Standard One: Engaging and Supporting All Students in Learning

1.1 Connecting students' prior knowledge, life experience, and interests with learning goals.

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Description of Practice

Experienced Practice that Exemplifies the Standard

The teacher facilitates as students connect and apply their prior knowledge, life experiences, and interests to new learning and the achievement of learning goals. The teacher builds on students' questions and comments during lessons to modify instruction.

Maturing Beginning Practice

The teacher makes substantial connections, between the learning goals and the students' prior knowledge, life experiences, and interests. The teacher elicits and uses students' questions and comments during a lesson to extend their understanding.

Developing Beginning Practice

The teacher makes some connections between the learning goals and the students' prior knowledge, life experiences, and interests. The teacher elicits some questions from students during a lesson to monitor their understanding.

Practice Not Consistent With Standard Expectations

The teacher makes no connections between the learning goals and the students' prior knowledge, life experiences, and interests. The teacher does not elicit student questions or comments during a lesson.

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What the classroom looks like

• Engages and facilitates student's understanding by linking students' previous knowledge, life experiences, and interests
• Uses real world applications
• Allows students some choice in leaning activities
• Uses student interests.
• Builds on students' comments and questions during lessons to extend their understanding.
• Uses pictures, realia, models, diagrams, hand-on activities to build vocabulary and conceptual understanding.

Teacher's Instructional Methods

• Interviewing
• Scaffolding
• Career Pathways/COP Assessment
• student derived projects
• Environmental print books
• Choose topics of interest
• Presentation choice
• Reviews (Background knowledge)
• Using cognitive tools to assess prior knowledge
• Show & Tell
• Guest Speakers
• Cultural Awareness
• Cooking
• Student goal setting & self-monitoring
• KWL
• Brainstorming/Webbing
• Quickwrite
• Field Trips
• Reflective journals
• Other

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As teachers develop, they may ask "How do I . . ." or "Why do I . . ."

• help students to see the connections between what they already know and the new material?
• help students to connect classroom learning to their life experiences and cultural understandings?
• support all students to use first and second language skills to achieve learning goals?
• open a lesson or unit to capture student attention and interest?
• build on students' comments and questions during a lesson to extend their understanding?
• make "on the spot" changes in my teaching based on students' interests and questions?