MTLE Pedagogy-Learning Environment

Give some examples of methods that promote higher thinking levels and how each guides students to (1) reflect, (2) challenge assumptions, (3) find relationships, (4) determine how relevant and valid information is, (4) design alternate solutions, (5) draw conclusions, and (6) transfer knowledge.

(1) After assigned reading or video viewing, ask students what they would have done in a fictional character or nonfictional individual's situation. After students complete projects or assignments, have them write (a.) what they could have done differently, (b.) how, (c.) what they will do differently or additionally next time, and (d.) what they learned during the process of the project or assignment. These both require students to reflect on their experiences and articulate insights and thoughts. (2) In class discussion, have students identify a book or movie's main assumption(s). Ask how they know these are true. Have them research for proof or disproof, teaching the habit of questioning and investigating rather than simply accepting others' assumptions. (3) Have students compare similarities and contrast differences between or among books, movies, experiments, natural phenomena, etc., guiding them to find relationships. Have them make cause-and-effect graphics identifying relationships among events or actions in history, fiction, or drama. Ask how fictional characters and historical or current figures influence(d) one another; how chemicals interact, causing reactions; why, etc. (4) Ask students to explain how information relates to current study topics. For examining validity, see (2) above; also have students test claims directly when feasible. (5) Review information identified in lessons and classwork, ask what students conclude based on it, and have them explain the logic leading to conclusions. (6) Assign applying newly-learned skills in other classes, field trips, homes, communities, and workplaces.

Describe three main categories of cognitive disabilities and some of their salient characteristics.

(1) Intellectual disability (ID): students function intellectually two standard deviations or more lower than average age peers. Adaptive functioning may be equal, higher, or lower than intellectual functioning depending on strengths, background experience, and training. Students often learn the same ways as others, but at slower rates. Developmental milestones occur at later ages; learning accomplishments take longer periods to acquire. Emotional and social maturity often correspond to mental age, but also frequently advance beyond it with experience. Students have difficulty understanding abstract concepts, interpreting things literally and concretely. (2) Autism spectrum disorders (ASD): considered an emotional as well as cognitive disability, the spectrum ranges from profound to negligible impairment in activities of daily living and behavior. Intelligence ranges from profound ID to gifted. ASDs often impair social understanding and interaction, e.g., observing, interpreting, and producing nonverbal signals indicating emotions, attitudes, etc. Students have difficulty recognizing sarcasm, figurative language, humor; starting conversations; and conversational give-and-take. Behavioral characteristics include repetitive actions, restricted interests, rigid routines or schedules, focusing on one activity for long times, and difficulty transitioning among activities. (3) Specific learning disabilities: students are not intellectually impaired, but have deficits processing linguistic and/or numeric information. Typically their school achievement is far behind their intellectual ability.

Identify three types of auditory disabilities, including hearing loss level measurements, and associated characteristics.

(I) One auditory disability not involving the hearing mechanism is central auditory processing disorder, a neurological deficit in interpreting the structure and meanings of speech sounds. Other auditory disabilities involve hearing loss. (2) Totally deaf students cannot hear any sound, often not even with hearing aids. (3) Hard of hearing students have hearing loss but some residual hearing. Hearing loss can be sensorineural, i.e., the cochlea, cochlear hair cells, and acoustic or auditory nerves do not function; or conductive, i.e., something in the outer or middle ear prevents conduction of sound waves, e.g., outer-ear wax buildup, middle-ear pus, fluid from otitis media infection, fused or immobilized middle-ear ossicles from otosclerosis, etc. Sensorineural hearing loss is irreversible, but cochlear implants enable hearing for some. Conductive hearing loss is most often treatable with surgery, medication, hearing aids, etc. Slight hearing loss, i.e., inability to hear whispering, is measured at 25-40 dB; mild hearing loss, i.e., understanding conversation with normal loudness up to 3-5 feet, 41-54 dB; moderate hearing loss, i.e., only understanding loud speech nearby, 55-69 dB; severe hearing loss, i.e., hearing only loud voices a foot away, 70-89 dB; profound hearing loss, i.e., feeling vibrations but not hearing tones, 90 dB or more. Noise-induced hearing loss is only at middle frequency (c. 4000 Hz).

Describe some ways in which teachers can establish supportive classroom environments.

(I) Teachers can intentionally teach responsible behaviors. To afford a multidimensional approach for every student, particularly those requiring more intensive intervention, teachers can collaborate with parents, school psychologists, and counselors. General behaviors to teach include communication skills, social skills, character development, anger management, self-control skills, conflict resolution, decision-making skills, taking responsibility for one's actions, and developing emotional intelligence (EQ). (2) Teachers can establish classroom harmony through creating warm, supportive atmospheres wherein every student feels s/he is an important class member. Class meetings, class-building and team-building activities engender senses of a learning community and class ownership. Experts use the acronym "VIABLE": students develop self-respect and respect for authority figures when they feel they are valued by teachers and classmates, included in classroom activities, accepted in their classrooms and schools, have senses of belonging to cooperative learning groups, and adults who listen to and encourage them. (3) Teachers can empower students and promote their sense of class ownership by involving them actively in disciplinary processes. Instead of being part of the problem, students become part of the solution. Activities include arranging study and homework buddies; peer tutors, mediators, and counselors; peer recognition; assigning classroom responsibilities; and student-led conferences.

Explain the principle of a "flipped" classroom. How do "flipped" classrooms relate to the modern understanding of how students learn?

A "flipped" classroom is a pedagogical model in which the traditional uses of time inside and outside of the classroom are reversed. Traditional time inside the classroom is devoted to teacher-centered (i.e., passive) activities like lecture. In a "flipped" classroom passive learning exercises are reserved for outside of the classroom. Either the teacher will record audio or video segments for students to consume at home or the teacher will make use of pre-existing content (e.g., Mometrix Academy or Khan Academy). Traditionally time outside of the classroom is devoted to more student-centered (i.e., active) experiences such as problem solving. Because traditional homework is generally individual, problems are often less challenging and less instructive. In a "flipped" classroom, problem solving and other traditional homework is done inside the classroom allowing students to collaborate on more challenging problems with additional assistance from the teacher. In the student-centered "flipped" classroom model, student learning effectiveness is increased because both halves of the reversal facilitate deeper understanding. Students have more time to digest material at home and can pause or replay lectures as often as they like. In the classroom students can solve more challenging and instructive problems through the assistance of classmates and their instructor.

Explain some ways that the 2010 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) has aimed to address diverse student needs with school and community resources.

According to President Barack Obama and the US Department of Education, the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, aka No Child Left Behind or NCLB) demands fair, rigorous accountability for all school performance levels; meeting diverse learner needs; and more equitable provision of fair opportunities for student success; to ensure opportunity and equity for every student. The ESEA reauthorization requires its programs to offer a wide range of supports and resources enabling students to graduate, attend college, and establish careers. ESEA includes programs for meeting the special educational needs of ELL students, students with disabilities, homeless students, Native American students, migrant workers' children, and delinquent and neglected students. It states the federal government's responsibility for giving assistance to rural school districts, districts sustaining impacts of federal activities and properties, and other high-need areas and regions. The 2010 ESEA reauthorization also proposed to increase support for inclusion and better outcomes for students with disabilities as a supplement to funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This support includes more appropriate, accurate assessment measures of students with disabilities; better teacher and administrator preparation for meeting diverse learner needs; and better locally and state-determined curricula, incorporating universal design principles, implemented by more districts and schools.

Identify a number of characteristics of effective teachers and instruction recommended by experts for inclusive practices in regular education classrooms with special education students

According to expert Peter Westwood (2003), research into effective instruction finds that effective teachers keep the focus on academics; give students maximal opportunities for learning; demonstrate good classroom management; use work-oriented, business-like styles; express enthusiasm; communicate high expectations to students of what they can achieve; apply strategies for keeping students motivated, on-task, and productive; introduce new material step-by-step; use explicit and direct instruction techniques; structure all content; give clear explanations and instructions; closely monitor student activities; demonstrate appropriate strategies for approaching tasks; utilize varied resources; adjust instruction to individual student needs; reteach as needed; give students frequent feedback; and spend considerable amounts of time doing whole-class, interactive teaching. In classes including special education students, teachers include: descriptive praise and encouragement, ample guided practice, fast-paced lessons, high engagement and participation levels of all students, careful curriculum content sequencing and control, positive peer assistance and interactions, many practice and application opportunities, modeling of effective school task completion methods, interactive group teaching, and teaching students how best to attempt new learning tasks.

Summarize one model of intrinsic motivation for academic achievement that characterizes elements of student task value. State the relationship of positivity and frequency in feedback to student self-motivation.

According to one model, students offered opportunities to engage in learning activities first decide whether an activity is interesting to them or not. They engage in activities that interest them. If not immediately finding interest in an activity, they then evaluate it according to two criteria: whether or to what extent it is stimulating, i.e., it attracts their curiosity, affords a challenge, and/or appeals to their sense of fantasy; and whether or to what degree it affords them personal control—i.e., it is not too difficult for them to accomplish, and allows them some measure of free choice in the specific topics, learning styles, methods, procedures, materials, and forms of assessment they can use to acquire knowledge and demonstrate understanding. If students perceive an activity as both stimulating and controllable, they consider it potentially interesting or valuable and engage in it. If either or both conditions become inadequate, students disengage unless influenced by some extrinsic motivation. Students are more likely to repeat engagement in activities they find repeatedly stimulating and controllable, and discard those repeatedly not satisfying these criteria. Research finds the more constructive teacher criticism is and the more freely and often teachers praise student efforts, the more encouraged and self-motivated students become.

Identify some ways in which teachers can include students in instructional decisions, explaining how this affects student motivation.

All human beings want some control over their circumstances and activities. This is especially important to K-12 students: as minors, they have less legal and practical power and control over their lives than adults. Students perceiving teachers as having all the control over their instruction are more likely to respond only to external rewards and punishments and less likely to develop internal motivation to learn and achieve academically. When teachers include students in instructional decisions, students feel ownership of the content and their learning. For example, teachers can ask students which aspects and topics within curriculum subjects interest them and let students choose topics they are interested in for papers and projects. They can give students choices among working independently, in pairs, or in small groups for some learning activities. Teachers can offer students options for how to weigh different assignments and assessments to determine their grades. Including papers, projects, tests, presentations, and other varied ways of assessing students allows them more control over how they demonstrate their learning. Participation and control in their instruction increases student motivation for acquiring and demonstrating knowledge.

Describe several classroom behavior management strategies teachers can employ to help students develop and exercise accountability, responsibility, and self-regulation.

Any time students display careless or unacceptable behaviors, responding with a "check yourself' message advises students to check what they just did, implicitly communicating that by checking, they will realize what they must do to correct their behavior. This reminds students to practice responsible self-management. When students, especially younger ones assigned individual classwork, become restless and off-task, settle them down and increase their concentration powers through a "clock focus" strategy: on the teacher's prearranged cue, students stand and watch the clock's second hand complete full one minute rotations, choose how many to watch, and then sit down and resume working once the last rotation is complete. This provides scaffolding for students to develop better behavioral self-awareness, self-management, and self-control. Clock-watching, standing, and teacher cues can be gradually eliminated toward independent on-task self-regulation. Placing a student near the teacher in a "visitor's chair," with returning to regular seating allowed whenever the student feels ready to self-manage responsibly, avoids expressing disapproval. When upsetting emotions arise, model honest communication and interpersonal skills without provoking guilt or defensiveness through I statements about personal feelings and needs; avoid "you" accusations or comments.

Describe some types and characteristics of behavioral disorders, including some treatments.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is familiar to many: student attention spans are deficiently short; students are too easily distracted; self-regulation deficits cause impulsive behaviors; students display excessive physical activity and have difficulty sitting still, focusing attention, and persisting in the same activity for extended durations. Medication like Ritalin, Cylert, other stimulants—even caffeine—enable better focusing, but must be accompanied by behavioral therapy. Some students are identified with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), symptomatized by irritability, aggression, hostility, negativity, and defiance. They frequently lose their tempers, argue with adults, purposely irritate others, blame others for their behaviors and mistakes, express or demonstrate anger and resentment, and act vindictively and spitefully. Roughly half of preschoolers with ODD outgrow it by age 8, a few develop ADHD instead, and some develop comorbid disorders (anxiety, depression). Some develop conduct disorder (CD) in a few years. ODD students tend to have better school performance but worse social skills than CD patients. CD is the severest childhood psychiatric disorder, involving physical aggression to people and animals, bullying, cruelty, property destruction, lying, theft, and serious rule or legal violations. Nearly 20 percent of teens with ODD or CD have antisocial personality disorder (APD)—an extension of CD—in adulthood. Multisystem therapy is most effective; many improve, but few completely recover.

Describe examples of theoretically based classroom behavior management and monitoring techniques, identifying associated theories and principles and things each technique teaches.

Based on behaviorism, functional behavior analysis identifies functions, reasons, and purposes of behaviors, enabling identifying and teaching preferable replacement behaviors meeting the same needs and functions. For example, pay attention to students who raise their hands, but not to students who call out answers. Behavior contracts specify precisely what students agree to do, and for what reward. For example, a first-grader becomes bored with teacher read-aloud story time after three minutes, wandering around the room. An initial two-week contract specifies s/he stay seated and attend for five minutes in return for quietly playing with a toy nearby for the remaining time. Future contracts gradually increase attending durations. Contracts teach students verbal obligation, responsibility, selfcontrol, self-monitoring, negotiation, and compromise. Applying the behaviorist principle that positive reinforcement is more powerful than punishment, and the social learning theory principle of vicarious or observational learning, the "catch them being good" technique involves identifying disruptive and non-disruptive behavior instances. At class beginnings, use a randomized beeper or recording; ignoring disruptive student behaviors (whenever possible) and praising nearby students displaying appropriate behavior. (Use time-outs for severe disruptions.) Instead of a teacher singling out or scolding a student and thereby reinforcing disruptive behaviors, students imitate praised classmates for similar rewards. This teaches students they receive no attention of any kind for disruptive behavior, but favorable attention for appropriate behavior.

Summarize a number of procedures and strategies whereby teachers understand student group dynamics and manage their behavior.

Be aware of individual students' group roles, e.g., leader, instigator, conscience, intimidator, enforcer, procurer, or negotiator; develop friendly relationships with the first three, and keep the first two on-task. Know group-required behaviors, conversation topics and interests, and what maintains a group's cooperation and unity. Place a daily "do-now" activity or the board or students' desks to start upon arrival before lessons, preparing students for lessons and continuing ongoing group or team tasks and activities. Greet and converse with students, always respectfully. Pleasantly remind and encourage desired behaviors before classes begin. Engage group leaders in task preparations (equipment setup, writing assignments on boards or overheads, reading assignment directions, handing out worksheets): others follow. Include cooperative learning groups, and allow collaborative team answers. Recognize and reward good behavior. Never embarrass students in front of classmates, which provokes individual and group rebellion. Determine behavior reasons and functions, e.g., boredom, overly easy or difficult assignments, confronting or embarrassing students, favoritism, group leader behavior contagion, pre-existing issues, distracters, etc. Prevent escalation using low-impact interventions: interest in student work, encouragement, good-natured humor, physical proximity, touch, interrupting oneself mid-sentence and using the "teacher glare," reminding classes and groups of times they did well, and changing lesson presentation to become more interesting than any distraction(s).

Identify some important general principles and a number of methods for communicating teacher expectations to students.

By always behaving fairly and consistently in class, teachers model integrity for students, who understand better what is expected of them by witnessing the teacher meeting his/her own high expectations. Reinforce expectations daily, and repeat continually sometimes through gentle reminders, other times interrupting instruction to discuss expectations as indicated—to change student attitudes. Support and inform student success through parent-teacher collaboration by communicating to parents your expectations of both students and parents. Prepare "achievement contracts" outlining mutual expectations students sign when the school year begins. Give students time to find answers themselves, only giving hints or ideas, not supplying correct answers immediately. Periodically, have students write about how they think they are doing and suggestions for improving the class. Always speak to students positively, emphasizing their ability to learn your instruction. Let students view you as a real person; get to know them. This attitude motivates some students to work harder to please teachers. However, avoid the trap of being students' friend; maintain authority as their teacher. Tell students exactly what you expect, making activity and assignment standards perfectly clear. Ensure every student knows s/he can earn high grades by working hard enough. Let students revise poorly-graded work, promoting mastery learning

Identify what type of motivation grades involve. Explain how this relates to fostering student learning and achieving self-motivation, including an analogy showing how grades on formative assessments must inform progress toward goals for students to be motivated to improve performance.

Contrasting with internal motives that students have for learning and succeeding academically, grades are external motivators. While they provide an index of how a student performed in classroom activities and assessments—which can vary in accuracy—grades by themselves do not give students intrinsic reasons to learn or achieve. Students displaying extrinsic motivation might say they need certain letter or number grades to pass courses and accomplish graduation from high school, to the next grade, receive rewards promised by teachers or parents, or avoid punishment. This differs from students saying that certain grades prove they know, understand, or have mastered subjects. Though some view formative assessment grades as feedback, these often do not inform adjusting performance. In an expert's (Wiggins, 2012) analogy, suppose a student's goal in PE is to run a five-minute mile, already having achieved 5:09. Suppose at the end of the first lap of a mile race, her coach yelled, "B-plus on that lap!" This does not support progress toward the goal. But the coach's yelling individual lap times, feedback, and advice: "You're on pace for 5:15," "You're not swinging your arms," "You need two seconds off the next lap to finish under 5:10 pick it up,' provides specific information and advice for progress toward the goal.

Discuss some common ways that various student behavioral disorders and symptoms can affect learning, and some ways of addressing them.

Different disorders can cause similar classroom behaviors. For example, students with intellectual disabilities (ID), autism spectrum disorders (ASD), communication disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and others can all display disruptive behaviors. The reasons may differ, but the net results are the same. Some inappropriate behaviors are caused by lack of maturity or understanding, as with IDs. Students with ASDs, communication disorders, or ADHD may explode out of frustration over not having their needs met. Students with communication deficits may scream, hit, or throw things in lieu of having the language or speech skills to express what they feel, need, or want. ADHD students unable to sit still or concentrate often disrupt classes with out-of-seat behavior, excessive movements, vocal interruptions, etc. ASD students can have "meltdowns" or tantrums at sensory overload, having to switch activities, etc. Students with IDs or emotional or behavioral disorders often have immature or deficient self-regulation abilities. Attention-seeking behaviors are frequently inadvertently reinforced by the attention of adults trying to address them. While it requires planning and consistent, systematic implementation, behavior modification techniques can successfully resolve many behavioral dilemmas by teaching more acceptable replacement behaviors for communicating, meeting needs, making adjustments, and establishing and reinforcing self-control and social interaction skills.

Explain why classroom transitions between activities and lessons are often problematic and how teachers must address them. Outline five steps for smooth transitions.

During transitions, students frequently become distracted, restless, and misbehave because the lessons and activities before and after, and the transitions themselves, are not standardized. Hence teachers must build bridges for students for efficient transitions. Bridges must be totally consistent, using the exact same prompts, cues, and steps in exactly the same way every time, so students can rely on them. This makes activities and events both before and after transitions immaterial because students always know what teachers expect of them. Teachers can design a uniform transition by chaining several mini-routines, which they must model, teach, and practice. (I) Signal for class attention. (2) Once all students are attending and making eye contact, start directions with "In a moment... (e.g., we're going to start another lesson)" to maintain student attention. (3) Give precisely detailed directions, including prearranging cues, e.g., "When I say 'go,' you will put away your materials, clean off your desks, and quietly meet me in the learning center." (4) Ask if anybody does not know what to do. Once everybody understands, use the prearranged cue (e.g., "go") to impel students toward learning objectives. (5) Observe student activity and confirm they are following directions. Avoid interrupting transitional activity. To address noncompliance, have students repeat the sequence.

Discuss some aspects of how information and communication technology (ICT) supports student-centered learning, including characteristics of student-centered and constructivist learning; teacher roles; related curriculum design shifts; ways students, teachers, and administrators use ICT; and additional ICT-facilitated learning benefits.

Education is socially oriented and greater teacher-student personal contact is associated with quality education; ICT is compatible with and supportive of student-centered learning environments. ICT can have a transformational role in teaching and learning. Student-centered learning incorporates experiential and hands-on learning, self-directed student learning, and flexible learning activities. Students must not simply remember information to understand and apply it; they must question, grapple with ideas, discover things on their own, and construct knowledge, with teachers not being information presenters but facilitators which also enhance their attention, interest, and motivation. Contrasting with teacher-directed learning, student-centered learning is more congruent with constructivist learning. Researchers conclude that to make complex information their own, students must individually discover and transform it. As facilitators, teachers provide opportunities for students to discover ideas, apply them, and consciously utilize their own learning strategies. Thus curriculum design is shifting from emphasizing informational content to competencies and how information will be used. Teachers use ICT in lesson planning and presentation; students use ICT for exploration, practice, and preparing assignments and presentations; administrators and teachers use ICT to complete administrative tasks more efficiently. Technology-facilitated, student centered approaches facilitate multimedia presentation, enhancing learning; and encourage student responsibility for learning.

Discuss the importance and relationship of classroom routines and procedures to classroom management and related guidelines for teachers. Summarize a number of classroom actions that require regular routines and procedures.

Effective teachers devote school's first few weeks not to teaching content, but to establishing classroom routines and procedures: research finds lacking these causes most behavior problems. Routines and procedures decrease instruction interruptions, increasing smooth class flow. Experts advise handing out copies of routines and procedures to every student on the first day, retaining extra copies for new students arriving later. Do not expect compliance after merely handing out and going over them once. Teach key procedures once or twice daily over several days. Explain reasons for each routine and procedure, model each for students, give students non-examples of compliance, and have one or more students model each. Go over less important routines and procedures, monitor, and reinforce as needed. Consistency is critical: teaching, monitoring, and reinforcing routines and procedures, and firmly establishing these over the first three weeks of school offers enormous benefits; do not give up after a few days. Routines and procedures include entering and exiting; starting work; attendance; lunch counts; announcements; lateness; absence; makeup classwork and tests; out-of-seat; teacher attention signal; assignments; pencil-sharpening; collecting supplies; carrying, handling, or using equipment; forming groups; group, learning center, and independent work; lining up; restrooms; water or snacks; other school locations; submitting homework and papers; exchanging papers; getting help; asking questions; finishing classwork early; classroom visitors; fire drills, codes, and alerts; sudden illness or injury; checking out materials; end-of-day cleanup; organizing materials; changing classes; homework; dismissal.

Discuss some aspects of effective, active listening strategies, including what they accomplish and how for teachers and students as both speakers and listeners.

Effective, active listening strategies accomplish multiple goals: teachers show students they care about them, demonstrate attention to their concerns, make them feel understood, establish and develop student-teacher relationships, give students emotional connections with school, model effective listening strategies for students to learn and use, and motivate student learning. Research shows student learning motivation requires feeling connected. In active listening, the listener uses verbal and nonverbal signals, asks questions to clarify, and restates main points for the speaker to confirm or correct. Restating in one's own words can also involve interpreting the speaker's message. For example, a student says, "I don't like this school as much as my other school. People aren't nice." The teacher responds, "You're unhappy here?" The student answers, "Yes. I haven't made any friends. Nobody includes me in anything." The teacher responds, "You feel left out here?" The student confirms, "Yes, I wish I knew more people." Questions, restating, and interpreting clarify factual and emotional message content. When speakers refine listener interpretations, they feel heard, gain insights into their own feelings, and may experience catharsis. Listeners enhance their skills in focusing on speakers and considering implied meanings.

Summarize a number of strategies whereby teachers can promote successful classrooms where all students participate and have their educational needs met.

Establish a classroom climate where students feel safe, secure, and engaged in learning rather than unchallenged or threatened. Discuss how students want the classroom to work and how to maintain the best climate. Promote cooperation, involvement, and a stimulating, inviting, productive, learner-friendly environment with functional, appealing arrangements and displays through a classroom plan, including student in decision-making processes. Organize the classroom to allow movement, stations for long-term involvement and learning, and easy technology and information access. Engage students in the processes of developing, comprehending, and maintaining procedures and routines, with a limited number of positively stated, specific, clear rules; practice and reinforce these throughout the school year. Assign and manage meaningful assignments with purposes, in real-life settings with audiences. Prepare for teaching: active student involvement in planning preparing, implementing, and assessing learning units reduces behavior and discipline issues. Consider having students create and submit actual proposals to organizations, corporations, or city councils needing new ideas. Consistently communicate and reinforce class procedures and routines. Discuss behavior in class. Discuss adding, removing, or changing procedures. Have students enforce rules. Students' having a voice enables superior classroom functioning. Consistently celebrate success. Evaluate and reflect daily or weekly throughout the year.

Articulate a four-step instructional strategy for communicating high expectations to all students.

Experts (Marzano, 2010) advise: (I) as early as possible, identify students for whom you have lower expectations. Once formed, negative expectations are hard to admit and change. (2) Identify student similarities. Though teachers resist admitting they automatically form expectations based on student appearance, speech style, or ethnicity, research finds early expectations based on such characteristics. Expectation patterns do not indicate bigotry or racism when people actively work to keep biases from controlling their thoughts and behaviors. (3) Identify your differential behaviors toward low-expectancy students, which are far more important than your expectations. Students observe and make inferences based on teacher behaviors. Affectively, teachers make less eye and physical contact, smile less, and lightly or playfully converse less with low-expectancy students. Academically, they ask them less challenging questions, call on them less frequently, explore their answers in less depth, and reward less rigorous responses from them. (4) Consciously treat high-expectancy and low-expectancy students the same way. Affectively this is relatively easy, but academically more challenging: students habituated to low teacher expectations may experience discomfort when teachers challenge them more. However, ultimately this enables students to ask clarifying questions and risk communicating new ideas.

Compare and contrast internal vs. external motivation including their respective advantages, disadvantages, and factors affecting each.

External motivations include teacher and parent expectations of students; rewards students can earn by demonstrating learning; and grades, which determine passing, promotion, retention, graduation, future opportunities, college admissions, scholarships, etc. Applying external motivators typically requires little preparation or effort, frequently does not require much teacher knowledge about individual students and their interests, and produces more immediate behavior changes. However, designating appropriate rewards and punishments becomes challenging when students become habituated, requiring escalation over time. External rewards frequently distract students from learning subject matter. They are not durable: students lose motivation once rewards and punishments are discontinued. Additionally, multiple experiments (e.g., Lepper, Deci) show external rewards can decrease internal motivation: students of all ages continued to engage in activities without rewards as they found them inherently interesting, whereas those given rewards for engaging in them discontinued engagement when rewards ceased; extrinsic rewards apparently reduced intrinsic interest. Internal motivations, including student interest in subject matter and learning and desire for knowledge and success, require more teacher time and effort and take longer to change behavior, but are durable, not dependent on rewards or punishments. Additional factors affecting student motivation include how stimulating activities are and how much control students have over them.

Provide some consensus expert advice for establishing and managing productive classroom learning environments, including examples of a rule and some strategies and/or procedures.

For students to take risks, engage effectively in challenging activities, and collaborate, teachers must make classrooms emotionally safe. Establish a rule for students and yourself, e.g., "We do not laugh at others, tell them to shut up, put them down, or insult them." For all students to participate, teachers must make classrooms intellectually safe. Habituate them to starting work whenever you say, "Please begin," starting with easier tasks, ensuring they know more challenging tasks will follow. Make tasks complex and rich, giving diverse students opportunities to excel and assist peers. Accomplished teachers establish active-learning environments—students thinking, speaking on-task, and working collaboratively near 100 percent of the time—and not only closely observe and measure the quantity (number or proportion of students, amount or proportion of time) of on-task behavior, but also the quality (strength, depth) of student attention and engagement. Newer teachers can start developing lessons and skills for creating ongoing active-learning environments by analyzing which activities really engage their students. Make participation inclusive every day by identifying some questions every student can answer simply; have them raise an index finger when ready; when all do, have them whisper answers or signal, e.g., thumbs-up, thumbs-down, or thumbs-sideways.

Discuss some ways wherein teachers can set the stage for effective classroom discussions.

For teachers to get all students engaged in discussing a topic, they need to make it appealing. One way is connecting topics to existing student experience and knowledge, making them more personally relevant. Ask if they have encountered similar situations or felt similarly in other situations: find some commonality between the topic and every student's life experience. Teachers also need to show respect for all student opinions. Experts note teachers' natural inclinations to evaluate, approve or disapprove, and judge student contributions, increasing student fears against expressing thoughts. To create climates welcoming participation, teachers must suspend judgment; instead of responding with "Right," "Wrong," or "That wasn't what I was thinking about," etc., they can respond, "Tell me more about that," "Thank you for sharing your ideas with us," etc. Asking students to elaborate without judging makes them feel safe to progress in their thinking and share it. This teacher acceptance establishing safety also supports student risk-taking. In safe, non-threatening, non-judgmental atmospheres, teacher acceptance encourages students to express potentially controversial or minority views. Making all students feel safe and invited to participate facilitates collaboration: teachers model respecting others' ideas; students with non-judgmental teachers are less likely to fear classmates' judgment.

Discuss the relationship of student-teacher interactions with classroom atmosphere and student outcomes, how teachers generally achieve good relationships with students, some benefits of student-student interactions, contrasts between teacher-directed and student-focused classrooms, and examples of learning formats and activities promoting student peer interactions.

Good student-teacher interactions and relationships enhance classroom atmosphere. Research has generated a significant body of literature showing that the quality of teacher-student relationships influences student academic achievement and behavior. Teachers showing students respect and guiding them to respect each other encourage active learners. Learning more about students, interacting and communicating with them, and providing appropriate feedback establish relationships promoting effective teaching and learning. When students have opportunities to communicate with one another, they share responsibility for learning, discuss diverse viewpoints, and shape class direction. Classes with predominant lecture formats are frequently well-organized; teachers typically know content well and clearly present material, but student-student interaction opportunities are lacking. More student-focused classes present small-group, paired, and whole-class discussion opportunities. Tasks having multiple potential solutions or answers can shift lesson direction, generate deeper thought processes, and enhance discussion quality. Small-group discussions particularly enable enough chances to listen, consider others' ideas, and all students to have a voice. Gallery walks, professional communication projects, classroom data explorations, structured academic controversy discussions, open-ended teacher questions, cooperative learning methods, structured jigsaw activities and other discussion exercises, conceptual multiple-choice questions about lesson themes combined with peer instruction, and in-class think-pair-share assignments are all ways to improve classroom interactions.

Discuss a number of teacher practices that create supportive classroom climates that respect diversity and promote all students' active engagement, supportive interactions, and collaboration.

Honor student experiences: create safe spaces, enrich curriculum using student experiences, and give students opportunities to learn from each other's perspectives and experiences. View different identity groups from asset-based orientations, let students define their own identities, and avoid or challenge stereotypes. Select texts reflecting demographics of and relevant to specific classes, and assign discussions or reflective writing about reading. Share personal anecdotes inviting student sharing. Student-centered classroom setups should include multicultural decorations or imagery reflecting our society's diversity and student backgrounds. Arrange furniture and materials to support comfort, ownership, dialogue, and collaboration. Structure classrooms for maximal student voice and participation. Involve students in setting norms and expectations, considering gender, language, and cultural and communication differences. Give students daily classroom jobs accommodating different learning styles, innovative student approaches, and real-life responsibility and work skills. Use gender-neutral categories and practices and let students choose group identifications. Build shared inquiry and dialogue through respect, trust, voice, humility, and active listening skills. Revisit participation norms: include and value small-group participation, written and artistic responses, and active listening as well as verbal communication. To create safe climates, actively teach emotional-social skills, work to create positive relationships, build community, prevent or intervene with bullying, focus explicitly on understanding and appreciating differences, practice and teach meaningful conflict resolution, and teach students to challenge exclusion and bias.

Explain several things educators can do to create supportive, positive classroom environments for students wherein they respect diversity.

Invite or involve parents to meet student needs together. The "crucial Cs of parental support" are parent-teacher Communication, Connection, and Collaboration. Invite other teachers and staff administrators; school psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses; speech language pathologists (SLPs), occupational therapists (OTS), physical education (PE) teachers, special education teachers, music teachers; ELL or bilingual teachers, etc.—to collaborate in solving learning and discipline problems. Encourage and praise students' positive steps, efforts, strengths, progress, and improvement, not just finished products. Encouragement helps students self-validate and reflect on their own responses to their strengths and accomplishments. Effective praise is informative and appreciative, not evaluative or controlling. Build senses of accomplishment and capability in all students, and particularly in those lacking the following: focus on improvement, not perfection; turn mistakes into learning opportunities; let students struggle and succeed within ability levels; build upon student strengths; analyze past successes, then focus on the present; acknowledge task difficulty; use task analysis; teach positive self-talk; celebrate all students' successes and achievements. Develop positive teacher-student relationships to receive and give respect. Listen to students. Communicate positive expectations. Involve students in class decision-making: use a suggestion box; provide "voice and choice." Show enthusiasm for teaching and learning. Show interest in student interests. Keep communication open. Accept and value diversity and individual differences. Model positive, helpful, and kind behaviors.

Discuss kindergarten schedules balancing active vs. restful activities, and how learning centers and play support early education.

Kindergartners apparently have boundless energy, yet fatigue quickly; short attention spans demand change. Teachers therefore must alternate active movement with restful activities to prevent both exhaustion and boredom. Kindergartners thrive through independently and cooperatively working with small peer groups, conversing, choosing activities, and practicing and applying skills they are learning. Organizing and managing learning environments via learning centers matches kindergartner identities and ways of learning, developing "learning to learn" skills of autonomy, initiative, persistence, creativity, resourcefulness, risk-taking, reasoning, and problem-solving. For example, children decide to create their own board game: they collect materials from learning centers; make a game board, markers, dice, rule book, timer, and (using a computer graphics program) design and print play money; use classroom word walls, charts, or ask the teacher and peers for help writing numbers and words; play their finished game repeatedly, and teach others how. This includes student choice; multiple learning domains; all curriculum areas; teacher guidance; and physical, cognitive, language, emotional, and social development. Skills play develops: literacy is learned-through print concepts, reading, writing, linguistic communication, and purposeful writing; mathematics is learned through shapes, number concepts, language, predicting, measuring money, and time; science through exploring materials' physical properties and recycling materials; social studies through collaboratively developing, following rules, geographic thinking and mapping, and money use; arts through drawing and creating; and technology through basic computer use and software navigation.

Give some examples of how learning style, gender, culture, socioeconomic status, and prior knowledge and experience each affect student learning and performance.

Learning style: student A is nonplused by verbal teacher explanation of a new physics concept, but lights up immediately when shown a drawing of it (visual learning style). Student B does not understand the drawing, but "gets" it exactly when guided by the teacher to act it out physically (kinesthetic learning style). Gender: boys are physically aggressive; girls engage in relational aggression (hurting feelings, undermining self-esteem and reputations). Boys respond positively when educators redirect their aggression to athletic competition; girls when educators redirect their energy to performing services helping others. Culture: students from Asian, Latin, and Native American cultures prefer cooperative over competitive activities; helping others and being part of the group is more important to them than standing out individually. They volunteer to speak in class less not for lack of preparation but to show respect. Socioeconomic status: students in poverty miss school from lacking proper clothing and shoes. Malnutrition impairs ability to concentrate, remember, and perform. Affluent parents can afford private tutoring if their children struggle with academic subjects; poor ones cannot. Prior knowledge and experience: students with marginal literacy cannot write stories but excel at oral storytelling, a strong and familiar tradition in their cultures and families.

Give some examples of different classroom question types to access different levels of Bloom's taxonomy; and some examples of student activities that promote higher-order thinking, including their respective Bloom's taxonomy levels.

Levels. question types: knowledge and comprehension: what are the main points? What happened when...? Why did...? Application: can you think of other words meaning the same thing? Can you use this word in different context? Can you think of another example of this? Does the same idea apply to...? Analysis: what effect does this achieve? Why do you think the author chose to do this? Does this fit into a pattern? What is suggested by...? How...? Why do you agree or disagree with this? Evaluation: which of these are most effective? What do you think of this' Do you think this works well? What are the strongest and weakest aspects of this? Synthesis: can you create your own version of this? How can you change the audience, features, etc. of this text? Where else can you see examples of this? Student activities, levels: analysis: debate a topic. Create text-based questions. Draw concept maps exploring connections. Mind-map aspects of a topic or text. Synthesis: study pastiche and parody. Analyze authors and writing styles closely; adopt styles. Experiment with genres, audiences, and text type features. Evaluation: devise reader expectation criteria for various text types. Apply assessment criteria to own and others' work.

Identify four main categories of questions teachers ask students. Give some examples of different types of questions and what they elicit.

Managerial questions facilitate classroom operations. Rhetorical questions reinforce or emphasize statements and ideas. Closed questions check retention and focus thinking. Open questions promote student discussion and interaction. Probing questions, based on student responses, require students to go beyond first answers. Clarifying: "What do you mean? Can you elaborate?" Increasing critical awareness: "What are you assuming? What are your reasons? What would an opponent say?" Refocusing: "Then what are the implications for...? Can you relate that to...? Let's analyze your answer." Prompting: "What's the square root of 94?" (Student: "I don't know.") "What's the square root of 100?" (Student: "10.") "Of 81?" (Student: "Nine.") "Then what do we know about the square root of 94?" (Student: "It's between nine and 10.") Redirecting to another student: "Do you agree? Can you elaborate on his/her answer?" Factual questions elicit simple information, e.g., "Who wrote this? Who is the main character?" Or they elicit event sequences: "What are the steps for a bill to become law?" "How is hydrochloric acid produced?" "How did Robinson Crusoe react to discovering footprints?" Divergent questions have no right or wrong answer, eliciting exploration of possibilities and both concrete and abstract thinking. For example: "If the Spanish Armada had defeated England in 1588, how would it have changed history?"

List a number of examples of different kinds of student diversity. Offer some general guidelines for teachers to respond to student diversity in their classrooms.

Many people think of visible racial differences—African-American, Caucasian, Asian, Asian Indian, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander, etc.—when they think of diversity. However, diversity also includes socioeconomic, from the highest wealthy tiers to the impoverished and everything in between; homelessness; living in transitional housing; all manners of disabilities, both obvious and "hidden"; intellectual and creative giftedness; urban, suburban, exurban, and rural living; different home cultures; learning English as a new language; illiterate families, parents with advanced degrees, and everything in between; younger and older ages than classmates; and many more. General principles include: treat students as individuals with unique, complex identities; ask open-ended questions, inviting reports of experiences and observations. Do not ask students to speak for their minority group. Pronounce every student's name correctly. Be aware of influences on student responses by making eye contact with everybody. Extend wait time to include more reflective and less assertive students. Ask questions challenging dominant students by drawing out quieter students in small groups; talk with and encourage students outside class. Vary teaching methods to address various learning styles and expand student strategy repertoires. Establish egalitarian norms and rules, promoting respect. Be cognizant of potential student performance anxiety in competitive settings, but not overprotective. Empathetically and tactfully give clear, straightforward standards, assessment criteria, and early feedback.

Offer some examples illustrating possible effects of student motivation, self-confidence, self-esteem, cognitive development, maturity, and language on learning and achievement.

Motivation: the best-designed and implemented instruction will fail if students are not first motivated. Research finds internal locus of control, wherein students attribute their success or failure to causes within themselves (ability, effort, interest, or ambition, for instance), more motivating for achievement than external locus of control, wherein students attribute their success or failure to outside causes (unfair tests, poor teachers, distracting classmates, classroom conditions). Teachers engage student interest by selecting subjects students want to know about, and offering choices of learning activities and specific subtopics to investigate. Self-confidence: students lacking overall self-confidence hesitate to try anything, anticipating failure. They need encouragement and approval of themselves as persons, plus ample reinforcement of every initial small success. Others only lack self-confidence for specific tasks or subjects; Bandura calls this self-efficacy. Providing alternative learning methods and enabling successful experiences improve self-efficacy. Self-esteem: largely determines self-confidence. Teachers can raise self-esteem by showing and communicating that they value and care about students, entrusting them with responsibilities, and recognizing their accomplishments. Cognitive development: students cognitively ahead of or behind classmates need differentiated instruction appropriate to their cognitive levels for engagement and achievement. Maturity: teachers must consider whether emotional or social maturity differs from physical and/or cognitive maturity and interact appropriately. Language: many teachers mistake ELL deficits for learning disabilities, causing overrepresentation in special education.

Summarize how cooperative games for preschoolers contrast from traditional organized games for these ages, and cooperative game benefits. Name and describe several examples of cooperative preschool games

Musical chairs, duck-duck-goose, and similar traditional games exclude children from the fun by emphasizing competition; cooperative games teach preschoolers to listen, follow directions, develop movement and problem-solving skills, and collaborate. "Help": balancing paper napkins on heads, children move about, freezing if napkins fall; touch to unfreeze classmates. "Robots": pairs take turns as robot and commander. Commanders direct robot movements to negotiate obstacles, reaching preset goals. "Balloon keep-up": outdoors or in gyms, children collaborate to keep balloons aloft. "Cooperative musical chairs," or "islands": when music stops, children share, not compete for, remaining chairs or islands. "Roll it": children sitting in a circle, feet touching, roll a ball to others, keeping it steadily moving; as children master rolling, add more balls. The goal is to keep control rolling as many balls as possible. "Cooperative duck-duck-goose": children walk in place in a circle; "it" chooses a goose, who walks, runs, or skips around the circle, chooses another goose, giving everybody a chance. "Cows and ducks" (also known as "frogs and dogs," "cats and snakes," or "chickens and goats"): whisper animal names in children's ears; each moos, quacks, etc., traveling; children making the same sounds group and move together like their animals. "Find it": call a color to moving children; first one finding something that color touches it; second holds the first's hand, etc., until all connect.

Discuss some common problems that teachers encounter relative to student diversity, and some ways to avoid them.

Native English speakers, including teachers, may take for granted the many idiomatic expressions we use, e.g., "between a rock and a hard place," "once in a blue moon," etc. But because they do not convey literal meanings, these sayings confuse students whose first language is not English, causing them to miss important concepts. Teachers should avoid using idioms. If they do, they should translate and/or explain them. All students benefit from linguistic redundancy, e.g., seeing print or writing while hearing speech; ELLS especially benefit. Teachers reinforce information by presenting it in multiple forms. They should also examine whether the examples they give assume or favor certain experiences or backgrounds, e.g., hobbies or activities preferred by one gender; examples based on regional, cultural, historical, or political knowledge unfamiliar to students from other countries, regions, or cultures. Teachers should provide diverse examples. They can learn some of these from their students. Teachers should not assume students who do not speak up do not know class material: Asian and other cultures find silence respectful and frown on attracting attention, while some students have learned responses to aversive consequences for participating. Teachers should also examine classroom humor to ensure jokes do not disparage any groups or differences, which occurs surprisingly often.

Identify some findings about effects and characteristics of teacher enthusiasm, and a number of teacher behaviors that reflect enthusiasm for teaching and learning.

Numerous studies identify teacher enthusiasm as a behavior which prominently affects student learning. Research also shows that a combination of teacher enthusiasm and constructive feedback enables students to learn more. Investigators find more enthusiastic teachers spend more time on presentation and positive performance feedback. Enthusiastic teacher behaviors include the following: variation in vocal tone, pitch, volume, and pace is important. Teachers with monotonous, droning voices inspire student boredom. Teachers reflect their excitement with teaching and learning through their eyes by making eye contact with students; using their eyes expressively, e.g., raising eyebrows, opening eyes wide, etc.; and using their eyes as well as their ears to listen to students. Judicious teacher use of body language, gestures, and other nonverbal communications also communicate enthusiasm. Effective teachers clap hands, give high-fives, make OK signs, thumbs-up, etc. Sweeping arm motions, energetic body swinging, hand gestures, and facial expressions showing pleasure or displeasure, amusement, disappointment, and approval express enthusiasm. Moving around the classroom not only enables teachers to monitor students, but also makes them less predictable and boring. Nonverbal behaviors also reinforce verbally encouraging students.

Describe several instructional skills and practices that foster innovation on the parts of students.

One expert (Hiam, 2011) identifies "five I's" as components of innovation curriculum: imagination, inquiry, invention, implementation, and initiative. Initiative is the foundation enabling the four others. Although daydreaming is discouraged in classrooms, teachers must learn creative expression skills to encourage student imagination. Master teacher collaboration with invention and creativity experts on curriculum design is one recommended solution. To fuel imagination, educators must connect seemingly unrelated topics, skill-sets, and ideas. Most inventions are innovative combinations of multiple domains. Writing across the curriculum, combining arts and sciences, etc., stimulates imagination. To encourage inquiry, students not teachers—must ask most of the questions. Students must question, explore, and research curiously to innovate. Teachers can incorporate student question-asking exercises following activities into established curricula. Educators must challenge students to invent new and better ways to solve problems and apply learning to real life more often—weekly, not once or twice throughout school or only through science fairs. Implementation must also be increased: students get insufficient practice putting ideas into action, learning from mistakes, refining plans, and persevering. Initiative is more common in non-hierarchical and individualistic societies. Teachers need preparation for mentoring and coaching students in initiative-based learning; schools must support teachers' guiding students by supplying resources and valuing decentralized activities. Challenge, encouragement, and support develop self-efficacy and agency, promoting invention.

Explain and give examples of some strategies whereby teachers support students in articulating ideas.

One strategy teachers use to support clear student expression is prompting. Verbal prompting: when a student does not know the answer to the teacher's initial question, the teacher asks additional questions to which the student does know the answers, leading the student to discover more about the answer to the original question. For example, a teacher asks a student a square root s/he does not know; the teacher asks the student two more square roots, one higher and the other lower; the student realizes the unknown answer is between the other two. Nonverbal prompting: nodding or making affirmative sounds and gestures indicating agreement to encourage continuing, pointing at objects or information to give hints, hand-over-hand guidance with manipulatives, etc. Restatement: repeating a student's message in the teacher's own words, either affirming the message or allowing the student to deny or correct the restatement or clarify the message. Student: "This assignment took me all night!" Teacher: "It was too hard?" Reflective listening statements mirror student messages, not just restating them but moreover interpreting implicit meanings. Student: "I will never get this right!" Teacher: "You feel frustrated?" Wait-time enables student processing: understanding questions, recalling information, formulating responses. Research finds three minutes optimal for factual or low-cognitive, and longer for high-cognitive questions.

Explain how body language, gestures, vocal tone and inflection, eye contact, facial expression, and personal space all contribute to nonverbal communication; and how nonverbal communication informs verbal communication.

Open postures communicate receptivity; crossed arms and legs or similar averted body positions communicate the opposite. Ways of walking, sitting, standing, holding one's head, and subtle movements all convey attitudes and feelings. Gestures supplement speech, often unconsciously. Because different cultures assign different meanings to the same gestures, awareness is important to prevent misunderstanding or misinterpretation. Vocal tones and inflections express confidence, affection, anger, and sarcasm; and can even indicate understanding, agreement, and many more. Listeners also attend to speaker loudness, speed, and timing. Eye contact demonstrates interest in our culture; in some other cultures, it is perceived as confrontational and avoiding it shows respect. We communicate affection, attraction, or hostility as well as interest through eye contact; gauge others' responses; and maintain conversational flow. Facial expressions universally show happiness, sadness, anger, fear, surprise, disgust, and other emotions. Personal and social physical space or distance vary by individual, relationship, situation, and culture and can communicate intimacy, dominance, or aggression. Nonverbal communication informs verbal communication b repeating verbal messages; contradicting them; substituting for them; complementing or adding to them, e.g., patting on the back while verbally praising; accenting them; or emphasizing them, e.g., pounding the table, desk, lectern, dais, or pulpit with spoken points.

Identify and describe several techniques for developing student oral and written communication skills.

Oral: the inside-outside circle — students, facing each other in two concentric circles, pair up; take turns speaking and listening; and rotate partners. Choral response — teacher asks a question, gives a signal, allows wait-time, says "Everyone..." and initiates signal, and the students respond in unison. Think-pair-share — students rehearse responses with partners, getting corrective feedback or elaboration help before wholeclass sharing. Dialogic reading — teachers read books with individual students or small groups using "CROWD" prompts: sentence completion; asking questions requiring student text recall; open-ended questions about book pictures; w-questions (who, what, when, etc.) about pictures; and distancing book pictures and words to students' own life experiences. PEER prompts: prompting students to talk about text, evaluating responses, expanding responses, and repeating prompts at higher levels. Written: written responses, same answers - teachers ask questions; students write answers on whiteboards; teachers allow wait-time, say "Everyone..." and students hold up written responses. Written responses, varying answers — like same answers, but students check answers with partners, revise as needed; teachers call on individual students. Think-pair-share activities also enable students to get peer feedback about written responses before sharing them with the whole class.

Explain some of the impacts of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) legislation on the educations of exceptional learners.

Passed in 1975 and reauthorized a number of times since, IDEA guarantees the right of children with disabilities to a free, appropriate, public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE) possible that meets their educational needs. The right to education of school-aged children is covered in IDEA Part B; Part C, added subsequently, addresses the right to early intervention and early childhood education of babies and toddlers with disabilities. The LRE clause has dual purposes: (1) to prevent segregation of children with disabilities to special schools or classes, and (2) to be interpreted differently according to the needs of every individual student. An important provision of IDEA is that every student to receive special education and related services for an identified, eligible disability must have an Individual Education Plan (IEP). An IEP team including students, teachers, parents, special educators, therapists, and others involved develops the student's IEP, identifying goals the student needs and is able to achieve; related, specific learning objectives; timeframes; and numerical criteria for determining success. The IEP includes any assistive and adaptive devices and equipment and other supports the student requires to achieve identified educational goals.

Discuss some forms of student motor or physical disabilities, their effects, and some adaptive treatments.

Physical or motor disabilities impair mobility and may also affect coordination, balance, strength, and/or flexibility. Some students are missing one or more limbs, congenitally or through accident, injury, or amputation. They may use prostheses and/or wheelchairs, walkers, canes, crutches or other mobility aids. Students with cerebral palsy have neurological deficits in control and coordination of muscular movements. Impairments range from a slight limp to being in a wheelchair or bed-bound. Cerebral palsy (CP) patients often have dyspraxia or apraxia, i.e., impaired development of their motor coordination. This can affect any body parts, e.g., speech muscles, hand grasp, fine motor skills, walking, etc. with varying degrees of severity. CF also causes spasticity, i.e., excessive muscle tension or rigidity; athetosis i.e., excessive involuntary body movements; or both combined. Students born with spina bifida may have foot, ankle, or lower-limb weakness to below-waist paralysis, depending on the spinal level of incomplete neural tube closure. Students with severe type 1 diabetes may require amputations when the disease impairs blood circulation, especially in their lower extremities. In addition to assistive and adaptive devices and prostheses, treatments include physical therapy for large muscles, occupational therapy for small muscles, recreational therapy for adapted activities, etc.

Discuss some elements of effective teacher techniques for questioning students, including question types and how to vary them, wait time, encouraging participation through non-critical classroom environments, handling incorrect answers, and active listening.

Questions cognitively lower on Bloom's taxonomy—for knowledge and comprehension—are better when imparting or retaining factual knowledge. Open-ended, higher-cognitive questions—for application, analysis, evaluation, and synthesis should be more than half of those used in higher grades, but elementary-grade students need smaller proportions of these too. Research finds combining higher and lower questions more effective than using either one exclusively. Studies show older students' on-task behavior, response length, number of relevant contributions and questions, peer interactions, complete sentences, and speculative thinking correlate positively with using greater than or equal to 50 percent higher-level questions. Teachers may still need to include explicit instruction, not just many more questions, for complex concepts. Pre-reading questions are effective with older, higher-ability, and interested students, but not with poor readers and younger students, who focus only on material for answering them. Slightly increasing wait-time promotes achievement. Studies find teachers paradoxically allow less wait time for students perceived as poor or slow learners than those perceived more capable. Teachers encourage participation by inviting student responses non-critically, addressing incorrect answers with redirection, and partial answers with probing both explicit to student answers. Vague feedback, e.g., "Wrong, try again" is ineffective for achievement. Active listening restates student responses, helping clarify student understanding and meaning and encouraging participation.

Describe the characteristics and requirements of higher-order question types that teachers ask students and what types of responses they elicit, giving examples.

Rather than remembering answers, students must figure out answers by higher-order questions, which require generalizing in meaningful patterns relative to facts. Evaluation: requires valuation, judgment, or choice via comparing things and ideas with established standards. Assuming equal resources, would you rate General Ulysses S. Grant or Robert E. Lee more skillful? Why? Which of these two books do you think contributed more to understanding this era? Why? Inference: requires deductive or inductive reasoning. Deductive: if gas temperature remains constant but altitude is increased 4000 feet, what happens to gas pressure? Why? Inductive: considering these world leaders' shared qualities, what can we conclude about required leadership qualities? Why? Comparison: requires discerning similarities, differences, contradictions, and non-relations — How are Social Darwinism and late-19th-century Supreme Court rulings related? How are Pericles' Funeral Oration and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address similar or different? Are clams and mussels the same? Application: requires transferring concepts and principles to different contexts - How did Germany's Weimar Republic demonstrate Gresham's Law? Problem-solving: requires using acquired knowledge, seeing relationships, relating parts to whole - Imagine you grew up thinking dogs were bad, but none bit you; how would you react now? Would the dogs characteristics matter? Explain the idea of prejudice using this example.

Describe some ways that teachers can promote ethical academic work habits, appropriate classroom behavior, self-monitoring, and conflict resolution skills as parts of effective classroom

Rather than threatening students with punishment for cheating, teachers can better promote ethical work habits by serving as positive role models; explaining and initiating class discussions about honesty and responsibility, how these are compromised by using others' work without giving credit, etc.; and praising and otherwise rewarding individual student work as examples of ethical academic practices. Research finds that, just as with academic expectations, having behavioral expectations high enough to challenge students, but realistic enough that they can achieve them with effort, is more effective than lowering expectations—including for mainstreamed students with disabilities. Rather than doing all the work for students in monitoring their behavior, teachers can engage students in monitoring processes and procedures, gradually teaching them the skills and responsibilities needed to self-monitor and self-regulate their behaviors. Teaching monitoring skills also supports teaching students about conflict management and resolution skills. Teaching students active listening skills reduces miscommunications, misunderstandings, and thus conflicts. Having them role-play opposing positions teaches empathy, objectivity, and insight; and advances conflict resolution, as does having them reflect and write about actual conflicts and potential alternative responses.

Summarize some research findings about classroom conflicts. Identify four strategies found effective for facilitating student conflict resolution.

Researchers (Crawford and Bodine, 2001) from the National Center for Conflict Resolution Education report most major conflicts escalating into violence begin as more minor incidents, e.g., unprovoked contact, using others' belongings without permission, etc. Few interactions are initially predatory, yet conflicts rapidly escalate. Most conflicts happen between or among acquaintances, either at school or in the home. Violent behaviors commonly share a retribution goal. Violent acts reflect not lack of values, but value systems accepting violence. Based on these findings, experts (Concordia Online Education, 2013) offer four instructional strategies for effective classroom conflict resolution. (1) Role-playing requires viewing behaviors from others' perspectives, teaches empathy, can add humor to resolving conflicts, and enable examining conflicts more objectively for insights about sources. (2) Have students track conflicts they partake in or witness over time, recording observations in journals (keeping identities anonymous), and discuss student reactions pros and cons. (3) Teach good listening behaviors: eye contact, not interrupting, asking questions, avoiding giving suggestions or advice, nodding and smiling as positive reinforcement, and restating messages in one's own words. (4) Have involved students write about conflicts, providing cooling-off or time-out periods and requiring reflection, including how they felt and retrospectively better alternatives. For example, listing three things they would do differently; model and teach using conflicts as learning opportunities.

Describe some of the provisions of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 relative to public school students with disabilities.

Section 504 protects the rights of people with disabilities in activities and programs receiving federal funds by prohibiting discrimination against them based on disability. When the US Department of Education (ED) provides financial assistance to public school districts and other local or state education agencies, activities, or programs, it enforces Section 504. ED also has an Office for Civil Rights (OCR), headquartered in Washington, D.C. with 12 enforcement offices, to ensure civil rights laws including Section 504 are followed. Section 504 requires school districts to provide "free, appropriate public education" (FAPE) to each of their qualifying students with disabilities. This law defines an appropriate education as designed to meet disabled students' individual educational needs as well as ensuring that non-disabled students' needs are met; provided together with non-disabled students as much as meets the needs of the student with disabilities; having established evaluation and placement procedures to prevent inappropriate placement or misclassification, and periodic reevaluations; affording due process for parents to receive mandated notices, review their children's records, and challenge identification, evaluation, and placement choices.

Relative to motivation theory, define the terms self-determination, attribution, cognitive dissonance, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, positive reinforcement, and negative reinforcement. Give general or specific examples or explanations of some definitions.

Self-determination: student propensity for initiating activities independently, as opposed to only doing what teachers tell them to do. Achievement motivation research finds student motivation to learn and perform is stronger based on internalized motives, e.g., interest in subject matter, self-efficacy, desire to know things, desire to succeed, career ambitions, etc. By comparison, externalized motives, e.g., to gain rewards from teachers, schools, or parents; to avoid punishment; to impress teachers classmates, friends, parents, etc. are not as effective. Attribution: how and where we assign cause. Students with more internal locus of control attribute their success or failure to personal abilities and actions; students with more external locus of control attribute successes or failures to people, actions, events, or situations outside themselves. Cognitive dissonance: discomfort with contradictory information; we adjust our schemas (mental representations) to reflect new information, form new schemas, or reject the information to restore congruence and resolve the discomfort. Classical conditioning: associating an unrelated stimulus with one that elicits a certain reflexive reaction can condition it to evoke the same reaction. Pavlov repeatedly paired bell-ringing with meat powder to make a dog salivate; eventually bell-ringing alone evoked salivation. Operant conditioning: manipulating antecedents and consequences shapes behavior; positive reinforcement strengthens probability of repeating behavior; punishment weakens it. Negative reinforcement removes a reinforcer or reward, decreasing behavior repetition.

Summarize the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) legislation and some ways it applies to students with disabilities in public schools.

Signed into law in 1990, the ADA granted the same civil rights protections based on disabilities as previously accorded by the 1964 Civil Rights Act based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin. The ADA was thus modeled on the Civil Rights Act, and also on the 1973 Rehabilitation Act requiring federally funded programs and activities to provide equal access to persons having disabilities. The terms of the ADA include public buildings, facilities, programs, and activities, which include all public-school buildings, facilities, programs, and activities. Hence this law makes it illegal for public schools to prevent students with disabilities from accessing them because of architectural and other barriers. Titles Il and Ill of the ADA include enforceable standards for accessible design and construction of buildings and facilities, barrier removal, alterations, and accessibility. Predating the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which would more extensively address the rights of children with disabilities to education, the ADA also requires equal opportunities, participation, and benefits from public facilities for individuals with disabilities, 'tin the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of the individual." This foreshadowed the IDEA's later emphasis on inclusion. The ADA prohibits discrimination based on disability.

Identify some types of student needs for assistive communication technology, three categories of communication systems and devices and some examples of each category, and their student benefits.

Some students have speech and language disorders; some with autism spectrum disorders, cognitive, or other disorders may have limited communication skills or be completely nonverbal. Because academic success depends on communication, assistive communication technology can help students overcome learning obstacles. Visual representation systems are effective for students having difficulty with auditory receptive and verbal expressive, but greater visual processing abilities. augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems and devices are assistive technologies facilitating communication. They range from low-technology to high-technology. Low-tech systems and devices are typically easy to use and inexpensive, including dry-erase boards, albums, folders, binders, and other ways of storing and transmitting images. Mid-tech systems and devices include simple, battery-operated or electronic voice output communication aids (VOCAs); overhead projectors; and tape recorders. High-tech systems and devices are more complex and expensive, including computers; software programs, e.g., speech-to-text and text-to-speech software; adaptive keyboards and other hardware; and more complex VOCAs. Special education student Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) must include any kinds of assistive technology required for them to achieve learning objectives and succeed in school. AAC systems and devices enable interactive student-teacher communication, effectively giving voices to students appearing to lack them.

Identify several categories of speech or language disorders, including some examples within each category, and some typical treatments or remediations.

Speech or language disorders may involve speech only, language only, or both. Speech-only disorders include articulation disorders, the most common of which makes children distort, substitute, or omit certain speech sounds—typically consonants—at ages above typical norms for correct pronunciation. Typical remediation is speech therapy, which can include exercising articulatory muscles, audio feedback, targeting correct articulatory positions, tools (tongue depressors and bite plates), etc. Voice disorders include hypernasality, often secondary to cleft palate; hoarseness secondary to vocal polyps, nodules, or dysarthria (a neurological muscular control disorder); too-high, too-low, or unstable pitch; volume control problems, etc. Treatment depends on causes: nodules and polyps are surgically removed, clefts are repaired, and therapeutic techniques address other problems. Another speech disorder is stuttering, or rate and rhythm disorders. A variety of therapies exists, such as breathing methods, delayed auditory feedback, etc. Some stutterers actually outgrow the condition regardless of therapy. Some become "fluent stutterers." Some benefit greatly from some therapies, some little or none. Language disorders include delayed language development, secondary to intellectual disability or environmental deprivation; aphasia, secondary to neurological damage or deficits, e.g., traumatic brain injury or cerebral palsy, impairing expressive and/or receptive language processing; and language-related learning disabilities, like dyslexia (reading) or dysgraphia (writing). Language disorder therapies include stimulation and practice.

Describe some characteristics of intrinsic motivation to learn in students, some advantages and disadvantages of developing intrinsic motivation, and some teacher practices that support its development.

Students intrinsically motivated to learn are attracted to and fascinated by subjects, recognize their relevance to real life, feel a sense of accomplishment from mastering them, and feel called to them. Their reasons for learning are typically because the content interests them, they find it improves their thinking skills, and/or they find school success rewarding. Advantages include that intrinsic motivation sustains itself and has more longevity than external rewards; teacher efforts to build internal motivation typically involve efforts to further student learning as well, typically focusing not on rewards or punishments but on subject matter. Disadvantages include more specialized preparation, taking longer to produce behavior change, and requiring teachers utilize a variety of approaches in different students. Getting to know individual students and what interests them, connecting student interests to subject content, and strong teacher interest in subject content (and demonstration thereof) support developing intrinsic motivation in students.

Identify a number of teacher strategies for responding to all student cultural, linguistic, and familial backgrounds and needs.

Students learn more when challenged by high teacher expectations, including open-ended questions and assignments requiring critical thinking skills. Explicitly teaching skills for studying, working with teachers, and completing college applications to students whose parents never attended college fills "cultural capital" gaps, preparing underrepresented students for college. Give students adult responsibilities for collaboratively contributing to planning, coaching, financial activities, etc. Diversity becomes a resource; students learn varied skills. Teacher knowledge and caring about individual students promotes their participation. Understanding student home cultures aids educator understanding of student behavior inside and outside classrooms. Encouraging active parental participation greatly supports student academic success through mutually understanding parent, classroom, and school expectations of teachers and students; helping parents converse to prepare children for classroom communication; helping parents pursue GED or ESL programs; and referring parents to community resources for arts, sports, science programs, and homework help. Eliciting and validating student background experiences, e.g., using semantic webbing to inform lesson planning and increase student engagement. Selecting curriculum for cultural relevance —student ethnic groups' contributions to US history and culture —enhances student self-esteem, makes lesson topics meaningful, and enables authentic, interactive language, literacy, and thinking skills. Culturally compatible social learning organization and communication expectations and norms make teaching and learning more effective.

Explain several ways in which student sensory impairments have impacts on learning and how to address these.

Students with visual impairments miss a lot of input in our highly visually-oriented society. Orientation and mobility specialists can help them navigate school and other public environments more independently. Blind students may have canes or service dogs to aid mobility; teachers must plan for these and classmate interactions with them. In classrooms, blind and visually impaired students benefit from magnifiers, large-print texts, seating close to the board and teacher, audiobooks, and text-to-speech computer software for adapting texts; speech-to-text software for dictating written compositions; Braille materials or OptaCons for reading; and modified lighting, brighter and/or with less glare depending on the type and degree of impairment. Teachers can also provide materials with bright, solid colors and bold black outlines. Students with hearing impairments are safer in environments that accompany sound-based fire alarms with strobe lights. Teachers and classmates must remember to face or touch them to get their attention; speak face-to-face with students who read lips; include American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters in conversations or lessons for students who have them; and accompany spoken instruction and discussion with supplementary visual information. Speech-to-text software enables deaf and hearing-impaired students to read spoken language. Educators must also respect and teach classmates the importance and strength of deaf culture for students identifying with it.

Identify some of the purposes for which teachers question students and give some examples.

Teachers ask students questions for varied purposes, e.g., actively involving students in lessons, regardless of questions' cognitive levels. "When did this author live?" "In what period is this work set?" Even low-level knowledge questions involve students as they consider and/or respond. "Why do you think the author did...?" require cognitively higher responses. Teachers might ask "Have you ever...?" or "Do you know anybody who...?" This relates textual events and experiences to students own lives. Connecting new material to prior knowledge increases motivation and interest. Questions can evaluate preparation and check on assignment completion: in classes with many students not typically hesitant to speak, if nobody answers basic questions about assigned reading, they likely did not do it. Students completing math assignments successfully can likely answer specific questions about the operations they used or solutions they got, while those not doing or understanding it cannot. Questions develop critical thinking skills when requiring students to apply concepts and analyze them, separate inference from fact, evaluate or judge ideas and products, and synthesize components t construct new meaning. Questions help teachers review prior lessons to assess, increase, or refresh student comprehension and retention. They cultivate insights by making students think about topics, assess goal achievement, and stimulate independent learning.

Provide some examples of how teachers can show students the appeal of instructional content and activities to motivate their interest in them.

Teachers can encourage student interest in subject content by showing its appeal. To show novelty, comment how you have not seen anything quite like a certain topic or activity. To show utility, describe a topic as including valuable ideas you will use later in the course and being a topic they will use over and over in both school and life. To show applicability, point out how relevant certain subject matter is to the course and everyday life. To show anticipation, prompt students to ask themselves while reading what next logical step the text foreshadows. To show surprise, remark that the class has used some subject matter in many different ways, and then whet their interest, saying, "If you think you've seen them all, just wait until our next activity." To show challenge, suggest students will find the upcoming material very interesting and invite them to rise to a challenge. To show feedback, predict that when students try an assigned activity, they will discover whether they really understood the previous lesson or not. To show closure, announce that many students have asked about a topic or phenomenon, telling them they will now finally find out more and why.

Identify and describe some research-based strategies for promoting student motivation.

Teachers delivering instruction with enthusiasm and energy are role models demonstrating their motivation and passion motivates students. Teachers showing why they are interested in subject content personalize it for students. Getting to know students, belief in student ability, strong interest in their learning, and personal interest in student backgrounds and concerns inspire personal student loyalty. Many students want to know the application, utility, or real-life relevance of content before further engagement. To do this, use many examples and explain how it prepares them for future opportunities. Design activities directly engaging students in material, offering mastery opportunities: discovery learning requiring reasoning through problems to discover underlying principles independently satisfies students. Positive social pressure makes cooperative learning activities effective. Design assignments with challenges appropriate to student abilities and experiences. Set realistic performance goals; help students set and achieve reasonable goals. Tests and grades should show mastery, not shortcomings. Allow all students opportunities to achieve the highest grades and standards; avoid grading on curves. Make criticism constructive, feedback nonjudgmental. Criticize specific performances, not performers. Seek means of stimulating advancement; emphasize improvement opportunities. Avoid classifying students as leaders or followers. Give students as much choice and control over their learning, assessment, and performance as possible.

Discuss some general principles, guidelines, and student characteristics for educators to establish developmentally appropriate behavioral expectations of students.

Teachers may observe some developmentally unrealistic parental expectations for their children, e.g., expecting them to "do as I say, not as I do" when their own behaviors are not positive models; expecting children to predict how present behaviors will influence future outcomes. While teachers should involve students in behavior changes, teachers cannot expect students to implement changes autonomously. Teachers should consider developmental, not chronological ages of students with cognitive delays or disabilities regarding appropriate expectations. School-aged children and adolescents generally share these cognitive characteristics: they are present-oriented, i.e., they focus on the here and now; usually cannot consider future consequences, which do not seem real to them; have difficulty anticipating consequences of their behaviors beforehand; can understand basic cause-and-effect relationships, provided these are sequenced closely together; have still-developing concepts of time, and difficulty with planning skills. Not standing out as different but fitting in—particularly for adolescents—is a major concern. Expect students to help track goals, not create and track them without reminders; and learn about and select among various choices, not independently make positive choices without concrete rewards and positive parental and adult models.

Describe some ways wherein teachers can establish positive and productive classroom environments for students at different developmental levels.

Teachers must take into account the developmental levels of their students to establish positive classroom environments for them. For example, teachers should not expect young children to begin preschool having already learned to share with other children. Teachers can model sharing and cooperation for them, and encourage and reward their imitating teacher examples as well as spontaneous prosocial behaviors, which researchers have observed in young children. Teachers can also observe whether young students engage in unoccupied behavior; independent or solitary play; onlooker behavior; parallel, associative, or cooperative play; and influencing factors, e.g., how well children know each other, offer matching activities, and introduce experiences at the next higher level. Teachers can offer peer collaboration opportunities to older elementary and middle school students by assigning study buddies, partners for peer tutoring, working together, or think-pair-share and similar activities. Small groups can also be formed for planning, organizing, and implementing team or group learning projects although teachers must remember that students have typically not developed social interaction skills to the extent of high school students, and so must guide them accordingly. In high school, teachers can extend productive learning environments beyond classrooms to surrounding communities, engaging students' abstract cognitive skills to promote respect, social conscience, and action through service projects.

Relate some research evidence-based recommendations for teachers to instruct ELL students effectively.

Teachers should give ELLS challenging, meaningful curriculum content, text choices, and authentic reading and writing activities. Placement by academic achievement, not ELP, with high-quality instruction in challenging classes enables greater learning and performance. Technology supports ELL motivation, writing and editing skills development, and class blog and website collaboration. Teacher awareness of ELLs' previous literacy experiences, backgrounds, and L2 learning benefits and challenges enables more effective instruction. ELLS are challenged to understand implicit cultural norms and knowledge; learn to translate and code-switch; develop metalinguistic awareness; negotiate differences between school literacy_practices and home or community; and address the social, cultural, and political dimensions of linguistic status issues. Studies show ELL reading comprehension, writer identity development, and peer collaboration are developed through extracurricular composition. Teachers can use these methods to promote ELL investment in school learning, decrease home-school distance, and help students view their home languages and cultures not as obstacles or discards, but educational resources and contributors. Teachers should teach K-12 ELLS academic literacy basics and help them connect school content to their own knowledge.

Discuss some general characteristics of ELL students as a population in America, including some common misconceptions.

The ELL student population is widely heterogeneous. Some families speak no English at home, only English, or several languages. They may identify only with American culture, strongly with several cultures, or deeply with one non-American culture. They have been stigmatized for not speaking English, speaking English, or how they speak English. They live in communities sharing common culture, without other ELLS, or have lived in America for generations. They struggle or excel in school— some in specific subjects. They may feel competent or disaffected in school. ELL immigration status, birthplace, socioeconomic status, academic knowledge, language proficiency levels, and expectations of school all vary. ELL student prevalence has extended from a few to all U: states. This diversity within and among ELLS requires multiple responses for meeting educational needs. Disabilities are not more prevalent among ELLs: research shows assessments not distinguishing ELL status from disability cause misdiagnoses. Educators should not assume ELL students learn English easily or readily. Also, English oral fluency does not equal mastery: systematic academic assessments are necessary. Differing LIS, previous education, socioeconomic and immigration status mean not all ELLS learn English the same way. Accommodations benefit not only ELLS, but others. Vocabulary is not thi sole focus of ELL instruction: structures and meanings are equally important, even with limited ELP.

Describe some provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act's (ESEA) 2010 reauthorization for meeting ELL, migrant, and homeless student needs.

The ESEA's 2010 reauthorization continues formula grants to states and school districts for ELL programs, allowing a variety of program types and ELL teacher professional development. The 2010 reauthorization requires new state criteria for consistent eligibility determination, placement, and program or service duration based on valid, reliable state ELP assessments; and system implementation for evaluating ELL program effectiveness and garnering data on ELL subgroup achievement for driving better district program improvement decisions and effective program selection. This reauthorization also proposed new, competitive grants to states, districts, and nonprofits for innovative program development; best-practice knowledge base building; ELL instructional practice improvement; and funding research, leadership, and partnerships for effective teacher development. Another provision requires states to adopt and implement statewide ELP standards by grade, aligned with state academic content standards for college and career readiness. Strengthening formula grants for meeting migrant student educational needs included updating the funding formula for timelier, accurate data incorporation; and facilitating and reinforcing interstate endeavors for supporting migrant student transitions into local communities and schools. Funds for homeless students were changed from Title I allocation shares to allocations based on student numbers. The administration proposed to remove service obstacles, clarify statutory ambiguities causing service delays, and require grantees to report academic outcomes.

How does the organization of students' desks in the classroom affect learning? Give some examples of desl arrangements and their general effects on mechanisms of student learning.

The classic rows and columns model of student desk placement facilitates a teacher-centered learning environment. All students are facing the teacher who, because of the orientation of student desks, is the fulcrum of every discussion. Eye-contact between dialoguing students in rows and columns of desks may be impractical or impossible. Students can be easily distracted and hard to monitor. Alternatively, teachers might choose to use a U-shaped configuration in which every student has a "front-row" seat. U-configurations are conducive to lively discussion; any student can maintain eye contact with any other student. However, U-configurations may not allow a teacher to reach every student's position. A third option might be pods of three or four. Although pods are not good for lectures and whole class discussions, they are particularly useful for student-centered pedagogy incorporating group projects or collaborative problem solving. Pods will most efficiently allow students to be in close proximity to their neighbors while also allowing a teacher more efficient access to every student and the opportunity to coach them through difficulties when they arise.

Identify a number of visual impairments, including measurements of visual acuity.

The definition of 20/20 vision is reading at 20 feet from a Snellen eye chart what one normally should see. Comparably, 20/200 vision is reading at 20 feet what one should see at 200 feet. Legal blindness is defined as 20/200 after correction in the better eye. Low vision is described as anywhere from 20/200 to 20/70 after correction in the better eye and a visual field of 30 degrees or less. A visual field of 20 degrees or less is tunnel vision. Travel vision ranges from 5/200 to 10/200. Motion perception is 3/200 to 5/200, typically for moving objects. Seeing bright light from 3 feet away but not movement, i.e., below 3/200 vision, is light perception. Not seeing strong light directly in the eyes is total blindness. Students may be born blind or become blind adventitiously. Some children are born with congenital cataracts, causing opacity clouding the lenses and blindness unless surgically removed with a replacement lens implanted. Students with diabetes can develop diabetic retinopathy, i.e., vascular changes causing retinal hemorrhaging and blindness. Some students inherit glaucoma, wherein inner-eye fluid buildup creates pressure which causes visual impairment and blindness when untreated. Genetically, students may inherit total or red-green color-blindness; lack of pigment in albinism causes photosensitivity and vision problems. Accidents or injuries include retinopathy of prematurity from insufficiently regulated incubator oxygen, eyeball punctures, and retinal dislocation or detachment.

Identify some student behavior management approaches applying to different problems and corresponding situations or conditions for using them

To curtail misbehavior by exercising authority while eliciting minimal emotional distress, and additionally model reasonable, respectful use of authority, a "simple authority statement" promptly and authoritatively expresses disapproval as objectively as possible. If it is either unnecessary or unwise to confront students directly, teachers can redirect student energy to other behaviors, e.g., learning activities. This stops or interrupts misbehavior without provoking student hostility. For example, younger students or those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may not be intentionally misbehaving, but lack impulse control; redirection can restore on-task behavior without damaging a student's self-esteem or self-image. Reminding students calmly of assigned tasks enhances their understanding of target behaviors without communicating unpleasant emotions or judgments. Telling students what they should do "next time" gives students behavioral correction, but avoids discouraging them by focusing on the future instead of what they did wrong this time. Teachers can prevent responding inappropriately in haste by responding with silence to misbehaviors not significantly disrupting class. Silence also enables teachers to make mental notes and consider later which actions (if any) apply, and gives students opportunities for solving their own problems.

Identify some teacher communication strategies to ensure all students' engagement and understanding, including ELL and exceptional students.

Verbally, vary vocal speeds and tones to keep speech interesting to students. Vocal projection facilitates student hearing and also demonstrates teachers' confidence in what they say. Pausing strategically gets student attention, emphasizes transitions in topics, and gives students time to process information. Give ELLs and students with hearing, cognitive, learning, and other disabilities more wait time to allow for translating and processing teacher questions and formulating and translating their answers. Nonverbally, stand up straight and maintain eye contact to project confidence. Smiling communicates valuing what you say. While avoiding distracting apparel and excessive gestures, use movement to express enthusiasm, excitement, and energy. To help explain, illustrate, or clarify complex ideas, use media—not to distract from but to enhance instructional communication. Use chalkboards, dry-erase boards and overheads to demonstrate reasoning behind derivations, illustrate processes, and teach dynamically. Use slide presentations to organize varied visual, audio, and animated content, summarize ideas, and emphasize key points. Animations and videos offer sense of scale and illustrate dynamic processes. Audio can illustrate sounds associated with physical processes and introduce new, historical, or remote voices into classrooms. Artifacts can incorporate real-life elements, and print or electronic handouts give students detailed images and information. Redundant and multimodal presentations benefit ELL, exceptional, and all students.

Describe several strategies for establishing inclusive classroom environments that promote equity and respect for students.

When teachers initiate open dialogues, they engage students in a democratic process and provide opportunities for group decision-making requiring compromise, not competition. Teachers can rearrange classrooms to facilitate group decision-making and student interaction,e.g., sitting in circles, moving all desks to one side, reversing the room's front and back, and letting students learn from their decisions to democratize classroom spaces. They can assign group projects, which should be multidimensional, equally emphasizing textual, graphic, creative, presentation, and other components to address different skills and learning styles. Group projects also require member interdependency for successful completion, and vary in group composition. Rather than the typical forms of talking and writing for classroom sharing, wherein the loudest or fastest student gains the floor, teachers can vary protocols, e.g., visual art; paired and/or small-group sharing; allowing more time for reflecting, organizing their thoughts, and writing; and activities enabling thinkers, talkers, writers, and visual artists to share ideas. During class discussions, creating conflict regarding topics gives students more realistic experiences of complex issues. When students take various views of issues, not for competition or winning but for consensus, it affords experiences that demonstrate the complicated, messy nature of real-life democratic processes

Discuss some characteristics and elements of the relationship of academic instruction and classroom management, including evidence about effective teacher practices and strategies

When educators teach and encourage students to take responsibility for their own behaviors rather than taking total responsibility for guiding student behaviors, teachers and students approach and understand content differently. Moreover, when instruction is more demanding (e.g., students address novel problems and/or create products), teachers must make more complex management decisions. This relationship between instructional activity levels and management complexity supports research evidence of the inseparable, complex interrelationship of instructional curriculum and classroom management. Teachers must help students learn to meet concurrent academic demands for comprehending and manipulating content, and social demands for interacting with others to demonstrate that content knowledge effectively. This broader view of classroom management has redirected research from controlling behavior to creating and sustaining learning environments—including furniture arrangements, classroom decorations, developing and communicating rules and routines, and interacting with students. Research shows teachers implementing systematic classroom management approaches when school years begin have students demonstrating higher task engagement and academic achievement. Researchers also identify strategies eliciting low misbehavior and high involvement as communicating awareness of student behavior, overlapping activities, smooth transitions, instructional momentum, and whole-class-focused attention alerting.

Discuss some ways in which individual student differences influence classroom communication, and some ways to accomplish communication goals through effective interaction techniques.

Younger students need concrete terms, examples, and materials; older students can handle increasing abstraction. Teachers should give students of all ages concepts and vocabulary slightly above their current levels for challenge and growth. Both student and teacher communication can be influenced by gender, e.g., volunteering, calling out, or waiting to be called on regardless of knowledge and preparation. Teachers may perceive or treat identical student responses differently according to student gender and/or race, e.g., as assertive vs. aggressive or enthusiastic vs. disruptive. ELL and LEP students may know content, but lack English to express it, or feel uncomfortable with their ELP levels. Numerous studies show when teachers communicate high learning expectations for all students, including ELLS and students with disabilities, they perform better. Emotionally engaging anecdotes, examples, and connecting topics to student prior knowledge, experience, interests, value, and utility stimulate student curiosity and interest. To clarify class goals and purposes, focus on major points, letting students find additional information in other activities. Repeat key concepts and ideas, compare and contrast, summarize, use analogies and metaphors to aid student comprehension and emphasize importance. Structure classes logically: present problems, then develop solutions; frame topics as stories; chronologically recount processes and events; show interconnected ideas' relationship to overarching themes; share outlines; explicitly transition between topics using mini-summaries, connections, or verbal signals.