Real classroom videos of students and their teachers support learning in this PLU. The ground rules presented below are intended to help you (1) focus on observing what the students and teacher are saying and doing to figure things out, and (2) appreciate the bravery of the people in this classroom in allowing others to learn from their work.

Ground Rules for Watching Real Classrooms:

• Teaching and the classrooms are complex. There is much we don’t know about the students and the teacher and their history together.  
• Presume expertise on the part of the teacher.
• Assume what the kids are saying and doing makes sense to them.
• Focus on how the classroom talk (teacher and students) serves the learning goals of the lesson and the science and engineering practices involved.

Adapted from Classroom Discussions: Seeing Math Discourse in Action, Grades K–6. A Multimedia Professional Learning Resource and the Next Generation Science Exemplar Program (NGSX)

Note for pre-service teachers:  If you are not currently in the classroom, you can draw on your ongoing experiences with your college/university teaching program and the school/district in which you were placed for classroom observations or student teaching to respond to questions and apply new or revised ideas.
 

Think about classes you have experienced as a learner that you enjoyed being in and classes where you felt uncomfortable. On paper or a digital document

• Record 5 reasons or things about the enjoyable class that made the class enjoyable or feel comfortable/safe.
• Record 5 things that made the uncomfortable class feel uncomfortable/unsafe.

Take 2-3 minutes to see if any patterns emerge in either of your lists.

The questions below can be broadened to reflect your role in the classroom. For example, QUESTION 1.c could include*

• Teachers: What is something you actively do in your classroom to help ensure your students feel comfortable/safe to be part of the learning community?
• Instructional coaches: What is something you actively support teachers with to help ensure their students feel comfortable/safe to be part of the learning community?
• Pre-service teachers: What is something you have observed a teacher doing to help ensure their students feel comfortable/safe to be part of the learning community?

*All questions in this PLU can be broadened to reflect your role in the classroom. These examples are provided to help you approach responding to questions if you are not currently a classroom teacher. 

You may share your role in the response or choose to respond to the most appropriate response without identifying your role.

Characteristics of an Enjoyable and Comfortable/Safe Classroom
At two NSTA national conferences—New Orleans, March 2024 and Philadelphia, November 2024—K-12 educators attending the Creating a Classroom Culture that Supports Equitable Sensemaking conference session were asked to participate in a poll:  Identify classroom characteristics you think most contribute to students’ enjoying/feeling safe to be active members of their learning community.

Access the Classroom Characteristics Poll Results (resource 1 in the Co-Constructing Agreements collection). The results are displayed in a word cloud; common responses are indicated by larger text.

Compare the Classroom Characteristics Poll Results with your list of 5 reasons or things that make a class enjoyable or feel comfortable/safe. What do these data sets (your list and poll results) have in common? What is something another educator shared that you might add to your list? 

Directions for viewing: Click on the provided link (blue text) to access each video. Use the start-end times (bold text) to find the intended clip. These videos are also accessible through the Co-Constructing Agreements collection.

Video clip 1: Ambitious Science Teaching Share Out 3:56 - 4:52

Grade K students are sharing observations about each other’s water cycle models. (Mid-unit discussion) Note: The Next Generation Science Standards (2013) identify the water cycle as a middle school science idea. 
______

Video clip 2: OpenSciEd Initial Model Discussion 0:00 - 1:57

Grade 6 students are sharing their partners’ ideas about how Mt. Everest can grow taller and change location in a predictable pattern. (Unit start discussion)
______

Video clip 3: OpenSciEd Anchoring Phenomenon Routine 2:37-3:25

High school physics students, working in pairs, are sharing phenomena related to a microwave’s ability to heat food. (Unit start discussion)

You may choose to watch each clip multiple times. You may also invite colleagues to watch with you and share what you cited as evidence that students in these classrooms feel comfortable/safe sensemaking together. What patterns of similarity can you identify in the pieces of evidence you gathered?

When you are ready, compare your gathered evidence with examples of evidence gathered by K-12 educators below. What are patterns of similarity and differences between the evidence you gathered and evidence shared by other K-12 educators? 

What is something you observed that you would like to see more of in your classroom to be more confident that your students feel comfortable/safe to be part of the learning community? (Your response may be the same or differ from your response to QUESTION 1.d.)

Pause to reflect on something you want to see more of in your classroom before entering responses to QUESTIONS 2.a, 2.b., and 2.c.

• What were the students and their teacher saying and doing, or not saying and doing?
• How did this action, or non-action, support students with sensemaking together?
• If you visited the classroom(s) where the action/non-action was observed, what classroom norm (agreement) might you expect to find posted on the classroom wall that would help explain why what you observed occurred? 

Creating A Community of Collaborative Sensemakers

Recall the classroom characteristics K-12 educators identified as key contributors to students’ enjoying/feeling safe to be active members of their learning community (resource 1, Classroom Characteristics Results,  Co-Constructing Agreements collection). Respect was one of the most cited characteristics of a comfortable/safe space for learning. You may have included respect on your list as well.

Imagine presenting to your students “Respectful” as a goal in the classroom to support (enjoyably and safely) sensemaking together. How might your students respond to the following questions?

• What might we say to communicate that we respect each other?  
• What might we not say to communicate that we respect each other?  
• What might we do (gesture, body language) to communicate that we respect each other?
• What might we not do (gesture, body language) to communicate that we respect each other?

Consider both your students’ ideas about what respect looks, sounds, and feels like and the ways your students communicate with each other (use of language, non-verbal sounds, gestures, body language, etc.) inside and outside of school to create possible student responses. The answer to these questions can serve (with collaborative refinement) as your classroom agreements for achieving a respectful classroom every day.

Access Thinking About Students’ Agreements for a Respectful Classroom from the  Co-Constructing Agreements collection (resource 5, Google doc, or resource 6, Word doc). Add your ideas about potential student responses to the prompts to the table.

You can find example student responses, organized by grade band, posted on the Example Agreements for a Respectful Classroom by Grade Band Google slides (resource 7,  Co-Constructing Agreements collection) if you need help getting started.

Save your completed table as a PDF file.

Consider sharing one of the possible student responses you recorded on your table with other PLU participants by posting the response (agreement) on the appropriate grade band slide (Example Agreements for a Respectful Classroom by Grade Band, resource 7, Co-Constructing Agreements collection).

You and your students might collaboratively determine the goals for their science classroom. For example, conversations with K-12 educators about classrooms where they feel comfortable/safe to learn identified Respect, Engagement, Collaboration, and Value as key characteristics (Classroom Characteristics Results, resource 1, Co-Constructing Agreements collection). You could also share goals/key characteristics and build the agreements needed to achieve these goals together. Resources to support next steps are presented in the “Reflect on Learning” segment of this PLU.
 

Supporting A Community of Collaborative Sensemakers

Classroom agreements are only helpful when in use by you and your students. The following video clips, each averaging 1 minute, present five science classrooms where students and their teacher are helping ensure their classroom agreements are in use to support all learners in the community to feel comfortable/safe to figure things out together.

As you watch the video clips, think about the following questions.

• What caused the teacher or students to direct attention to the agreements? What is the agreement that the teacher or student(s) identified?
• How did the teacher or students help connect the need to attend to the agreement(s) to support sensemaking together?
• What might you do the same and/or differently (having the benefit of more time to think about the situation) in a similar situation?

Access Supporting a Community of Collaborative Sensemakers (resource 8, Google doc or resource 9, Word doc) from the Co-Constructing Agreements collection to record your responses and help you identify patterns of similarities and differences between the classrooms. Take notes that are meaningful to you in your teaching context; you will not be required to upload the completed table.

Classroom 1 
Watch the video from 0:00 to 1:00. Use the questions shared above (and presented on the Supporting a Community of Collaborative Sensemakers table) to reflect on how the teacher and students used their agreement(s) to help sensemake together.

Return to the video and watch from 1:00 to the end. In this clip, the teacher reflects on why she shifted students’ attention to their classroom agreements in this particular situation. 

The teacher’s reflection is also summarized below.

How do your reflections on this situation compare with the teacher’s?

Classroom 2 
Classroom 2 shows the next minute of the classroom discussion shown in Video clip 2 (above). The video is cued to start at 1:11. The targeted clip ends at 2:16 with the teacher saying, “So thank you for sharing, okay.”

Use the questions shared above (and presented on the Supporting a Community of Collaborative Sensemakers table) to reflect on how the teacher and students used their agreement(s) to help sensemake together.

When you are ready, compare your responses to the example responses below. These responses are offered to support your thinking or help move your thinking forward, not to judge your own responses as “right” or “wrong”.

Classroom 3 
The video is cued to start at 0:00. The targeted clip ends at 0:40 with the teacher revoicing, “...so remember today as we start getting into our science discussion here that we’re building on each other’s ideas.”  

Use the same questions to reflect on how the teacher and students used their agreement(s) to help sensemake together.

When you are ready, compare your responses to the example responses below. 

Classroom 4 
The video is cued to start at 1:30. The targeted clip ends at 2:25 with a student sharing, “So when you exercise, what if you are burning calories the same way that the vegetable oil was burning?”

Use the same questions to reflect on how the teacher and students used their agreement(s) to help sensemake together.
 

Classroom 5  
The video is cued to start at 6:51. The targeted clip ends at 8:19 with the teacher asking, “Because we’re learning, right?”

Use the same questions to reflect on how the teacher and students used their agreement(s) to help sensemake together.
 

When you are ready, compare your responses to the first two questions to the example responses below. 

Base your response to the following question on what you observed in classrooms 1-5 and your own experience with your students.

The resources listed below provide strategies and information you can use to build on your ideas about using classroom agreements to create an enjoyable and safe community for collaborative sensemaking. 

Access one of the shared resources from the Co-Constructing Agreements collection to read.

• Building Classroom Community in an NGSS-Aligned Elementary Classroom (resource 10)
• Draft OpenSciEd Elementary Teacher Handbook (resource 11)
• A Discourse Primer for Science Teachers (resource 12) This is a K-12 resource, but may be most helpful for 6-12 educators
• OpenSciEd Middle School Teacher Handbook (resource 13)
• OpenSciEd High School Teacher Handbook (resource 14)

Note: OpenSciEd resources are included because (1) the ideas and information can be applied in classrooms independent of the curriculum in use, and (2) the OpenSciEd materials are open educational resources. 

As you read, consider the following questions.

• What idea or information presented in the resource helped clarify an idea you developed about classroom agreements, or made you feel more confident about your idea, in this PLU?
• What idea or information presented in the resources was new to you? How did this new idea add to or revise your thinking about using classroom agreements to help students feel comfortable/safe to figure things out together?

• What is something you want to try, keep doing, or do more of, with agreements to help ensure your students feel comfortable/safe sensemaking together in your classroom? Why?
   

Submit Completed Task

Upon completion and submission of the task associated with this self-guided professional learning unit, you will receive a certificate awarding three credit hours of professional learning (also known as continuing education credits).

Please allow up to 30 days for your certificate to be awarded. You will receive an email from NSTA as soon as your certificate is available for download.