Alexandria City Public Schools

Framework for Teaching and Learning


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Framework for Teaching and Learning


The Map of Pedagogical Knowledge

Skillful teaching is the framework for teaching in Alexandria City Public Schools. The Map of Pedagogical Knowledge represents essential elements of teaching that all ACPS middle school teachers must understand and incorporate in their classrooms. The ACPS Curriculum and Instruction department will provide all ACPS teachers with professional development to provide a foundation of essential beliefs.

Map of Pedagogical Knowledge

For more information about Skillful Teaching visit www.rbteach.com

International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme

All middle and PreK-8 schools as well as 9th and 10th grades at T.C. Williams High School will use the IB Middle Years Programme as a framework for student learning. The IB-MYP focuses on students aged 11 to 16 and provides a framework of academic challenge that encourages students to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world, and become critical and reflective thinkers (IBO, 2011).

The IB-MYP consists of eight subject groups integrated through five areas of interaction that provide a framework for learning within and across the subjects. All ACPS students will be required to study language arts/English, world language, humanities, sciences, mathematics, the arts, physical education and technology. In the final year of the IB-MYP, students will engage in a personal project that will allow them to demonstrate the understandings and skills they have developed throughout their middle school and high school years (IBO, 2011).

For more information, contact Jodie Peters, AVID District Director/IB-MYP Division Coordinator, at 703-824-6680 or , or visit the IB-MYP website.

Five College Preparation Competencies

Alexandria City Public Schools is committed to providing all students an opportunity to develop five key college preparation competencies: (a) reading comprehension; (b) writing to promote post-secondary success; (c) data analysis and interpretation; (d) discourse within the disciplines; and (e) speaking and listening. Our middle and PreK-8 schools will incorporate these competencies in our lessons and school activities.

The Tripod Project

Classroom observations have often been the primary or even the sole method of acquiring teacher-specific information about K-12 instruction. Tripod student questionnaires are designed to capture key dimensions of classroom life and teaching practice as students experience them. Tripod activities are grounded in a comprehensive conceptual framework that emphasizes the importance of an instructional "tripod" of content knowledge, pedagogical skill and relationships. A suite of multi-item indicators capture students' academic and social behaviors, goals, beliefs and feelings. Student engagement and achievement are conceptually and empirically predicted by seven, multi-item measures covering key domains of teaching effectiveness. These teaching effectiveness measures are referred to as the 7Cs.

The 7C's of classroom-level instructional practice are:

  • Caring about students (nurturing productive relationships)
  • Controlling behavior (promoting cooperation and peer support)
  • Clarifying ideas and lessons (making success seem feasible)
  • Challenging students to work hard and think hard (pressing for effort and rigor)
  • Captivating students (making learning interesting and relevant)
  • Conferring (eliciting students' feedback and respecting their ideas)
  • Consolidating (connecting and integrating ideas to support learning)

To find more information about the Tripod Project visit www.tripodproject.org.

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