3.2 Implementation Involvement

3.2 Implementation Involvement: The teacher involved all students in the lesson (calling on non-volunteers, facilitating student–student interaction, checking in with hesitant learners, etc.).

This item assesses the degree to which the teacher actively works to ensure that all students are participating and intellectually engaged in the lesson. This indicator can be evidenced by the teacher encouraging students who are not volunteering to participate, providing multiple entry points into the lesson for students with different knowledge levels and allowing various modes of participation (whole class, small group, individual work), or walking around the room and verbally engaging students in an effort to monitor class participation. If the teacher simply calls on several volunteers to give short, factual answers, it is not considered evidence for high scores on this indicator—the teacher should be involving students whether they volunteer or not and should be finding important and authentic ways for them to contribute. During times when the teacher is not directly teaching, this indicator can be evidenced by the his or her movement about the classroom to interact with and spend time with all students, not just the ones actively asking for assistance.

General Rubric

1. This item should be rated a 1 if the teacher did not attempt to involve all students in the lesson. This means the teacher only called on volunteers during whole-class portions of the lesson, and only checked in with groups who specifically requested help during group-work portions of the lesson.
   
    
2. This item should be rated a 2 if the teacher occasionally or sporadically made an attempt to involve all students in the lesson. Perhaps the teacher occasionally called on non-volunteers, or only checked in with some groups not requesting help when she had responded to all other student requests for assistance.
   
    
3. This item should be rated a 3 if the teacher made moves to involve all students in the lesson but ultimately did not do enough such that all students were able to participate. This item should also be rated a 3 if the teacher is not seen making any specific moves to involve all students in the lesson, but all students seem to be involved anyway. The teacher may have made moves previously (throughout the school year) to set up and ensure a classroom culture where all students actively participate.
   
    
4. This item should be rated a 4 if the teacher made clear attempts to involve a wide variety of students in the lesson and was actively working to ensure the participation of all students. Occasionally, the teacher may have missed an opportunity to maintain participation with struggling students who stopped working, or the teacher may not have appropriately challenged uninvolved students who finished early during some portion of the lesson.
   
    
5. This item should be rated a 5 if, throughout the lesson, the teacher was actively and consistently working to involve, challenge, and maintain intellectual engagement and participation in the lesson activities with every student, including shy students, hesitant learners, bored/disruptive students, struggling students, and students with special needs.

Specific Examples of Supporting Evidence

1. The teacher made no attempt to involve all students in the lesson. She heard only from volunteers, and a number of students who were not engaged or did not understand what to do stopped participating. During the group-work portion of the lesson when students were filling out responses on a worksheet, the teacher assisted only groups near the front who asked for help. She said a few times that everyone in the group needed to be able to understand and carry out the information the class was writing down on the worksheet, but no attempts were made to check on each group member’s progress, and some students were continuously off-task.
   
    
2. Most of the time, the teacher focused her attention on only those students who were being disruptive or off-task. Occasionally, the teacher interacted with or called on a non-volunteer or group who appeared to be working, but the interaction was superficial and provided little information about what the students thought or knew. The teacher did not attempt to monitor the progress of all students or to check on their understanding of the content; she was too busy managing off-task behavior and trying to push the class through the steps of the activity before the class session ended. Some groups of students were left on their own to fill out a worksheet and, when confused, raised their hands to ask the teacher a question, but her back was turned and she was therefore not able to answer them.
   
    
3. The majority of students were involved in the lesson, functioning without direct intervention or encouragement by the teacher. The teacher had created a classroom environment and implemented a lesson activity that led to an adequate number of students completing a worksheet defining and describing a list of biological adaptations. Throughout the lesson, the teacher walked around to monitor various groups, asking questions to check for completion and redirecting off-task behavior. However, she didn’t engage directly with a couple of struggling students who subsequently disengaged and stopped working. In addition, one student who finished the worksheet quickly worked on assignments for another class, and the teacher didn't make specific attempts to challenge the student to expand his understanding beyond the completion of the worksheet.
   
    
4. The teacher circulated throughout the classroom constantly and spoke with different students in each group, asking them multiple-level questions—from procedural to conceptual—to check for completion and understanding of their work. The students were assigned meaningful group roles, so they all were required to contribute to the activity in different ways. For example, in this lesson about biological adaptions, the teacher challenged each group to discuss possible evolutionary advantages for different adaptations involving camouflage and mimicry and then create a visual display to summarize what they had learned to share with the whole class.
   
    
5. The teacher used a specific strategy during this class period to get all students, especially the quiet or shy students, to share their solutions and reasoning. First, students discussed their ideas in pairs or groups so that they could get feedback from their peers. The students were assigned meaningful group roles and held each other responsible for the work of the group. Next, the teacher listened to the group’s discussions, probed each member of the group, and validated their thinking before inviting each to share their ideas in front of the class. The teacher frequently called on non-volunteers in non-threatening ways and encouraged all to explain their reasoning throughout, purposefully and successfully involving all students in the lesson.