Guide to Tripod’s 7Cs™ Framework
Clarify
Teachers who clarify help students understand content and resolve confusion. They explain ideas and concepts in a variety of ways, check frequently for understanding, address misconceptions, and provide useful feedback.
Message to Students:
“I can explain in a variety of ways, and when you are confused, I will help you understand.”
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Sample Student Survey Items
(for different grade levels)
- My teacher is very good at explaining things.
- My teacher knows when the class understands, and when we do not.
- The comments that I get on my work in this class help me understand how to improve.
Indicators of an Exemplary Classroom
Teachers effectively clarify through practices like these:
Explaining clearly
The teacher explains concepts clearly and anticipates common areas of difficulty.
- The teacher effectively explains key concepts and offers multiple explanations for those that frequently cause confusion.
- The teacher models success by providing examples and rubrics that establish expectations.
- The teacher breaks down complex tasks and provides instructional supports for new skills and concepts as needed.
Checking for understanding
The teacher uses a variety of strategies to check for understanding and clear up confusion.
- The teacher checks regularly for understanding using techniques such as questioning, quizzes, exit slips, and monitoring student work.
- The teacher asks students to check their work against rubrics and exemplars.
- The teacher surfaces misconceptions and addresses them effectively.
Providing constructive feedback
The teacher provides useful, timely, and specific feedback.
- The teacher provides specific, descriptive, concise feedback on student work linked to standards and established criteria for success.
- Feedback on student work focuses on supporting students’ thinking and self-directed problem-solving.
- The teacher customizes feedback on students’ work to guide their next steps.
Reflection Questions
Consider these questions as you reflect on your classroom practice:
- Do you provide orderly, structured explanations when introducing new ideas, including illustrative examples?
- Do you anticipate questions by considering what students will likely find difficult?
- Do you generate multiple explanations for potentially tricky concepts?
- Do you use a variety of methods and media to present and explain content?
- Do you regularly check for understanding using a variety of formal and informal assessment strategies?
- Do you ask students to explain their reasoning to reveal points of confusion?
- Do you share clear success criteria for student work and provide specific feedback based on those criteria?
Sample Strategies
Try implementing teaching strategies like these in your classroom:
- Explain concepts using multiple media, including text, images, audio, and video.
- Use rubrics to articulate criteria for success and describe a range of performance levels.
- Use exit slips at the end of lessons to check student understanding and use responses to plan subsequent lessons, clarifying as needed.
- Write comments on student work describing specifically what has been achieved and where more work is needed.
TEACHING RESOURCES
We’ve curated a set of teaching resources for Clarify. As you set goals and pursue professional learning opportunities, use these resource collections to access additional strategies, tools, and examples of effective practices in action.
CLARIFY: PROVIDING CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK
Teachers who clarify help students understand content and resolve confusion. They explain ideas and concepts in a variety of ways, check frequently for understanding, address misconceptions, and provide useful feedback. Find resources offering classroom strategies that support the practice of providing useful, timely, and specific feedback.
Strategies to enhance peer feedback
www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au/professional_learning/peer_feedback/peer_strategies_enhance.html This article provides several strategies to guide students in providing feedback on each other’s work, including use of rubrics and exemplars. Simple feedback protocols offer a variety of ways to support students in framing comments on each other’s work, highlighting both strengths and suggestions for improvement …Educational Leadership: Looking at Student Work: The Secret of Effective Feedback
www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr16/vol73/num07/The-Secret-of-Effective-Feedback.aspx This article offers insightful and practical approaches to providing students with feedback on their work that is meaningful and actionable. The writer explains that the only worthwhile feedback is that which improves performance. He describes how to design tasks that illuminate student thinking to inform teaching and employ strategies …Using Gaming Principles to Engage Students
www.edutopia.org/blog/using-gaming-principles-engage-students-douglas-kiang This article discusses strategies used by game designers for engaging learners that can be effectively applied in the design of classroom instruction. It distills what makes game-based learning fun and how to transfer those design principles to a variety of classroom learning experiences. For example, building in opportunities for …Creating High-Quality Work in EL Education Schools: Multiple Levels of Support | EL Education
eleducation.org/resources/creating-high-quality-work-multiple-levels-of-support This article offers concrete strategies to support students’ pursuit of high quality work by clarifying criteria for success, analyzing models, focusing instruction, and providing opportunities for feedback on work in progress. These strategies help to ensure that students have the needed instructional support for developing new skills and concepts …The Who, What, and Why of Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback | EL Education
eleducation.org/resources/the-who-what-and-why-of-models-critique-and-descriptive-feedback This summary of linked strategies can help teachers build a classroom learning culture in which useful feedback based on clear criteria is viewed by all as a critical part of the learning process. A brief chart outlines a useful process and rationale for clarifying learning targets, establishing success criteria, …RubiStar Home
rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php This online tool helps teachers create customized rubrics to clarify expectations, guide teaching and learning, support peer review and self-assessment, and focus constructive feedback to help students produce high quality work. The tool allows teachers to create, save, and modify rubrics using starter templates, and it offers a variety …Seven Keys to Effective Feedback
www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept12/vol70/num01/Seven-Keys-to-Effective-Feedback.aspx This well-written article clearly articulates core principles to guide teachers in providing helpful feedback on student work that builds student ownership of performance goals and results in noticeable improvements. It explains the importance of clarity about expectations and offers illustrative examples of the kind of feedback that promotes learning …What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important?
www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important%C2%A2.aspx This introductory book chapter explains what rubrics are and when, why, and how to use them to guide learning and provide feedback on student work based on established criteria. It provides a helpful overview of different types of rubrics and how they can be used to clarify learning goals …Mindset Kit – Praising the process: See it in action, Praise the Process, Not the Person
www.mindsetkit.org/topics/praise-process-not-person/praising-process-see-action This video features a teacher who explains how she encourages a growth mindset by inviting students to set their own specific improvement goals and encouraging them in their efforts to develop the skills they have identified. It’s full of illustrative examples of how she gives specific, personalized feedback on …Embracing Failure: Building a Growth Mindset Through the Arts
www.edutopia.org/practice/embracing-failure-building-growth-mindset-through-arts The teachers and students in this video explain the importance of failure as a necessary part of developing a growth mindset and striving for high-quality work. The video and accompanying article include recommendations for how to foster a culture of continuous improvement by embracing mistakes as learning opportunities, encouraging …Austin’s Butterfly
eleducation.org/resources/austins-butterfly This video offers a beautiful example of using models to define criteria and guide student work, engaging students in closely examining each other’s work, and coaching them in providing constructive feedback on progress. It illustrates the power of this strategy to help students raise their standards for high-quality work …UDL Guideline 8: Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines/principle3#principle3_g8 This well-organized guide to implementing principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) explains why it’s important to help students learn to sustain attention and effort in the face of learning challenges and offers a variety of practical strategies, examples, and resources. For instance, reinforcing goals, differentiating instruction, fostering collaboration, …The Big Ideas of Understanding by Design
www.ascd.org/publications/books/109107/chapters/Module-A.-The-Big-Ideas-of-UbD.aspx This book chapter describes an approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessments in which teachers plan backwards from what they want students to understand and be able to do and engage students actively in meaningful learning experiences involving inquiry and application of skills and knowledge in authentic contexts. This …Thinking Big About Engagement
www.edutopia.org/stw-assessment-authentic-student-engagement-video The teacher featured in this video illustrates how he sparks and maintains interest and cultivates curiosity and inquiry through designing a project that engages students actively, creatively, and collaboratively in learning. He clarifies key concepts by highlighting their relevance and their connections to students’ experiences. He invites students to …Implementing the Writing Process – ReadWriteThink
www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/implementing-writing-process-30386.html This article describes how to use the writing process to help students engage in meaningful writing tasks, deepen their thinking, persist in their efforts, and produce quality work. It explains the value of clarifying expectations and structuring opportunities for students to check their own work, engage in peer review, …CLARIFY: CHECKING FOR UNDERSTANDING
Teachers who clarify help students understand content and resolve confusion. They explain ideas and concepts in a variety of ways, check frequently for understanding, address misconceptions, and provide useful feedback. Find resources offering classroom strategies that support the practice of checking for understanding and clearing up confusion.
Summarizing
www.readingrockets.org/strategies/summarizing This concise resource explains why summarizing is an important comprehension strategy and how to teach it. It also includes a selection of related classroom activities, templates, and lesson plans for teaching students how to identify and summarize the main ideas of a text. The list of “more summarizing activities” …Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding
www.edutopia.org/blog/dipsticks-to-check-for-understanding-todd-finley This blog post provides a variety of examples of formative assessment strategies teachers can use to check for understanding in order to inform instruction, as well as links to related resources with additional information, tools, and suggestions. It explains techniques such as methodical observation, student reflections, and summarizing activities, …Talking Circles: For Restorative Justice and Beyond | Teaching Tolerance – Diversity, Equity and Justice
www.tolerance.org/blog/talking-circles-restorative-justice-and-beyond This teacher’s blog post explains how she uses Talking Circles in a variety of ways to build relationships, establish a safe and respectful learning environment, and check for understanding. She describes how she establishes norms and how she uses circles weekly in her advisory meeting and during her reading …Strategies to enhance peer feedback
www.assessmentforlearning.edu.au/professional_learning/peer_feedback/peer_strategies_enhance.html This article provides several strategies to guide students in providing feedback on each other’s work, including use of rubrics and exemplars. Simple feedback protocols offer a variety of ways to support students in framing comments on each other’s work, highlighting both strengths and suggestions for improvement …Educational Leadership: Looking at Student Work: The Secret of Effective Feedback
www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr16/vol73/num07/The-Secret-of-Effective-Feedback.aspx This article offers insightful and practical approaches to providing students with feedback on their work that is meaningful and actionable. The writer explains that the only worthwhile feedback is that which improves performance. He describes how to design tasks that illuminate student thinking to inform teaching and employ strategies …Using Gaming Principles to Engage Students
www.edutopia.org/blog/using-gaming-principles-engage-students-douglas-kiang This article discusses strategies used by game designers for engaging learners that can be effectively applied in the design of classroom instruction. It distills what makes game-based learning fun and how to transfer those design principles to a variety of classroom learning experiences. For example, building in opportunities for …Creating High-Quality Work in EL Education Schools: Multiple Levels of Support | EL Education
eleducation.org/resources/creating-high-quality-work-multiple-levels-of-support This article offers concrete strategies to support students’ pursuit of high quality work by clarifying criteria for success, analyzing models, focusing instruction, and providing opportunities for feedback on work in progress. These strategies help to ensure that students have the needed instructional support for developing new skills and concepts …The Who, What, and Why of Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback | EL Education
eleducation.org/resources/the-who-what-and-why-of-models-critique-and-descriptive-feedback This summary of linked strategies can help teachers build a classroom learning culture in which useful feedback based on clear criteria is viewed by all as a critical part of the learning process. A brief chart outlines a useful process and rationale for clarifying learning targets, establishing success criteria, …I Do, We Do, You Do: Scaffolding Reading Comprehension in Social Studies
dwwlibrary.wested.org/resources/934 In this video, a teacher explains and demonstrates how she scaffolds instruction in order to break down complex tasks and provide instructional support for reading comprehension skills by thinking aloud and using a graphic organizer to illustrate her thought process. She models success by demonstrating the task first, asks …What Makes You Say That
www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/WhatMakes/WhatMakes_Routine.html This simple, accessible thinking routine consists of two simple questions that challenge students to think deeply and explain their understanding during any part of a learning experience. It can help to develop a regular practice among students of justifying their ideas, theories, or interpretations with evidence. Whether used in …Making Sure They Are Learning
www.edutopia.org/stw-assessment-authentic-reading-skills-teacher-video The teacher featured in this video describes how reflection on her own learning process prompted her to create formative assessments that break down specific skills, which she assesses on a continuum for each student. She regularly assesses students’ work and checks for understanding to inform her teaching. She groups …RubiStar Home
rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php This online tool helps teachers create customized rubrics to clarify expectations, guide teaching and learning, support peer review and self-assessment, and focus constructive feedback to help students produce high quality work. The tool allows teachers to create, save, and modify rubrics using starter templates, and it offers a variety …Exit Slips
www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/exit-slips-30760.html Exit slips invite students to briefly reflect on what they learned during a lesson and can provide teachers with an informal assessment of student understanding. They can help teachers find out how students are synthesizing and connecting what they are learning, what they are still wondering about, or any …Seven Keys to Effective Feedback
www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept12/vol70/num01/Seven-Keys-to-Effective-Feedback.aspx This well-written article clearly articulates core principles to guide teachers in providing helpful feedback on student work that builds student ownership of performance goals and results in noticeable improvements. It explains the importance of clarity about expectations and offers illustrative examples of the kind of feedback that promotes learning …Expect Students to Activate, Connect and Summarize Daily
www.adlit.org/article/19905/ This classroom routine can help students, especially struggling readers, to actively engage with texts so that they comprehend what they are reading, connect new ideas with existing knowledge, and practice summarizing to consolidate their understanding …First Five Minutes/Last Five Minutes
eleducation.org/resources/first-five-minutes-last-five-minutes This brief video demonstrates strategies for maximizing learning time at the beginning and ending of a class, including ways to focus students, check for understanding, and consolidate learning. It offers a variety of useful examples of how teachers use entry tickets and exit tickets to establish clear routines for …What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important?
www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important%C2%A2.aspx This introductory book chapter explains what rubrics are and when, why, and how to use them to guide learning and provide feedback on student work based on established criteria. It provides a helpful overview of different types of rubrics and how they can be used to clarify learning goals …5 Ways to Give Your Students More Voice and Choice
www.edutopia.org/blog/five-strategies-more-voice-choice-students-rebecca-alber In this blog post, a teacher suggests strategies for engaging students by offering them opportunities to provide input and make choices about what they learn and how they communicate their learning. Recommendations include surveys to gauge student understanding as well as interest, invitations to choose topics of study and …6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use With Your Students
www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber This article describes strategies for scaffolding instruction to clarify understanding, such as modeling, providing students time to talk, and using graphic organizers or other visual aids. This concise list of effective scaffolding strategies offers practical ideas for teaching new content in ways that facilitate learning and help all students …3-2-1 Bridge
www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/321Bridge/321Bridge_Routine.html This thinking routine invites students to activate prior knowledge, ask and investigate their own questions, and make connections to deepen and consolidate their learning. It helps students build bridges between their thinking before and after a learning experience and can help teachers plan and facilitate instruction that is responsive …Encouraging Students to Persist Through Challenges
www.mindsetkit.org/topics/celebrate-mistakes/give-work-encourages-mistakes-see-action The teacher in this video discusses and demonstrates how she reinforces students’ efforts to solve challenging problems, including practices such as inviting them to justify their thinking and encouraging them to try different approaches. She models strategies and language that help her young students tackle challenges, expect difficulties, develop …Building a Classroom Culture of Trust and Collaboration
eleducation.org/resources/building-a-classroom-culture-of-trust-and-collaboration This book excerpt identifies strategies for establishing a classroom culture where students feel intellectually and emotionally safe and view challenges and mistakes as opportunities for learning. It explains how building a safe learning environment is key to cultivating a growth mindset, which helps students persevere to meet learning challenges, …Austin’s Butterfly
eleducation.org/resources/austins-butterfly This video offers a beautiful example of using models to define criteria and guide student work, engaging students in closely examining each other’s work, and coaching them in providing constructive feedback on progress. It illustrates the power of this strategy to help students raise their standards for high-quality work …Keeping It Relevant and “Authentic”
www.edutopia.org/stw-assessment-authentic-relevant-lessons-video The teacher featured in this video highlights the relevance of what he is teaching, connects ideas, and engages students actively in learning. He designs tasks that invite students to synthesize and apply their understanding in real-world contexts. He anticipates challenges, monitors student work to check for understanding, and identifies …The Big Ideas of Understanding by Design
www.ascd.org/publications/books/109107/chapters/Module-A.-The-Big-Ideas-of-UbD.aspx This book chapter describes an approach to designing curriculum, instruction, and assessments in which teachers plan backwards from what they want students to understand and be able to do and engage students actively in meaningful learning experiences involving inquiry and application of skills and knowledge in authentic contexts. This …The Doing What Works Library
dwwlibrary.wested.org/resources/618 This video includes a helpful overview of higher order questions, why they are important, and how to use them effectively in a variety of contexts. It describes a variety of teaching strategies that focus on using higher-order questions to help students deepen their thinking, develop their understanding, and make …Science Talk: Management in the Active Classroom
vimeo.com/76178452 In this video, a teacher illustrates how she prepares students for participation in small-group discussions, helping them to document their ideas and supporting evidence in advance. She asks questions that highlight the relevance of important concepts, encourages students to ask and investigate their own questions, and requires them to …Reciprocal Teaching | Reading Rockets
www.readingrockets.org/strategies/reciprocal_teaching This article and video explain how to use designated group roles in order to promote interaction through student-led peer group discussion about a text. Reciprocal teaching is a technique that engages students in reading comprehension strategies including questioning, clarifying, summarizing, and predicting. Accompanying resources support classroom implementation in a …Analyzing Perspectives through Primary Sources, Part 1 in Core Practices in Action: Laying the Foundation for Deeper Learning with Literacy
vimeo.com/channels/deeperliteracy/131805947 In this two-part video, a teacher describes and demonstrates how her students explore and analyze differing perspectives using a variety of primary sources. The video aptly illustrates how the teacher probes student thinking and students ground their statements in evidence from complex texts as they engage in turn and …Personalized Learning: Enabling Student Voice and Choice Through Projects
www.edutopia.org/practice/personalized-learning-enabling-student-voice-and-choice-through-projects In this video, several teachers describe and demonstrate how they personalize learning and facilitate active engagement in their classrooms. The video and accompanying article offer useful strategies for designing engaging projects that cultivate curiosity and inquiry, promote interaction, provide choice as well as helpful structure and guidance, and offer …
Implementing the Writing Process – ReadWriteThink
www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/implementing-writing-process-30386.html This article describes how to use the writing process to help students engage in meaningful writing tasks, deepen their thinking, persist in their efforts, and produce quality work. It explains the value of clarifying expectations and structuring opportunities for students to check their own work, engage in peer review, …Think Pair Share
www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03d_UnderstandingRoutines/ThinkPairShare/ThinkPairShare_Routine.html This thinking routine invites students to confer with each other about an open-ended, higher-order question to clarify and consolidate their ideas. The teacher poses a question and asks students to think about their responses individually, then explain their thinking to their partners, and finally share with the whole class …Kindergarteners as Experts
eleducation.org/resources/kindergarteners-as-experts This video features a kindergarten learning expedition about birds that captivates students’ interest, sparks their curiosity, links their inquiries directly to the world outside of school, and actively engages them in producing quality work that they share with the community. Students act as citizen scientists, researchers, and artists, and …CLARIFY: EXPLAINING CLEARLY
Teachers who clarify help students understand content and resolve confusion. They explain ideas and concepts in a variety of ways, check frequently for understanding, address misconceptions, and provide useful feedback. Find resources offering classroom strategies that support the practice of explaining concepts clearly and anticipating common areas of difficulty.