Curriculum Rooted in Understanding of Learners and Learning
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A teacher preparation curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development is vital to ensure that teacher candidates have the knowledge and skills to teach and support all children well. Understanding how developmental processes unfold over time and interact both in and with different contexts contributes to more supportive designs for learning. A key aspect of this knowledge is an appreciation for students’ and families’ cultural resources and funds of knowledge that teachers can draw upon in developing curriculum and learning experiences. SoLD-aligned educator preparation offers multiple and integrated opportunities to understand the learning process as it unfolds in sociocultural contexts; brain and child and adolescent development; knowledge of learners; and pedagogical content knowledge.
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Explicitly Teaching Routines in an Elementary Literacy Methods Course 
A teacher educator engages an elementary literacy methods course, focusing on the importance of explicitly teaching routines “one day at a time; one day one center” so that centers are not “busywork” but are explicitly introduced to students. In introducing a multimedia example, the teacher educator emphasizes the importance of teachers being intentional about the HOW of their teaching in addition to the WHAT of their teaching. She has selected a video of accomplished teaching to exemplify and model the strategy of teaching students the expectations and routines of center work, and the discussion among candidates is positive and engaged. The teacher educator discusses how over the course of a year, teachers might move from teacher-initiated and teacher-structured centers to those initiated by young learners, aligned to child development.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; supportive developmental relationships in communities of practice; and pedagogical alignment and modeling.
Getting to Know Students Through Rituals and Routines in an Elementary Literacy Methods Course
In this video, an elementary literacy educator asks how two experienced teachers come to know their students through classroom rituals and routines. The teacher educator engages teacher candidates in a group task to identify clips from the experienced teachers' practice that would exemplify how they gain knowledge of their students. The goal is for teacher candidates to connect this strategy to their own work in classrooms. The teacher candidates demonstrate ownership of their group’s perspective and describe in detail how the identified moments from the experienced teacher videos exemplify those teachers’ deep understanding of their learners.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator; and pedagogical alignment and modeling.
Strategies for Understanding Learners in an Elementary Literacy Course
In an Elementary Literacy Methods class, the teacher educator uses her teacher candidates’ explorations of videos of experienced teaching practice to identify strategies that they might try out in their own field placements or future classrooms. The teacher candidates name and discuss specific moments in which the experienced teachers’ strategies enable them to deepen their understanding of their learners. The teacher candidates build on each other’s thinking and ideas. The teacher educator’s design of this task exemplifies that the course expects that teacher candidates will come to deeply understand their students through their intentional use of specific strategies. These activities scaffold teacher candidates’ learning by offering models from experienced teachers’ practice and having them work collaboratively to notice the nuances of the experienced teachers’ pedagogical strategies.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator; and pedagogical alignment and modeling.
Debriefing What’s Needed to Plan and Facilitate a Discussion in a Secondary English Methods Course
In this secondary English methods course, the teacher educator is leading teacher candidates in a debrief after a small group discussion of an assigned passage. The teacher candidates were tasked with collaboratively preparing for and facilitating a short discussion among their classmates using specific facilitation strategies. In the debrief, the teacher educator asks candidates to think about their growth in using the specific facilitation strategies they’ve been learning, pressing them to notice the knowledges—content knowledge, knowledges of learners and learning, pedagogical knowledge—they needed in order to prepare for and facilitate a successful discussion.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; supportive developmental relationships in communities of practice; development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator; and pedagogical alignment and modeling.
A Cycle of Planning, Enacting, and Reflecting in an Elementary Literacy Course
In this video, a teacher educator supports teachers to plan for, enact, and analyze one of their first quick image lessons with elementary students. The teachers are specifically working on the practice of orienting students to one another. This video includes teachers reflecting and analyzing teaching followed by planning for subsequent lessons based on their reflections. The teacher educator focuses attention on the strategies used to represent students’ ideas and position students competently. See https://tedd.org/repeated-teaching/ for materials that support teacher educators to introduce, prepare for, enact, and analyze repeated teaching and https://tedd.org/designs-for-practice-based-te/ for materials to support designs for practice-based teacher education.
This video demonstrates the SoLD principles of a curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; supportive developmental relationships in communities of practice; rich, experiential learning opportunities; development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator; and pedagogical alignment and modeling.
Mentoring Activity: Repeated Teaching in Elementary Math
In this video, the mentor teacher first models for the teacher candidate, along with offering commentary on her thinking and decision-making, as she teaches a small group of elementary-age children in making sense of a story problem before attempting to solve it. The teacher candidate then leads a second small group directly after watching the mentor teacher with the first small group. This activity structure provides a rich, experiential learning opportunity for the teacher candidate, as she can immediately apply a model from an experienced educator. There is explicit modeling and the development of the teacher candidate’s skill in running a small group in mathematics instruction. See https://tedd.org/repeated-teaching/ for materials that support teacher educators to introduce, prepare for, enact, and analyze repeated teaching.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator preparation design principles of rich, experiential learning opportunities; development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator; and pedagogical alignment and modeling.
Mentoring Activity: Repeated Teaching in Special Education Supporting Pretend Play
This video focuses on individualized strategies for supporting a student in a special needs preschool setting. The video shows a mentor teacher explicitly modeling for the teacher candidate an approach to engage and support a learner in play before the teacher candidate tries out the same activity with the learner. There is also an opportunity for the teacher candidate to observe as the mentor teacher responds to a peer. The setting offers opportunities for apprenticeship and reflection between colleagues as the mentor teacher models, coaches, and supports the teacher candidate in debriefing those interactions. See https://tedd.org/repeated-teaching/ for materials that support teacher educators to introduce, prepare for, enact, and analyze repeated teaching.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator preparation design principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; rich, experiential learning opportunities; development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator; and pedagogical alignment and modeling.
In this third-grade classroom, the mentor teacher is modeling for the teacher candidate how she circulates among students to hear their solution strategies in preparation for leading a strategy sharing session. The mentor teacher shares her thinking and decision-making with the teacher candidate to offer insight into when, how, and why she engages with specific students as she circulates and debriefs these student interactions with the teacher candidate to offer her thinking. The teacher candidate has the opportunity to practice after observing. The mentor and the teacher candidate are closely aligned, collaborating in working with individual students during mathematics work time. They are focused on effective questioning to help the students identify an efficient strategy for solving a multiplication problem. The mentor models it while the teacher candidate watches, then the teacher candidate selects a different student to try the mentor’s approach. See https://tedd.org/huddling for materials that support teacher educators to introduce, prepare for, enact, and analyze huddling.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator design principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; supportive developmental relationships in communities of practice; and rich, experiential learning opportunities.
Mentoring Activity: Huddling During a Word Study Lesson
In this video, a classroom teacher is sharing her strategy for engaging learners as they work to sort a set of words in a word study lesson to inform her instruction. She models and debriefs her thinking and decision making after an interaction with one student. The candidate then practices the same process with another student and debriefs with the classroom teacher afterward. In each debrief, the classroom teacher shares her pedagogical thinking and decision making based on what she learns from each student interaction. These moments offer insight into the WHY behind the teacher’s actions allowing the teacher candidate to develop skills, habits, and mindsets for working equitably with children. There is a supportive relationship between the mentor and candidate, in which the teacher candidate can ask questions, observe, and immediately try out the practice with students. See https://tedd.org/huddling for materials that support teacher educators to introduce prepare for, enact, and analyze huddling.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator design principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; rich, experiential learning opportunities; and development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator.
Mentoring Activity: Charting: 3rd-Grade Special Education
In this video, a mentor teacher models using behavior-specific praise, asking the teacher candidate to closely note the moments in her interactions with students to support emotion regulation. At the end of the modeling, the teachers debrief what the teacher candidate saw and next steps to support learners. This kind of activity allows a teacher candidate to focus on one aspect of teaching practice, see a model, and then engage in conversation with an accomplished teacher to gain insight into their thinking and decision making. The entire cycle of activity from observing to debriefing allows a teacher candidate access to the skills, habits, and mindsets of a teacher offering a rich, experiential learning opportunity. The positive, egalitarian dynamic among the teachers allows for a community of practice in which to support learning. See https://tedd.org/charting for materials that support teacher educators to introduce, prepare for, enact, and analyze charting.
This video demonstrates the SoLD design principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; rich, experiential learning opportunities; and development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator.
Mentoring Activity: Charting Preschool Snack Time
In this video, the mentor teacher observes and confers with the teacher candidate on his practices to develop children’s language and social skills during snack time in a preschool classroom. During snack and story time, the mentor teacher tracks the teacher candidate’s positive comments, questions, and directions to students. Afterward, the mentor teacher debriefs the interaction with the teacher candidate, and the teacher candidate notices his tendency to focus on students who were closer to him while reading. The mentor teacher then draws the teacher candidate’s attention to the number of questions the teacher candidate asked, and suggests offering process time for the children, and then following up with a positive statement after the child has responded. The debrief offers an opportunity for awareness on the part of the teacher candidate and for the mentor teacher to offer feedback and suggestions for improvement. See https://tedd.org/charting for materials that support teacher educators to introduce, prepare for, enact, and analyze charting.
This video demonstrates the SoLD educator preparation principles of curriculum rooted in a deep understanding of learners, learning, and development; rich, experiential learning opportunities; and development of skills, habits, and mindsets of an equitable educator.