Organize Your Teaching
Explore resources designed to improve instruction so that students can better understand, remember and apply what they have learned. 
- View a visual diagram of all four practices
- Watch a topic overview and download planning templates
- Listen to an expert
Explore the subtopics below to learn more about the recommended practices:
To learn more about the research underlying these practices, view the IES Practice Guide, Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning.
Classroom Observation: Tracking Questions and Responses
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > Overview & Tools
In teams, use this observation form to observe ongoing questions and responses generated by class instruction and then provide feedback on impact and possible improvement.
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Tool
Sentence Starters for Generating Higher-Order Questions
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > Overview & Tools
Use this tool to develop questions and sentence starters that will help generate deeper explanations from students.
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Tool
Discuss and Design: Effective Classroom Structures for Higher-Order Questions
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > Overview & Tools
Use this observation chart to convene a school in-service session for teachers to learn about creating classroom structures that utilize student questioning to build explanations. Related...
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Tool
Learning Together About Using Higher-Order Questions to Help Students Build Explanations
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > Overview & Tools
The discussion questions in this tool can be used to convene a school in-service session for teachers to learn why and how to teach using higher-order questions. Related Media: Using...
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Tool
Student Work: Explanation of Math Answer
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
Just because a subject area involves problems with numbers and graphs doesn't mean students can't be asked to generate in-depth answers. View this sample student response to an algebra problem,...
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Sample Material
Instructional Strategies at a District Level
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
In this video interview, a district curriculum director shares lessons learned about successfully implementing instructional strategies, like the use of higher-order questions, across many schools...
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School Example
Sample Essential Questions by Grade Level
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
View examples of essential questions created by teachers at Normal Park Museum Magnet Elementary and see how they organize their science and social studies-based modules around these...
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Sample Material
Response Groups: Eliciting Explanations in History
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
History teacher Matt Moorman describes how he uses higher-order questions to engage students in critical thinking about important historical concepts and to help students to internalize the...
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School Example
Essential Questions: A Schoolwide Approach
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
Administrators at one school describe how they support the use of higher-order questions through professional development that focuses on curriculum planning and effective instructional...
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School Example
Opportunities for Student Explanations
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
In this video students share the culminating project of a curriculum unit: museum exhibits designed to answer "essential questions." Students practice giving explanations that demonstrate their...
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School Example
Lesson Plan: Socratic Seminar Planning Form
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
See how teachers at Normal Park Museum Magnet Elementary plan for Socratic Seminars by identifying main concepts, questions, and pre- and post-activities to maximize the effects of using...
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Sample Material
Questioning in a Socratic Seminar
Organize Your Teaching > Higher-Order Questions > See How It Works
Watch how this fourth-grade teacher uses a line of questioning in a structured, text-based discussion to help students recognize important elements and themes in a piece of art. Related...
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School Example
