Mindset Reflections: The Benefits of CLR Infused Instructionby Dr. Hollie

We have finally reached the end of the series Year of VABB with Intent and Purpose. Thank you for hanging in with me and I trust your time has not been wasted. Most of all, I want you to see and feel the benefits of CLR-infused instruction. It is one thing to be intentional and purposeful with your CLR lesson planning, but it is another thing to see it working for the benefit of your students. In fact, there are at least three immediate benefits of CLR-infused instruction, meaning you see them right away and you don’t have to wait on a “test score.”

Benefit One – Student Engagement
This is a true story – a testimony if I might. I was supporting a teacher in his CLRness earlier this year. I had the honor of observing a lesson that he had intentionally and purposefully infused with CLR. He was trying one of the more popular CLR activities – Carousel Brainstorming. Note that when I say CLR activity I am not saying that CLR owns Carousel Brainstorming. I am saying that this is an activity that is used frequently for validating and affirming cultural behaviors in CLR.  For this teacher, it was his first time using the activity so after the lesson, he asked his students for their opinion of the activity. In doing so, he was explicit about the instruction part, not necessarily the content of the lesson. He was also explicit about how he wanted to validate and affirm their cultural behaviors – collaboration, high movement, and sociocentrism. Here is how the students responded with a big shout-out, “That was fun!” Big smile from the teacher. Enough said.

Benefit Two –  Student-Centered
Frankly, when a lesson has been CLR-infused, it is student-centered. Student-centered is one of the terms in education that has been overused and cliched so much that it has become meaningless. Let me give you my definition: the students are doing all or most of the work in their learning, which is empowering for them. When I did the observation with the teacher, he was not doing too much. Not literally of course. He was more of a facilitator, timekeeper, and individual group supporter, as needed. If you walked in the room, you saw that the students were responsible for their own learning.

Benefit Three – Teacher Efficacy
Nothing is more beneficial than a teacher feeling like he/she/they are making a difference in their students learning and seeing their students engaged. This feeling of efficacy is an understated benefit of CLR. The power of teacher efficacy is that the teachers’ belief their in the instruction above all else that is contributes to increased academic performance and student success. The beauty of CLR is that you can do a CLR activity with validation and affirmation and see in real-time how it affects the students positively. Teacher efficacy is feeling good about your instruction. This is why I always say CLR is empowering for teachers AND students. 
 
I would love at this point to show you a CLR lesson with all these benefits at play but I cannot decide which one to show you so I am going to send you to our YouTube Channel. Pick one for yourself. These are not exemplars per se, just a representation of where folks are in their CLRness. You then reflect, where are you in your CLRness, and are your feeling the benefits?