|**Table 3: Descrip**<br>|**tion of Upper Elementar**|**y CLASS Domains, Dimensions, and Indicators**|
|---|---|---|
|**Domain**<br>**Dimension**|**Description**|**Indicator and Behavioral Markers**|
|**Instructional**<br>**Learning**|students’ interest, engagement,<br>and ability to learn from<br>lessons and activities|<br>**Variety of modalities, strategies, and materials**—variety of<br>modalities and strategies, variety of materials, interactive materials<br>**Effective engagement**—Active participation, sustained attention|
|<br>**Formats**||**Learning targets/organization**—clear learning targets, previews,<br>reorientation/summary statements, clear/well-organized presentation<br>of information|
|||**Depth of understanding**—Multiple and varied perspectives, real<br>world connections, emphasis on meaningful relationships among<br>facts, skills, and concepts|
||The depth of the lesson<br>content and the approaches<br>used to help students|**Communication of concepts and procedures**—essential<br>components identified, conditions for how and when to use the<br>concept and/or procedure, multiple and varied examples, contrasting<br>non-examples|
|**Content**<br>**Understanding**|<br> <br>comprehend the framework,<br>key ideas and procedures in an<br>academic discipline.|<br> <br>**Background knowledge and misconceptions**—attention to prior<br>knowledge, explicit integration of new information, attention to<br>misconceptions, students share knowledge and make connections|
|||**Transmission of content knowledge and procedures**—clear and<br>accurate definitions, effective clarifications, effective rephrasing|
|||**Opportunity for practice of procedures and skills**—supervised<br>practice, independent practice|
|||<br>**Feedback loops**—Back and forth exchanges, persistence, follow-up<br>|
|**pport**<br>**Quality of**|Assesses the degree to which<br>the teacher provides feedback<br>|questions<br>**Scaffolding**—Assistance, hints, prompting completion and thought<br>processes|
|**nal Su**<br> <br>**Feedback**|that expands learning and<br>understanding and encourages<br>|<br>**Building on student responses**—Expansion, clarification, specific<br>feedback|
|**uctio**|continued participation.|**Encouragement and affirmation**—Recognition and affirmation of<br>effort, encouragement of persistence|
|**Instr**<br>**Analysis and**<br>|Assesses the degree to which<br>students are engaged in higher-<br>level thinking skills through|<br>**Facilitation of higher-order thinking—**Students identify and<br>investigate problems/questions, students examine, analyze, and/or<br>interpret data, information, approaches, students construct<br>alternatives/predict/hypothesize/brainstorm, students develop<br>arguments, provide explanations|
|**Inquiry**|<br>the application of knowledge<br>and skills to novel and/or|**Opportunities for novel application—**Students apply previous<br>knowledge/skills, presents cognitive challenges, open-ended tasks|
||open-ended problems.|**Metacognition—**Students explain their own cognitive processes,<br>students self-evaluate/reflect/plan, teacher models thinking about<br>thinking|
||Content-focused discussion<br>among teachers and students|<br>**Cumulative content-driven exchanges**—connection to content,<br>depth of exchanges, exchanges that build on one another|
|**Instructional**<br>**Dil**|<br>that is cumulative, with the<br>teacher supporting students to|**Distributed talk—**Balance of student and teacher talk, student-<br>initiated dialogues,majorityof students, peer dialogues|
|**aogue**|chain ideas together in ways<br>that lead to deeper<br>understanding.|**Facilitation strategies—**Open-ended questions/statements,<br>students respond, acknowledgement/repetition/extension, active<br>listening, pause as needed to allow thinking and full expression|
|**Student**<br>**Engagement**|Captures the degree to which<br>all students in the class are<br>focused and participating in<br>the learning activity presented<br>or facilitated by the teacher.|**Active engagement**<br>Responding, asking questions, volunteering, sharing ideas, looking<br>at the teacher, active listening, manipulating materials, lack of off-<br>task behavior|

Source: Upper Elementary CLASS manual. Used with permission of Teachstone.

Each dimension looks for the presence of indicators, each characterized by the presence of a variety of behavioral markers as expressed by the teacher and student, grouped in three ranges: a score of 1 or 2 (the 7