Teaching With Purpose

Workshop Descriptions
Sherah B. Carr, Ph.D., Presenter

All Learners on Stage:
Differentiated Instruction Gets Rave Reviews
Grade Level – K-5, 6-8, or 9-12
Length – 75 minutes for each topic or 6 hours for all five topics

This workshop will guide you through five steps to help you to be able to reach ALL of the learners in your class. The analogy of producing a theatrical production will be used to provide vivid and mnemonic strategies for the workshop participants.

Step 1 – Setting the Classroom Stage – See how the classroom climate affects the needs of a variety of learners. See ways to build a learning community where all learners are accepted and respected.

Step 2 – Knowing the Players – Understand the critical need to appreciate the variety of student learning preferences. Gain a variety of strategies for determining student strengths and styles.

Step 3 - Working and Altering the Scripts - Know that alternative lesson formats will be necessary for reaching every child. See how to design layered and tiered lessons.

Step 4 - Changing the Set and Choreography – Realize that some students will need to be shown information in different ways to be able to fully grasp the concept. See how to present lessons in unique ways that will help visual, logical, spatial, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.

Step 5 - Getting and Giving Feedback - Last but certainly not least, see how to effectively assess the learner through appropriate feedback. See how to create and carry out assessment to determine learning progress.

Differentiated Instruction:
Meeting the Needs of All Learners Part I
Grade Level - K-2, 3-5 or 6-12
Length - 5 hours

Brief Overview of DI
Carol Ann Tomlinson’s work
Differentiating based on environment, content, process and product
How learning styles, multiple intelligences, and brain compatible strategies work into differentiation
Alignment with effective teaching research and & RTI

Establishing an Environment for Differentiation
Teacher beliefs
Culturally responsive teaching
Physical arrangement
Knowing your students
Student inventories and interest surveys
“Fair isn’t always equal” – balancing levels of support and challenge
Ongoing assessments
Flexible grouping & ways to vary group formation
Collaborative grouping strategies

Differentiated Content
Differentiating by readiness, interest or learning profile
Scaffolding content for struggling learners & the RTI match
Providing support for advanced learners
Tiering assignments
Creating your own tiered assignment

Differentiated Instruction:
Meeting the Needs of All Learners Part II
Grade Level - K-2, 3-5 or 6-12
Length - 5 hours

Differentiating the Process
Adding range and variety to your questioning techniques
Increasing more variety to the way students learn
Adding music, movement, visuals, and dramatics
Integrating technology
Independent practice and anchor activities
Differentiated learning centers or projects

Differentiating Products
Providing multiple ways for students to show what they know
Providing choice
Cubing, spinners, ThinkDots, tic-tac-toe and menu assignments
Adding higher order thinking skills
Varied practice and homework options

Differentiated Literacy Strategies
Differentiated vocabulary strategies
Differentiated reading comprehension and writing strategies

Putting It All Together
Work in small collaborative groups
Choose a way to provide differentiated strategies to a content area topic for your grade level

Making Lessons Memorable:
Brain-Compatible Teaching Strategies
Grade Level – K-5, 6-8, or 9-12
Length – 3 hours OR 6 hours

Want to find ways to help your students retain the information that you teach? This interactive workshop will show you how to use what we know about the way the brain learns to design and implement lessons that will increase interest and memory.

See how to incorporate the use of mnemonics, movement, music, and emotions to make stronger memory paths in the brain. Practical examples of classroom teaching procedures using these procedures in purposeful ways will be modeled and practiced.

Presenter, Dr. Sherah Carr, received her Brain Based Learning Certification from Jensen Learning and has taught numerous workshops and university level courses on this high interest topic. Come prepared to move, interact and see animated examples of ways to create vivid memories of skill focused content for your students.

Skill Focused Technology
Grade Level – K-5 or 6-8
Length – 3 hours OR 6 hours

Many times when thinking about the use of instructional technology, the software or hardware rises to the forefront of the discussion. In this workshop, it’s all about curriculum. Instructional technology usage should always start with an instructional focus. This workshop will effectively walk you through the steps to making this happen.

Learn how skill-based content can be directly taught in a hands-on multisensory manner through the use of technology. See a wide variety of ways that spreadsheets, animations, presentation software, web resources, graphic organizers and databases can effectively be used to teach specific skills across content areas. In addition, get ideas for ways to assess skill based technology projects.

Teaching with Purpose and Passion:
Designing, Delivering and Assessing Instruction
Grade Level – K-5, 6-8, or 9-12
Length – 3 hours OR 6 hours

How effective and engaging are your day-to-day lessons? At the end of a lesson how can you be sure that your students understood the main skill focus of your lesson and could answer specific questions about this skill? This workshop helps teachers to see ways to be more purposeful and passionate about their teaching. Too often teachers get caught up in the delivery of information and don’t take frequent stops to check for understanding and check the student’s “learning barometer.”

This workshop will give teachers three specific areas for lesson improvement:

Design – Teachers will see how good lesson design is the heart of the matter. Examples of effective and ineffective lesson designs will be presented and compared. Teachers will actively participate in lesson design work.
Delivery - A great lesson is delivered with specific intentions and an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm. See how to keep students engaged by using delivery strategies that serve specific purposes and actively involve and grab the attention of your students.
Assessment - How do you know they got it? See ways to check for understanding during all phases of a lesson. Learn and practice how to perform quick, easy and effective assessment as part of every lesson.