DOMAIN: Professional Practice: Learner & Learning
Who are our students and what does each need to best learn?
What We Believe About Learning
- All learners are capable of success when individual dignity, cultural awareness, and the right conditions for learning exist.
- A healthy school environment is built upon the respect of each individual and the full participation of students, staff and parents.
- Learning happens when we provide a safe and productive learning environment where learning is shared through thinking, writing, speaking, discussing, listening, deconstructing, composing, inventing, and evaluating.
- Relevance, rigor, and relationships are the keys to motivation and engagement in learning.
Guiding Questions
- How are high expectations for all students consistently communicated?
- How is instruction scaffolded for individuals and groups of students to move them to the next level of understanding?
- How are resources and/or specialists accessed to meet student need when those needs extend beyond teacher’s current professional
- understanding or skill?
- How is understanding of students’ needs and backgrounds demonstrated?
- How are tools of language development used to scaffold learning for diverse students?
“Look Fors”
- Learner Development
- Teacher has high expectations for every student.
- Learner Differences
- Lessons show evidence of differentiation
- Teacher explicitly links new concepts to students’ background and past learning.
- Teacher utilizes appropriate and varied primary and supplemental materials and tools to support different learning styles and needs.
- Teacher provides meaningful activities that integrate lesson concepts with language development opportunities for: reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
