• Aligned Instructional Practice

    The purpose of the Instructional Practice  suite of tools is to help teachers and those who support teachers to make the Shifts in instructional practice required by the Common Core and other college- and career-ready standards. The Instructional Practice suite includes resources for coaching, lesson planning, and training support that are all designed to work together.

  • Resources for Instructional Practice

    Plan, Observe, and Norm Expectations around Aligned Instruction: Each of the tools in the Instructional Practice suite can be used on its own, but they were designed to be used together to facilitate conversation about CCR-aligned instruction.

    Resource Recommended Use

    Instructional Practice Guide

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    Names the specific actions (“Core Actions”) and behavioral indicators (“Indicators”) to look for to determine whether students are getting to the intent of the standards through the content of the lesson. This set of observable actions are designed to help teachers, coaches, and peers identify evidence of where and when instruction aligned to  college- and career-ready standards, including the Common Core, is taking place.

    Beyond the Lesson Discussion Guide

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    Supplements the Instructional Practice Guide. Because every Core Action and every Shift cannot be observable in every lesson, this guide offers questions for teachers and coaches to consider in order to ensure effective CCR-aligned implementation over the course of the year.

    Lesson Planning Tool

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    Takes the Core Actions and Indicators of the Instructional Practice Guide and reframes them as prompts to consider while planning. The Lesson Planning Tool encourages teachers to plan lessons in a way that will ensure that the Shifts will be observable in instruction.

    Lesson Planning and Reflection: Quick-Reference Question Guide

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    Supports standards-aligned lesson planning, reflection on a lesson, peer-to-peer or coaching discussions, and PLCs or other professional learning settings. All questions are aligned to college- and career-ready expectations and are derived from the Lesson Planning Tool.

    Instructional Practice Toolkit

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    Builds understanding and experience with instruction aligned to college- and career-ready (CCR) standards in mathematics and ELA/literacy.
  • What Makes Instruction Aligned

    For instructional practice to be aligned to college- and career-ready standards, such as the Common Core, the content must be aligned and be featured at the center of the lesson. Aligned instructional practice can be observed when the content and teacher’s instructional choices allow students to get to the full intent of the standards. The Instructional Practice suite of tools focus not on every pedagogical move in the classroom, but on the specific actions teachers and students take to address the Shifts required by college- and career-ready standards. To understand aligned practice, you must first understand the Shifts.

    Learn more about the Shifts.

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  • Recognize the "Actions" and "Indicators" of Aligned Instruction

    The Instructional Practice suite of tools all use the same language to describe the specific, observable actions that demonstrate whether the Shifts are being implemented in instruction. These “Core Actions” and the “Indicators” of the behaviors they promote are based on the Shifts.

    Learn more about the Core Actions and Indicators.

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  • Research Support for Content-Specific Observation

    This memo details the research underpinning the Core Actions and Indicators of the Instructional Practice Guide and explains how the design of the tool supports content-specific observation and feedback.

    • Aligning Content and Practice: The Design of the Instructional Practice Guide