Upcoming Events
Accelerate Learning with Scaffolding
Scaffolding is a high-yield instructional strategy used to reduce the negative emotions and self-perceptions that students may experience when grappling with learning skills and concepts. It requires lessons to be broken up into learning chunks and that teachers provide a tool, or structure, with each chunk. Scaffolding Strategies help teachers maintain the same grade-level standards and learning expectations for all students, even though not every student will have the necessary knowledge or capability to initially perform as intended. Learn how Scaffolding Strategies will support struggling students in successfully learning grade-level content and skills while helping to reduce negative emotions or self-perceptions, or counterproductive states, such as boredom or frustration.
Accelerate Learning with Vocabulary
Our Accelerate Learning with Vocabulary professional development focuses on systematically addressing the root cause of academic struggles-- a lack of vocabulary and background knowledge. Learn to identify which words are critical to learning specific content; select and implement a variety of high impact vocabulary strategies that increase reading and listening comprehension; implement the characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction that increases essential word knowledge as it bridges short-term and long-term memory; create a plan for implementing consistent and pervasive vocabulary instruction that increases learning for all students, and design interactive instructional Word Walls as learning tools.
Increasing Student Engagement
Students who actively engage with what they are studying tend to understand more, learn more, remember more, enjoy it more and be more able to appreciate the relevance of what they have learned than students who passively receive what we teach them. Therefore, as teachers, we are presented with a huge challenge: how to encourage and enable our students to engage in the learning process.
How do we encourage students to actively engage in the learning process—to develop their ideas, think more critically, and become better equipped to solve problems? In other words, how do we help students "exhibit their thinking." Just as importantly, how do we help them assume responsibility for their own learning while adopting a much more self-conscious approach to how they learn as well as what they learn?
The concept of student engagement is multidimensional, meaning that there are different types of engagement. Research has demonstrated that engaging students in the learning process increases their attention and focus and motivates them to engage in higher-level critical thinking.
Collaborative Pairs
Collaborative Pairs provides you with a planning process that increases teacher effectiveness and accelerates learning by ensuring that Collaborative Pairs are used frequently and effectively throughout a lesson. You will learn how to maximize student learning with a variety of Collaborative Pairs strategies intentionally selected to support the Learning Goals of a lesson. Ideas are given for dealing with management issues and supporting productive talk.
The Learning-Focused Framework Trainers Institute
The Learning-Focused Framework Trainers Institute focuses on learning our instructional framework which provides a cohesive structure made up of proven components, but it is adaptable so as to work with varying teaching styles, content areas, and student needs (while maintaining the core structure of the framework). Teachers can unleash their creativity with confidence that their students are going to be successful. Teaching is complex and our framework provides teachers, schools, and district with the tools to be able to maintain high expectations and meet students where they are.
Accelerate Learning with Previewing Trainers Institute
Educators in Exemplary Schools rethink how lessons and instruction are organized and focus on a different type of intervention - Previewing. Accelerate Learning with Previewing provides a proactive approach that replaces most re-teaching and remediation with specific strategies and practices that ensure all students successfully meet grade-level expectations. Accelerate Learning with Previewing Trainers Institute provides districts and schools with a way to train their colleagues on how to apply these strategies to every content area and grade level.
PROFESSIONAL LEARNING EVENTS OPEN TO ALL EDUCATORS
Learning-Focused brings educators together to learn how to transform their schools and classrooms through intentional and purposeful planning designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful both academically and beyond.
Studies continue to demonstrate a positive link between teacher professional development, teaching practices, and student outcomes. In fact, research has shown seven widely shared features of effective professional development. Learning-Focused embraces each feature as a core tenant of our professional development. We believe that professional development is meant to help educators do what they do best, even better.
Our professional development guides educators to design school and classroom cultures that focus on rigorous standards-driven learning, engaging academic instruction, meet the needs of all learners, and achieve remarkable success.