Marine Freibrun - Getting Started with Teacher Clarity: Ready-to-Use Research Based Strategies to Develop Learning Intentions, Foster Student Autonomy, and Engage Students

Getting Started with Teacher Clarity

Ready-to-use research based strategies to develop learning intentions, foster student autonomy, and engage students

Marine Freibrun

Text copyright 2021 Marine Freibrun. Design and concept copyright 2021 Ulysses Press and its licensors. All rights reserved. Any unauthorized duplication in whole or in part or dissemination of this edition by any means (including but not limited to photocopying, electronic devices, digital versions, and the internet) will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Published in the United States by:

Ulysses Press

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ISBN: 978-1-64604-134-3

ISBN: 978-1-64604-135-0 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020946973

Acquisitions editor: Claire Sielaff

Managing editor: Claire Chun

Editor: Renee Rutledge

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Front cover design: Justin Shirley

Cover art: Aleksandr Bryliaev/shutterstock.com

Interior design and layout: what!design @ whatweb.com

Interior photos: Marine Freibrun

IMPORTANT NOTE TO READERS: This book is independently authored and published and no sponsorship or endorsement of this book by, and no affiliation with, any trademarked brands or other products mentioned within is claimed or suggested. All trademarks that appear in this book belong to their respective owners and are used here for informational purposes only. The authors and publisher encourage readers to patronize the quality brands and products mentioned in this book.

My experience as a student in school was largely made up of listening to teachers regurgitate information from a textbook, doing the work because I was told to do it, and getting a letter grade that didnt really reflect any progression of my learning. Not to mention the anxiety and stress of not understanding every topic, lesson, or skill that I was being taught while also being afraid to ask for help. Now, to be fair, I did occasionally have some amazing teachers who went above and beyond to support me and my learning journey.

Heres what I remember most about those teachers and their classrooms:

1. I knew why we were learning what we were learning.
2. I felt cared for and valued, and I was never afraid to ask for help.
3. I knew those teachers believed in me and that they knew I would eventually get it.

Ultimately, those teachers communicated expectations, created an environment of trust, and believed learning was a progression. I strive to bring the same values to my students.

Part of doing that is asking myself an essential question each and every time I am planning out my week: How can I effectively communicate the ultimate goal of learning and engage my students in the learning process in order to help them succeed?

Teacher clarity is the process that helped me answer that question.

Teacher clarity is not just another thing to do. Its not another gimmick. Its a culture of teaching and collaboration. Actually, its a mindset, one that is essential in supporting students. Teacher clarity ultimately makes teaching a lot more streamlined and purposeful; therefore, it cuts out the nonessential things we dont need to teach.

This can be a complex process and might seem daunting to take on along with the numerous other requirements of managing a classroom. Thats why, in this book, well take things step-by-step and break down each factor that goes into teacher clarity.

Clarity means the quality of being coherent and intelligible. In my teaching experience, Ive felt that Ive shown students clarity in my lesson design and learning intentions. But the truth is, the only person who understood things clearly during the school day was methe classroom teacher. My students were compliant, but compliance doesnt equate to learning. What I lacked was genuine clarity.

Teacher clarity takes limits off student learning by shifting the teaching mindset to plan lessons and units intentionally. As explained by Professor John Hattie in 10 Mindframes for Visible Learning: Teaching for Success (2017), teacher clarity helps teachers understand what we need to teach, how to teach it, and how well measure our students success.

Lets look more closely at what that means.

In order to truly understand what we need to teach, we need to look closely at what the standards (whether theyre Common Core State Standards or a states specific standards) are asking of our students. We can do this by deconstructing the standard and identifying the essential skills needed to meet that standard. This involves not only carefully planning a lesson but also creating and setting learning intentions.

Learning intentions are what teachers want students to learn, and these need to be clear to both the students and the teachers. If we have a better understanding of what we need to teach in a lesson, unit, or activity, then were more capable of articulating that information to our students. If students know what success looks like and what steps they need to take to get there, then they will be much more successful, and they can also meet and exceed standards with much more support. Well cover this in Chapter 4.

By identifying what we need to teach, we gain a better understanding of how to teach it. When you think of how to teach material, lesson planning and design probably come to mind. Although both are extremely important, more layers need to be added. When it comes to teaching standards, we also have to think about how were grouping specific standards together, what we want our students to achieve by the end of learning a group of standards, and how to plan with the end in mind to communicate the final learning goal to our students. Well do this together in Chapter 5.

When we measure student success we look at where students are in the learning process. We dont only look at a unit test or assessment they have finished. Think of student success as progress, not perfection. Through teacher clarity, students can also assess their own progress through success criteria , the specific, concrete, measurable statements that describe what success looks like when the learning goal is reached (Hattie et al. 2017, 39).

For example, if youre working with your students on an opinion writing piece, a success criterion might look like a target response that students can refer to along with a rubric to help them meet the criteria for that writing piece. Teachers and students would work in a partnership, communicating about the students progress toward meeting a specific learning intention. Well look at this further in Chapter 8.

Teacher clarity supports your teaching efforts because it allows you to be more aware of and engaged with the effect you have on your students. Ultimately, teacher clarity amounts to how clearly teachers and students communicate with one another to explain their level of understanding of a learning intention, activity, or goal (Hattie et al. 2017, 38).

According to The Teacher Clarity Playbook, teacher clarity should be emphasized across four areas (Hattie et al. 2018, xiv). Having teacher clarity across these four areas involves a lot of collaboration and planning, as well as communication between the students and the teacher: