Teacher Clarity: Understanding How Learners Learn
Teacher Clarity: Understanding How Learners Learn
Explore innovative student-centered learning frameworks that empower ownership of learning, integrate standards-based practices, foster teacher clarity, ensure academic rigor, and build strong student agency. Find practical strategies and insights to transform classrooms and empower learners for success.
Design PBL with Clarity Rigorous Project Based Learning by Michael McDowell Video Michael McDowell, author of Rigorous PBL Design, suggests 5 steps to ensure students can answer where I am going in my learning: Step 1: Prioritize key learning intentions.…
Shape Project Design with Clarity Michael McDowell’s first design shift, Clarity, focuses on shaping project design (PBL) to enable students to address question 1, where am I going in my learning? McDowell ensures clarity by using two design challenges that…
Introduction To help facilitate Project-Based Learning of your own, a fourth-grade teacher and James Fester, author of Creating a PBL unit Based on Local History in Elementary School, give 5 important tips that are effective in creating a Project-Based Learning…
What is Hexagonal Thinking? Hexagonal thinking involves students recording ideas, questions or facts on hexagonal tiles and arranging them so that related tiles are next to each other, essentially building a web of connections. It can be used to provide…
Using Community Challenges to Collecting Real-World Problems Using Community Challenges to promote mind and skill sets is to collect real-world problems that are a challenge or driving question for students. This is PBL’s first step in the learning process, which…
Why Empower Student Learning So Important 6 Truths came about when I read Spencer and Juliani use the Louis Braille story to focus on giving kids the knowledge and skills to pursue their passions, interests, and future. Louis Braille as…
Bullying and Glasses in Schools Bullying often happens at school, and children who wear glasses are common targets. It can be verbal, physical, or both, and it often happens at school according to NVISION. According to the U.S. Department of…
Building Sense of Belonging Building a sense of belonging is a strong sense of connection to a group or community. Feeling respected and accepted, having a sense of group purpose, and being part of a bigger system are ways to…
Practice Mind and Skill Sets Shape Classroom Culture What is a Learner-Centered Classroom Culture? Practice mind and skill sets shape classroom culture by teachers involving students in what it means to belong to the group, how they act as a…
Build Framework for Student Agency What is an Agency? Bill Zima, author of Mindsets and Skillsets for Learning: A Framework for Building Student Agency, defines agency as the perceived ability of the individual, based on his or her capacity, to…
Using Student Choice to Support Motivation Chase Nordengren, author of Step into Student Goal Setting book, writes ‘no matter how your classroom is designed or how much authority you exercise over students, they always retain the most important decision: the…
Introduction To build better rubrics, it needs to be high quality. According to Karin Hess, author of “6 Key Questions to Better Rubrics”, 3 important qualities of a better rubric are: Creating a better rubric is more than slapping expectations…
Introduction To build commitment to learning in students, you need buy-in from students and staff with school vision, values, and goals. School functioning as Professional Learning Communities uses their mission, vision, values, and goals as successful businesses use Big, Hairy,…
Learning Something New Defined Learning something new or inquiry-based learning is about triggering curiosity and tailoring your curriculum to what your students are interested in. Heather Wolpert-Gawron, author of the article “What the Heck is Inquiry-Based Learning?“. notes Inquiry-Based Learning…
Introduction Have you ever faced this struggle: should I focus on academic content or boost social emotional character development? I am sure educators have encountered this dilemma many times, including myself. With no guidance on the topic, it is hard…
Voice and Choice Voice and Choice are the two core tenets of Student-Center-Learning, according to Christa Green and Christopher Harrington, authors of the “How Implementing Voice and Choice Can Improve Student Engagement” article. Green and Harrington explore voice and choice…