Over the course of the last two years we have been discussing CLASS and what high quality interactions look like. My teachers and aides have a good grasp of CLASS, but we have been working on what that actually looks like in the classroom.
Last year in a PLC we looked at our CLASS scores and agreed that Concept Development, Quality of Feedback and Language Modeling were the areas we needed to learn more about. I went through the CLASS manual and copied some of the teaching examples they had for low, mid and high ranges on to index cards. On my white board I wrote this:
Low Low mid Mid high mid high
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
They placed the cards (it was magnetic) where they thought the interaction would fall and discussed why they thought that. If they thought it was low, as a group, we discussed how it could be changed to be considered a higher level interaction. The conversation we had was amazing. I learned a lot about their understanding and they learned more about teaching and learning. It was not really about the score, but it started conversations about why the interactions were low level or higher. Really was a great activity.
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Diane Schoenheider
Broadview IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-24-2019 17:13
From: Rachel Mayo
Subject: Activities/Ideas for Trainings
I am working to support the teachers at my school in a) learning more about the CLASS domains/dimensions/indicators and b) analyzing their CLASS data. Does anyone have any interactive hands on activities activities/ideas/resources that have been especially effective for familiarizing teachers and assistant teachers with CLASS?
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Rachel Mayo
Chicago IL
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