NEWCOMER TOOL KIT

CHAPTER 4
CLASSROOM TOOL
10 Teaching Practices for Social Emotional Development
Continued from previous page
Teaching Practice
Classroom Discussions
Self-Reflection and
Self-Assessment
Balanced Instruction
Academic Press and
Expectations
Competence Building,
Modeling, Practicing,
Providing feedback,
and Coaching
Description
Classroom discussions are conversations students and teachers have around
content. During classroom discussions, teachers ask open-ended questions
and ask students to elaborate on their own thinking and on the thinking of
their peers.
Self-reflection and self-assessment are instructional tasks whereby teachers ask
students to actively think about their own work. For students to self-reflect
on their work, teachers should ask them to assess their own work using criteria
and rubrics.
Teachers should use an appropriate balance between active instruction and
direct instruction, and between individual and collaborative learning.
Academic press refers to a teacher’s implementation of meaningful and
challenging work and academic expectations based on the belief that all
students can and will succeed. Students should sense that academics are
extremely important, that the teacher wants them to succeed, and that they
have to exert effort in challenging work in order to succeed.
Competence building occurs when teachers help develop social emotional
competencies systematically through the typical instructional cycle: lesson
goals and objectives; introduction to new material, and modeling; group and
individual practice; and conclusion/reflection.
Source: Yoder, N. (2014). Teaching the whole child: Instructional practices that support social-emotional learning in
three teacher evaluation frameworks. Washington, DC: Center on Great Teachers and Leaders. Retrieved from
http://www.gtlcenter.org/sites/default/files/TeachingtheWholeChild.pdf
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION • NEWCOMER TOOL KIT • CHAPTER 4 • 11
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