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BetterLesson Instructional Strategies

BetterLesson Instructional Strategies provide ready-to-use resources and step-by-step guidance to help education professionals grow in their practice.

Student-Centered Classroom Culture and Design

Develop a collaborative classroom culture in which all students feel safe, respected, and empowered to drive their own learning
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Student-Centered Classroom Culture and Design
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Circle Up supports students to engage in structured conversations that promote character development and classroom community
By defining student roles in group work, the teacher can support each student to be successful and support a steady work pace for each group
Students rate how well they embody class values every day in order to reflect and grow
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Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning

Deliver inclusive content and instruction to ensure students from all cultures have full and equitable access to learning
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Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning
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Being culturally responsive involves learning about your own perceptions of students & then creating equitable learning experiences for them
Effective classroom management creates a welcoming learning environment that supports all learners, even when they experience challenges
In order to enjoy truly collaborative learning communities, students need identify blind spots and develop proactive responses to bias
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Social-Emotional Learning and Habits of Success

Prepare students with the noncognitive skills needed to succeed in school and in life
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Social-Emotional Learning and Habits of Success
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Teach students to talk about themselves and their work using a growth mindset
Students use self-regulation strategies like mental breaks, body and movement breaks, fidgets, and self-talk to maximize their learning
Greet students as they enter your classroom to build relationships and provide consistency
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Mastery-Based Progressions

Create learning paths that allow students to progress towards learning goals at their own pace based on demonstrations of mastery
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Mastery-Based Progressions
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In a self-paced or mastery based learning environment, building a mastery map and a network of student experts can help
A pre-assessment is the foundation of a Mastery-Based Progression as it allows students and teacher to focus on what is most needed
A Mastery-Based Progression unleashes students to work at their own pace so creating and monitoring a simple pacing calendar can help
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Project-Based and Experiential Learning

Engage students in real-world, inquiry-based tasks to develop deep content knowledge, critical thinking, and communication skills
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Project-Based and Experiential Learning
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Driving questions initiate and focus the inquiry and learning throughout a project while creating an interest and challenge for students
Want to assess both content mastery and design thinking/process skills during project based learning? Try the comprehensive PBL rubric!
Starting a unit or project with the end goal in mind helps teachers to authentically integrate all content and plan the steps to achieve the
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Student-Centered Assessment and Feedback

Give students multiple opportunities to demonstrate their progress to support future learning and growth
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Student-Centered Assessment and Feedback
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Microgrouping to Provide Feedback supports students to receive targeted feedback specific to their learning needs
Provide students with clear criteria to self-assess effectively
This strategy supports students to create a plan for remediating their missed mastery objectives and work towards re-taking the assessment
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Ownership, Choice, and Voice

Build opportunities and systems that empower students to take ownership and agency over their learning process
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Ownership, Choice, and Voice
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Choice boards give students autonomy and choice in their learning while allowing teachers to differentiate, observe, and assess in real time
By defining student roles in group work, the teacher can support each student to be successful and support a steady work pace for each group
Engage students in kinesthetic learning opportunities where they see, think, and wonder as they circulate the room
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Collaborative Professional Learning

Organize teacher collaboration to establish a professional culture that can meet new challenges and improve student learning
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Collaborative Professional Learning
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Change teaching and learning one step at a time using the BetterLesson coaching model
In the months leading up to a coaching year, so many details can be planned ahead of time for a successful launch into coaching
Regular analysis of student work puts the spotlight on what's actually happening in a school's teaching and learning
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Newsela Learning Domain

Supercharge reading engagement across content areas using Newsela tools
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Newsela Learning Domain
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A Gallery Walk heightens engagement by allowing students to move around the room, engage in discussion, and have choice in their learning
Each student becomes an expert on an article then teaches the group so that the group can draw connections based on what they have learned
Explicit, individualized feedback allows students to more effectively develop central ideas and support them with text evidence
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Student-Centered School Leadership

Lead the improvement of teaching, learning, and overall school climate to enhance student achievement and success
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Student-Centered School Leadership
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Setting group work values first leads to more productive and satisfying meetings
Do more by collaboratively sharing the guidance and direction of a school
Common planning time translates teacher will, skill, and time into personalized, responsive, and effective planning structures
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Instructional Coaching

Provide teachers with personalized professional development that supports them to improve their practice
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Instructional Coaching
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Coaching observations focus on using objective classroom data to identify the impact of a teacher's actions on student learning
Change teaching and learning one step at a time using the BetterLesson coaching model
To improve our coaching practice we must reflect and develop next steps
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Student-Centered Literacy

Infuse student-centered teaching practices into content-based literacy instruction
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Student-Centered Literacy
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Engage students in kinesthetic learning opportunities where they see, think, and wonder as they circulate the room
Support students to be both contributors and listeners in a group conversation
Socratic Seminars support students to discuss complex texts or topics, and are forums for them to build both speaking and listening skills
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Student-Centered Mathematics

Infuse student-centered teaching practices into math instruction
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Student-Centered Mathematics
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Fill in the gaps supports students to review assessment data and set goals for improvement over two days in which they work to fill the gaps
2,4,6,8 Collaborative Problem-Solving supports students to engage in independent and collaborative thinking to effectively problem solve
This strategy supports student pairs to coach one another through problems and questions
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