Today, we focused on several areas impacting instruction, assessment, and technology use in the classroom such as how to conduct professional development interventions (remember the High-Octane Culminating Task PD) as well as how to conduct Extreme Technology Makeovers (remember the two makeovers - And They Came To the Streets That Were Paved with Gold/Dance with a Molecule). During the High-Octane Culminating Task PD, I outlined the attributes of a culminating task and a high-octane culminating task. These attributes appear below:
Culminating Performance Task Characteristics:
* Assess student demonstration of critical content
* Incorporate several instructional activities that precede them
* Relate to students’ prior knowledge
* Represent an end-product
High-octane Performance Task Characteristics:
* Assess student demonstration of critical content
* Incorporate several instructional activities that precede them
* Relate to students’ prior knowledge
* Represent an end-product
* Allow for multiple pathways or solutions
* Require complex thinking strategies
* Have personal meaning or authenticity
* Apply learning to a new situation or context
* Are challenging
We also spent time creating Individualized Professional Development Plans for teachers based on their current DETAILS profile, LoTi, CIP, and PCU data.
I introduced another concept to help us think about LoTi and the eight stages comprising the LoTi Framework. I used a lava lamp as a metaphor to represent the different levels of LoTi in the classroom. What causes one lesson to be at a higher level than another relates directly to the amount of HEAT generated.
HEAT
- Higher order thinking
- Engaged learning
- Authenticity
- Technology tools
Keep in mind that the H.E.A.T. acronym represents four of the dimensions from the larger scoring guide that we used today to evaluate a lesson plan. The reasons for addressing only four dimensions are threefold: (1) KISS principle, (2) reduce the amount of staff anxiety-already too many competing priorities going on in the classroom, and (3) hit the critical elements first.
May the LoTi Be With You Always!
Chris
