Standard+4

**Teachers know how to teach.** The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies, including the use of technology, to encourage children's development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
 * Standard 4**

Evidence 1:

Rationale 1: This Ning-based online reading course pushes students to read critically, respond thoughtfully, and connect meaningfully to each other while reading a high interest text. It allows for students to access the discussion at a time of their own choosing each week. The unit draws in elements from different types of media, including pictures and video, pushing students to connect elements from a fiction textbook to events in the world and their personal lives. The discussion rubric pushes students to higher level thinking by explicitly asking students to synthesize their background knowledge with ideas in the text.

**KSD**

 **4.K.3 The teacher knows how to enhance learning through the use of a wide variety of materials and technological resources (e.g. computers, audio-visual technologies, videotapes and discs, local experts, primary documents and artifacts, texts, reference books, literature, and other print resources).**

The online interface is a novel way for many students to learn, and it appeals to students who may be disenchanted with traditional face-to-face instruction modes (and just spices things up for the typical learner). This unit incorporates multiples media elements, including pictures, Wikipedia entries, YouTube video, and writing and reading book reviews.

 **4.S.4 The teacher varies his or her role in the instructional process (e.g. instructor, facilitator, coach, audience) in relation to the content and purposes of instruction and the needs of students.**

Use of Ning allows for the teacher to step back from delivering content and become more of a guide than a lecturer. As students work, the teacher becomes a member of the conversation. When conversation lags, the teacher can ask that critical question to spur a new direction or deviant thinking in the students. The teacher models what good contributions look like. When the discussion is lively, the teacher can step back further and allow the students to moderate the discussion themselves.

 **4.D.1 The teacher values the development of students’ critical thinking, independent problem solving, and performance capabilities**

Students are given clear expectations of what good critical thinking looks like. Without direct guidance to the kind of thinking teachers are looking for, students will struggle to meet the “ideal.” The rubric attached to the discussion portion of this class clearly states what quality work looks like with this reading class. The nature of the online class lends itself well to independent problem solving. If something doesn't make sense in the text, students are left to find a way to figure it out. For some, that means asking someone living with them or in the library with them. For others, it means writing a post on the discussion forum asking for guidance. This mirrors what adults do when we encounter problems: seek out solutions on our own, because there aren't always people there to catch us just at the right moment we need assistance.