• The activity engages students in the consideration of the key concepts that are central to successful learning in terms of the unit topic.
• The activity helps students draw on prior knowledge in one of the following ways:
  • The students draw on prior knowledge of their own that will provide a cognitive map for understanding the unit’s key concepts and ideas.
  • The students learn appropriate new knowledge that will provide a cognitive map for understanding the unit’s key concepts and ideas.
• The activity has a clear relationship to the unit goals, and sets the stage for students’ successful work toward meeting those goals through the unit’s activities, lessons, and discussions.
• The activity has strong potential for creating interest in the unit’s key concepts, ideas, activities, discussions, lessons, and texts.
• The activity involves more than one phase, with the different phases involving different configurations of people (e.g., small group activity followed by whole-class discussion).
• The activity is presented as a lesson plan, with time estimates for each segment of the activity and a clear explanation of what will happen within each segment, including the specific wording of prompts, the questions that will prompt discussion, and so on (see Chapter 8).
• There is evidence that a peer or practicing teacher has read and critiqued the introductory activity.

• The activity engages students in the consideration of the key concepts that are central to successful learning in terms of the unit topic. The alignment between the introductory activity and the key concepts is not as clear as in introductory activities that receive an A.
• The activity helps students draw on prior knowledge in one of the following ways:
• The students draw on prior knowledge of their own that will provide a cognitive map for understanding the unit’s key concepts and ideas.
• The students learn appropriate new knowledge that will provide a cognitive map for understanding the unit’s key concepts and ideas.3The activity has a clear relationship to the unit goals, and sets the stage for students’ successful work toward meeting those goals through the unit’s activities, lessons, and discussions. This relationship is not as clear as in introductory activities receiving an A.
• The activity has strong potential for creating interest in the unit’s key concepts, ideas, activities, discussions, lessons, and texts. This potential is not as great as in introductory activities receiving an A.
• The activity involves more than one phase, with the different phases involving different configurations of people (e.g., small group activity followed by whole-class discussion).
• The activity is presented as a lesson plan, with time estimates for each segment of the activity and a clear explanation of what will happen within each segment, including thewording of prompts, the questions that will prompt discussion, and so on (see Chapter 8). The clarity of the explanations is not as great as that in introductory activities receiving an A.
• There is evidence that a peer or practicing teacher has read and critiqued the introductory activity.

• The relationship between the introductory activity’s focus and the key concepts that are central to successful learning in terms of the unit topic is not entirely clear.
• The relationship between the prior knowledge that students draw on or learn in the introductory activity is not clearly related to the kinds of knowledge that will benefit them in working toward the unit goals.
• The activity has modest potential for creating interest in the unit’s key concepts, ideas, activities, discussions, lessons, and texts.
• The activity does not involve more than one phase, or the different phases may not have a clear relationship to one another.
• The activity is presented as a lesson plan, with time estimates for each segment of the activity (see Chapter 8). The estimated time for each segment, however, might be inadequate for the activity planned and the specific activity within each segment is not clearly explained.
• There is evidence that a peer or practicing teacher has read and critiqued the introductory activity.

An introductory activity that meets the following criteria will receive a D:

• The relationship between the introductory activity’s focus and the key concepts that are central to successful learning in terms of the unit topic is not clear.
• The relationship between the prior knowledge that students draw on or learn in the introductory activity is not related to the kinds of knowledge that will benefit them in working toward the unit goals.
• The activity has slim potential for creating interest in the unit’s key concepts, ideas, activities, discussions, lessons, and texts.
• The activity does not involve more than one phase, or the different phases may not have a clear relationship to one another.
• The presentation is not recognizable as a lesson plan and does not specify time segments. It is vague what will happen during the introductory activity.
• There may not be evidence that a peer of practicing teacher has read and critiqued the introductory activity.

• There is no apparent relationship between the introductory activity’s focus and the key concepts that are central to successful learning in terms of the unit topic.
• There is no relationship between the prior knowledge that students draw on or learn in the introductory activity and the kinds of knowledge that will benefit them in working toward the unit goals.
• The activity has no potential for creating interest in the unit’s key concepts, ideas, activities, discussions, lessons, and texts.
• The activity does not involve more than one phase, or the different phases may not have a clear relationship to one another.
• The presentation is not recognizable as a lesson plan and does not specify time segments.
• There may not be evidence that a peer of practicing teacher has read and critiqued the introductory activity