background, I’m working with the boys and girls in
Ms. Hilbert’s class. I’ve done lots of individual conferences and guided groups, and what I’m noticing is that a lot of the students are not self- monitoring, and what I mean by that is they’re just reading right through words. They're not thinking about, and stopping to think about meaning, or I also noticed, too, in the sense of selfmonitoring, they’re just kind of mumbling through words. It’s more about reading through the whole page, getting done with the page, getting done with the book, than about the meaning. So, then what I thought about, once I made those observations, is how can I help these 4 th graders to start to self-monitor and to give them a couple of strategies that they can hopefully do naturally after my modeling, to try not only in independent reading, but also possibly in their guided reading groups as well. So, the strategy then, um, the intended learning is that when a student is reading, and they come across a word that they mumble through, or they come across a word that they don’t know and they’re giving it their best shot, to ask themselves two questions. The word, or whatever they said, does it make sense in the sentence, in the context of the story? And also, does it sound right? With our second language learners, too, using some of that sounding what language sounds like to help them figure out what words they’re having difficulty with.
LaDawn: So, talk about how you might model or make clear for the students what that intended learning is.
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Which Core Issues were Addressed?
1. What is the intended student learning?
What are the concepts and habits/skills being developed? How are they connected?
self-monitoring strategies, for independent reading, ask two questions,
Does it make sense? Does it sound right?
15. Why are these concepts and habits appropriate to the students’ learning needs and prior knowledge at this time?
noticing in individual conferences and guided groups that students are not selfmonitoring, not stopping to think about meaning, mumbling through words, trying just to get through, get done with the page or the book
5.
How will the teacher model/explain clear expectations for the students’ learning?
read a text, stumble on a word, think aloud about the sound and meaning, have the students join in, try it in pairs with a page from the book
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Summary Points: Which Core Issues were
Addressed?
#1 intended learning: how to notice and what to do when text doesn’t make sense
#2 standards:
#3 difficulties: English learners might not recognize sound or meaning
#4 theories of teaching and learning: strategy-based approach to comprehension instruction
#5 teacher model: think aloud about unknown words’ sound and meaning
#6 rigorous activity: challenging text for group practice, apply new learning to independent text
#8 grouping: whole group, partners, independent
#9 respectful collaboration: partners, share
#10 make thinking public: partners, conferring, whole group share
#11 differentiated assistance: modeling, listening in on partner work, conferring
#12 assessment: monitor during partner, independent work, and share
#15 needs and prior knowledge: mumbling, skipping words
#16 activities match lesson goals: self-monitoring questions
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

• The Core Issues were not addressed in any particular order.
• Not all Core Issues were addressed.
• The coach made flexible decisions about which Core
Issues to address, and when.
• The coach and teacher are working to internalize the
Core Issues.
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

They are…
• A mental map of core instructional issues
• A frame for an instructional conversation between a teacher and a coach
• A way for a teacher to share his/her thinking and planning for the lesson
• A tool for keeping the focus on the intended student learning rather than on what a teacher is doing “right” or “wrong”
They are NOT…
• A checklist: Every conversation does not have to discuss each of these questions, or in any order
• Exhaustive: There are many other specific questions a coach or teacher may pose for discussion during a preconference
• Meant to be used verbatim:
The selection and the wording of the issues and questions need to be adapted based on the needs of the coach, teacher and students
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Summary Points: How can teachers and coaches become familiar with and comfortable using the Core
Issues?
Make them public for the entire faculty.
• Focus on a few at a time.
• Talk about them in grade level team meetings, faculty meetings, parent meetings.
• Use them to plan professional development.
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

1.
How can the Core Issues assist teachers and coaches in providing rigorous instruction to all students?
2.
What questions or concerns do you have about the Core Issues?
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Reflection: How can the Core Issues assist teachers and coaches in providing rigorous instruction to all students?
• Comprehensive: They provide a wide-ranging set of instructional considerations, including content, pedagogy, and assessment.
• Coherent: They can become a consistently-used framework throughout the school.
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh

Internalizing the Core Issues as habits of reflective practice will support teachers in:
• providing rigorous, standards-based instruction
• enacting the Principles of Learning in classroom practice
• promoting high student achievement
LEARNING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER
© 2013 University of Pittsburgh