The Learning Classroom: Learning From Others

Based on Lev Vygotsky’s work, this course explores how learning relies on communication and interaction with others as communities of learners. The program features a fifth-grade teacher and a ninth- through twelfth-grade teacher, with expert commentary from Tufts University professor David Elkind, Yale University professor James P. Comer, and University of California at Santa Cruz professor Roland Tharp.

The Learning Classroom: Watch It, Do It, Know It

This program demonstrates how teachers help their students develop expertise and accomplish complex tasks by modeling, assisted performance, scaffolding, coaching, and feedback. It features a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher and an eleventh- and twelfth-grade English and social studies teacher, with expert commentary from University of Michigan professor Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar.

The Learning Classroom: Thinking About Thinking

This program explores how thinking about thinking helps students better manage their own learning and learn difficult concepts deeply. The program features a senior English teacher and a sixth-grade teacher, with expert commentary from University of Michigan professor Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar and Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The Learning Classroom: How We Organize Knowledge

This intriguing program explains the ways in which the organization of knowledge can influence learning. It also introduces Bruner’s and Schwab’s ideas about the structure of the disciplines. Featured are a fourth-grade teacher, a tenth-grade Biology teacher, and a ninth- through twelfth-grade teacher, with expert commentary from Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The Learning Classroom: Lessons for Life

This program describes what conditions are needed for knowledge and skills learned in one context to be retrieved and applied to a novel situation, and how different teaching strategies can increase the possibilities for transfer. The program features a fourth-grade teacher and a seventh and eighth-grade teacher, with expert commentary from Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The Learning Classroom: Expectations for Success

Teachers can enhance their students’ motivation by encouraging them to be thoughtfully and critically engaged in the learning process, by supporting their drive for mastery and understanding, and by helping them become self-confident. This program takes a second look at classrooms seen in previous workshops from The Learning Classroom in order to show how motivational techniques work in concert with other learning theories. Stanford University School of Education Dean Deborah Stipek adds her insight to this program.

The Learning Classroom: Pulling It All Together

This program discusses how schools can organize for powerful learning through a coherent, connected approach to teaching and learning that is reinforced and supported by structural features. This session features the staff and students of two schools: a public school in Michigan serving grades three through eight and a first-year charter school in California. Host Linda Darling-Hammond provides expert commentary.

Grey Matters: Teaching the Way the Brain Learns

The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model creates a framework that combines neuroscience research and best practices. The aim is to give teachers practical strategies that result in helping students connect to content in meaningful ways to achieve deeper learning and can be applied in any subject area. This course is an introduction to the model in action, seen through the eyes of students, educators, and Dr. Mariale Hardiman, author of The Brain-Targeted Teaching Model for 21st-Century Schools. 

Literacy Design Collaborative: Developing Literacy with LDC in Arkansas Schools

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) offers educators an instructional design system for infusing literacy instruction across content areas while also engaging students in rigorous exploration of subject content. Teachers in Gentry High School adopted the LDC Framework in attempt to improve their instructional practice and student achievement. This course features four high school teachers who implemented LDC in their classroom; each sharing the challenges and achievements with building and utilizing LDC modules with their students. 

This course was taped on location at Gentry High School in Gentry, Arkansas from May 18-22, 2014.

Dyslexia Intervention: The Science of Implementation

Barbara Wilson, author and co-founder of Wilson Language Training, has worked with individuals with dyslexia for many years and has learned a great deal about the implementation of successful dyslexia programs. In this course, Ms. Wilson shares what she has learned about implementation science as it pertains to dyslexia and school reform, including the conditions that lead to full and effective use of evidence-based dyslexia programs. Ms. Wilson also discusses Arkansas dyslexia law and the challenges administrators and teachers are likely to face as new dyslexia programs are implemented. 

This course was recorded at the 2016 Teaching and Learning Conference hosted by Guy Fenter Co-op at the Fort Smith Convention Center on October 6, 2016. It pertains to the implementation of Acts 1294 of 2013 and 1268 of 2015 and the importance of ensuring teachers receive adequate professional awareness training on the characteristics of dyslexia and the importance of providing evidence-based interventions.