Working+on+the+Work

This is an on-line, independent flex opportunity of the flex session Working on the Work. It must be completed in full to earn 2 hours of flex credit. All work must be completed by 5 pm on April 20th.

Thank you! //**Anne Warren **//

Approximately 5-10 minutes total to read, reflect, and respond to these two questions:
 * Reflection/Pre-survey: Think and Respond **(there are 2 separate places to post)
 * If deep student understanding is a recipe, what are the main ingredients? //(**Note**: This is a High Yield Strategy - creating a metaphor)//
 * Students are volunteers of their time and attention. What do you/can you do to encourage them to "volunteer their time and attention" to your lessons?

Approximately 15-30 minutes total to read, reflect, and respond to questions related to each of the topics/pages below: **Learning/Review:** Explore and complete the **Think and Respond ** for each of the following links:
 * 1) Levels of Engagement
 * 2) Bloom's New Taxonomy
 * 3) Multiple Intelligences - Learning Styles

Please feel free to visit other links in the right-hand navigation pane to refresh your knowledge and support your planning efforts.

Approximately 40-80 minutes to complete the final assignment:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">Application: **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">Your final assignment is a DI application for an upcoming unit of study and has two components:

__**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">Part One: Creating a Rubric **__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">What do you expect your students to know and be able to do as a result of their learning? What are the non-negotiables of ANY assignment they complete for you? Create a rubric explaining your expectations. This will help you when students select different activities which will be graded. The common rubric will be used for all choices because it contains your "non-negotiables." You can create your own rubric or you can visit a site to help you make one. This is for YOU and does not need to be fancy. It will be an asset when it comes time to grade student work.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">﻿ Optional resource: Make free rubrics with RubiStar __**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">Part Two: Creating a Choice Board **__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">Understanding that student engagement and learning is enhanced by the work we design, create a choice board (aka: Menu, tic-tac-toe, anchor activity) of learning activities/assignments that students may select from to demonstrate their understanding.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">You can provide as few as three activites for students to select from, but you want the tasks to vary by interest or learning style so that students have a choice in selecting the best fit.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">Are you afraid students will select the "easy tasks?" Create a pyramid and allow students to select one row to earn their total points (i.e. 30 points). The top activity is the most challenging, so it is one assignment for all 30 points. The middle row is the intermediate level, so it has two assignments worth 15 points each. The bottom row is the easiest, but students must complete all three activities for 10 points each in order to earn 30 points.
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">Is it challenging trying to come up with activities? Ask your students!! Have them submit ideas and choose the ones that will get you the results you want. (This also increases their ownership of the process!)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 11pt; margin: 0in;">For more examples of choice boards, as well as blank templates you may print and complete or save to your computer and edit, visit the DI Application page.

Please remember: <span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">﻿ You send both of these items to me in order to receive flex credit.

<span style="background-color: #ffff00; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Please submit these items on or before April 20th, 2011.

Thank you! Anne

Consider the following information and resources in order to gather ideas for enhancing your unit of study:



__//** Top 10 Charateristics of a Brain-Friendly Classroom: **//__

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• A positive environment <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• Visual Aids <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• Music (calming or energizing) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• Relevant lessons <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• Rituals taught <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• Students talking about content <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• Students moving to learn content <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• Positive expectations <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• High challenge / Low stress <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">• Content taught in chunks (with activities)

Which do you have strongly in place? Which would you be interested in exploring further?



Have you explored this resource to see your standards and/or what additional materials are available to you?