Planning Tool
These are metacognitive/self-reflective questions that teachers can pose to themselves to help them consider specific strategies for enacting the MDP in an upcoming lesson. These questions are meant to guide teachers to think as concretely and specifically as possible about what they will say/do to support this MDP.
- To what extent do this lesson’s activities promote student voices/contributions, and how will I acknowledge and recognize these contributions such that students know that I value their voices?
- To what degree do this lesson’s activities allow for peer collaboration and support? How have I built time into this lesson to encourage supportive dialogue between students and to acknowledge when it has occurred?
- How does this lesson recognize that all students have different experiences (personal and academic), and what resources and strategies am I using to leverage the diversity of student experience or prior knowledge?
- How does this lesson extend an invitation into science for all students? How am I connecting this lesson to my students’ experiences outside the classroom and checking that I am not sending explicit and implicit messages about who does and does not belong in science?
- Are there any newly evolving classroom dynamics or individual student needs that I should be considering? How might I design this lesson to accommodate those developments to continue fostering a sense of belonging for all students?
- What am I planning in my lesson to show that I am available and respectful to my students? At what points in the lesson am I encouraging students to approach me with questions and what time have I set aside to allow space for those conversations?
