Executive function is critical to students’ academic achievement and social-emotional learning.  Focusing, shifting attention from one activity to another, working toward a goal, persisting in a task, catching and correcting errors, and managing time are all executive function skills that students need to be successful in any learning environment. The sudden shift to remote learning during the pandemic transformed education. Executive function skills often determined student resilience and success. The good news is that executive function skills can be developed and accelerated. Participants will explore six key life skill areas that are uniquely supported by executive function and design instructional plans to intentionally build these critical achievement prerequisites in all learners.

Syllabus:

1. Understanding how executive function is inextricably linked to the academic achievement and social-emotional learning 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 instructional activities aimed at building executive function across the seven key components: working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, reasoning, problem-solving, inhibitory control, and self-awareness
5. Developing an implementation plan that includes powerful facilitation strategies and purposeful structures to develop executive function and promote learning acceleration for all learners

Participants in 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.

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.

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.

Participants will explore how executive function supports the critical life skills of conscious control, engagement, collaboration, empowerment, efficacy, and leadership. As you develop activities and strategies for your learning environment, your IDE consultant will guide you through the process of targeting your facilitation to improve students’ executive function. Throughout the course, participants will reflect upon and communicate their classroom experiences to receive virtual coaching from an IDE consultant.

Syllabus:

1. Understanding the six levels of increasingly complex life skills that depend upon executive function
2. Identifying activities and structures that build executive function focused around the critical six levels of life skills
3. Understanding how teacher facilitation builds the executive function skills around the critical six levels of life skills
4. Designing structures for the classroom to create a culture of executive function
5. Developing tools for teacher facilitation to create a culture of executive function.

Participants in 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.

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.

Explore the power of the 5 Ps of PBL. Design a PBL  task, a rubric to drive instruction, a scaffold of rich and diverse learning activities to implement with your students, and a plan for facilitating the learning.

Syllabus:

1. Understanding how “Raising Academic Rigor,” “Engaging Students in Learning,” and “Building Student Responsibility for Learning” go hand-in-hand
2. Exploring the 5 Ps of PBL: place, problem, project, profession, and pursuit based learning
3. Developing authentic, open-ended, problem-based tasks that create a felt need to learn
4. Designing analytic rubrics to offer clearly articulated expectations, a roadmap for all learners,  and challenges for gifted learners
5. Designing a scaffold for learning to develop differentiated learning and practice activities
6. Developing one or more other structures to support the unit, e.g.:
   1. Formative Assessments to drive instructional planning
   2. Facilitation Questions to probe students’ thinking at higher cognitive levels
   3. Facilitation Grid to manage your ongoing student facilitation

Participants in this course will use Dr. Nancy Sulla’s book Students Taking Charge 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.