I’m coaching candidates for spring 2025 and noticing principals want a tight 10-minute demo that shows clear language objectives, student talk moves, and how you check for language growth — more than glossy slides. For those hired recently, what framed your impact best (e.g., WIDA growth, co-teaching results, SIOP routines), and if you had to pick one highlight, what would you lead with?
I got offers when my 10-minute demo had an ‘I can…’ language objective, a 30‑sec partner retell with sentence frames, and a WIDA Can Do–aligned exit slip so I could show growth on the spot… The slide that landed was a co-teach snapshot — 42% moved a WIDA level in one semester — glossy decks, , did nothing. If time’s tight, @AnaLopez, lean on SIOP interaction + review and cut the warm-up — do you let them role‑play as students?
Building on @mlee78, my best 10‑minute demo used a 1‑minute cold‑to‑warm write: I tallied two target moves (“because/so” and past‑tense -ed) for two focal students on the doc cam and flashed the before/after counts to make growth visible. It’s a language before‑and‑after photo, no glossy slides needed. Caveat: if the group’s very beginner, I swap the write for a quick labeled drawing with sentence frames and tally the same moves.
I center my demo on a quick dictogloss: students reconstruct a 3‑sentence content chunk in pairs, then I do a 20‑second “notice and name” micro‑conference with one focal student on a target form and have them immediately retry. I flash a 0–2 success scale for self‑rating and tie it to the relevant WIDA Can Do (Can Do Descriptors) so the panel hears the rationale; if the room feels flat, I swap dictogloss for a picture‑based retell to jump‑start talk.
Co-signing @cgreen2021 on evidence: I opened with a one-line target for WIDA 3–4, ran a 45-second read-cover-retell in pairs with a stem like ‘One reason. is.’, and live-coded two focal students’ use of sequence words and relative clauses on a sticky-note rubric; I closed by flashing their bump on the WIDA Can Do grid (https://wida.wisc.edu/resources/can-do-descriptors) — no jazz hands, just receipts. If the room looks puzzled, I ditch slides and narrate my moves while circulating.
I anchor my sample lesson with a one-line objective and a partner “press-and-rephrase” turn where students upgrade a claim. I tally expanded noun phrases and one target connector per spotlight student on a sticky note, then show the bump at the end against WIDA Can Do 3–4 (https://wida.wisc.edu/resources/can-do-descriptors) — zero slides, under 9 minutes. , slides look nice but don’t prove growth; if the room is flat, I slip in one choral “my turn/our turn” and go right back to partners.
Quick example: I run a 2‑minute ‘first draft, better draft’ speaking loop with a partner — students use a content frame, I live‑track two features (a connector and a complex noun group), then cue an immediate redo and flash a tiny 3‑level rubric to show the before/after bump. It hits talk moves and the growth check fast, but if tech’s flaky I swap the projector for two sticky notes and hand the panel a photo of the before/after sample.
Short tip: in a 10-minute demo I end with a 60-second collect-evidence move — students give a one-sentence because/so explain, I live-code two samples, then flash a tiny pre/post chart from last unit to show how I track language growth. Principals perked up when I framed it as co-teaching impact (science lab talk: connectors from 22% to 68% in 5 weeks) instead of glossy slides, . If needed, drop in a quick SIOP interaction to scaffold talk: https://www.cal.org/siop/ — what’s your one metric?
Building on @rclark82, I go with a micro dictogloss that makes the language target obvious: I say ‘Today we’re pushing comparatives,’ read a short content blurb twice, pairs rebuild, and I tally accurate comparative chunks live… I end by showing a small WIDA growth snapshot tied to this routine; if the room’s flat, I pivot to a quick think‑aloud with two anonymized student samples — speed‑dating for pedagogy.
the move that sealed offers for me was this: I write the language objective — ‘I can justify a claim using because and therefore’ — then grab one student sticky, underline the target chunks, and name the next step tied to WIDA Can Do levels (https://wida.wisc.edu/resources/can-do-descriptors). Admins saw student talk plus a clear growth check in that short window; if WIDA lingo feels heavy, I swap in plain ‘emerging → expanding’ and keep moving.
In that tight window, I anchor impact with a one-card ‘can-do’ rubric and a quick ‘say it better’ loop: students upgrade a partner sentence toward the objective, e.g., ‘I can describe a process using first/then/finally.’ I tally two upgraded samples on the spot and tag them to WIDA Can Do bands to show how I’d monitor growth; if the panel skews data-heavy, I flash a real co-teaching snapshot from last year. @rclark82 is right on clarity, but principals also want to see the handoff they’d get in a co-taught class, so I model a brief handoff.
But did a 10-minute demo where I ran a 60-second baseline, taught a quick “frame + verb bank,” then reran the prompt and tallied targets on the board — principals saw growth in real time. The objective was “I can summarize a process using first, then, finally,” and I color-coded stems by WIDA 2/3/4 so the differentiation was obvious. If time’s tighter, skip slides and use mini whiteboards for the tally.