Content Enhancement Routines

The Content Enhancement Routines (CERs) are dynamic instructional tools that use powerful teaching devices and procedures to plan for and teach critical content in an understandable and easy-to-learn manner. Teachers engage students collaboratively to develop understanding in a way that maintains the integrity of the content while meeting both group and individual needs.

CERs are responsive to a range of student needs in content area classes. They were designed to provide instruction for all students, including those with learning challenges.

Explaining Text, Topics, and Details

Clarifying Routine

Teachers use the Clarifying Routine to focus on a topic and then explore related details and the topic’s connection to critical concepts and ideas. This routine helps students master the meaning of targeted words and phrases.

Framing Routine

Teachers use the Framing Routine to transform abstract main ideas and key topics into a concrete representation that helps students think about and talk about the key topic and essential related information.

Order Routine

Teachers use the ORDER Routine to organize and make sense of information visually. Students think about what they have just learned or read, try to understand how it all fits together, look for any missing information or errors in their notes, and try to fit it all together to create their own graphic organizer.

Survey Routine

Teachers use the Survey Routine to construct an overview of a reading assignment when students are having difficulty reading and sorting out information from inconsiderate text.

Higher Order Thinking and Reasoning

Question Exploration Routine

Teachers use the Question Exploration Routine to help students understand a “critical question” and to arrive at a main idea answer. Students learn to break apart a large question into smaller, more manageable questions, answer those questions, arrive at the main idea answer, apply the main idea to the subject area or related issue and generalize the idea.

Scientific Argumentation Routine

Teachers use the Scientific Argumentation Routine to help students think critically about a science claim, decide on the strength of the evidence, and explain the reasoning to accept or reject the claim.

Teaching Cause and Effect

Teachers use the Cause-and-Effect Routine to help students engage in higher-order reasoning and to think critically about an event, action, idea, topic or procedure, important key terms necessary for understanding causes and effects, and to summarize understanding.

Teaching Cross-Curricular Argumentation

Teachers use the Cross-Curricular Argumentation Routine to guide students to evaluate whether a claim is supported by evidence and reasoning, consider counterarguments, and make a decision to accept or reject the claim.

Teaching Decision-Making

Teachers use the Decision-Making Routine to engage students in reasoning about an issue, options or responses, required knowledge, reasons to support each option, and to evaluate, judge, and rank options, propose alternatives, and make and explain their decision.

Increasing Performance

Quality Assigmment Routine

Teachers use the Quality Assignment Routine to plan, present, and engage students in quality assignments and then evaluate assignments with students.

Vocabulary LINCing Routine

Teachers use the Vocabulary LINCing Routine to facilitate student use of two powerful tools (an auditory memory device and a visual memory device) to help them learn and remember the meaning of complex terms.

Planning and Leading Learning

Course Organizer Routine

Teachers use the Course Organizer Routine to plan courses around essential learning and critical concepts. At the start of the year, teachers introduce the course and class rituals, and they revisit them throughout the year to help students maintain focus on the big ideas and understand important relationships.

Lesson Organizer Routine

Teachers use the Lesson Organizer Routine to plan lessons and then introduce and connect ideas to the unit and the course.

Unit Organizer Routine

Teachers use the Unit Organizer Routine to plan units, introduce and maintain the big ideas in units, and show how units, critical information, and concepts are related.