Presenter outlines instructional shifts focused on rigor and student discourse

The presenter said the continuation plan centers on four schoolwide shifts designed to accelerate student learning. She described the first as requiring "really rigorous tasks" so students engage in higher-order thinking and productive struggle rather than worksheet work.

A second major shift is increasing student talk and discourse so students explain their thinking and engage in peer-to-peer learning. "We're going to prioritize student discussion," the presenter said, noting that focus groups indicated teachers currently do the majority of classroom talk and that students want to be asked to explain reasoning rather than only copy answers.

The presenter also emphasized social-emotional supports so students feel safe to take academic risks and described strategies (sentence stems, talk moves, quick writes and pair strategies) to scaffold student participation. She said teachers set goals on the superintendent conference day related to increasing talk in classrooms and that grades K
5 are using strategies appropriate for their levels (complete sentences in kindergarten; "give one, get one" and quick writes in upper grades).