opportunities. Nonessential standards will push proficient students’ learning forward, but lack of exposure to these standards will not be detrimental to their academic future.
When educators use these broad extension types, question 4 and the proficient students associated with it will become less of an afterthought and instead be included in the vital collaborative process as originally intended.
Audience
This book supports collaborative teams in the urgent mission of pushing question 4 students to higher levels of learning. Because extension for proficient students is so important, this book has been designed for applicability with a variety of team types, including grade-level teams, subject-specific secondary teams, and cross-disciplinary teams as well as singletons. The scenarios that appear throughout the book reflect this range of team types.
Administrators do not get a pass when it comes to serving proficient students. Administrators at both the district and school levels will find this book helpful as it reminds them that students who are proficient upon preassessment still need to be challenged. By using this book, administrators can ensure question 4 students come up in collaborative conversations and teams intentionally plan for their learning. I will build a case that these students need extensions to stay engaged in school. This book will also be a handy resource for moving collaborative teams to the next level of reflection, discussion, and execution of the collaborative culture that serves as a cornerstone of a PLC.
Chapter Contents
The first chapter establishes the argument that question 4 is the least answered of the four critical questions of a PLC. The text challenges collaborative teams to include those students who have demonstrated proficiency early in a lesson, or even before the lesson has begun, in their collaborative conversations and their plans to continue to push those students’ learning to high levels. Chapter 2 supports the intentional planning and execution of extensions. This chapter includes reproducible forms for selecting essential standards and writing lesson plans that will help collaborative teams intentionally plan their extensions. Chapter 3 helps educators in planning skill extensions, chapter 4 focuses on accessing students’ areas of high interest to draw them into interest extensions, and chapter 5 provides ideas on drawing socially isolated students into school by using social extensions. Chapter 6 supports singleton planning of extensions with and without collaborative team support.
Features
Each chapter begins with a vignette describing a different question 4 challenge. After each vignette, I provide the research behind an extension teams can use to respond to this challenge. Next, I explain possible solutions educators could apply to respond to the challenge described, each of which is a fictionalized version of an extension I have either participated in or seen executed by a collaborative team. The names of those involved have been changed, and in some cases, minor details have been altered, but the students’ reactions are real. After describing these possible solutions, I provide planning examples of similar extensions for a variety of grade bands throughout K–12.
To support teams struggling with how to build and find time for extensions, chapters 3 through 6 feature an extension planning template, with several completed examples featuring various content areas and grade bands. Educators will notice that the extension examples provided can draw all students in and raise the engagement of everyone in a given class. However, while the examples provided will not be particularly effective for filling in holes in nonproficient students’ learning, students who are proficient in the skills required to succeed on the standard in question will be able to take these lessons and run with them.
Each chapter concludes with a summary of key points and a list of questions for collaborative team reflection. Teams can use these questions to jump-start collaborative conversations about, and ultimately the planning of, extensions. These questions will help interdependent collaborative teams, as well as groups of teachers striving to become a team, plan their extensions and determine which type will best support their question 4 students.
This book is intended to be a resource to support communities and collaborative teams in truly answering the fourth critical question of a PLC. Educators ask and discuss this question the least out of the four critical questions. But question 4 students are at risk if their learning needs are not addressed, and we, as educators, cannot afford to lose some of our brightest and most prepared students simply because we ran out of time or because we lacked to the tools to effectively provide extensions.
chapter one
Addressing the Forgotten Question
She discovered I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste. Miss Caroline told me to tell my father not to teach me any more, it would interfere with my reading….
I knew I had annoyed Miss Caroline, so I let well enough alone and stared out the window until recess when Jem cut me from the covey of first-graders in the schoolyard, he asked how I was getting along. I told him.
“If I didn’t have to stay I’d leave. Jem, that damn lady says Atticus’s been teaching me to read and for him to stop it—”
— HARPER LEE, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
In Harper Lee’s (1960) classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, learning is intuitive and easy for the protagonist, Scout. She has a passion for reading, noting at one point in the story that she could not remember when letters first formed into words for her. Later, she says she does not love reading, comparing it to loving the act of breathing. She is saying reading is necessary to her existence. In Scout’s mind, the written word is very much a part of her being.
And yet, for the young teacher Miss Caroline, Scout’s advanced reading ability is a nuisance. Upon observing Scout’s advanced reading abilities, Miss Caroline, out of a loss for how to teach a student who already possessed the required learning, discourages the student from continuing to advance in this area of great interest. The first interactions the well-meaning Miss Caroline had with her proficient student left a dark impression on Scout. In Scout’s own words, she wanted to leave the class, and her choice of words in describing her teacher reflect the negative impact from this classroom experience. By recess on the first day of school, the proficient student with great potential, who learns quickly and easily—who should be loving school and its challenges, and delighting in the discovery of new content, the student that showed up proficient in skills that are essential to learning and student success—was disengaged and had dismissed the teacher and school.
The modern educator would look at this section of To Kill a Mockingbird and say, “I would not handle an advanced student like Scout in that way.” No educator would approve of the solution the fictional Miss Caroline comes up with to solve the puzzle that is Scout. However, it is shocking how many times well-intentioned educators similarly shut down proficient students or marginalize their learning for the sake of whole-class continuity or to focus on at-risk students in need of support. When their needs are not being met, high-performing students may feel as though they are being ignored or disrespected by classroom teachers. These impressions can severely affect the relationship between student and teacher, which can lead to severe disenfranchisement issues down the
