Focus Area B:

Implement evidence based instructional strategies including

technology best practices that promote high levels of student

engagement and achievement.

Focus Area B: How Does it Fit with Backward Design (UbD)?

Focus Area B: Reading and Writing Across the

Curriculum

• Content Literacy

• Reading science, writing science…

• Writing-to-Learn

•First thoughts, nutshelling, questioning…

• Writing to Develop Analytical Thinking

•Arguing, locating evidence, evaluating…

• Writing to Demonstrate Knowledge

• Constructed response assessments, reports, essays….

Focus Area B: Differentiated Instruction

Multiple Students

=

Multiple opportunities to teach and learn

Focus Area B: Differentiated Instruction

What might change for some students?

• Content – what is taught

• Process – how it is taught

• Product – what the students

produce

Focus Area B: Differentiated Instruction

One Size Does

NOT Fit ALL

Focus Area B: Active Student Engagement &

Technology

V = Varied instruction &

assessment

I = Immediate, specific

feedback

S = Safe (physically,

psychologically)

A = Active involvement

Focus Area B: Technology and Higher Level Thinking

Grappling’s Technology & Learning

Spectrum

Level 1 – Tech Literacy

• Learning about technology

• Projects are tech focused rather than

aligned to learning standards

Level 2 – Adapting Tasks• Used to adapt assignments & tasks

given in the past w/o technology

Level 3 – Transforming Uses•Complex learning and thinking tool

•Constructivist approaches

•Problem-based learning (PBL)

Technology Supporting

Higher Level Thinking

• E- Feedback – faster, clearer, more

effective

Immediate

standards-based feedback

• Online collective inquiry using Web

2.0 tools

Perceptual refinement

• Music and rhythm-based methods

E + M = LTM

An Educator’s Quest

1. Preparation for life in the 21st Century

2. Love being in school

Critical Thinking

Collaborative Problem Solving

Media Literacy

Essential 21st

Century Skills

It’s far more likely that students

will learn complex language and

sophisticated problem-solving

skills-when the fate of a (digital)

world depends on it.

James Paul Gee

Michael H. Levine

Role of the Members in

Focus Area B

• Review research on best practices

• Determine the gaps in implementation

K – 12 via ‘Learning Walks’

• Set 5-year development and

implementation goals

• Set measurable benchmarks

• Monitor the progress of implementation