**2. What is SOAR?**

SOAR, which stands for strategic observation and reflection, is not a curriculum or a set of instructional strategies. SOAR is the lens teachers look through as they plan, teach, reflect upon, and elevate their teaching practice by engaging in cycles of strategic observation and reflection. SOAR has emerged from more than a decade of systematic research and development designed to identify the essential practices that teachers can use to drive learning across disciplines. More specifically, we identified research-based essential practices for disciplinary discussions through analyses of data from Delphi panel studies of expert consensus on disciplinary literacy instruction across content areas [4–7], video observations of classroom instruction [1], existing instructional practice protocols with established reliability and predictive validity [2, 8–10], and an extensive review of the research literature on effective language and literacy instruction [11–15]. One High-Impact Practice emerged as having significant potential to enhance students' ability to engage in student-tostudent academic discourse. We call this practice disciplinary discussions.

Our research also suggests that this essential High-Impact Practice does not operate in isolation. Instead, effective teachers enact a set of dynamic instructional moves during instruction in support of the High-Impact Practice. We labeled this set of three instructional moves Cross-Cutting Practices.

Facilitating acquisition of academic language: this practice focuses on structuring, strengthening, and supporting the acquisition and use of the academic language needed to participate in disciplinary discussions [13, 16–18].

Fostering metacognition for disciplinary learning: this practice focuses on the degree to which a teacher visibly enacts and deconstructs metacognitive processes and strategies that foster students' metacognitive knowledge and their ability to engage in academic discourse [19, 20].

Monitoring and guiding disciplinary learning: this practice focuses on how effectively a teacher monitors and guides disciplinary learning as well as adjusts and supports disciplinary discussions to meet the current needs of all students in the classroom [21, 22].

Finally, in preparation for enactment of High-Impact and Cross-Cutting Practices, teachers employ a Foundational Practice.

Designing instruction for disciplinary thinking and understanding: this practice focuses on the design of lessons and learning tasks to promote disciplinary discussions and support the High-Impact Practice. This practice also focuses on how the teacher establishes high expectations and fosters in all students the willingness to participate in intellectually rigorous tasks that require academic discourse [21, 23–26].

To illustrate the interconnectedness of the practices, we organized them into a Teaching Frame consisting of the High-Impact Practice supported by the Cross-Cutting and Foundational Practices (see **Figure 1**). The frame is designed to help instructors understand and implement the High-Impact Practice that drives student learning, while simultaneously enacting a set of dynamic instructional moves in support of the High-Impact Practice and taking the foundational planning steps needed to do this well. This Teaching Frame provides a common language around

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next lesson.

**Figure 1.**

*SOAR teaching frame.*

*Teaching with and for Metacognition in Disciplinary Discussions*

instruction at a grain size that allows instructors from kindergarten to higher educa-

By using a SOAR Teaching Frame —in this case, the SOAR Teaching Frame for Disciplinary Discussions—as a lens to plan, teach, and reflect upon their instructional practice, teachers are by definition teaching with metacognition. That is, they are gaining awareness about and control over how they think and teach by using the High-Impact, Cross-Cutting, and Foundational Practices to plan, monitor, evaluate, and adjust their instructional goals and teaching strategies. To support teachers through this process we have developed an implementation rubric that is aligned with each practice in the disciplinary discussions teaching frame. **Table 1** contains

Moving along the rubric from "no implementation" to "full implementation" enables a teacher in the planning stage to focus specifically on what she needs to include in her lesson. For instance, if her students are still developing the conversation skills necessary to engage in disciplinary discussions (Element 1), the implementation rubric will help the teacher recognize the need to introduce and refer to those skills as well as provide support for students to use them in tasks and activities. Then, when the lesson is over and the teacher is reflecting on how successful it was, the rubric can help her recognize what worked and what did not work. For instance, she may realize that the supports she used enabled some students to use the conversation skills to engage in a discussion, but other students clearly needed something more. This insight will help the teacher adjust her instruction during the

We are currently using the SOAR Teaching Frames in professional learning programs for teachers, coaches, and instructional leaders in partner schools and school districts across the United States. We have also brought the SOAR model and

tion to meaningfully plan and reflect individually or collaboratively.

the section of the rubric that is aligned with the High-Impact Practice.

**3. Using SOAR to teach with metacognition**

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86665*

**Figure 1.** *SOAR teaching frame.*

*Metacognition in Learning*

**2. What is SOAR?**

writing.

that support the metacognition of learners engaged in academic conversations, e.g., face-to-face interactions, online dialogues, and written conversations. This emphasis addresses a significant void in the research literature which more commonly targets metacognition in learning generally or applied specifically to reading and

SOAR, which stands for strategic observation and reflection, is not a curriculum or a set of instructional strategies. SOAR is the lens teachers look through as they plan, teach, reflect upon, and elevate their teaching practice by engaging in cycles of strategic observation and reflection. SOAR has emerged from more than a decade of systematic research and development designed to identify the essential practices that teachers can use to drive learning across disciplines. More specifically, we identified research-based essential practices for disciplinary discussions through analyses of data from Delphi panel studies of expert consensus on disciplinary literacy instruction across content areas [4–7], video observations of classroom instruction [1], existing instructional practice protocols with established reliability and predictive validity [2, 8–10], and an extensive review of the research literature on effective language and literacy instruction [11–15]. One High-Impact Practice emerged as having significant potential to enhance students' ability to engage in student-tostudent academic discourse. We call this practice disciplinary discussions.

Our research also suggests that this essential High-Impact Practice does not operate in isolation. Instead, effective teachers enact a set of dynamic instructional moves during instruction in support of the High-Impact Practice. We labeled this

Facilitating acquisition of academic language: this practice focuses on structuring, strengthening, and supporting the acquisition and use of the academic lan-

Fostering metacognition for disciplinary learning: this practice focuses on the degree to which a teacher visibly enacts and deconstructs metacognitive processes and strategies that foster students' metacognitive knowledge and their ability to

Monitoring and guiding disciplinary learning: this practice focuses on how effectively a teacher monitors and guides disciplinary learning as well as adjusts and supports disciplinary discussions to meet the current needs of all students in the

Finally, in preparation for enactment of High-Impact and Cross-Cutting

Designing instruction for disciplinary thinking and understanding: this practice focuses on the design of lessons and learning tasks to promote disciplinary discussions and support the High-Impact Practice. This practice also focuses on how the teacher establishes high expectations and fosters in all students the willingness to participate in intellectually rigorous tasks that require academic

To illustrate the interconnectedness of the practices, we organized them into a Teaching Frame consisting of the High-Impact Practice supported by the Cross-Cutting and Foundational Practices (see **Figure 1**). The frame is designed to help instructors understand and implement the High-Impact Practice that drives student learning, while simultaneously enacting a set of dynamic instructional moves in support of the High-Impact Practice and taking the foundational planning steps needed to do this well. This Teaching Frame provides a common language around

set of three instructional moves Cross-Cutting Practices.

engage in academic discourse [19, 20].

Practices, teachers employ a Foundational Practice.

classroom [21, 22].

discourse [21, 23–26].

guage needed to participate in disciplinary discussions [13, 16–18].

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instruction at a grain size that allows instructors from kindergarten to higher education to meaningfully plan and reflect individually or collaboratively.
