Below are links to eight video-taped lessons that incorporate effective instructional strategies designed to engage all students in learning. Each lesson is accompanied by a PDF document with questions that will generate reflection and discussion.

These lessons feature Michigan teachers engaged with teaching and learning in their own elementary, middle and high school classrooms. They incorporate Fred Newmann's widely accepted Standards for Teaching andLearning (higher-order thinking, deep knowledge, substantiveconversation, and connections to the world beyond the classroom) and meet Standards, Benchmarks, and Grade Level/Course Content Expectations and Guidelines:

• English Language Arts
  • 2nd Grade - Punctuation Marks - Video
  • 2nd Grade - Punctuation Marks - Lesson Outline
  • 2nd Grade - Punctuation Marks - PD Questions  
• Mathematics
  • 6th Grade - Be There or Be Square - Video
  • 6th Grade - Be There or Be Square - Lesson Outline  
  • 6th Grade - Be There or Be Square - PD Questions

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  • 8th Grade - Graphing and Analyzing NASA Data - Video
  • 8th Grade - Graphing and Analyzing NASA Data - Lesson Outline
  • 8th Grade - Graphing and Analyzing NASA Data - PD Questions
• Music
  • High School - Using Student Created Warm-ups & Peer Evaluation to Improve Musical Performance - Video
  • High School - Using Student Created Warm-ups & Peer Evaluation to Improve Musical Performance - Lesson Outline   
  • High School - Using Student Created Warm-ups & Peer Evaluation to Improve Musical Performance - PD Questions
• Science
  • 4th Grade - Owl Pellets - Video
  • 4th Grade - Owl Pellets - Lesson Outline  
  • 4th Grade - Owl Pellets - PD Questions 

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  • High School - Severe Weather - Video
  • High School - Severe Weather - Lesson Outline  
  • High School - Severe Weather - PD Questions  
• Social Studies
  • High School - The Bead Game - Video
  • High School - The Bead Game - Lesson Outline  
  • High School - The Bead Game - PD Questions  
• Visual Arts
  • High School - Identity - Video
  • High School - Identity - Lesson Outline   
  • High School - Identity - PD Questions  

The following lessons are available in outline form only :

• English Language Arts (coming soon)
• Mathmatics (coming soon)
• Music (coming soon)
• Science (coming soon)
• Social Studies (coming soon)
• Visual Arts (coming soon)

For professional development purposes, these video-taped lessons are posted with cues that highlight when one of Newmann's four standards of effective instruction is featured:

1.     Higher-order thinking : instruction that involves students in manipulating information and ideas by synthesizing, generalizing, explaining, or arriving at conclusions that produce new meaning and understanding for them.  

2.     Deep knowledge : instruction addresses central ideas of a topic or discipline with enough thoroughness to explore connections and relationships and to produce relatively complex understanding.

3.     Substantive conversation : students engage in extended conversational exchanges with the teacher and/or peers about subject matter in a way that builds an improved and shared understanding of ideas or topics.

4.     Connections to the World Beyond the Classroom : students make connections between substantive knowledge and either public problems or personal experiences.

Print this page to keep this short-hand version of the standards in front of you as you watch these videos. Click here to read more of what Fred M. Newmann and Gary G. Wehlage said in Educational Leadership about standards of effective instruction.

The Michigan Department of Education is grateful to the educators , students, and schools who opened their doors to share their lessons with us.