CLASS resources for getting high scores.

1. Pre-K Overview
Trainer : Kiandre Nichols

2. What contributes to a high quality
classroom?
Activity: Written Strategy on Post-It
-Notes
Group Share

3. Classroom “Quality”
What? Who? Where?
STRUCTURE
Curriculum
Standards
How?
PROCESS
Implementation
Relationships
Children’s Academic &
Social Development
Academic & Social
Interactions
Materials
Training and Education

4. How Do We Measure Classroom
Process?
• Classrooms are complex places
• We need a lens through which to view
them
• The lens we choose impacts what we see

5. The CLASS Lens
• The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) offers a lens
through which to view classrooms that has several advantages:
– Reliable, validated measure
– Reflects the complexity of classrooms
– Provides a common language
Reliable, not valid Not valid, not reliable Reliable and valid
Source: www.georgetown.edu/departments/psychology/researchmethods/ researchanddesign/validityandreliability.htm

6. What Does the CLASS Measure?
Emotional
Support
Positive Climate
Negative Climate
Teacher Sensitivity
Regard for Student
Perspectives
Instructional
Support
Concept Development
Quality of Feedback
Language Modeling
Classroom
Organization
Behavior Management
Productivity
Instructional Learning
Formats

7. What the CLASS Is NOT
• Not just about the teacher, i.e., this teacher is a
‘3’
• Not a checklist
• Not about the physical environment
• Doesn’t capture all aspects of the classroom
– Cultural Sensitivity
– Literacy

8. The CLASS Dimensions

9. How is the CLASS Organized?
3 Domains
Emotional
Support
Classroom
Organization
Instructional
Support
10 dimensions PC NC TS RSP BM P ILF CD QF LM
Multiple Indicators Define Each Dimension
Multiple Behavioral Markers Define Each Indicator

10. How is the CLASS Organized?
Dimension
Indicator
Behavioral
Markers
Domain

11. Emotional Support Domain
How do teachers help students
develop
– Warm, supportive relationships with
teachers and peers
– Enjoyment of and excitement about
learning
– Feelings of comfort in the classroom
– Appropriate levels of autonomy

12. Positive Climate
• Reflects the emotional connection between teachers
and students and among students, and the warmth,
respect, and enjoyment communicated by verbal and
non-verbal interactions.
– Relationships
– Positive Affect
– Positive Communication
– Respect

14. Positive Climate
• Teachers and children are comfortable with one
another and enjoy spending time together:
matched affect, enthusiasm, social conversation.
• Not necessarily all grins and giggles - different
teachers have different styles and demeanors
• Respect - different from regard

15. Positive Climate Examples
• Shared Enjoyment When Puppet Says “Boo!”
– Relationships
– Positive Affect
– Respect
• Social Conversation During Center Time
– Relationships
– Positive Affect
– Positive Communication
– Respect

16. Negative Climate
• Reflects the overall level of expressed negativity in the
classroom. The frequency, quality, and intensity of teacher and
peer negativity are key to this scale.
– Negative Affect
– Punitive Control
– Sarcasm/disrespect
– Severe Negativity

18. Negative Climate
• Not the absence of Positive Climate, but rather the
presence of specific behaviors that express negativity in
the classroom.
• These include
– Anger or irritation
– Use of threats or yelling to control the children
– Sarcasm or disrespect
– Severely negative behaviors such as hitting or fighting

19. Negative Climate
• It is rare to have classrooms score in the middle
or high range.
• The more instances of negativity the higher the
code.
• Severe negativity results in automatic 7.

20. Teacher Sensitivity
• Encompasses the teacher’s awareness of and
responsiveness to students’ academic and emotional
needs. High levels of sensitivity facilitate students’ abilities
to actively explore and learn because the teacher
consistently provides comfort, reassurance, and
encouragement.
– Awareness
– Responsiveness
– Addresses Problems
– Student Comfort

22. Teacher Sensitivity
• Levels of awareness influence abilities to adapt and
respond to children’s needs.
• Teachers address academic and emotional needs.
• How comfortable are the children approaching and
sharing their ideas and products with the teacher?

23. Teacher Sensitivity
• Addressing Fire Alarm Concerns
– Awareness
– Addresses Problems
– Student Comfort
• Differentiating Instruction to Support Individual Students
– Awareness
– Responsiveness
– Addresses Problems
– Student Comfort

24. Regard for Student Perspectives
• Captures the degree to which the teacher’s interactions with
students and classroom activities place an emphasis on
students’ interests, motivations, and points of view, and
encourage student responsibility and autonomy.
– Flexibility and Student Focus
– Support of Autonomy and Leadership
– Student Expression
– Restriction of movement

26. Regard for Student Perspectives
• Teachers follow the children’s lead.
• Children have opportunities to participate and contribute.
• Teachers encourage student independence.
• Children assume leadership roles.
• Children are encouraged to express themselves.
• Appropriate movement is allowed and encouraged.

27. Regard for Student Perspectives
Examples
• Children Lead a Classroom Routine
– Flexibility and student focus
– Support for autonomy and leadership
– Restriction of movement
• Giving Children Leadership Roles
– Flexibility and student focus
– Support for autonomy and leadership
– Student expression
– Restriction of movement

28. Instructional Support Domain
How do teachers help students
– Learn to solve problems and think creatively
– Get individualized feedback about their learning
– Develop more complex language abilities

29. Concept Development
• Measures the teacher’s use of instructional discussions and activities to
promote students’ higher order thinking skills and cognition and
teacher’s focus on understanding rather than rote instruction.
– Analysis and Reasoning
– Creating
– Integration
– Connections to the Real World

31. Concept Development
• Discussions and activities encourage analysis and
reasoning.
• Opportunities for creativity are provided.
• Activities are integrated with previous learning.
• Connections to life outside of school are made.

32. Concept Development
Examples
• Predicting and Experimenting with Eggs
– Analysis and reasoning
– Creating
– Integration
– Connections to the real world
• Linking Prior Knowledge to New Knowledge
– Analysis and reasoning
– Connections to the real world

33. Quality of Feedback
• Assesses the degree to which the teacher provides feedback that
expands learning and understanding and encourages
continued participation.
– Scaffolding
– Feedback Loops
– Prompting Thought Processes
– Providing Information
– Encouragement and Affirmation

35. Quality of Feedback
• Scaffolding supports student learning.
• Teachers persist in feedback loops with children.
• Children are asked to explain their thought
processes.
• Teachers clarify and expand information.
• Encouragement and affirmation increase
children’s involvement in learning.

36. Feedback Loop Example #1
It is a cold and rainy day. Lucas asks his teacher why they are not going
outside to play. The following exchange takes place:
Lucas: Why do we have to stay inside?
Teacher: What do you think, Lucas?
Lucas: I don’t know.
Teacher: Look out the window and tell me what you see.
Lucas: Rain.
Teacher: What would happen if we went outside?
Lucas: We’d get wet.
Teacher: And how would that make us feel?
Lucas: Yucky.
Teacher: That’s right. We would feel yucky because our clothes
would get wet from the rain. That is why we are staying
inside right now.

37. Feedback Loop Example #2
Hwa is playing shape bingo. She has not had any trouble matching the pictures of the
circle, square, oval, or triangle to the pictures on the bingo mat. However, she is stumped
by the rectangle and calls her teacher over.
Hwa: I need help.
Teacher: I think you can figure this one out. Let’s look and see whether there
is another one that looks similar.
Hwa: (places the picture of the rectangle on top of a picture of a square and asks her
teacher if that is right)
Teacher: They look a lot alike, but they are not the same. See how all four
sides of the square are the same? What is different about the sides of this
shape?
Hwa: (looks as the rectangle again) Bigger.
Teacher: You are right, two of the sides are bigger or longer. Can you find a
shape where two of the sides are longer?
Hwa: (scans the bingo mat and quickly matches the rectangle)

38. Providing Information Examples
• Expansion
– The teacher wraps up a lesson on community helpers by asking if
anyone can think of a community helper. Alonzo says, “Mail carrier.” His
teacher says, “That’s right, mail carriers are community helpers because
they bring us our letters and packages.”
• Clarification
– Child calls a pair of gloves “mittens.” The teacher explains, “Gloves are
like mittens because they keep our hands warm, but gloves are different
because they have spaces for each of our fingers. Mittens have a big
space for all of the fingers on one hand.”
• Specific feedback
– The teacher asks if anyone can tell her two rhyming words. John says,
“Cat and hat.” The teacher says, “Yes, cat and hat are rhyming words.
Cat has ‘at’ and hat has ‘at’. They sound the same in the middle and
the end.”

39. Ineffective Feedback
• Miss Karen asks the children to look at the
weather chart and tell her whether they have
had more sunny days or more cloudy days.
Sharice says, “Cloudy.” Miss Karen says, “No”
and then asks if anyone else knows the answer.

40. Effective Feedback
• When discussing the weather chart, Sharice says that there have
been more cloudy days than sunny days which is the wrong answer.
In response, the teacher says, “Let’s look at the chart and count the
number of cloudy days.” The teacher and Sharice count together.
Sharice forgets the number that comes after 3 so the teacher gives
her a hint, “Ffff….” Sharice says, “4, 5 – 5 cloudy days!” Then the
teacher says, “Let’s count the number of sunny days,” and they
count together again. After Sharice correctly identifies the number of
days as 7, the teacher asks Sharice to tell her which number is
bigger. Sharice answers, “Sunny.” The teacher responds, “You’re
right. There are 7 sunny days and 5 cloudy days so there are more
sunny days than cloudy because 7 is more than 5.”

41. Quality of Feedback
Examples
• Prompting Thought Processes about Shadows
– Feedback loops
– Prompting Thought Processes
– Provide Information
– Encouragement and Affirmation
• Using Clues to Identify the Name of a Book
– Scaffolding
– Feedback Loops
– Encouragement and Affirmation

42. Language Modeling
• Captures the quality and amount of teacher’s use of language-
stimulation and language-facilitation techniques.
– Frequent Conversation
– Open-ended Questions
– Repetition and Expansion
– Self & Parallel Talk
– Advanced Language

44. Language Modeling
• Natural conversations are encouraged.
• Teachers ask open-ended questions that require more
complex language to answer.
• Repetition and extension honors and models language
use.
• Teachers connect actions to words with self- and
parallel talk.
• Advanced language is used and connected to known
words.

45. Language Modeling
Examples
• Walkie-Talkies in Centers
– Frequent Conversation
– Open-ended Questions
– Repetition and Extension
• Encouraging a Child to Describe Her Hat
– Open-ended Questions
– Repetition and Extension

46. Classroom Organization Domain
How do teachers help students…
– Develop skills to help them
regulate their own behavior
– Get the most learning out of
each school day
– Maintain interest in learning
activities

47. Behavior Management
• Encompasses the teacher’s ability to provide clear
behavior expectations and use effective methods to
prevent and redirect misbehavior.
– Clear Behavior Expectations
– Proactive
– Redirection of Misbehavior
– Student Behavior

49. Behavior Management
Examples
• Communicating Expectations before Work Time
– Clear behavior expectations
– Proactive
– Student behavior
• Clear Behavioral Expectations during Transition
– Clear behavior expectations
– Proactive
– Redirection of misbehavior
– Student behavior

50. Productivity
• Considers how well the teacher manages instructional
time and routines and provides activities for students
so that they have the opportunity to be involved in
learning activities.
– Maximizing Learning
Time
– Routines
– Transitions
– Preparation

52. Productivity Examples
• Making the Most of Snack Time
– Maximizing learning time
– Transitions
• Creating Routines in the Classroom
– Maximizing learning time
– Routines
– Transitions
– Preparation

53. Instructional Learning Formats
• Focuses on the ways in which teachers maximize
students’ interest, engagement, and ability to learn
from lessons and activities.
– Effective Facilitation
– Variety of Modalities and Materials
– Student Interest
– Clarity of Learning Objectives

55. Instructional Learning Formats
• Even though ‘instructional’ is in the title, this is NOT about
the quality of instruction.
• It’s about the ‘hooks’ teachers use to engage children.
– NOT the kinds of questions the teacher asks, rather that the teacher
asks questions to engage children; and
– NOT whether or not the children are learning something, rather that
they are engaged and interested so that the potential for learning is
there.
• Clarity of learning objectives is not all or nothing.