Scenario 1: Time After Time

Elsa Rios teaches twenty students in her kindergarten class. She has a very energetic, interactive teaching style. The majority of her students speak Spanish at home. Four of her students are diagnosed with ADHD and three students have extremely limited English ability. Her active teaching style is a good match for her student population. When shy or quiet students need a break from the activity, they may spend time in the "Quiet Corner." This space offers an out-of-the-way nook with a colorful bookshelf and small sofa.

Today, Ms. Rios is teaching an addition lesson. Her students sit in a circle with small white boards and dry erase markers on their laps.

Ms. Rios sits next to the felt board and holds up dinosaur and dog puppets. "This is Dinosaurio the dinosaur and this is Perro the dog." The dinosaur asks the dog, "Do you remember what we learned about addition yesterday?" Ms. Rios makes the dog puppet scratch its head in thought. The students laugh as the dog puppet thinks and "paces" back and forth in the air. Several students call out, "I know! I know!" Ms. Rios calls on Jorge. "We learned that adding things together makes more. Like if you say two plus two equals four. The plus means that you put everything together." "Very good explanation, Jorge. That's exactly right. Can you come up to the board and show Perro how to write two plus two equals four?"

After the review, Ms. Rios places two red circles on the left side of the felt board. "How many circles are there?" Dinosaurio asks the children. "TWO!" they answer. Ms. Rios places a felt number two under the circles. "Good! Write the number two on your white boards." Next, Ms. Rios places the plus sign on the board. "What does this mean?" she asks, using the dog puppet. Esperanza raises her hand and says, "It means plus. It means add it together." "That's correct! Write plus on your boards. Now, how many blue circles should we add to the red circles?"

"Ten million!" Lorenzo shouts. Ms. Rios flaps the puppets around, laughing. "How about a number under ten?" she asks. "Okay, NINE!" Lorenzo says. Ms. Rios asks Lorenzo to come to the front and count out nine blue circles for the board. After the new circles are in place, Ms. Rios tells the children to write the number nine on their boards. "Next we need an equals sign. Can anybody tell me what equals looks like?" Several hands go up. "Two lines going sideways," Oscar says. His classmates agree and they write "="on their boards.

Ms. Rios asks the children to figure out the correct answer. They are instructed to write their answers and raise a hand when finished. After two minutes, all hands are in the air. "Okay, what is two plus nine?" the puppets ask. "ELEVEN!" the children shout. "That's right!" Ms. Rios puts eleven purple circles on the board while the children count along.

Ms. Rios and the children take a break and sing a song about addition. The children stand up and make hand motions to the song, following the puppets' cues.

Ms. Rios puts felt numbers on the board to create the following problem: 4 + 2 = _____. "Stay standing. I want you to show me this problem using your fingers! Show me four fingers on your left hand and two fingers on your right hand! How many fingers are altogether?" "SIX!" the children answer. "That's right, six! Four plus two equals six."

Next, Ms. Rios asks Delancy to come to the front. "Using your fingers, I want you to show us a new problem. Hold up some fingers on each of your hands, and we'll figure it out." Delancy holds up five fingers on her left hand and four fingers on her right hand. "How can we use addition to figure out the problem?" Jake raises his hand and says, "Five fingers plus four fingers equals nine fingers. Five plus four equals nine." His classmates agree.

Ms. Rios asks the students to sit down, erase their white boards and get ready for the next problem. Following the lesson, Ms. Rios distributes a set of plastic teddy bears and a mat to each child. She writes three new addition problems on the large, classroom white board. The students "build" the problem using the teddy bear manipulatives. Ms. Rios circulates around the room to respond to questions and monitor student progress.

1			Which of the following teaching skills is best illustrated in the scenario?
			A)	Establishing set
			B)	Using variety
			C)	Using questions
			D)	Monitoring students' progress
2			Which of the following does not describe what Ms. Rios is doing when she uses the puppets to review the prior day's math lesson?
			A)	Ms. Rios establishes set.
			B)	Ms. Rios links today's lesson with what students already know or learned.
			C)	Ms. Rios provides a simple, dry overview of the lesson to avoid wasting academic learning time.
			D)	Ms. Rios establishes an interactive climate and tone.
3			Ms. Rios maintains a smooth, relatively rapid instructional pace. She also makes smooth transitions between her various math activities. These teaching skills help Ms. Rios to maximize:
			A)	feedback and reinforcement.
			B)	instructional variety.
			C)	time on task.
			D)	None of the above.

Scenario 2: To Ask or Not to Ask, That is the Question!

Ms. Palmero teaches high school U.S. history. For the past two months, her classes have studied World War I, the Versailles Treaty and World War II. Students identified several reasons why Germany reacted so intensely to the Versailles Treaty. They also discussed the ways in which Germany tried to compensate for its huge reparation debts and lack of a military.

This week, her students are divided into small groups and asked to play the role of the countries involved in the Paris Peace Conference: the United States, Britain, Italy and France. The assignment is for the cooperative groups to renegotiate and rewrite the Versailles Treaty.

A banner that says, "Paris Peace Conference" hangs in the back of Ms. Palmero's room. Desks are arranged in groups of four and are labeled with name cards that say, "United States," "Britain," "Italy," or "France." Ms. Palmero instructs the students to call each other by the appropriate leader name such as Mr. Wilson or Mr. Orlando.

Ms. Palmero has divided the large white board in half. The left side of the board is entitled, "Old Objectives" and the right side of the board is entitled, "New Objectives." Ms. Palmero is dressed in a business suit and carries a wooden gavel. She bangs lightly on her desk, announcing, "Ladies and gentleman, we are gathered here today to begin a new process for peace. The Paris Peace Conference is hereby commenced." She bangs the gavel again.

Ms. Palmero shifts back into teacher mode and smiles, pointing to the white board. "Ladies and gentleman, your task today is to rewrite history based on what you've learned so far. First, let's review the objectives of the original Versailles Treaty. Identify the primary penalties against Germany." Ms. Palmero picks up a white board marker and waits. After about five seconds, Gregory volunteers, "Germany was required to reduce and demobilize their army." Ms. Palmero pauses and looks around the room. Several students nod in agreement with Gregory. "Good," Ms. Palmero responds, "Is this true for Germany's army only? Or were other military branches affected as well?" Gregory adds to his response, "This includes Germany's army, navy, and air services. They were all reduced in size and confined to their own borders." Ms. Palmero hands the marker to Gregory to write his response on the board.

"What additional demands did the Treaty of Versailles include?" she asks. After about five seconds, Gregory raises his hand again, but Ms. Palmero calls on Vickie. She looks down and says, "There's something about reparations or something." Ms. Palmero nods. She walks around the room and waits to see if Vickie wants to expand on her response. Vickie looks down at her book. "Reparations is a very important term that came out of the Versailles Treaty. Jamal, can you describe what is meant by the term "reparations" and what it meant for Germany after World War I?"

After Jamal discusses reparations and writes his response on the board, Ms. Palmero asks additional questions about the original terms of the Versailles Treaty. Following the discussion, Ms. Palmero invites the new members of the Paris Peace Conference to examine and critically evaluate the terms of the original treaty. "Then, I want you to rewrite history. In your small groups, you will draft a new treaty with new terms for peace. You may modify the current terms of the treaty. You may produce brand new terms. In short, you are the leaders of the day. What can you do to reconstruct a new treaty that prevents World War II?"

4			Ms. Palmero effectively demonstrates which of the following in the scenario?
			A)	Using questions
			B)	Wait time
			C)	Following up students' responses
			D)	All of the above.
5			Ms. Palmero not only pauses after asking a question, but also pauses again after receiving a student response. Which questioning technique is Ms. Palmero demonstrating?
			A)	Encouraging divergent thinking
			B)	Effective use of wait time
			C)	Fostering cooperative learning
			D)	Providing feedback and reinforcement
6			When using questions, teachers must consider the type of question or level of thought required of the students. Ms. Palmero asks many questions throughout the scenario. Which of the following best describes the types of questions Ms. Palmero asks?
			A)	content questions
			B)	rhetorical questions
			C)	convergent and divergent questions
			D)	higher-order questions