Although research indicates that feedback can be one of the most effective instructional strategies for improving student performance, getting students to listen and act on feedback can be complicated. If feedback is vague and personal, students may pay attention only to positive comments that are positive and boost their self-image ("That…

Students love to talk. So do teachers. When there's a balance in the classroom between student and teacher discourse, good things happen. When students assume increased responsibility for discussions, when they interact with a wide range of peers on diverse topics and supply evidence for their thinking, great things happen. Noted educators…

Chula Vista Elementary School District, the largest in California, dramatically raised its student achievement while taking on increasing proportions of English learners by focusing on what it calls teacher talk--the way lessons are developed, delivered, and executed.

This study examined teachers' actions during small-group guided instruction as they scaffolded students' understanding. The data suggest that expert teachers use a process that has four components: questions to check for understanding, prompts for cognitive and metacognitive work, cues to alter the learners' attention, and direct explanations. As…

In this book, the authors explain why telling students things over and over--and perhaps more slowly and more loudly--does not result in understanding. Instead, discover how to use a combination of questions, prompts, cues, direct explanations, and modeling to guide students' learning and build their understanding. Explore an approach to…

Reading specialists in several San Diego schools assist both in providing tutoring to students and coach peers, a dual role that has helped to create and sustain schoolwide improvements in literacy. In just a few years, these high-poverty schools have doubled the number of 2nd graders reading at grade level.