App. D. Standards Performance

OMB Number: xxxx-xxxx

Expiration Date: xx/xx/08

appendix D

Standards Performance Continuum Observation Form

Teacher

Observer

School

Date

#Ss

Su:

Gr:

Per

Fr:

To:

JPA

LLD

CTX

CA

IC

Activity/Description:

JPA: Joint Productive Activity LLD: Language and Literacy Development CTX: Contextualization

CA: Challenging Activities IC: Instructional Conversation

Standards Performance Continuum

Observation Summary

Teacher

Observer

School

Date

#Ss

Su:

Gr:

Per

Fr:

To:

JPA

LLD

CTX

CA

IC

JPA: Joint Productive Activity LLD: Language and Literacy Development CTX: Contextualization

CA: Challenging Activities IC: Instructional Conversation

Standards Performance Continuum

A Rubric for Observing Classroom Enactments of CREDE’s Standards for Effective Pedagogy

	NOT OBSERVED	EMERGING	DEVELOPING	ENACTING	INTEGRATING
General Definition:	The standard is not observed.	One or more elements of the standard are enacted.	The teacher designs and enacts activities that demonstrate a partial enactment of the standard.	The teacher designs, enacts, and assists in activities that demonstrate a complete enactment of the standard.	The teacher designs, enacts, and assists in activities that demonstrate skillful integration of multiple standards simultaneously.
Joint Productive Activity Teacher and Students Producing Together	Joint Productive Activity is not observed.	Students are seated with a partner or group, AND (a) collaborate or assist one another, OR (b) are instructed in how to work in groups, OR (c) contribute individual work, not requiring collaboration, to a joint product.	The teacher and students collaborate on a joint product in a whole-class setting, OR students collaborate on a joint product in pairs or small groups.	The teacher and a small group of students collaborate on a joint product.	The teacher designs, enacts, and collaborates in joint productive activities that demonstrate skillful integration of multiple standards simultaneously.
Language & Literacy Development Developing Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum	Language & Literacy Development is not observed.	(a) The teacher explicitly models appropriate language; OR (b) students engage in brief, repetitive, or drill-like reading, writing, or speaking activities; OR (c) students engage in social talk while working.	The teacher provides structured opportunities for academic language development in sustained reading, writing or speaking activities.	The teacher designs and enacts instructional activities that generate language expression and development of ‘content vocabulary,’ AND assists student language use or literacy development through questioning, rephrasing, or modeling.	The teacher designs, enacts, and assists in language development activities that demonstrate skillful integration of multiple standards simultaneously.
Context-ualization Making Meaning – Connecting School to Students’ Lives	Contextualiza-tion is not observed.	The teacher (a) includes some aspect of students’ everyday experience in instruction, OR (b) connects classroom activities by theme or builds on the current unit of instruction, OR (c) includes parents or community members in activities or instruction, OR (d) connects student comments to content concepts.	The teacher makes incidental connections between students’ prior experience/knowledge from home, school, or community and the new activity/academic concepts.	The teacher integrates the new activity/academic concepts with students’ prior knowledge from home, school, or community to connect everyday and schooled concepts.	The teacher designs, enacts, and assists in contextualized activities that demonstrate skillful integration of multiple standards simultaneously.
Challenging Activities Teaching Complex Thinking	Challenging Activity is not observed.	The teacher (a) accommodates students’ varied ability levels, OR (b) sets and presents standards for student performance, OR (c) provides students with feedback on their performance.	The teacher designs and enacts ‘challenging activities’ that connect instructional elements to academic content OR advance student understanding to more complex levels.	The teacher designs and enacts challenging activities with clear standards and performance feedback, AND assists the development of more complex thinking.	The teacher designs, enacts, and assists in challenging activities that demonstrate skillful integration of multiple standards simultaneously.
Instructional Conversation Teaching Through Conversation	Instructional Conversation is not observed.	With individuals or small groups of students, the teacher (a) responds in ways that are comfortable for students, OR (b) uses questioning, listening or rephrasing to elicit student talk, OR (c) converses on a nonacademic topic.	The teacher converses with a small group of students on an academic topic AND elicits student talk with questioning, listening, rephrasing, or modeling.	The teacher: designs and enacts an instructional conversation (IC) with a clear ‘academic goal’’; listens carefully to assess and assist student understanding; AND questions students on their views, judgments, or rationales. Student talk occurs at higher rates than teacher talk.	The teacher designs, enacts, and assists in instructional conversations that demonstrate skillful integration of multiple standards simultaneously.

Standards Performance Continuum Glossary of Terms

Academic goal: In an Instructional Conversation, the academic goal is the development of thematic or conceptual understanding.

Assist: Assistance is a two part process in which the teacher first assesses student knowledge and skills, then responsively assists development. Types of assistance may include: (a) Modeling -- Providing a demonstration; (b) Feeding Back -- Providing information about student performance as compared with a standard; (c) Contingency Management: -- Providing rewards or punishments contingent on student performance; (d) Questioning -- Providing questions that guide students to advance their understanding; (e) Instructions -- Providing clear verbal directions for performance; (f) Cognitive Structuring -- Providing explanations or rules for proceeding; or (g) Task Structuring -- Providing assistance by segmenting or sequencing portions of the task.

Challenging Activities - Activities that advance student understanding to more complex levels: (a) the 'why' is addressed, not merely the 'what' or the 'how to;' (b) the activity requires that students generate knowledge, or use or elaborate on information provided (apply, interpret, categorize, order, evaluate, summarize, synthesize, analyze, explore, experiment, determine cause and effect, formulate and solve problems, explore patterns, make conjectures, generalize, justify, make judgments); (c) the teacher connects the content or activity to a broader concept or abstract idea to advance student understanding; or (d) the teacher provides instruction in critical thinking, or problem solving or metacognitive strategies.

Collaborate: Joint activity that results in shared ownership, authorship, use, or responsibility for a product. It can also include division of labor for coordinated sub-sections. However, mere turn taking does not constitute division of labor and, to be considered collaboration, an activity must include interaction between participants. Coordinated activities such as morning message or calisthenics are rated at the Emerging level for JPA.

Content vocabulary: Language development may occur in the context of literacy or English language lessons. Therefore, we broadly define content vocabulary to include (a) academic language use in literacy lessons, or (b) standard English language when that is the goal of instruction.

Instructional Conversation (IC): ICs are inclusive of all participants whose contributions are connected to, or extend, the comments and ideas of other participants. In contrast, directed-discussions focus less on developing conceptual understanding and more on known-answer questions and skill development. Instructional conversation focuses on broad topics, main ideas, themes or concepts, is responsive to student contributions, includes participation structures that are familiar to students, and includes open-ended questions and sustained dialogue on a single topic. A precondition or precursor of conversation is discourse between teacher and student(s) that is extended to at least two speech turns each, with each turn consisting of more than just providing an answer or providing a fact (responses to convergent teacher questions).

Incidental connections: The teacher (a) makes connections between students’ experience or knowledge from home, school, or community and the new activity/information on an ad hoc basis to assist understanding, or (b) prompts students to make connections.

Integrates the new activity/academic concepts with what students already know from home, school, or community: (a) students' knowledge or experience is integrated with new academic content, (b) the basis of the instructional activity is personally relevant to students' lives; or (c) students apply school knowledge in an authentic activity.

Integration: A single activity integrating three or more standards at the enacting level.

Product: Products may be tangible or intangible. Examples of tangible products: worksheet, essay, report, pottery, word-web, a math problem solved on the blackboard, play, skit, game, debate. Intangible products may be found in such activities as 'story time,' introductory lectures, or some ICs (the product is an accurate or elaborated understanding of a concept, procedure, idea), or some PE activities (increased physical fitness is the product, though not joint). The intangible products are an achieved physical, psychological, or social state that integrates a series of actions.

Standards for student performance: performance standards go beyond what to do and address the quality of student work. Standards may be in the form of a checklist or a rubric, or may be implicitly expressed through teacher expectations.

Sustained (reading, writing or speaking activities): “Sustained” reading, writing or speaking requires ten minutes or more of connected language use. Worksheets for which students write for 10+ minutes but for which the writing comprises brief responses rather than a single, extended, connected response, or speaking for which contributions are brief responses to multiple questions but are not connected to one another and built upon, are not considered sustained. Extended, structured listening activities for ELLs with very limited English proficiency qualify for the Developing level of LLD.

Views (IC, “questions students on their views”): In an Instructional Conversation, questioning students on their views is inclusive of students' prior knowledge or experience related to the goal of the conversation.

Informal “Key Questions” for making SPC Ratings

The informal, key questions that SPC'ers often use to make ratings are provided as a learning tool.

Organization of the Standards Performance Continuum (SPC)

The first question raters consider is, "is the Standard present" (rating will be a 2, developing, or 3, enacting), or "is it not present" (rating will be a 0, not observed, or 1, emerging). If the Standard is present, the rater must determine if it is present at the higher (3) or lower level (2). If it is not present, the rater must determine if some element of the Standard is present (1) or not (0).

Role of the teacher

The role of the teacher becomes critical to discerning between the developing (2) and enacting (3) levels. We find it helpful to consider some of the following questions regarding the role of the teacher.

Is the teacher:

• Only facilitating the activity?

• Giving feedback?

• Assisting language expression or literacy development?

• Assisting student understanding?

• Questioning to assist understanding?

• Questioning to 'elicit student talk' (open ended questions, no known answer)?

Note

The enacting levels for JPA and IC can only occur in small group organization with the teacher as a continuous member, but enacting levels for LLD, and CA can occur when the teacher provides floating assistance. Teacher assistance is one means to achieve an enacting rating for CTX, but the activity itself is also a consideration.

Key Questions for Joint Productive Activity (JPA) Ratings
Is there collaboration on a joint product, whole class w/teacher, small group, or pairs (see definition of collaboration, requires interaction)?
No ( 0 or 1 )		Yes ( 2 or 3 )
Is some element of JPA present		Is the teacher a full participant with a SMALL group?
(informal collaboration, instruction in group work, or individual contributions)?
No ( 0 )	Yes ( 1 )	No ( 2 )	Yes ( 3 )

Key Questions for Language and Literacy Development (LLD) Ratings
Do students have opportunities to read, write, or speak for sustained periods (must be 50% of participants simultaneously, no turn taking)?
No ( 0 or 1 )		Yes ( 2 or 3 )
Is some element of LLD present (explicit language modeling; brief talking, reading, or writing by 50% of students simultaneously; or social talk)?		(1) Is language use necessary to complete the activity, AND (2) does the teacher question, rephrase or model to assist student language expression or literacy development?
No ( 0 )	Yes ( 1 )	No ( 2 )	Yes ( 3 )

Key Questions for Contextualization (CTX) Ratings
Does the activity draw on students’ prior knowledge beyond the current unit of instruction (basis of activity is personally meaningful, prior knowledge is woven into new instruction, or students apply their learning in an authentic activity)? Is there evidence that knowledge from outside the current unit is drawn upon for instruction?
No ( 0 or 1 )		Yes ( 2 or 3 )
Is some element of CTX present (something		Does the teacher make connections to prior
familiar is used in instruction; activities are connected by theme or build on current unit; or parents or community members participate in instruction)?		knowledge or experience to assist understanding on an ad hoc basis?
No ( 0 )	Yes ( 1 )	Yes ( 2 )	No ( 3 )

Key Questions for Challenging Activities (CA) Ratings
Does the activity meet the SPC definition for challenging (see back of SPC), or are instructional tasks clearly connected to academic content (whole to part, academic concepts)?
No ( 0 or 1 )		Yes ( 2 or 3 )
Is some element of CA present		Are there (1) performance standards, (2) assistance by
(differentiated instruction for students' varied ability levels, standards, feedback, or teacher makes connections between student comments and content concepts)?		more capable others, AND (3) feedback?
No ( 0 )	Yes ( 1 )	No ( 2 )	Yes ( 3 )

Key Questions for Instructional Conversation (IC) Ratings
Does the teacher converse with a small group of students on an academic topic and elicit student talk by questioning, listening, rephrasing, or modeling?
No ( 0 or 1 )		Yes ( 2 or 3 )
Is some element of IC present?		Does the IC have a clear academic goal (at
(with individuals or small groups the teacher responds in ways that are comfortable for students, questions to elicit student talk, or converses on a nonacademic topic)?		teacher center, of substantive duration); does the teacher question students on their views, judgments, rationales or experience; and does student talk occur at higher rates than teacher talk?
No ( 0 )	Yes ( 1 )	No ( 2 )	Yes ( 3 )

 See glossary

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