Differentiation Grows Up: A Bird's Eye View of Purpose, Process, and Key Components

June 25, 2009

Houston, Tex.

Now that NCLB has made universal academic proficiency and differentiation a mandate, here's your opportunity to learn about the critical need for differentiation, including its varied purposes and contemporary practices. Using large group presentation format, handouts, and small group discussions, this Pre-Conference Institute explores

• Vital learner characteristics and differences aligned to grouping, assessment, and instruction.
• Effective and practical differentiation strategies for teachers in all subject areas and grade levels.
• Short- and long-term program goals. 
• Professional development structures to support a strategic differentiation initiative in your class, school, or district.

 Leading for Differentiated Instruction

June 25, 2009

Houston, Tex.

Attend this one-day Pre-Conference Institute to gain a better understanding of leading differentiated instruction in your school or district. Bring colleagues from your district or school team to develop a vision of effective heterogeneous school communities, and explore issues that leaders must consider in guiding teachers in their practice of differentiation, including

• Ideas on supporting and enhancing a responsive learning community in schools.
• School and district structures that support or hinder DI.
• Skills that serve as resources to observe, coach, and support teachers in DI.

An experienced consultant will share successful strategies and help you create an action plan for implementation.

 Understanding by Design: Beginning the Journey

June 25, 2009

Houston, Tex.

Do you understand understanding? Can you describe the elements of good unit design? Participants in this full-day Institute will examine understanding and good design as a foundation for beginning the journey with Understanding by Design. Participants will experience the backward design process as they work through all three design stages using a generic topic. Through discussion, reflection, design, and self-assessment exercises, participants will develop a solid foundation for future work with Understanding by Design.

 Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement

June 25, 2009

Houston, Tex.

This Institute will provide an overview of the ASCD book Schooling by Design: Mission, Action, and Achievement  and explore the following essential questions:

• What is the Mission of Schooling and how should a school's mission guide its work?
• How should principles of learning influence educational practice?
• In what ways can "backward design" enhance school improvement planning?
• What are the 10 components of a robust curriculum and assessment system aimed at student understanding and transfer?

Participants will examine a variety of practical and proven processes, tools, and examples to assist administrators and teacher leaders in leading and sustaining standards-based education at the school- or district-level. Leaders will have the opportunity to work on a school or district action and improvement plan reflecting Schooling by Design principles and strategies.

 Lesson Design to Get Results: Linking Effective Learning of New Knowledge with Deep Understanding

June 25, 2009

Houston, Tex.

Of course, you begin every unit of study expecting all of your students to be successful. But whenever you have students who don' reach their potential or may even fail, it could be because you didn't provide them with the right "critical input experiences" In this activity-based Institute, an experienced consultant introduces you to research-based processes for lesson design that ensures student success for deep understanding of knowledge. Learn how to attain your ultimate goal—understanding and long term retention—by focusing on the following important aspects of design:

• Organization of critical input experiences
• Active interaction processes
• Student use of linguistic and nonlinguistic representations of new knowledge
• Extending understanding by examining similarities and differences
• Alternative practice strategies
• Individual and group reflection and revision

 Building Background Knowledge Through Vocabulary Development

June 25, 2009

Houston, Tex.

You know that there are factors outside of school—such as home life and childhood experiences—that have a big influence on student success in school. But what can you do about it? Attend this Pre-Conference Institute to learn how one factor in particular—academic background knowledge—is one of the strongest indicators of how well students will learn subject area content. Understand how you can build academic background knowledge by directly teaching certain vocabulary in a certain way. Discover how to use a research-based six-step vocabulary instruction model to help students who struggle academically to become more confident and successful learners. And specific strategies to use during each step of the process to introduce words in a non-threatening way, allow students to process those words in multiple modalities, multiple times, and then have fun with and master essential terms.