August: Promoting Engagement
in the Work of the Disciplines
A Performance View of Teaching
and Learning:
“Messing About”
Guided Inquiry
Culminating Performances
August: Promoting Engagement in
the Work of the Disciplines
Reading: “What is Understanding
by David Perkins
Big Idea: Entity vs Incremental
Learners
Examined Features of
Curriculum Maps
How well do the assessments provide
students the opportunity to perform
understanding in incrementally more
sophisticated ways?
November: Engaging Students in the
Work of the Discipline – Part 2
Focus on the “student” portion
of the instructional core
Examine role of discourse
Fostering independent learners
Instructional Core…
--R. Elmore
Teaching
Instructional Core
Content
Students
Reading: “Student Engagement
When Recitation Becomes
Conversation” by Nystrand and
Gamoran
Big Idea: Procedural vs.
Substantive Engagement
Procedural vs. Substantive
•
•
•
•
• Discourse resembles
Classroom discourse
conversation
is recitation
• Fewer, more probing
Rapid fire Q & A
questions
Student responses
• Teacher “uptake” with
are brief and factual
student responses
Onus on the teacher
• Students talking with
students
Reading: “Nurturing Independent
Learners” by Meichenbaum and
Biemiller
Big Idea: Three student roles in
Learning a Discipline Along a
Continuum
Changes in Metacognition
»Student and Teacher Roles
Acquisition
Consolidation
instructing
scaffolding
Consultation
mentoring
Homework…Continuing to Develop
our Understanding of “understanding”
• Observe another member of your team, examining
the nature of the “dialogue” in relation to the task
and the content…who is doing the work?
• Observe another member of your team, examining
the type of task and the level of engagement of
that task
• Volunteer to videotape “discourse” in your
classroom, to share and analyze together for
March PD…
• Volunteer to videotape students working on a task
in your classroom, to share and analyze the level
of independence that it is promoting…
What are our next steps?
• Continuing to build a common
vocabulary of instruction
• Defining what it means to have students
doing “the work of the discipline”
• Looking at the “nature of the tasks”
– The task predicts the performance
“The Nature of the Task”
Elmore writes, “The fourth principle
(of improvement) is that the task
predicts performance.”
What predicts performance is what
students are actually doing.
What’s your ZPD?
“The Nature of the Task”
Homework