Learning+Design

Best Practices:
- Survey the topic or chunk- 10 -15 lessons worth of "stuff." What are important terms, concepts, skills? - Examine curriculum documents that exist in District. Check [|Tech Paths] for available units. (User name- grd(grade level)core; password: grd(grade level)core) - Survey standards and performance indicators that are important, applicable and central to the discipline. Check out NYS Standards and Performance Indicators at [|AccelerateU]. - Unpack the standards and performance indicators. Nouns/ noun phrases become important vocabulary terms. Verbs (with the objects of verbs) become skills to be taught. - Use identified standards and performance indicators to consider final student products.

2. Be sure to have a quality learning goal.
Best Practices: - Be sure that it is a cognitive learning goal rather than simply completing an activity. - Completes the stem: Students will better understand....Students will.... (verb) (content)  //Students will better understand the concept of European imperialism in Africa and Asia. Students will - Define the term imperialism - Explain the different forms imperialism took. // - Post the learning goal in the same spot each day - Orally reference the learning goal early in the lesson; use it as a focus of closure at lesson's end.

3. Be sure that students- each student- is producing something in your classroom using the knowledge.
Best practices: - Don't provide input for too long without stopping for students to engage the content themselves. (Rule of Thumb:Time of input= age) - Production can be oral (talk with a partner), written (provisional writing or notemaking), spatial (picture or graphic representation) or physical (signalling)

4. Use Starter Activities
Best Practices: - Have students move into production mode as quickly as possible upon entering the room. - Have students work independently to quiet the room and engage the kids in the content. - Starter activity can be review of previous lessons or serve as a set or hook for today's lesson.

5. Deepen Engagement By Asking Students to Engage in Identifying Similarities and Differences
Best Practices: - Foster connections between different pieces of content by seeking patterns between them. - Questioning for comparison: How is x similar to and different from Y? How is this connected to that? What does this remind you of from your own life? Analogy: How is this similar to....... - Three-way Tie - Students need to be taught "how to" compare- Use formal comparison

6. Use Writing in the Classroom
Best Practices: - Have students maintain a "learning log" for daily use. - Use provisional writing daily: Ask students to respond to prompts to kindle thinking at the beginning of lessons. - Ask students to write explanations or summaries after first instruction. - Use Readable Writing Weekly: Students write extended pieces on a weekly basis. Opportunities for feedback and rewriting. - Use Polished Writing Monthly: Extended pieces with feedback and multiple revisions and edits.