Classroom Instruction That Works
Robert Marzano, Debra Pickering, and Jane Pollock
August 19, 2008
1.
Students should be allowed to set personal learning goals
and not be restricted by learning objectives that are too
specific.
2.
Feedback that is norm-referenced is better than criterion
–referenced.
3.
Feedback on student performance should be timely,
specific, and corrective.
4.
Corrective feedback focuses only on what a student has
done well with an assignment or task.
5.
A summary frame is a series of questions that the
teacher provides to the student to highlight specific
information.
6.
TRI refers to Topic, Restriction, Illustrations.
7.
Reciprocal teaching involves only 3 components
summarizing, clarifying, and predicting.
8.
The more notes that a student takes, the better.
9. The rule-based strategy for summarizing consists of 4
steps.
10. Students grading each other’s work is considered peer
feedback.
 Instructional goals narrow what students focus on
 Instructional goals should not be too specific
 Students should be encouraged to personalize the
teacher’s goals.
 Students should have flexibility (differentiation)
Give an example of an instructional goal from your
standard course of study that is not too specific. Place
in student friendly terms.
Next personalize this goal.
Finally add some flexibility, what if this student had
already mastered part or all of this goal?
Feedback
 Think of a time you had a positive experience with
feedback and a time you had a negative experience
with feedback. What contributed to the positive and
negative feelings.
 Criterion -referenced is superior to norm-referenced
feedback. In other words providing feedback in terms
of specific levels of knowledge and skill is better than
simply providing students with a percentage score.
What are some examples of ways to do this?
 Rubrics are helpful for providing criterion-referenced
feedback
 Corrective Feedback- Provides information on what is
being done that is correct and what is being done that is
incorrect. This involves an actual explanation of what is
right and what is wrong, rather than just a grade or check
mark.
 Timely Feedback- The more delay in giving feedback, the
less improvement there is in achievement.
 Specific to Criterion- Feedback should reference a specific
skill and allow students to know how they are performing
in regards to a learning target. (Think about the feedback
you give for CFA and PA data) How can you make sure
that students are sure which objectives they have or
haven’t mastered?
 Summary Frames are helpful in providing a set series
of questions to assist with summarizing different types
of text.
 Examples: Narrative Frame (Fiction), TRI or Topic,
Restrictions-Illustrations (Expository), Definition
Frame (Describe Particular Concept)
 With your table group look at the passage on your
table, use your Summary Frame questions to create a
summary.
 Discuss how you could use this summary frame in your
classroom.
 Compare your groups’ summary to another, look for
similarities and differences
 Reciprocal Teaching involves four components. They
include summarizing, questioning, clarifying, and
predicting.
 Reciprocal Teaching is considered a strategy that
provides for a deep level of understanding necessary
for an effective summary.
 Review the sample lesson steps for facilitating a
reciprocal teaching lesson…
 Discuss why it is important to model and teach each
role before allowing students to lead the conversation
 Discuss what other roles you could include in the
reciprocal teaching model
 Discuss what type of texts or subject area would
reciprocal teaching work well
 A popular myth is that “less is more” when it comes to note
taking. In reality students should be encouraged to take as
many notes as possible about IMPORTANT
INFORMATION
 Notes should be considered a work in progress
 Notes should be used as study guides
 Verbatim note taking is the least effective way to take
notes, students should be offered a variety of choices
(Outline, Combination Notes, Webbing…)
 There are 4 steps to the “Rule-Based Strategy”
Delete trivial material
2. Delete redundant material
3. Substitute for lists
4. Select a topic sentence, or invent one
1.
(Remember PLC’s activity last year, this is harder than it
sounds)
 Peer feedback does not mean students grade each
others work
 The goal is for students to clarify for each other what
was correct or incorrect in an assessment
 Very underused
 Self reflection and self assessment through the use of
rubrics may also be considered corrective feedback
 Look at the student work samples on your table
 Can you identify the learning target of the sample?
 What feedback would you provide the student?
 Was the strategy of summarizing and note taking
used? If so, how?
 Self Assess your performance on the true/false
assessment and the information presented. On post it
record one area that is Clear& Sunny and one area that
is still Partly Cloudy
 Post on chart to provide feedback for me!