ABSTRACT
The teacher floated from group to group, listening to student conversations about the important items for inclusion in the review. In high-performing urban schools, teachers seek abundant evidence that students understand the concepts and skills being taught. To promote mastery of a specific concept, teachers frequently check to determine if their students have acquired meaning from the information shared in the prior few minutes. In most classrooms in high-performing urban schools, student voices are heard more frequently than teacher voices. Teachers present new information but then check almost immediately to determine if students heard, processed, and internalized the information accurately. In some classrooms, teachers acquire evidence of understanding by asking students to respond in unison. If discussion occurred in small groups, teachers rotated from group to group and listened to determine if students understood the key concepts associated with the lesson objective.
