Standard Four: Planning Instruction and Designing Learning Experience for All Students

4.1 Drawing on and valuing students' backgrounds, interests, and developmental learning needs.

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Description of Practice

Strong Practice that Exemplifies the Standard

Instructional plans build on students' backgrounds, experiences, interests, and developmental needs to support all students' learning.

Maturing Practice

Instructional plans reflect students' backgrounds, experiences, interests, and developmental needs to support students' learning.

Developing Practice

Some instructional goals address students' language, experience, and/or home and school expectations. Expectations for students are inconsistent.

Practice Not Consistent with Standard Expectations

Instructional plans do not match or reflect students' backgrounds, experiences, interests, and developmental needs, and do not support students' learning.

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What the classroom looks like

• What the classroom looks like
• Home visits
• Class discussions
• Student interests, motivation, developmental levels, cultural resources
• Conferences with parents
• Consultations with colleagues
• Observation of students in and out of school
• Conferences with community members
• Plans instruction that draws upon students' backgrounds, interests, and developmental learning needs
• Scaffolding and extension options available to enable all students to build on their previous learning. (i.e. KWL, graphic organizers)
• Knows various strategies for learning about students' backgrounds and experiences
• Uses student background knowledge and experiences in instruction
• Familiar with and sensitive to the background of students in different ethnic, language, socioeconomic, and exceptionality groups
• Takes notice of the range of development exhibited by students
• Consults with colleagues to learn additional grouping and instructional strategies to meet the needs of all grouping and instructional strategies for all students
• Adapts activities and finds materials that engage students in learning the content and skills in the curriculum through familiar contexts that include students' background knowledge, interests, and personal strengths
• Builds a repertoire of instructional activities and materials to draw upon to meet the needs of all students

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

• incorporate students' knowledge and experience in my curriculum and instructional planning?
• use knowledge about students' lives and their families and communities to inform my planning of curriculum and instruction?
• recognize and incorporate student diversity as an integral part of my planning?
• plan lessons and units that promote access to academic content for all students?
• design lessons that promote subject matter knowledge and language development for second language learners? ¥ use what I know about cognitive and linguistic development to plan instruction that supports student learning?
• use what I know about physical, social, and emotional development to plan instruction and make appropriate adaptations to meet students' unique needs?
• design lessons that challenge students at their own developmental levels?