ABSTRACT
Teachers are a powerful influence in any classroom, making the ways in which they facilitate learning even more important. The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) require students to grapple with skills and concepts to build understanding; learning is hard. Observing students in the midst of a challenge provides teachers with a good deal of information about the students learning preferences, executive function, and resourcefulness. From there, they can decide which type of facilitation role to utilize next: suggest, instruct, guide, encourage, celebrate, connect, or question. The teacher's role is to suggest way in which students can progress in their thinking or skill development, providing direct instruction to the students. Also the teacher is responsible for guiding students, encouraging students, celebrating student success, connecting students to others who may help in their learning and asking questions to promote comprehension, application, connection, synthesis, and metacognition.
