Teacher Learning Community

Spring 2019 TLC: Access and Participation in the Thinking Classroom - Activity 1 Resources

Course leader:
SEED Team

Teacher Quality Standards

  • QS II: Teachers establish a safe, inclusive and respectful learning environment for a diverse population of students.
    • Element C: Teachers engage students as individuals, including those with diverse needs and interests, across a range of ability levels by adapting their teaching for the benefit of all students.

Guiding Question: How can I foster a mindset for learning in all students?

The purpose of this activity is to explore ideas that could lead to a classroom culture that will engage all students in developing a learning mindset. The ideas will range from knowing each of our students as learners, to thinking about the role of expectations for our students and how to create a culture that provides equitable opportunities for students to engage in rigorous learning.  

 

Resources

We Can't Just Raise Expectations

Having high expectations for your students can be far more complicated than anticipated.  The intentional and careful moves you make as a teacher when setting standards with your students can be far reaching when it comes to their success.

Knowing Our Students As Learners

This book chapter from How To Teach Now: Five Keys to Personalized Learning in the Global Classroom, suggests ways that knowing students may help to create a learner profile in order to best meet the needs of students.

Understanding the Mastery Principle

This introductory chapter of How to Plan Rigorous Instruction by Robyn Jackson discusses the mastery principle "Know Where Your Students Are Going".  The author points out that this principle is more than the standards and objectives of curriculum.  This principle examines more deeply the underlying types of thinking, learning, and understanding we want students to walk away with as a result of our instruction. 

 

Overcoming the Principle of Least Effort

This article discusses seven strategies for integrating high intensity in class activities to increase the cognitive engagement level of the classroom.  

 

Teaching Students to Embrace Mistakes

This blog post by the authors of The Straight-A Conspiracy: Your Secret Guide to Ending the Stress of School highlights the role of mistakes in the classroom and gives ideas about how you might foster a classroom environment where students learn from mistakes.