Using CLASS to Promote
Positive Outcomes
for
Children of All Abilities
Based on the Classroom Assessment Scoring
System (CLASS)
Presented to Shining Stars 2010 Conference
By Ann Janney-Schultz, Project Manager
Virginia Head Start T/TA Office
Training Objectives
•Familiarize participants with the
Classroom Assessment Scoring
System
•Provide teaching strategies and
resources to support positive
outcomes for all children in
inclusive classrooms.
What is the CLASS™?
•Classroom Assessment Scoring
System
•Created by UVa Center for Advanced
Study in Teaching and Learning
(CASTL) (now CLASSWorks™)
What is the CLASS™?
•A valid, reliable measure of quality
teacher-child interactions in three major
domains of learning.
•Based on extensive research suggesting
that “interactions between children and
adults are the primary mechanism of
student development and learning.”
CLASS
•Adopted by Head Start as part of
triennial monitoring tool to provide
feedback to programs on classroom
quality.
•Used by Virginia Quality Rating
Improvement System for quality
assessment, along with the ECERS and
ITERS
Quality Classrooms
•Work with a partner
•List ten components of a high-quality inclusive
classroom.
•Write them down in a place where you can revisit them later.
Classroom “Quality”
STRUCTURE
PROCESS
What? Who? Where?
How?
Curriculum
Implementation
Standards
Relationships
Materials
Training and Education
Academic & Social
Interactions
Children’s Academic &
Social Development
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What Does the CLASS Measure?
Emotional
Support
Classroom
Organization
Instructional
Support
Positive Climate
Behavior Management
Concept Development
Negative Climate
Productivity
Quality of Feedback
Instructional Learning
Formats
Language Modeling
Teacher Sensitivity
Regard for Student
Perspectives
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Emotional Support
Teachers’ abilities to support social and
emotional functioning in the classroom
Dimensions:
•Positive Climate
•Negative Climate
•Teacher Sensitivity
•Regard for Student Perspectives
Positive Climate
• Emotional connection between teachers and
students and among students: warmth, respect, and
enjoyment communicated by verbal and non-verbal
interactions
– Relationships
– Positive Affect
– Positive Communication
– Respect
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Positive Climate Behavioral Markers
• Relationships
–
–
–
–
–
Physical proximity
Shared activities
Peer assistance
Matched affect
Social conversation
• Respect
–
–
–
–
Eye contact
Warm calm voice
Respectful Language
Cooperation/Sharing
• Positive Affect
– Smiling
– Laughter
– Enthusiasm
• Positive Communication
– Verbal Affection
– Physical affection
– Positive expectations
Strategies for Supporting A Positive Climate
Relationships
• Social Conversation
• Get on child’s eye level
• Reflect emotions and be responsive.
• Encourage children to cooperate
• Engage children to help each other
Video Example, children helping each other: Connect- 11
Strategies for Supporting A Positive Climate
Positive Affect
•Laugh and show that you enjoy being with the
children
•Greet children with enthusiasm
•Look for the bright side when there is a
mistake
Video example: CLASS Positive Climate (Twiggles)
Strategies for Supporting A Positive Climate
Positive Communication
•Respectful language
•Words in child’s home language
•Slow down
•Express support for effort
•Social Conversation
Teacher Sensitivity
•High levels of sensitivity facilitate students’
ability to explore and learn because of
consistent comfort, reassurance and
encouragement.
Teacher Sensitivity
Teacher’s awareness of and responsivity to
students’ academic and emotional needs:
• Awareness
– Anticipates problems
– Notices lack of understanding
• Responsiveness
– Acknowledges emotions
– Provides comfort and help
– Individualized support
• Addresses Problems
– Help is effective and timely
– Helps resolve problems
• Student comfort
– Seeks support and guidance
– Freely participates
– Takes risks
Strategies to Increase Teacher Sensitivity
•Awareness:
– Be “in tune” with the children, anticipating when
they may need support engaging in activities and
with other children.
CLASS Video example: Individualized instruction
Strategies to Increase Teacher Sensitivity
•Responsiveness:
– Verbal and nonverbal cues to show awareness
– Responsiveness to individual styles, needs,
abilities
– Use every opportunity to gather information
about and respond to children’s needs.
Strategies to Increase Teacher Sensitivity
•Address Problems
–Identify problems and address them in a
timely manner
–Help children resolve their own problems in
a comfortable, safe environment
Strategies to Increase Teacher Sensitivity
•Create an environment that is emotionally
comfortable for children :
–Be a “secure base” where children can go
for support as necessary.
–Encourage children to take risks such as
asking another child if they can join them in
play.
Regard for Student Perspectives
Captures the degree to which the teacher’s
interactions with students and classroom
activities place an emphasis on children’s
interests, motivations, and points of view and
encourages their responsibility and
independence.
Regard for Student Perspectives
Behavioral Markers
• Flexibility and Student Focus
– Flexible
– Incorporate student ideas
– Follow student lead
• Support for Autonomy
– Allow choice
– Allows students to lead lessons
– Give students responsibility
• Student Expression
– Encourages students to talk
– Elicits ideas and perspectives
• Restriction of Movement
– Allows movement
– Is not rigid
Strategies for Demonstrating Regard for
Student Perspectives
•Flexibility and Student Focus
– Be flexible in plans, be willing to “go with the flow” if the
children become engaged with a particular topic
– Incorporate children’s ideas in your group time or other
activities
– Give children lots of opportunities for success.
Strategies for Demonstrating Regard for
Student Perspectives
• Support for Autonomy and Leadership
– balance of adult and child-directed activities
– Give children opportunities to express their ideas
and as many choices as possible around activities.
– Video example 1: leadership taking attendance (CLASS)
– Video example 2: leading a game (Connect: 19)
Strategies for Demonstrating Regard for
Student Perspectives
•Student expression
–Validate children’s language choices by
accepting responses in their home
language.
–Encourage children to talk, share ideas and
perspectives.
Strategies for Demonstrating Regard for
Student Perspectives
• Restriction of Movement
– Give children freedom to move about and choose
where they will sit or play in the classroom as
possible.
– Provide large blocks of time during which children
are at liberty to choose their activities, have
conversations with each other, and move about
the classroom or playground.
CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION
Classroom processes related to the
organization & management of children’s
behavior, time & attention in the classroom
CLASSROOM ORGANIZATION
Dimensions:
•Behavior Management
•Productivity
•Instructional Learning Formats
Behavior Management
• Teacher’s ability to provide clear behavior
expectations and use effective methods to prevent
and redirect misbehavior.
– Clear Behavior Expectations
– Proactive
– Redirection of Misbehavior
– Student Behavior
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Behavior Management
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Strategies to Support Behavior Management
Clear behavior Expectations
•Before beginning an activity, explain behavior
expectations and check in with children who are
dual language learners or who need extra help
with language to make sure they understood.
•Clearly and consistently state what you expect
from children, reminding them that they are a
part of a community with rules and expectations.
CLASS Video Example: Clear Behavior Expectations
Strategies to Support Behavior Management
Proactive
•Ask children to tell you what they need to do
before beginning an activity.
•Constantly monitor the classroom for
problems and address them before they
escalate.
•Use a range of techniques to remind children
of your expectations.
Strategies to Support Behavior Management
Redirection of behavior
•Redirect children using verbal and nonverbal
cues such as saying a child’s name, making eye
contact, using gestures and staying close to
the children.
•Be aware that dual language learners and
children with language or cognitive disabilities
may need extra cues and more time to follow
expectations.
Productivity
Teacher manages instructional time and routines
and provides activities for students so that they
have the opportunity to be involved in activities.
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Productivity
Indicators
•Maximizing Learning Time
•Routines
•Transitions
•Preparation
Strategies to Support Productivity
Maximizing learning time
•Be prepared to offer a range of activities
along with choices for what children can do
when they are finished.
•Minimize disruptions and managerial tasks
that might take time away from classroom
activities with the children.
Strategies to Support Productivity
Routines
• Provide clear instructions, including visual cues for
dual language learners or children who may need
extra help, for classroom routines.
• Be clear and consistent about how classroom
routines are conducted.
– Video Example: Routines-- Eating lunch: Connect- 20
Strategies to Support Productivity
Transitions
• Allow enough time for children to complete
activities, along with choices for what children may
do when they are finished.
• Plan transitions so that they are quick and efficient,
and as often as possible, include learning
opportunities.
• Allow additional time and warnings for children who
need special assistance.
– CLASS Video example: quick transition
Strategies to Support Productivity
Preparation
•Have all materials ready and accessible.
•Be fully prepared for all activities.
•Prepare an area of the classroom where
children can leave their work where it won’t
be disturbed if they want to come back to a
project later in the day.
Instructional Learning Formats
• Teachers maximize students’ interest, engagement, and
ability to learn from lessons and activities.
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Instructional Learning Formats
Indicators:
•Effective Facilitation
•Variety of Modalities & Materials
•Student Interest
•Clarity of Learning Objectives
– Video Example: Connect-17
Strategies for Supporting Instructional
Learning Formats
Effective Facilitation
•Stay actively involved with the children
• Expand their experiences by offering verbal
and nonverbal support when necessary.
•Stimulate children’s involvement by asking
open-ended questions, extending the play,
and helping draw other children into the
activity.
Strategies for Supporting Instructional
Learning Formats
Variety of Modalities and Materials
•Provide a range of opportunities to facilitate
active engagement with new materials, used
in a variety of ways.
•Provide a variety of hands-on, interesting and
creative audio, visual and movement-related
materials to illustrate concepts or increase
interest in activities or lessons.
Strategies for Supporting Instructional
Learning Formats
Student Interest
•Promote active participation of dual language
learners and children with disabilities by
offering support and helping children make
connections between objects and the spoken
words.
•Connect what the children are learning with
additional activities throughout the day so
that children remember the earlier experience
and their interest is renewed.
Strategies for Supporting Instructional
Learning Formats
Clarity of Learning Objectives
•Tell children why and what they are going to
do ahead of time before the activity, and
summarize what they did when the activity is
finished.
•Re-orient children to the activity whenever
the conversation or attention begins to drift
away.
Instructional Support
Ways in which teachers implement curricula
to effectively support children’s cognitive &
language development
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INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT
Dimensions:
•Concept Development
•Quality of Feedback
•Language Modeling
Concept Development
•Teacher’s use of instructional discussions and
activities to promote students’ higher order
thinking, skills, and cognition, and teacher’s focus
on understanding rather than rote instruction.
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Concept Development
Indicators
– Analysis and Reasoning
– Creating
– Integration
– Connections to the Real
World
– Video Example: CLASS Humpty Dumpty
Strategies to Promote
Concept Development
Analysis and Reasoning
•Ask lots of why and how questions that
encourage children to problem solve, predict
what will happen, compare and evaluate
situations.
•Include these types of questions and
discussions as a regular part of daily routines
rather than just during group times or lessons.
Strategies to Promote
Concept Development
Creating
•Provide opportunities for children to
brainstorm a range of ideas for how they can
creatively plan to complete tasks.
•Develop graphs, displays and reports about
the ideas and the results of the brainstorming
sessions.
Strategies to Promote
Concept Development
Integration
•Connect concepts to prior knowledge and
experiences to make learning more concrete
and relevant.
•Especially for dual language learners and
children with disabilities who may need
additional support, help integrate classroom
concepts with life experiences.
Strategies to Promote
Concept Development
Connections to the real world
•Talk to children about what they are doing
and what they know in relationship to what
they have done and learned in the past.
•Make consistent and intentional efforts to
make learning meaningful by helping children
apply concepts and thinking to real world
events and every day experiences.
Quality of Feedback
•Teacher provides feedback that expands
learning and understanding and
encourages continued participation.
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Quality of Feedback
Indicators
•Scaffolding
•Feedback Loops
•Prompting Thought Processes
•Providing Information
•Encouragement and Affirmation
Strategies to Improve Quality of Feedback
Scaffolding
•Determine what children know and constantly
build on that knowledge using verbal prompts
like follow-up questions, requests for
clarification and explanations of thinking.
•Provide gentle hints by providing resources
for finding answers to problems or questions.
Strategies to Improve Quality of Feedback
Feedback Loops
•Conduct back and forth exchanges, expansion
and follow up questions to help children
extend their learning.
•Use a child’s responses or spontaneous
comments as a learning opportunity by asking
follow up questions and continuing the
conversation to help the child move closer to
understanding a concept.
Strategies to Improve Quality of Feedback
Prompting thought processes
•Play with concepts like seriating objects from
small to large.
•Use nonverbal techniques such as modeling
and repeating actions.
•Ask children to explain their thinking and
rationale for their responses and actions.
•Ask children to explain events to you during
the day.
– Video Example: CLASS Shadow book discussion
Strategies to Improve Quality of Feedback
Providing Information
•Expand on children’s understanding or actions
by asking why questions that prompt children
to explain their thinking.
•Ask children to explain how they arrived at a
conclusion.
•Provide specific feedback that goes beyond
whether an answer is correct or not.
Strategies to Improve Quality of Feedback
Encouragement and Affirmation
•Recognize and affirm children’s involvement
in activities.
•Identify what is and is not working and
encourage them to keep trying.
•Continually encourage children have difficulty
communicating or who are dual language
learners as they begin using expressive
language in English.
Language Modeling
Quality and amount of teacher’s use of languagestimulation and language-facilitation techniques.
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Language Modeling
Indicators
•Frequent Conversation
•Open-ended Questions
•Repetition and Expansion
•Self & Parallel Talk
•Advanced Language
– Video Examples: Connect 16: Reading in circle time
– Video Example: CLASS Open ended questions
Strategies to Support Language Modeling
Frequent Conversation
•Promote children’s engagement in both verbal
and nonverbal back and forth conversational
exchanges with each other and with adults.
•Actively listen and respond appropriately to
children’s attempts at conversations.
Strategies to Support Language Modeling
Open-ended Questions
•Ask questions that require more than a oneword answer.
•Encourage children to respond using new
words. Help draw out the response by using
words from a word wall or new words from a
recently-read book.
Strategies to Support Language Modeling
Repetition and extension
•Repeat statements, making them more
complex.
•Extend and elaborate on children’s responses
and conversation, re-casting the child’s
comments in a more complex form.
Strategies to Support Language Modeling
Self and parallel talk
•Talk through what you are doing (map your
actions and the child’s actions through
language and description).
•Map the child’s actions with language and
description. Watch the child and provide
language for what the child is doing.
Strategies to Support Language Modeling
Advanced Language
•Use a wide variety of words. Don’t
underestimate a child’s ability to understand
more advanced language.
•Connect familiar words with ideas, using
gestures, and facial expression along with
language to connect ideas for dual language
learners and children who need extra help
with language.
Supporting Conversational Language
•Follow the child’s lead
•Comment and Wait
•Ask questions and wait
•Respond by adding a little more and Wait
Classroom Quality
•Emotional support
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
•Organization
1
2
3
2
3
4
5
6
7
•Instructional support
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4
5
6
7
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Take Away Message from this Research
Children benefit from effective teachers
Children made academic gains in classrooms where
the teacher:
– engaged them in interactions that encouraged communication
and reasoning,
– was sensitive and responsive in her/his interactions with
children, and
– constructed an atmosphere of respect, encouragement, and
enthusiasm for learning.
-Carollee Howes, Donna Bryant, Margaret Burchinal, Dick Clifford, Diane Early, Bob Pianta, Oscar Barbarin, and Sharon Ritchie. NCEDL
Issued Statement. 2006.
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Wrap Up
•What do you already do that was affirmed by
what you learned about CLASS domains and
dimensions?
•What changes will you make in your
classroom as a result of this new knowledge
about CLASS?
Resources
• Center to Mobilize Early Childhood Knowledge (CONNECT)
• http://community.fpg.unc.edu/connect
• Center for Early Learning and Literacy (CELL)
• http://www.earlyliteracylearning.org
• Center for Social Emotional Foundations in Early Learning (CSEFEL)
• http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csefel/
• Technical Assistance Center on Social Emotional Intervention
(TACSEI) http://www.challengingbehavior.org/
• SpecialQuest www.specialquest.org
• Early Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC)
http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc
• CLASS http://www.teachstone.org/about-the-class/