Mining for the Diamond

Teachers need to drill down to the essentials in order to be effective.  Under the right circumstances, coal becomes a diamond. 

There are four critical steps.

• Teacher understands objective and chunks the learning for that specific day
• Teacher uses a taxonomy of thinking skills to build on what they know and promote deep understanding
• Student understands what to do and what they are to learn from the lesson or activity
• Stating the Target effectively:  Speaks to student, expresses the essentials, gives rationale for why, performance of their understanding