The following questions are taken from the BEST Portfolio Handbooks. They provide opportunities for teachers to demonstrate knowledge and skills that are consistent with the Common Core of Teaching (CCT). Because District Evaluation Plans are also based on the CCT, administrators may find these questions helpful as they hold conferences with new and experienced teachers.
I. Sample Questions for Planning
  1. Describe what you know about each student’s needs, skill level and prior knowledge related to the goal of this learning segment.
  2. How does your planning accommodate individual differences related to developmental level, previous experience, learning styles and areas of student interest?
  3. Describe the goals and expectations for student learning across this series of lessons.
  4. What essential questions or concepts will students explore during this lesson/unit? Why is this important learning for these students?
  5. How will you elicit student thinking and promote the students’ role in oral/written discourse?

II. Sample Questions for Instruction

  1. How did you support student engagement in problem solving? Cite specific examples from the lesson.
  2. How did you promote students’ thinking and/or application of skills through the featured discourse?
  3. What, if any, modifications did you make during the lesson, and why?
  4. What were you and your students doing during the lesson to promote learning? What materials did you and/or the students use?
 III. Sample Questions for Assessing
  1. Describe how you monitored students’ understanding of the lesson’s main concepts and what you found.
  2. What did students learn in this lesson, and what evidence do you have to support your conclusion?
  3. How were expectations for quality performance determined and communicated to students?
  4. What did students need to show to successfully demonstrate their learning during the lesson? Howdid you communicate the standards for success to the students?

IV. Sample Questions for Analyzing Your Teaching

  1. What changes, if any, would you make in your planning, instructing and/or assessment the next time you teach this unit to a similar group of students?  Explain your response.
  2. Based on evidence from your portfolio, what did you learn about your instruction?
  3. Describe how you accommodated students’ learning needs during the lesson, and how you plan to adjust your teaching for the next lesson, if necessary, based on the learning today.
  4. Which of the instructional strategies you used were most effective and least effective in promoting discourse and fostering understanding?