The key to create an opportunity for your students to construct knowledge is to truly think about several things prior to planning your lesson. Examine the entire unit of study and ask the following questions:

Declarative or Possessive Knowledge: What facts do you want your students to learn?

Procedural or Performance Knowledge: What do you want your students to be able to do?

Proactive Knowledge: How can the knowledge be active? How can it be transferred into a different or novel situation? Just understanding is not enough. If one cannot transfer knowledge to real-life applications then the possession of it is pointless. Knowledge without the ability to use it in a multitude of situations is pointless! Create learning for NOW, not learning for later. One educational study showed the countries that scored better than American students on national test, spent 4-6 minutes longer per question. Students need to learn mental stamina. Create situations that may not have a quick solution.

Standard or Eligible Content: Make sure the foundational learning is anchored in the standards! Often teachers are overwhelmed on how much they need to teach but spend inordinate amounts of time on topics, lessons, or activities that really do not matter and are that not even in the curriculum.

Essential Question: Create several overarching guiding questions. What is worth learning? Really??? What matters? How can the knowledge can be illuminated and expanded beyond the discipline and into the real world?

How will you help your students construct knowledge? Remember, development is not linear. Its structure is more like a web. Each strand of the web is a different skill or concept. Students can be on multiple levels of different strands. This is known as developmental range. There is no correlation between the level of one strand and other. The skills in one strand are independent of those in another. The developmental range has two aspects: optimal and functional levels. Students can change from functional to optimal levels by receiving the proper support within the content. When one reaches this level he/she is able to integrate thoughts and concepts among the domains. Students build skills and conceptual knowledge over time through the scalloping patterns, when an individual builds up understanding for a brief period of time and then it collapses over several occasions until one finally becomes an expert. This pattern takes time. As educators, we need to realize that students progress through these patterns. This suggests that teachers need to provide scaffolding of concepts from the concrete Þ to abstract Þ to application. More importantly, teachers should not expect the students to master the concept within a specific timeframe. All learners have different webs and have different skill strands on their webs. Remember, complexity is layered upon previous understandings. Once you have these questions answered, you will have a better understanding of how to plan to teach each layer of knowledge.

· What are the different layers of understanding within my objective? What layer of understanding are your students expected to master?

· How can I make the learning concrete? (Give many examples and experiences. Students have to master this level prior to moving to the next tier).

· What kinds of multiple representations can be created to interact with the learning?

· What are some stories and situations that would allow students to work with concepts in an abstract way?

Framework of self-questions constructed on the work of Kurt Fischer and David Perkins.

Dr. Kurt Fischer, Charles Bigelow Professor of Education Harvard Graduate School

Dr. David Perkins Professor of Education and Founder of Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Step 1: Priming the mind

The purpose of this step: To prepare the brain for learning new information. The brain needs to make connections in order to make sense of new information. Also important to know: learning starts with an emotion and it ends with an emotion. Emotion is the connection of a feeling related to a previous event or experience. There is a link between emotion, learning, and body states. Emotions can totally alter the way one handles or perceives a situation. High levels of fear or anxiety interfere with the learning process.

Make connections to prior knowledge, events, or experiences of the students

Build excitement about the content. If you cannot get excited about what you are teaching, you cannot expect the students to be excited!

Create affect (mood), engage students

Communicate your learning expectations for your students. “Today you are going to learn about….”

Communicate WHY this information is important

State your goals for the students. Mirror neurons are located within areas of the brain between networks for action planning (goal oriented) and perception. This fact illustrates the importance for students to understand the purpose of the lesson. If the student does not understand the implicit goal – then the learner will not understand. Make goals explicit for the learner.

Have the students set and state their own learning goals. Students need to own their learning.

Tell your students what they have to master. Often teachers include information that may be irrelevant or supplemental to the lesson at hand. Students need to be honed in on what is important.

Priming the Mind based on the research of Mary Helen Immordino-Yang & Marc Schwarz

Dr. Mary Helen Immordino-Yang Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Southern California

Dr. Marc Schwartz, Professor of MBE, University of Texas at Arlington

Step 2: Mini Lesson –Direct Instruction

The purpose of this step: To expose students to new information or a new level of understanding of the information. Teachers need to model what they want students to do. The mirror neurons allow one to internalize the goals of another through a dynamic interaction between minds. Modeling the learning allows the students to internalize the goals of the teachers. The learner capitalizes on strengths in how one prefers to interact and build representations, which is organized by one’s own context.

Teach declarative or possessive knowledge and model performance knowledge. Show the students how to interact with the content. Use multiple representations.

Use the VAKT (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile) learning modalities. This allows students to experience multiple representations of the learning.

Present no more than 5-7 new items due to the capacity of the working memory (students with learning disabilities often have poor working memories. Provide support (scaffolding) to allow them to work with multiple pieces of knowledge to construct a higher level of knowledge.

Monitor the length of the mini-lesson. Adjust according to the age of students: Example 12 minutes for a twelve-year-old student. Don’t be the sage on the stage. Really, you are not that interesting!

Step 3: Reinforcement

The purpose of this step: To have the students process their new learning so that they can make sense of it. It also provides an opportunity for the teacher to assess the levels of understanding within the class. Students need time to process.

Kids need to talk, write, and engage with the learning in their own words. They have to own it.

During the reinforcement step, make sure you get the students up and moving! When the butts are numb the brain gets dumb!

Have students journal, visualize, draw a diagram, or do something to get it down on paper!

Step 4: Activity

The purpose of this step: To have the students do something with the declarative knowledge they possess and construct performance knowledge. In order to reach ALL students at various levels use the concepts of Universal Design when planning your activity.

Have multiple forms of representation of the knowledge. They should be rich enough and broad enough that everyone will get it. Have multiple forms of engagement with the knowledge. Have multiple forms of expression of the knowledge.

Provide options for the variety of learning issues within your class.

· Provide different linguistic options. How can the student access the linguistic aspect of your lesson?

§ Textbook

§ Large print

§ Summary of content

§ Computer

§ Mind maps or other graphic organizers

· Provide different sensory options. How can the students receive the information?

§ Print

§ Audio recordings

§ Other forms as per student needs

· Provide different cognitive options.

§ Individualized background knowledge

§ Highlight critical features of text

§ Guide for processing information. Did you know that poor readers do not know when to look at the image? Help them process when to look. They often will read the entire thing then look at the picture.

Time of the activity will depend upon class. Teachers can chose to complete the activity as a whole class, individual, partners, or small groups by: (a) content and level of questioning; (b) process; and (c) product. It is best when using small groups, to group with the purpose of differentiating.

Provide scaffolding and support to allow the students to grasp the content at different layers of understanding. Reference Dr. Fischer’s Skill Theory

Scaffolding and options based on the concept of Universal Design by David Rose.

Dr. David Rose, Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Executive Director of Cast

Step 5: Memory

The purpose of this step: To assist students with ways to remember the important information and access it at a later date. Memory is the only evidence of learning! The good news is that if you design your lessons so that students are constructing knowledge it is less likely they will forget. However, better to be safe than sorry, if you FORGET to do this important step; the probability of more students forgetting is greatly increased.

What do they have to remember?

How are they going to remember?

Teach the students HOW to organize the information, how to make associations, and various other strategies in how you improve you memory. The prefrontal cortex is the last area of the brain to myelinate. This area is responsible for critical thinking, organization, impulse control, and a host of other things. Students need support in how to be a critical thinker and organize thoughts.

· Mnemonic devices: Rhyme, acronyms, or use of beginning letters

· Repetition

· Mental images/visualization

· Association of pictures, shapes, or colors

· Creating associations

· Organizing content for meaning

· Chunking

Create a way to help the students remember the information and retrieve information

from the long-term memory.

Step 6: Closure –

The purpose of this step: To remind the students of the important information in the lesson.

REVIEW - What should the students have learned? This is totally teacher directed.

What is the connection to their prior learning?

Why is this information important?

Step 7: Formative Assessment

The purpose of this step: To gather evidence to see if the students were successful in learning the objectives of the lesson. Formative assessments must drive the teacher’s instruction. It will tell the teachers if there is a need to re-teach. Important: If you need to reteach some content – RE-TEACH THE CONTENT A DIFFERENT WAY THAN YOUR ORIGINAL LESSON. Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Assess the success of lessons. Assessments do not need to be used for a grade.

Do the students know the declarative and procedural knowledge?

What kind of formative assessment will you use? Some examples:

§ Exit Slip

§ Class discussion

§ Pop quiz

§ Kid watching

§ Project

§ Mental mapping

Step 8: Extension: also known as homework:

Do not assign homework just to assign homework!!!!

What is your purpose??? Provide supports for students to be able to complete the task.

Differentiate homework!!!

Homework does not have to be written. Find something fun for students to do to apply what they learned.

• Create a Face book page for the characters in the novel
• Play a board game with similar educational objective
• Visit and interact with certain websites
• Have them read nonfiction and complete a task
• Create a book on www.cast.org
• Read a newspaper article and summarize (low level of interaction) or make correlations to personal life (higher level of interaction)
• Take a picture and write a story about it.

More is not better! Give quality assignments, not quantity!

Children should have the amount of written homework as their grade with a zero added on

the end. (e.g. First grade 10 minutes, second grade 20 minutes).

Remember, learning is NOT linear

Be creative…be passionate about teaching!

All steps in the design are necessary; however, they do not need to be executed in this particular order.

Adapt learning opportunities for students with learning disabilities. Do not water the content down. In architecture, steps were created to provide access to a building. The steps, which were put in place to help people, actually created an obstacle for those who have a physical disability. Once the structure was changed, and ramps or elevators were added, everyone could access the building. This analogy can be applied to education. The curriculum was created to help people access information; however, it can be a barrier for some with a disability. The child is not the problem, the curriculum is! The architecture of the curriculum needs to be changed.

L. Todd Rose. Adjunct Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Dr. David Rose, Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Executive Director of Cast

Include a graphic organizer for students to internalize new knowledge.

Use several senses throughout lesson.

Tell stories, use music, rhythm, movement, reciprocal teaching,

Integrate different learning styles, especially during the mini-lesson delivery (visual, auditory, kinesthetic).

Prior to launching a unit, make sure you give some kind of pretest: How do you know what is NEW content to your students? WARNING: Make sure your pretest assesses the LEVEL of understanding (knowing, understanding, or application to novel situations). Just because students know a lot of facts does not mean they apply it to novel situations. This is especially true of students who are gifted.

Posttest: Do you know how you are going to evaluate/assess learning? At what level are you evaluating: possessive, performance, or proactive knowledge? Does the grade really reflect the student’s mastery of the learning??? Can students take retests? What do you do with this data? How can you motivate students to improve learning?

Evaluate: Place a value to their work (grade).

Assess: Determine what they mastered and at what level have they mastered it.

Usable knowledge www.uknow.gse.havard.edu

International Mind Brain and Education Society www.imbes.org

Learning and the Brain Society www.edupr.com

Universal Design www.cast.org

Fischer, K. W. (2008). “Dynamic Cycles of Cognitive and Brain Development: Measuring

Growth in Mind, Brain, and Education.” A. M. Battro, K.W. Fischer & P. Lena (Eds.). The Education Brain. Cambridge U.K.: Cambridge University Press. 127-150.

Fischer, K.W., & Rose, L. T. (2001). Webs of Skills: How students learn. Educational

Leadership, 59(3), 6-12.

Perkins, D. N. (2008). “Beyond Understanding.” In R. Land, J. H. F. Meyer, & J. Smith (Eds.),

Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers. 3-20.

Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2000). The Future is in the Margins: The Role of Technology and

Disability in Educational Reform. A report prepared for the U.S. Department of

Education Office of Special Education Technology. Washington, DV:USDOE