Mercer Lesson and Learning Segment Glossary
Glossary of Key Terms
504 Plan – This is a plan developed to ensure that a child who has a disability identified under the law and is attending an elementary or secondary educational institution receives accommodations that will ensure their academic success and access to the learning environment.
Academic Language – This is the oral and written language used for academic purposes. Academic language is the means by which students develop and express content understandings. Academic language represents the language of the discipline that students need to learn and use to participate and engage in meaningful ways in the content.
Central Content Focus – This is a description of the important understandings and core concepts that you want students to develop within the learning segment. The central focus should go beyond a list of facts and skills, align with content standards and learning targets, and address the subject-specific components in the learning segment.
Commentary – These are reflective comments that explain the thinking and rationale behind your planning and teaching decisions. Commentary can be generated to reflect on the planning process or after instruction as a means to analyze and reflect on what you have learned about your teaching practice and your students’ learning.
Connected Learning Segment – This is a complete plan for a set of 3–5 lessons that build one upon another toward a central focus, with a clearly defined beginning and end.
Context for Learning - The context for learning helps the teacher think about the instructional, social and cultural contexts to consider when planning a learning segment. If the lesson(s) will be implemented in a classroom, specifics about the demographics and characteristics of the school, classroom and students would be included. If the lesson(s) are not going to be implemented, the context would be considered in general terms regarding the needs of the instructional setting such as the age of the students, length of class period and the prior knowledge students might be bringing to the learning tasks.
Formative Assessment – This assessment serves as a check for understanding for both students and teachers during the learning process. This type of assessment answers the question, “Are students getting it?” and guides teachers in making decisions about future instruction.
Gradual Release of Responsibility – This learning model shifts the responsibility for task completion gradually over time from the teacher to the student. Sometimes it is represented as, “I do, we do, you do” to show how responsibility for a task gradually transfers.
Key Vocabulary – These are the content-related vocabulary words that are essential for students to master content. They are aligned with the standard and students should be given numerous opportunities to hear and use these terms.
Language Function – This is the content and language focus of the learning task represented by the active verbs within the learning standards. Common language functions may include identifying, analyzing, interpreting, arguing, predicting, evaluating, interpreting or comparing.
Learning Targets – These specifically define what students need to know and what they must do with that knowledge. These learning targets are clear statements of intended learning. In some cases, they are written as student friendly, “I can” statements.
Scope and Sequence –This indicates how learning targets will be paced out over the days of the segment. It describes what content a student should have mastered by the end of the learning segment.
Summative Assessment – These assessments are used to evaluate student learning, skill acquisition, and academic achievement at the conclusion of a defined instructional period—typically at the end of a project, learning segment, unit, course, semester, or school year.
Theoretical Principles and/or Research Based Best Practices – These are the rationales that are provided to explain the theoretical and/or research basis for learning tasks. These rationales might be drawn from educational philosophy and/or specific theories of development, learning, group work, and motivation, as well as conceptions and research based practices of the discipline being taught. It helps show connections between the theory and/or research and the plans for instruction.
Revised April 2014Page 1 of 1