The Thoughtful Classroom: Curriculum as a Home for the Mind

1. The Thoughtful Classroom:Curriculum as a Home for the Mind The Hidden Skills of Academic Literacy Classroom Curriculum Unit Design Research-Based Instructional Practices Instructional Learning Teams A Diversity That Works

2. Our Concept:Framework Our Thoughtful Question: How is a Unit of Instruction like a Home for the Mind?

3. Learning Goals: Participants will learn: • about the learning goals of the House Plan Blueprint and the five “rooms” of the House model Floor plan • How to use these ideas to plan thoughtful lessons and assignments • how to design a thoughtful lesson • how to design instructional units to address national, state, and local mathematics standards

4. Now….. What are YOUR personal Learning Goals for this workshop? • Review the Thoughtful Questions and Goals for the workshop. • Reflect upon your own practice. • Record one or two important things you want to take with you as a result of your participation in this workshop.

5. Goal Setting • What are goals? • Why do they matter? • How do you formulate goals and share them with your students?

6. Research and Theory on Goal Setting • Narrow what students focus on • Should not be too specific • Students should be encouraged to personalize the goals

7. Taking my work HOME… How is a Unit of Instruction Like a Home for the Mind?

8. What do you know about Houses or Homes? What do you know about Curriculum Units? How are they similar?

9. Building a Home for the Mind • What are the essential parts of a Thoughtful Curriculum Unit? • What standards do we use to evaluate classroom curriculum units? • How do Thoughtful Curriculum Units maintain high standards for all, while still providing for student diversity?

10. Every good lesson should have: • A Foyer: introduce, establish goals, engage and motivate, connect to personal experience • A Library: acquire new information, readings, lectures, demonstrations, videos • A Workshop: practice and rehearse new knowledge and skills • A Kitchen: cook up an assessment, demonstrate what has been learned and how it applies • A Porch: sit back and reflect on learning and how it applies to themselves and future learning

11. Sample House Plan The Turning Point: A Lesson in Perspective and Prejudice

12. Think of a Time, a personal incident that changed the way you look at things. What happened BEFORE, DURING and AFTER? Share your notes with a friend. What are some of the common characteristics of such incidents? Phase 1: Use the “Slide Structure” toanalyze your personal incidents.

13. Phase 2: Incident: A Lesson in Perspective and Prejudice Listen to, then read, the poem Incident. Think about what happened BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the incident in the poem.

14. Phase 2: Use the Slide Structure to check for understanding on a literal level: Make some notes to capture what happened BEFORE the incident, DURING the incident, and AFTER the incident.

15. Phase 3: Statement One: __AgreeThe boy saw all of old Baltimore. __Disagree Evidence for: Evidence against: Statement Two: __AgreeThe language in the poem is too simple. __DisagreeEvidence for: Evidence against:

16. Phase 3: Statement Three: __AgreeThe incident was completely destructive. __Disagree Evidence for: Evidence against: Statement Four: __AgreeConfronting prejudice made the boy stronger. __DisagreeEvidence for: Evidence against:

17. Phase 3: “…When you have made your decisions and backed them up, meet in a learning group of four…” -------------- “…Survey everybody, and find out where each of you stand on the four statements. Next, compare evidence and see if you can reach agreement. -------------- “…If you can’t agree, rewrite the statement so it says something you all can agree on.”

18. Phase 4: Prejudice is like… Choose an object for a simile. Fill in the comparative chart. Use the prompts for your planning and writing your Thesis Essay.

19. How is Curriculum like a Home for the Mind?

20. Every good unit should have: • A Foyer: introduce, establish goals, engage and motivate, connect to personal experience • A Library: acquire new information, readings, lectures, demonstrations, videos • A Workshop: practice and rehearse new knowledge and skills • A Kitchen: cook up an assessment, demonstrate what has been learned and how it applies • A Porch: sit back and reflect on learning and how it applies to themselves and future learning

21. Your Unit Floor Plan… • Think of a unit (10 hours or more) you teach • Use the form in your booklet to show how you designed your lesson.

22. Unit Planning: A Home for the Mind My Foyer: How do I introduce the lesson? My Workshop: How students practice what they learn? My Library: How do students acquire new information? My Porch: How do I help students reflect on their learning? My Kitchen: What kinds of tasks do I use to assess students’ learning?

23. Classroom Curriculum Design Unit Blueprint: What Standards will be addressed? Foyer (Knowledge Anticipation) How does the unit begin? What activities do teachers use at the beginning? What resources do they supply? What FACTS and Procedures do you want students to know? (VOCABULARY) What do you want students to be like? (HABITS OF MIND & ATTITUDES) Library (Knowledge Acquisition) What texts or other sources will the students use to acquire new information? Workshop (Practice) What particular skills will be modeled and practiced during this unit? Porch (Reflection) What activities or strategies will be used to help students reflect on what they are learning or have learned? Kitchen (Assessment) What assessment tasks will the students work on throughout the unit and at its close? What do you want students to do? (SKILLS) What BIG IDEAS do you want students to understand?

25. How Do You Find Your Purpose?

26. Five Steps to a Thoughtful Curriculum I dentify Your Purpose etermine Your Assessments stablish Your Lesson/Unit Floor Plan lign Your Activities/Strategies to Students equence Your Learning Episodes to Achieve your Purposes D E A S