Essentials+of+Teaching

= This site is dedicated to supporting the members of the Jesuit Alumni Service Corps and the Saint Louis University Billiken Teacher Corps in their service as teachers in Catholic schools. =

All of the resources on this site have been chosen for their brevity and their practicality.

- presentation used during Alumni Service Corps session on July 21, 2016 and July 17, 2017 - responses to exit cards from ASC session on 7/21/16. (Follow up to ASC session on 7/17/17 will be added.)

- description and examples of each element of the "Backward Design Framework" for units within a high school course or a subject area at an elementary or middle school grade level - examples of broad course essential questions and narrower unit essential questions - organized by "big themes" - course can be taught as themes, or chronologically with themes integrated into each unit - definition, verb, and sample question stems for each level of Bloom's Taxonomy of Cognitive Levels - the first visual and the last visual lists a myriad of products that students can produce to demonstrate learning besides typical quizzes, tests, essays, etc.
 * CURRICULUM PLANNING**

- description and examples of each element of lesson planning - sample of a lesson designed in the traditional way compared to the "Backward" Design method
 * UNIT AND LESSON PLANNING**


 * STANDARDIZED TESTING (ELEMENTARY) -** These three articles, written for parents, but very useful for new teachers, discuss the Iowa Assessments used in the Catholic elementary schools in the Archdiocese of St Louis (and many other (arch)dioceses). Thank you to my former colleague, Mrs Sue Brown, who authored the articles and gave permission for them to be posted.

- descriptions of 60 very brief formative assessment methods that can be easily used to check for understanding - quick formative assessment techniques - more formative assessment methods - a booklet containing many examples of question formats and effective ways to word questions (as well as how not to word questions) - simple definitions of often-used words in essay questions and essay assignments - a summary of testing and assessment terminology and explanation of how/when various assessment types are used
 * FORMATIVE AND SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT PLANNING**

- descriptions of ways to intersperse active learning experiences for students into direct instruction - formative assessment methods to use when you are ready to move on but want to be sure students have grasped a main concept - a variety of ways to structure classroom discussions - instructional activities to engage students with video content before, during, and after viewing. (These same strategies can be used effectively with content accessed in ways other than video as well.) - (many of these question stems are generic enough to be used with other content areas as well)
 * INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS**

- suggestions from the President and Guidance Counselor at Loyola Academy (St Louis, MO) - an infographic that depicts the effects of poverty on learning, and includes 8 suggestions for things teachers can do to especially help students who live in poor families and neighborhoods
 * RELATING TO STUDENTS AND PARENTS WHOSE CULTURE IS DIFFERENT FROM YOURS**

- a graphic depicting the core principles of a "growth mindset" (in a nutshell -- "Intelligence can be developed.") - a graphic comparing the two "mindsets" with examples of how a person with a given mindset reacts to a learning situation - a graphic that indicates the kind of affirmation statements a teacher can make when a students expresses that he/she has a "fixed mindset"
 * WORKING WITH STUDENTS TO BUILD THEIR CONFIDENCE IN LEARNING**

- tips for keeping students mentally active during instruction - an article that helps teachers target what motivation problems students may be having and provides strategies specifically tailored to the type of motivational problem [|Strategies for Engaging High School Students] - link to a PPT created by an educator at Parkway South HS (MO) that gives several concrete suggestions for keeping high school students involved. (Note: some links to graphics may not work, but the slide content is valuable.) The strategies can be readily adapted for intermediate and middle school students.
 * MOTIVATING STUDENTS**

[|Top 7 Lesson Plan Websites] [|Top 10 Lesson Plan Websites]
 * SOURCES OF LESSON PLANNING IDEAS (These are curated sites, meaning a team of educators has reviewed and recommended the sites. They are not just the results of a google search.)**

**-** a list of things that classrooms benefit from having certain procedures for doing that are taught to students and practiced with them. - a succinct summary of Robert Marzano's //Classroom Management that Works -// strategies for classroom procedures, managing behavior, teacher-student relationships, and working with mindsets - a summary of key principles of working with student behavior, including specific characteristics and strategies for various types of problematic behaviors - please see pages numbered 7-20 in the document for suggestions related to preventing and managing specific behaviors at the elementary level and at the secondary level [|Smart Classroom Management] - a blog by Michael Linsin; check the most recent articles on the main page at this link, and scroll (far) down the page to check prior articles using the links on the right side of the page
 * CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT AND BEHAVIOR MANAGEMENT**

- Slides #20, 23-29, and 31-33 pertain to teachers' communication with parents (Thanks to Mrs Sue Brown for providing this resource) - suggestions for preparing for, conducting, and following up after parent conferences
 * COMMUNICATING WITH PARENTS**

- article @ Bloom's research and his influences on education
 * MISCELLANEOUS**