Executive function is critical to all students’ academic achievement, and we now know it can be developed and accelerated. Enhance your academic lesson plans by fostering the six key aspects of executive function, intentionally building critical achievement prerequisites in students.

Syllabus

1. Understanding how executive function is inextricably linked to the academic achievement of students at all developmental levels through the lens of six levels of increasingly complex life skills
2. Understanding how executive function develops and how growth can be accelerated
3. Understanding the difference between learning and practice activities, and the importance of purposeful “grappling” with content
4. Developing learning and practice activities aimed at building executive function across the seven key components: working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, reasoning, problem-solving, and self-regulation
5. Creating a plan to implement structures that build executive function in the learning environment
6. Learning to facilitate instruction by asking questions that lead to the development of greater executive function

Watch Dr. Nancy Sulla’s YouTube videos “Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student Achievement” and “All Students Can Learn with Executive Function“.

This course will use Dr. Nancy Sulla’s book, Building Executive Function: The Missing Link to Student Achievement as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

Co-teaching classrooms can be powerful learning environments that maximize the effectiveness of two teachers to ensure that each and every student advances academically at accelerated levels. In a student-focused co-teaching classroom, both teachers have the flexibility to intensively help struggling students and see them make significant strides while challenging advanced students to new heights, bridging the achievement gap. This workshop is great for either teacher or both teachers in a partnership to attend.

Syllabus

1. Build a stronger communication/collaboration partnership by understanding individual preferences for engagement in a partnership
2. Explore the four core modalities of co-teaching; group & guide, dual-focus facilitation, balanced benchmark, and individualized inspiration
3. Design co-teaching lessons that maximize the effectiveness of both teachers
4. Learn to leverage formative assessment grids and questions so that both teachers work seamlessly with students
5. Develop guidelines for students to participate successfully in a co-teaching classroom

Participants in this course will use It’s Not What You Teach But How by Dr. Nancy Sulla as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 credit hours.

Deepen your knowledge of the power of problem-based learning in the classroom with a focus on implementation strategies. Design differentiated activity lists with multiple ways for students to learn, develop content facilitation grids and questions to support student-driven learning, and implement four types of formative assessments throughout the PBL unit. Note: Participants will apply course content to a previously created Problem-Based task and rubric.

Syllabus

1. Designing activity lists that offer students required activities, choice activities (offering more than one way to build a concept or skill), and optional activities (offering extension opportunities to those who are advanced) from a brainstormed scaffold for learning
2. Developing facilitation grids, laying out skills and concepts to assess student learning as the teacher facilitates instruction.
3. Designing facilitation questions to move students to higher-order thinking.
4. Understanding the role of the Four Types of Formative Assessment to support progress monitoring and growth.
5. Creating a transfer task as a venue for students to apply, or “transfer,” their learning from an authentic PBL unit to a new real-world context

Watch IDE Corp.’s YouTube video “What’s the difference between project-based learning and problem-based learning?“.

This course will use your choice of Dr. Nancy Sulla’s books, Students Taking Charge In Grades K-5 or Students Taking Charge In Grades 6-12 as a resource. Only one is required. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

Equitable and culturally responsive teaching practices raise the level of rigor and maximize potential for all learners. In this course you will explore the role of teacher as curator to reflect on your learning environment that accepts, appreciates, and advocates for cultural differences and social justice. Participants will explore and brainstorm problems focused on instructional and social equity. They will navigate and design culturally responsive resources, structures, and teaching practices to address bias in and beyond the classroom. This course will position participants to leverage students’ culture, language, and life experiences into rigorous academic achievement.

Syllabus

1. Establish working definitions of equity, bias, and social justice in the classroom
2. Develop strategies and structures for prioritizing a culturally responsive classroom through needs-identification, resource-access, and tuned-facilitation
3. Develop learning activities through a culturally relevant lens to meet cognitive levels and learning styles
4. Design opportunities for students to learn in an environment that promotes executive function through structures and facilitation
5. Explore facilitation strategies to build and maintain relationships and trust with students
6. Brainstorm problems to address social justice and equitable access and opportunity issues within the students’ neighborhood

Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC. 25 contact hours.

In this course, participants will leverage choice and technology to provide students with the ultimate differentiated learning environment. They will develop differentiated digital activity lists rooted in rigorous instruction that offer multiple ways to learn and apply content. Participants will explore autonomy, purpose, and mastery as motivators in all learning environments. They will design differentiated digital activity lists to put students in charge of their own learning, creating a structure that allows students to make decisions within a structured framework. Making informed decisions is an essential life skill that teachers can support with intentional structures and strategies.

Syllabus:

1. Exploring ends-based teaching as a foundation for differentiation
2. Understanding the difference between the 5 types of instructional activities
3. Connecting student choice and voice to empowerment and academic achievement
4. Exploring cognitive levels and learning styles to develop 5 types of instructional activities for learning anywhere, anytime
5. Building a differentiated digital activity list to provide students choice in how and when they engage in learning and practice activities
6. Exploring the role of the teacher in an environment that empowers students to take more responsibility for their learning
7. Exploring the role of technology to leverage opportunities for differentiation in differentiated digital activity lists
8. Developing instructional videos and activities to support differentiation in digital activity lists

Participants in this course will use Dr. Nancy Sulla’s book Reinventing the Classroom Experience as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC.

Creating a learner-centered classroom requires teachers to design opportunities for students to actively engage in their learning and maximize their potential. Designing differentiated learning activities, facilitating those learning activities with meaningful questioning, using a variety of formative assessment strategies and student reflections, and leveraging strategies to build students’ executive function skills all lead to putting students at the center of their educational process. Craft a plan for positioning your students to be active participants in the learning process as you design a classroom learning environment that engages and empowers students, building a greater sense of efficacy for them and for you as their teacher.

Syllabus:

1. Exploring opportunities to know and understand your students
2. Designing differentiated learning activities for engaging different types of learners
3. Developing meaningful questions to promote learning through teacher facilitation
4. Designing formative assessments for teacher use and for student self-assessment
5. Exploring basic strategies for building executive function in your students

Participants in this course will use Dr. Nancy Sulla’s book It’s Not What You Teach But How as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) plays a major role in one’s success in life and career. Being in touch with emotions, controlling them, setting and achieving goals, engaging with others in socially appropriate ways, demonstrating empathy toward others, establishing positive relationships, and taking responsibility in life are critical skills that are not necessarily included in your current curriculum. In this course, participants will develop strategies to promote self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship, and responsible decision-making skills in a student-driven learning environment.

Syllabus:

1. Developing an understanding of the core competencies of SEL as defined by CASEL
2. Developing an understanding of the interplay among PBL, structures, and teacher facilitation in any learning environment
3. Exploring how each of the core competencies of SEL is addressed through the goals of engagement, empowerment, and efficacy in a student-driven classroom
4. Developing a set of structures for building SEL in any learning environment
5. Developing a repertoire of teacher facilitation strategies for building SEL in any learning environment
6. Developing learning activities that promote SEL in any learning environment

Participants in this course will use Dr. Nancy Sulla’s book Reinventing the Classroom Experience as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC.

Explore the structures and strategies you can use to gather formative assessment data to drive instruction that is targeted for increased student achievement. Design formative assessments for use with your students that can be used remotely or in person.

Syllabus:

1. Developing formative assessments across four categories: temperature gauges, breakpoint assessments, student-­directed assessments, and comprehensive assessments
2. Using formative assessment data to differentiate instructional activities
3. Using formative assessment data to drive facilitation in any environment
4. Designing formative assessment grids to allow participants to easily collect and track assessment data from students working in class and remotely

Participants in this course will use Dr. Nancy Sulla’s book Reinventing the Classroom Experience as a resource. The assigned book must be purchased in advance. Access to MyQPortal is included for all participants while enrolled in the VLC.