top of page

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

INNOVATIVE DESIGNS FOR EDUCATION

The IDE model of instruction promotes learner-active, technology-infused classrooms (LATIC) in which students are empowered to address authentic tasks that provide a “felt need” for building curricular skills and concepts. Students manage projects, set goals, assess progress and identify resources for learning.

 

The LATIC structure is comprised of:

  • Authentic Learning Units (ALUs) that include a problem-based task statement, analytic rubric and differentiated learning activities,

  • Teacher facilitation that emphasizes high academic rigor, higher-order questioning and strong student-teacher relationships,

  • Structures and Strategies that encourage student responsibility for learning executive function skills

 

The Four Paradigm Shifts to Creating Student-driven Classrooms

From Teacher as Ferry to Teacher as Bridge Builder

  • Teachers present problem-based tasks at the start of a unit to motivate and challenge students.

  • Teachers provide analytic rubrics to present clearly articulated expectations to drive instruction and allow students to self-assess.

  • Teachers design learning and practice activities and develop an activity list to provide students with varied opportunities to learn.

  • Teachers have students schedule time to allow them to map out a plan for success

Building Felt Need

  • The flipped triangle approach moves teachers to focus on application first, instead of skills.

  • Teachers consider a chunk of curriculum (4–6 weeks) and the problems students could solve if they mastered it, then design a problem-based task to drive instruction at the start of the unit.

  • Teachers provide opportunities to learn skills, concepts, and content as they are needed to address the overarching problem-based task.

Leading Learning by Triggering Awareness

  • Teachers use the whole-class benchmark lesson to trigger students’ awareness of what they need to learn.

  • Teachers inspire students, then lead them toward learning through their own engagement with content.

  • Teachers ask a “what if?” question to trigger awareness of new content.

  • Teachers offer a “did you know…” to trigger awareness of new content.

Don’t Grade the Learning Process

  • Throughout the unit, teachers guide the students’ learning.

  • Teachers offer feedback and suggestions, celebrating students’ successes.

  • If the teachers were to grade the product, then they would really be grading themselves.

  • Instead of grading the learning experience, teachers offer a testing situation (e.g., transfer task) to grade individual content mastery.

 

The Ten Principles

LATIC is based on ten guiding principles, which research shows are present in successful classrooms. The Ten Principles are not part of a packaged product or based upon one theorist’s research. They have emerged from years of observing successful teachers, the most recent data on how children learn, and the best practices in curriculum and instruction.

  • Learning From a Felt Need — Students are presented with meaningful, higher-order activities that create the context for learning and build a “felt need” to learn the lower-order skills.

  • High Academic Standards — All students are expected to achieve at high levels utilizing the teacher, peers, and other resources to meet with success.

  • Higher-Order, Open-Ended Problem-Solving — Problem-solving activities are the focus of the learning environment, setting a context within which to learn lower-order skills.

  • Student Responsibility for Learning — Students take responsibility for setting goals, scheduling time, utilizing resources, and making other decisions.

  • Connected Learning — Students see learning as being connected across the disciplines, to the “real world,” and to their own lives.

  • Collaboration — Students engage in collaborative problem solving on open-ended problems with peers, working independently on subtasks.

  • Individual Learning Paths — Teachers differentiate instruction and assignments to meet the needs of each individual learner.

  • High Social Capital — Students have strong, consistent relationships with adults in school; parents and other adults are involved as partners in the learning process.

  • Technology Infusion — Technology is used as a tool and a resource to support learning and not seen as a goal unto itself.

  • Global Citizenship — Students understand their role as contributors to a global society and make strides to contribute to the betterment of their world.

RESPONSE TO INTERVENTION (RtI)

“Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tiered approach to the early identification and support of students with learning and behavior needs. The RTI process begins with high-quality instruction and universal screening of all children in the general education classroom. Struggling learners are provided with interventions at increasing levels of intensity to accelerate their rate of learning. These services may be provided by a variety of personnel, including general education teachers, special educators, and specialists. Progress is closely monitored to assess both the learning rate and level of performance of individual students. Educational decisions about the intensity and duration of interventions are based on individual student response to instruction. RTI is designed for use when making decisions in both general education and special education, creating a well-integrated system of instruction and intervention guided by child outcome data.  For RTI implementation to work well, the following essential components must be implemented with fidelity and in a rigorous manner:  High-quality, scientifically based classroom instruction, Ongoing student assessment, Tiered instruction.”  (RtI Action Network)

 

RtI is implemented differently in each of Bronxville's schools.  For more information about RtI, please speak with your principal, a school psychologist, and/or a special education teacher.

Socratic Seminar:    "Socratic seminar is a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions.  Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others."  (Israel, Elfie.  “Examining Multiple Perspectives in Literature.”  In Inquiry and the Literary Text: Constructing Discussions n the English Classroom.  James Holden and John S. Schmit, eds.  Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2002.) 

Socratic Seminar

"Socratic seminar is a formal discussion, based on a text, in which the leader asks open-ended questions.  Within the context of the discussion, students listen closely to the comments of others, thinking critically for themselves, and articulate their own thoughts and their responses to the thoughts of others."  (Israel, Elfie.  “Examining Multiple Perspectives in Literature.”  In Inquiry and the Literary Text: Constructing Discussions n the English Classroom.  James Holden and John S. Schmit, eds.  Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2002.) 

 

In Bronxville, Socratic Seminars have been implemented from the primary grades through advanced high school courses to develop a deep understanding of a text, image, video, or composition and to advance the acquisition of the dispositions of the Bronxville Promise.  Nancy Letts serves as a Socratic Seminar consultant for Bronxville teachers.

bottom of page