Teachers must be aware of their own expectations for students and whether some students receive differential treatment based on those expectations. Specifically, teachers should examine if they interact less positively with "low expectancy" students through things like less eye contact, smiles, or challenging questions. The document provides action steps for teachers to treat all students equally through maintaining a positive tone, paying attention to interactions and questions asked, and ensuring low expectancy students feel valued and respected.

1. Chapter 9: What will I do to communicate high expectations for all students?
If the teacher believes students can succeed, she tends to behave in a way that helps them succeed. If the teacher
believes that students cannot succeed, she unwillingly tends to behave in ways that subvert students’ success or at
least do not facilitate students’ success. This is an unconscious activity.
In the classroom Opinions can influence how teachers behave towards individual students.
“If I believed this student was completely capable of learning this content, what
would I be doing right now?” provides clarity to teacher’s interactions.
With low students teachers tend to back off and not probe their understanding.
Not demanding in order not to embarrass students has negative consequences.
Try to behave in ways that communicate high expectations for every student.
Research and Theory Students who had been identified as sputters outgained the 80% of students who
were not identified as sputters on the IQ test.
High-expectancy effects in the 1st and 2nd grades as well as in 7th grade.
The expectancy effect is greater the less a teacher knows about a student.
Change the teacher behavior that comes with low expectations will most probably
produce the desired effect on students’ achievement.
These differences in treatment occur referring to as thin slices of teacher behavior.
Two categories of thinly sliced teacher behaviors that communicate expectations:
-affective tone: communicating an appropriate level of concern and cooperation.
Teachers interact with high-expectancy students they are more positive than when
they interact with low-expectancy students. To high-expectancy students teachers
tend to smile more, look them in the eyes more, lean toward students more, and
behave in a more friendly and supportive manner.
-Quantity of interactions with students: Type and quality of interactions. Teachers
often show more willingness to pursue and answer with highs than with lows.
Teachers wait less time to answer questions, give the answer as opposed to
encourage the low to do it, gives briefer and less informative feedback, pay less
attention to them, and demand less from them too.
Action steps
Address expectations at a very general level.
Action step 1. Identify your Become aware of his or her differential expectations for students.
expectation level for students. It is entirely possible to change behavior towards students so that all students
receive the same behavior, regardless of the teacher’s level of expectation for
them.
Mental scan of the students, identify those for whom you have high, medium, and
low expectations. Seek for reasons.
A teacher can freely admit to himself the existence of negative thought pattern;
perhaps even try to ascertain the origin of these behaviors.
Action step 2. Identify differential Examine whether you treat low-expectancy student like: making less eye contact,
treatment of low expectancy smiling less, making less physical contact, less proximity, Engaging in less playful or
students. light dialogue, calling them less, asking less challenging questions, not delving into
their answers as deeply, and rewarding them for less rigorous responses.
You can change by treat low- expectancy students the other way.
Addresses effective tone.
Action step 3. Make sure low- It is important to change differential treatment of all low- expectancy students.
expectancy students receive Make eye contact, physical contact, as putting a hand on the target student’s
verbal and non verbal indications shoulder, engage playful dialogues, and maintaining proximity.
that they are valued and The teacher identifies specific behavior for specific students.
respected. Not all behaviors will be equally effective for every student. Over time teacher
discovers which behavior are most useful for each low-expectancy student.
Quality of interactions.
Action step 4. Ask questions of -When students ask unsolicited questions.

2. low- expectancy students. -When the teacher ask a question and students respond.
Address every student’s question as much as possible.
Make sure she calls on low-expectancy students.
Acknowledge the usefulness and desirability of questions “Liam, thanks for asking
that question. I’m sure others in the class had the same confusion”.
Call students who have not raised their hands. They will have a sense that they can
be called on at any time, even if they don’t volunteer. This approach creates a
culture of high- expectations for all.
Low- expectancy students are given the message that the teacher is confident that
they can handle even the most difficult of questions.
Action step 5. When low- Devote as much time with the incorrect or incomplete answer as he would with a
expectancy students do not high- expectancy student.
answer a question correctly or The student has answered the question from a system of logic; identify the logic
completely, stay with them. from which the student generated the answer. How do you know this to be true?
Allows the teacher to acknowledge what students knows and delve more deeply
into what the student does not understand.
Demonstrate gratitude for students’ responses; don’t allow negative comments
from other students; point out what is correct and incorrect about students’
responses; restate the question, and provide ways to temporarily let students off
the hook.
Summary
What will I do to communicate high expectations for all
students?
Develop Be aware of Strategies for
expectations the actions ensuring
for students’ they can take consistency
success to avoid
treating lows
Behave in Quality of
ways that are Communicating
interactions,
consistent a positive
regard to
with these affective tone
questions
expectations