High-Leverage Instructional Practices that
Empower Students to Own Their Learning
Instructional Description
Practice
USING LEARNING Learning targets translate standards into student
TARGETS learning goals for lessons. They are written in
student-friendly language that is concrete and
understandable, beginning with the stem “I can.”
Learning targets are posted, discussed, and
tracked by students and teachers.
CHECKING FOR Checking for understanding goes hand in hand
UNDERSTANDING with using learning targets. Quick and frequent
formative assessments allow you to adapt
instruction quickly and respond to students’
needs in real time so that you can move forward
if they’re ready, and help them get back on track if
necessary.
EMPLOYING The total participation techniques in the curriculum
TOTAL are used to solicit answers to questions or
PARTICIPATION prompts from a wide variety of students. Rather
TECHNIQUES than just calling on those students who may
have their hands raised, these total participation
techniques (e.g., Turn and Talk) challenge and hold
accountable all students.
FOSTERING A A culture of grappling is one in which students are
CULTURE OF supported to make meaning on their own or with
GRAPPLING peers, rather than being taught by a teacher first.
In the curriculum students often have a “first go”
at something, particularly complex text, before
teacher instruction or intervention. The idea is to
not “give” students information or understandings
that they can figure out on their own.
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Impact On Student Learning
• Learning targets set a course for learning—students
know where they are headed during the course of
the lesson
• Learning targets contain embedded vocabulary—
unpacking the targets with students is an opportunity to
teach new words, particularly academic vocabulary.
• When learning targets are used actively during lessons,
students gain valuable skills in setting goals, taking
ownership of their learning, and reflecting on their
progress.
• Beyond mastery of standards, student ownership of and
engagement with their learning is a higher-level goal of
the EL Education curriculum.
• Frequent formative assessments of student progress
allow you to adapt instruction to meet student needs.
• Getting students back on track quickly helps them
sustain their confidence and effort, which leads to new
learning.
• Asking students to frequently self-assess their progress
keeps them tuned into their learning targets and further
develops their ownership of their own learning.
• Total participation techniques demand accountability and
attention from all students because they can be selected
to offer their ideas at any time.
• Especially when a positive classroom culture has been
established, students who otherwise may have remained
quiet have the the chance to share ideas with a peer,
small group, or the whole class.
• Total participation techniques establish a sense of
fairness for students: rather than the “smart kids” or
the “struggling kids” always being prioritized to be
called on, all students have the same chance, voice, and
expectation of active engagement.
• Students learn best when they can grapple with
challenges that are within reach (i.e., productive
struggle). If they are “spoon fed” information they
won’t experience the joy that comes from figuring
things out on their own, and they often won’t learn
the concepts deeply
• Productive struggle supports students to build a growth
mindset and take academic risks.
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Instructional Description
Practice
USING In the curriculum we view questions as a way to
QUESTIONS TO help students learn, not just as a way to assess
PROMOTE—NOT their learning. Strategic questions can help “lift”
JUST ASSESS— students to an understanding of a challenging text
STUDENT or make sense of a tricky concept.
LEARNING
ENGAGING The protocols in the curriculum are one of the key
STUDENTS WITH ways that students are engaged in discussion,
PROTOCOLS inquiry, critical thinking, and sophisticated
communication. There are a variety of protocols in
the curriculum and all offer a structure and a set
of steps to help students talk to each other and dig
deeper into text or ideas. Protocols can be used
throughout the school day, in any classroom, to
promote student engagement and discussion.
DEEPENING Perhaps the best measure of an effective
CLASSROOM classroom is the quality of student conversation.
DISCOURSE With teacher modeling, Conversation Cues,
sentence starters, consistent use of academic
vocabulary, as well as a commitment by the
teacher to draw out and celebrate student ideas,
students can learn to have powerful analytical
conversations at all grade levels.
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Impact On Student Learning
• A sking open-ended questions, rather than those with
“right” answers, gives students a chance to come up
with their own ideas, individually or in collaboration with
peers, and defend them with evidence.
• Strategic questions can engage students more deeply
in the lesson content, help them make connections, and
require them to articulate their learning in their own
words.
• Strategic questions demand that students think deeply
and critically, not just that they remember or relate to
their own experience.
• P rotocols are one of the best ways we know to help
students be leaders of their own learning.
• Making meaning together enhances learning. Rather
than looking to the teacher for answers and information,
protocols help students learn to find those answers
themselves and with the help of their peers.
• Protocols are a great way for students to learn and
practice speaking and listening skills and to build their
habits of character.
• W hen students recognize that their ideas and opinions
will be taken seriously by you and their peers—analyzed,
critiqued, and built-upon—it lifts their commitment to
sharing their best thinking.
• Simple sentence starters can transform discussion in
a classroom (e.g., “I would like to build on Chantelle’s
idea…” “I appreciate that idea but I respectfully
disagree...”, “Can you offer some evidence...?”)
• Teachers can make learning memorable by personalizing
ideas to actual students (e.g., “Kenny’s hypothesis
seems to be true in this situation; “We could use
Destiny’s approach to solve this problem”).
• Prioritizing discourse in the classroom elevates student
voice, develops their oral processing skills, and deepens
their learning.
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Employing Total Participation Techniques

In many ways, total participation techniques, from the book Total Participation Techniques: Making Every Student
an Active Learner (2011) by Persida Himmele and William Himmele, are similar to checking for understanding
techniques. In our curriculum we use a slice of the total participation technique pie specifically to guide you in
how to engage all students—not just your “frequent fliers”—in responding to questions and prompts.
In the curriculum, each total participation technique is introduced in Module 1; thereafter you will be invited to
use a total participation technique of your choice. You may find that your class develops a favorite or that one is
more effective than another with your students. You may use techniques from the curriculum or develop your own.
Table 3.7 describes some, but not all, of the total participation techniques that you might find in the curriculum.

A Sampling of Total Participation Techniques

TURN AND TALK Turn and Talk is one of the easiest, quickest, and most efficient means of creating collaboration among students.
It can be used practically at any time, anywhere, in a lesson in any content area.
1. When prompted, students turn to a shoulder buddy or neighbor.
2. In a set amount of time, students share their ideas about a prompt or question posed by the teacher or other
students.
3. Depending on the goals of the lesson and the nature of the Turn and Talk, students may share some key
ideas from their paired discussions with the whole class.

THINK-PAIR-SHARE This practice promotes productive and equitable conversations, where all students are given the time and space
to think, share, and consider the ideas of others. It ensures that all students simultaneously engage with the
same text or topic, while promoting synthesis and the social construction of knowledge.
1. Move students into pairs and invite them to label themselves A and B.
2. Pose the question and give students time to think independently and silently about their answer to the
question.
3. Invite partner A to ask partner B the question.
4. Give partner B a specified timeframe (e.g., 30 seconds, one minute) to share his or her response.
5. Have partners reverse roles and repeat steps 3–4.
6. Using another total participation technique (e.g., cold call, equity sticks), invite students to share their
responses with the whole group.
7. Repeat this process with remaining questions.

WRITE-PAIR-SHARE This is a variation on Think-Pair-Share where student think and write before they share with their partner.

COLD CALL Cold Call serves as an engaging and challenging yet supportive way to hold students accountable for answering
oral questions the teacher poses, regardless of whether a hand is raised. Cold Call requires students to think and
interact with the question at hand, even if they’re not sure of the answer. Cold Call also promotes equity in the
classroom; students who normally dominate the discourse step back and allow other students to demonstrate
their knowledge and expertise.
1. Name a question before identifying students to answer it.
2. Call on students regardless of whether they have hands raised.
3. Scaffold questions from simple to increasingly complex, probing for deeper explanations.
4. Connect thinking threads by returning to previous comments and connecting them to current ones; model
this for students and teach them to do it too.

EQUITY STICKS Equity sticks are true to their name: they ensure academic equity by allowing teachers to physically track who
they have called on or interacted with during the course of the class. This is especially useful during whole-class
discussions or while working with large groups of students.
Using popsicle sticks or something similar—one per student:
1. Pose a question to the class.
2. After giving students some think time, call on a student for an answer. As you do so, move the equity stick
from one location
3. to another, indicating that the student has participated in class that day.

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