- Houston Independent School District
- Effective Practices
- I-6 Communicating Content/Concepts
- Real-World Connections
OLD-Professional Development
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Effective Practices
- PL Toolkit
- PL-1 Develops Student Learning Goals
- PL-2 Data-driven instruction
- PL-3 Design Effective Lesson Plans, Units & Assessments
- I-1 Objective Driven Lessons
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I-2 Check for Understanding
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- Begin with the End
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- Right is Right
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I-3 Differentiation
- Chunking Text
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I-5 Maximizing Instructional Time
- 100 Percent
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- I-6 Communicating Content/Concepts
- I-7 High Academic Expectations
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I-8 Student Engagement
- Academic Posture
- Call and Response
- Closure
- Cold Call
- Do Now
- Engage and Connect
- Graphic Organizer
- HOT Question
- Independent Practice
- J-Factor
- Job Assignments
- Leveled Text
- Non-Verbal Signals
- Open-Ended Responses
- Product Menus
- Randomizing Responses
- Real-World Connections
- Reinforcers
- Structured Peer Conversation
- Student-Generated Questions
- Workstations
- Work Hard, Get Smart
- I-9 Classroom Management
- I-10 Classroom Climate
- Literacy Routines
- Academics
- Swivl Pilot Program
- Professional Development
Description
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Making real-world connections is one way to facilitate learning that is meaningful to students and prepares them for their professional lives outside of school. When teachers move beyond textbook or curricular examples and connect content learned in the classroom to real-life people, places, and events, students are able to see a greater relevance to their learning. Real-World Connections are used to help students see that learning is not confined to the school, allows them to apply knowledge and skills in real-world situations, and personalizes learning to increase and sustain student engagement.
- Determine the objective for the lesson and research what the most relevant real-world connection(s) would be to make the objective resonate with students.
- Plan the lesson, incorporating the real-world connection, and gather all the necessary resources needed.
- Present the connection(s) to students, or support students to discover the connection(s), during the course of the lesson.
- Encourage students to share out and incorporate their experiences and/or prior knowledge into the learning.
- Act as a facilitator and help make connections between shared ideas, interests, and experiences from the student.
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Quick Tips
Magazines, newspaper and other social media are great resources to link learning to the real world. Telling stories from the teacher’s own life can demonstrate a lesson learned and/or help students think about their own meaningful connection to the content. Consider providing choices whenever possible as students will often engage more with activities with which they have a real connection.
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Other Strategies
Project-Based Learning
An instructional approach built upon authentic learning activities designed to answer a question or solve a problem, and generally, reflect the types of learning and work people do in the everyday world outside the classroom.
Field Trips
A trip the teacher and students take together to gain knowledge and/or skills outside the classroom or to share an experience that will enhance or extend learning from the classroom.
Guest Speaker
A speaker who is invited to share firsthand knowledge on a topic that aligns with the learning objective.