How to help teachers improve their interactions within the Instructional Support domain is one of the most common inquiries we receive. It is very important to know, and to communicate to early childhood education administrators, that there is no magic bullet when it comes to increasing CLASS scores. Change happens through a process of engagement, investment, and commitment to the process—and expecting teachers to go from low to high in the space of one school year is not realistic.

Small, incremental improvements in teacher practices have been shown to result in measurable increases in child learning outcomes. A more realistic expectation in the space of one school year is that with targeted, ongoing professional development, teachers can make small but meaningful gains in their Instructional Supports. A substantial amount of learning, self-reflection, and practice must take place, and may not be done without also attending to the Emotional Support and Classroom Organization domains of teacher-child interactions.

Here are a few things teachers can do right away to support their growth in the Instructional Support domain:

1. Use visual prompts.

Using the CLASS Dimensions Guide, create “sentence starters” for the different interest centers of the classroom. For example, post the Analysis and Reasoning terms and the Creating terms adding sentence strips to use as prompts:

Analysis & Reasoning

How/Why?

Sentence Prompts

  • "Why do you think ... ?"
  • "How does that work?"
  • "How do we know ... ?"

Predict/Experiment

Sentence Prompts

  • "Which one do you think will ... ?"
  • "Let's see what happens when we ...."

Compare/Classify

Sentence Prompts

  • "What's the difference between ____ and ____?"
  • "How can we sort these?"
  • "Which ones go together?

Problem Solve

Sentence Prompts

  • How could we make it go faster?"
  • "Uh oh, we have a problem here. How are we going to figure this out?"
  • "What would you do if ____ were to happen?"

Evaluate

Sentence Prompts

  • "What happened?"
  • "Is this a good idea?"

Creating

Brainstorm

Sentence Prompts

  • "How might you build that?"
  • "What other ____ can you think of?"
  • "Let's make a list of all the ____ we can think of."

Plan

Sentence Prompts

  • "What would we need if we wanted to make ____?"
  • "Let's figure out how we would do/make that."

Produce

Sentence Prompts

  • Okay, now that we've planned it, let's make it!"
  • We're making a ____. Want to help?"
  • "Let's get started!"

2. Focus and journal.

Ask teachers to choose one indicator from one dimension, and give very intentional focus to engaging in the recommended interactions (behavioral markers) over the course of one week. For example, although everyone knows what a conversation is, we rarely engage in them in a highly aware and intentional way, focusing in on creating a naturally flowing dialog and trying to keep the back-and-forth exchange of information and ideas going longer. Encourage teachers to record their experiences in a journal, and discuss with them the fruits of their efforts at the end of one week. Reflection questions they may want to consider include:

  • “What happened when I intentionally engaged in more, and longer, conversations?”
  • “How did the children react?”
  • “When I asked more how and why questions this week, what did I notice about how the children responded?”
  • “What happened to our discussions?”

Additional reflection questions for each and every dimension can be found in the CLASS Video Library Companion.

3. Record a video for self-reflection.

With a camera or smartphone, record a short segment of teaching. Review the video and make note of which specific CLASS behaviors are exemplified. Using the dimensions guide to remind you of the concept development, quality of feedback, and language modeling indicators and behavioral markers, write down specific examples you demonstrated in the recording. Also note the responses of the children. Now reflect on what went well, what could have gone better, and what additional opportunities you may have to engage in Instructional Support strategies. Note: allow teachers to self-record and self-reflect, without expecting them to share their video recordings. The keys to change and improvement in teacher-child interactions are:

  • Learning the dimensions thoroughly
  • Self-reflection
  • Intentional practice

We would love to hear about your program’s strategies and successes in working with teachers. You can find more in-depth strategies for working on the Instructional Supports dimensions in our Instructional Support Strategies Training and our Instructional Support Strategies Online Course.

sara-beach.jpgSara Beach is a former Teachstone Staff Trainer, she frequently presented on topics such as Helping Teachers with the Instructional Supports, through active, adult-learning approaches. She has been an infant-toddler teacher, center director, education specialist, coach-mentor, and early childhood college instructor, and her highest honor has been supporting teachers.

Editor's Note: Sara's post was originally published in January 2014, but has been revised to reflect more updated information and to keep the content relevant and engaging.

 

Understand the CLASS Tool and Gain Strategies for Improving Teacher-Child Interactions