Deeper Learning 2019

You’ve created an amazing new project, you’ve tuned it with colleagues to perfection, and you have the ideal model to guide your students. However, as soon as your class gets started, kids get stuck, frustrated and seemingly helpless. What’s the deal??? Why isn’t this working???

Crafting motivating projects is fun and exciting for teachers and certainly motivates students, but the deep work of a successful learning experience comes in the granular details of imbedding student supports across the arc of a project. In this workshop, we will explore ways to anticipate difficulties and scaffold students as they progress through the stages of a project: ideating/researching, planning, drafting/crafting, feedback/revision and exhibition.

Using a simple set of lenses that track across a project from beginning to end, we will collaborate to identify areas of potential difficulty for learners and create student supports that bridge these possible pitfalls. Working in grade-level bands, participants will apply this approach to an actual project from their own teaching practice, or to a grade-level appropropriate sample project provided for workshop use. By the end, participants will have not only a clear framework to apply in their own project planning, but also numerous possible student supports they can use in their classrooms.

This workshop is suitable for anyone interested in refining their project planning and implementation, but especially for those teachers working with complicated learner profiles. Supports for organization, attention and executive functioning will form the bulk of our focus, but reading, writing and language vulnerabilities will also be explored. All grade levels and subject areas are welcome. UPDATE: In order to maximize collaboration and idea-sharing, age/grade bands will work in groups on a single project that I'll provide. You are no longer expected to bring a project of your own, although this work will translate directly to your own classroom practice.