The Continuous Teaching Cycle
Introduction
The Continuous Teaching Cycle (CTC) is an effective way to approach teaching and learning in the classroom. Each cycle focuses on assessment and instruction related to instructional objectives of a lesson/instructional sequence. You can think of each cycle of the Continuous Teaching Cycle as everything you need to do to plan, implement and evaluate a lesson/instructional sequence. Each cycle can last one instructional period or can last several days depending on the objectives, the amount of practice the students require and the type of assessment you use.
Pre-Assess
Pre-Assess
Let’s take a closer examination of assessment and instruction within each part of the cycle.
Pre-Assess
You should begin each unit of instruction with pre-assessment.
Pre-Assessment is diagnostic in nature. It should inform your planning/instruction and allow you to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of the learners in your class. Assessment data that you can use for this purpose comes in many forms.
Readthe short document onPre-Assessment and Differentiated Instruction.
Pre-Assessment Step 1
The pre-assessment process should be guided by these steps:
1. Examine general assessment data. Data from the following sources can help you begin to pinpoint learning needs and strengths. Note: this is data that should be included in Part 1 of your Classroom Assessment Project.
- District progress monitoring assessments (FAIR etc.),
- Statewide assessments (FCAT etc.),
- Standardized tests of cognitive processing, reading, math, writing, etc.
- Formal testing used for eligibility decisions (if testing was completed recently).
Pre-Assessment Step 2
2. Examine data from these sources to help you to further pinpoint learning needs/strengths, needed accommodations, and needed instructional supports that will help you make decisions about differentiating instruction. (This is data that should be included in Part 1 of your Classroom Assessment Project.)
- Classroom-based progress monitoring assessments (Informal Reading Inventory, Emergent Reader Assessment, math and reading fluency measures, etc.),
- Assessment data related to IEP goals/objectives,
- Curriculum-based assessments,
- Student surveys and interest inventories,
- Observations
Pre-Assessment Step 3
3. Before you finalize your instructional plans for a unit or instructional sequence, you need to assess students’ knowledge/skills/understandings in relation to the intended instructional objectives of the unit. This type of assessment will help you to refine your differentiated instructional plans and will help insure your instruction is efficient and on target (as emphasized in the Pre-Assessment and Differentiated Instruction document).
You don’t want to waste valuable instructional time teaching something the students have already mastered and you don’t want to skip over content/skills they may still need help with. Pre-assessment will also help you determine what strengths the students have in relation to the intended instructional objectives so you can build upon that during instruction.
Examples of Pre-assessment Strategies
Carefully examine these websites for examples of pre-assessment strategies you can implement in your classroom. The examples found on the sites are just a few of the options. As you complete Modules 7-9 will you find specific assessments in the areas of reading, writing and math.
Pre-assessment
Pre-Assessment and Differentiated Instruction
Remember! You will need to implement a pre-assessment related to your instructional goals/objectives as part of your Classroom Assessment Project. Note: You will also need to make sure students have the background knowledge/pre-requisite skills necessary to be successful in the lesson (in other words…skills/knowledge needed but not directly taught in the lesson). If you don’t have assessment data from one of the assessments in the previous two steps that gives you that information, you will need to assess that knowledge/skill at this point.
Stop and Think1
How could you use thesepre-assessments with your students?
What other pre-assessments could you use?
Plan
Planning Step 1
The first step in instructional planning is selecting/developing the learning objectives. The pre-assessment data (in its steps) should help you select standards-based learning objectives to meet the learning needs of your students. When selecting/ developing learning objectives for a lesson (one cycle of the Continuous Teaching Cycle), plan with the “end” in mind. What do you want the students to know/be able to do at the end of the lesson (Continuous Teaching Cycle)? Lesson objectives are typically written in the form: Students will be able to ______.
Using pre-assessment data to guide the selection/development of instructional objectives will help you identify and target the level of learning that is most appropriate for your students at that time.
Planning Example
For example, if you are beginning a unit on ecosystems and through pre-assessment, you find that your students understand what an ecosystem is and know the basic components that make up an ecosystem, you would then know that they are ready to move to analyzing or applying their knowledge of ecosystems.
Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a helpful framework that can guide your thinking. If you are not familiar with Bloom’s Taxonomy, review the site:
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This site provides verbs categorized by Bloom’s Taxonomy that you can use when writing your learning objectives:
Planning Example Explanation
Taking the Planning Example about ecosystems, the teacher may decide (based on pre-assessment data) that the students are ready for instruction and practice at the application level (of Bloom’s Taxonomy). The teacher looks at the possible verbs in the “application” category (EdTech website) and selects the verb: “classify.” The teacher wants the students to be able to apply their current knowledge of ecosystems by classifying them. She knows that it is important for them to be able to develop a framework for thinking about ecosystems and be able to see where different ecosystems fall within the framework.
Therefore as the objective for the first lesson in the unit, she states the following, “Students will be able to classify various ecosystems based on their characteristics.” Subsequent lessons in the unit will focus on developing a framework based on the students’ classifications. The teacher knows the students are ready for instruction related to the selected objective because of their performance on the pre-assessment (they understand what an ecosystem is and know the basic components that make up an ecosystem). In her lesson, she will provide instruction on classification and will also provide ample guided and independent practice in classifying ecosystems.
Planning Step 2
You may be asking yourself, “What if the pretest showed that not all the students understood what an ecosystem was? Yes, as you look at your pre-assessment data and begin to develop your instructional objectives and instructional plans, you may realize that your students have many different learning needs related to the instructional content OR you may want tocapitalize on the various strengths and interests of the students during your instruction. One effective way to address various learning needs, strengths and interests is through differentiated instruction (DI).
Differentiated Instruction Examples
- You find through pre-assessment that you have some students who have mastered a concept/skill and are ready to move on or apply it at an advanced level AND you have students who have not mastered the concept/skill and need more instruction, practice and/or scaffolding. You would differentiate instruction and assessment within the lesson to address the learning needs of each group of students.
- In math, you find that some students are at the concrete level in terms of a concept or skill and others are ready to work at the abstract level. You would differentiate instruction and assessment within the lesson to address the learning needs of each group of students.
- You have students with varied interests and you want to incorporate those interests to motivate them and spark their curiosity. You would differentiate practice activities and assessment tasks to provide choices around student interests.
- You have students who need a lot of kinesthetic options to learn and practice a skill/concept AND you have students who need more visual supports and scaffolding. You would differentiate your instruction, student practice options and assessment tasks to meet the needs of both groups of students.
There are many, many more possibilities but hopefully, you get the idea. Think about your students and their varied needs, strengths and interests. How will you address those so your instruction and assessment is appropriate for each student?
Stop and Think2
How can you plan and use pre-assessment data to develop learning/lesson objectives that meet the learning needs of your students?
More on DI
If you are not familiar with differentiated instruction or would like additional information, visit the site: .
I would also recommend the following book on differentiated instruction:
Tomlinson, C. (2001). How to Differentiate Instruction in Mixed-Ability Classrooms.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Part of differentiating instruction is identifying the different levels of support and scaffolding each of your students will need. If you are not familiar with the instructional strategy of scaffolding, see this site for important information and examples: .
Note: While instructional strategies and instructional approaches are not within the purview of this course, I wanted to provide resources for those who need them. Please know that you will be exploring differentiated instruction, scaffolding and many other instructional strategies in EEX 6248 Instructional Approaches for Exceptional Populations.
Implement Instruction
Implement
Instruction
Within-lesson Formative Assessment
Assessment is always an important part of the instructional process. You should be continually monitoring student comprehension and progress toward the learning objectives throughoutthe lesson/instructional sequence. You don’t want to wait until the end of instruction to find out that a student(s) did not understand the content of the instruction.
Instructional Decisions
Assessment during instruction is formative assessment and can take many forms. This type of assessment is termed within-lesson formative assessment. Within-lesson formative assessment will provide you with valuable information to make “on the spot” decisions during instruction such as:
- adjusting the pace of the instruction
- re-teaching concepts when needed
- providing additional clarifications and clearing up misconceptions
- changing grouping strategies
- changing instructional strategies
- providing additional scaffolding
Strategy Examples
Within-lesson formative assessment strategies can include:
- Careful observation of each student as he/she interacts
with/practices the content.
- Examples:
- Questioning (if you are going to use this strategy, you must be sure you are checking the comprehension of each student…not just a few. Examples:
- Response cards. Each student is given a set of cards, each with a letter a, b, c, d. The teacher provides a multiple choice question and students hold up the card that corresponds to the answer. Response cards allow you to use questioning to check the comprehension of the entire class at once. See
- Individual whiteboards or wipe-off slates. This strategy allows for free response rather than responding to a multiple choice question. For example, the teacher can ask the students to write the answer to a math problem, answer a question with a vocabulary word, etc.
- A “higher tech” version of whiteboards/slates are clickers or student response systems. See
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- Student self-assessment - Assessment during learning.
- Examples:
Note: additional information about involving students in the assessment process can be found in Module 9.
Feedback to Students
It is important to remember that as you use within-lesson formative assessment to make on-the-spot instructional decisions, you also need to give students feedback on their performance. Research shows that continuous monitoring and feedback supports student learning.
Stop and Think 3
How could you use or modify and use thesewithin-lesson formative assessments with your students?
What other within-lesson formative assessments could you use with your students during instruction?
Are you currently providing students with adequate feedback throughout your lessons in a way that supports and promotes their learning?
These have been just a few strategy examples. You may have other types of within-lesson formative assessment you use with your students. I encourage you to share those in this week’s discussion!
Evaluate Learning Outcomes
Evaluate Learning
Outcomes
Evaluation Timing and Scope
The evaluation of learning outcomes should occur in at least two places:
1) At the end of a lesson/instructional sequence and
2) At the end of an instructional unit.
The assessment at the end of a lesson is considered a formative assessment because it will inform further instruction in the unit. The assessment at the end of a unit is a summative assessment. Formative and summative assessments typically differ in their complexity.
For example, a performance-based project that requires a student to integrate and apply what he/she learned throughout the entire unit might serve as a summative assessment for the unit. Whereas, the completion of written paragraph using new vocabulary words from the lesson might serve as an end of lesson formative assessment. Both formative and summative assessments provide valuable information about student learning and can help focus/target further instruction. Summative assessments can also provide documentation of mastery.
Let’s look at each one of these types of assessment more closely.
Formative Assessment: End of Lesson
One way to assess student learning resulting from a lesson/instructional sequence is to analyze student work during the independent practice portion of the lesson. Lessons/instructional sequences typically include some sort of content presentation (through direct teaching or student discovery), guided practice in which the teacher is guiding/facilitating the practice with feedback, and independent practice where students (individually or in groups) practice what they have learned in the lesson.
Teachers sometimes think that each lesson should end in a separate evaluation (in addition to the independent practice). As long as the independent practice is directly related to the lesson objectives and is an example of what the student knows/is able to do in relation to the objective, a separate evaluation is not needed!
Assessment Techniques
Specific assessments you can use when teaching pre-reading/reading, math readiness/math, and oral language/written language will be covered in modules 7-9. Additionally, there are some general assessments that you can adapt to just about any area you are teaching. Some examples of end of lesson formative assessment strategies follow.
Examples of End of Lesson Formative Assessment Strategies
from Classroom Assessment Techniques -
Minute paper / During the last few minutes of the class period, ask students to answer on a half-sheet of paper: "What is the most important point you learned today?"; and, "What point remains least clear to you?". The purpose is to elicit data about students' comprehension of a particular class session. NOTE: this assessment should be used in conjunction with the analysis of the independent practice results since this assessment will not provide full evaluation of lesson objectives. / Review responses and note any useful comments. During the next class periods emphasize the issues illuminated by your students' comments. / Prep: Low
In class: Low
Analysis: Low
Chain Notes / Students pass around an envelope on which the teacher has written one question about the class. When the envelope reaches a student he/she spends a moment to respond to the question and then places the response in the envelope. / Go through the student responses and determine the best criteria for categorizing the data with the goal of detecting response patterns. Discussing the patterns of responses with students can lead to better teaching and learning. / Prep: Low
In class: Low
Analysis: Low
Memory matrix / Students fill in cells of a two-dimensional diagram for which instructor has provided labels. For example, in a music course, labels might consist of periods (Baroque, Classical) by countries (Germany, France, Britain); students enter composers in cells to demonstrate their ability to remember and classify key concepts. / Tally the numbers of correct and incorrect responses in each cell. Analyze differences both between and among the cells. Look for patterns among the incorrect responses and decide what might be the cause(s). / Prep: Med
In class: Med
Analysis: Med
Directed paraphrasing / Ask students to write a layman’s "translation" of something they have just learned -- geared to a specified individual or audience -- to assess their ability to comprehend and transfer concepts. / Categorize student responses according to characteristics you feel are important. Analyze the responses both within and across categories, noting ways you could address student needs. / Prep: Low
In class: Med
Analysis: Med
One-sentence summary / Students summarize knowledge of a topic by constructing a single sentence that answers the questions "Who does what to whom, when, where, how, and why?" The purpose is to require students to select only the defining features of an idea. / Evaluate the quality of each summary quickly and holistically. Note whether students have identified the essential concepts of the class topic and their interrelationships. Share your observations with your students. / Prep: Low
In class: Med
Analysis: Med
Application cards / After teaching about an important theory, principle, or procedure, ask students to write down at least one real-world application for what they have just learned to determine how well they can transfer their learning. / Quickly read once through the applications and categorize them according to their quality. Pick out a broad range of examples and present them to the class. / Prep: Low
In class: Low
Analysis: Med
Student- generated test questions / Allow students to write test questions and model answers for specified topics, in a format consistent with course exams. This will give students the opportunity to evaluate the course topics, reflect on what they understand, and what are good test items. / Make a rough tally of the questions your students propose and the topics that they cover. Evaluate the questions and use the goods ones as prompts for discussion. You may also want to revise the questions and use them on the upcoming exam. / Prep: Med
In class: High
Analysis: High
(may be homework)
Other examples include: exit cards, complete KWL chart, and word webs that require the student to connect concepts he/she learned.
Independent Practice AS End of Lesson Formative Assessment