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Building the Future Now: What to Cut, What to Keep, What to Create

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Building the Future Now: What to Cut, What to Keep, What to Create

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As the school year is winding to a close and everyone is desperate for a break, looking toward the opening of school next year is already causing unease. Throughout the world, educators face a critical challenge: how to design aspirational and future forward (post-pandemic) learning experiences rather than a temporary fix (triage). In our first blogpost in this four part series, we proposed the importance of beginning with input from students, parents, and teachers about what they are experiencing, what lessons they are learning, and what they will need moving into the next school year. We also looked at factors to mull over what will matter most in the planning for the year rather than jumping onto the "let's pick up where we left off" bandwagon.

How can we shape curriculum right now that will best serve our learners for the future?

This blogpost is centered on two key steps to assist decision makers, learners, and families as they make this determination: development of future forward learning goals and using those goals as a north star to examine and clarify curriculum choices. This work can provide a balcony view to clarify broader learning goals that ideally guide day to day learning choices that teachers and students make-goals that take the long view on determining the strength, approaches, life-skills, and aptitudes needed to support our learners.

For teachers in the identification, creation, and/or redesign of compelling problems, questions, and challenges that can give insight into a refreshed curriculum storyline. Otherwise we are more likely to recycle what we have immediately in front of us, to cover old material, and to miss an opportunity.

For students as they are becoming more skillful, sophisticated, and strategic throughout their school years. This is especially helpful now when students may feel increased pressure/anxiety in anticipation of pace of learning to "catch up" for what was missed.

For the school community in reaching consensus on realistic priorities will be central to our efforts. Otherwise, there may be a tendency to go for the granular, memorize some facts, scramble to construct where "we left off." It is critical to reach consensus as a school community on learning goals that will serve as a North Star to decision making.

STEP 1: DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURE FORWARD LEARNING GOALS

What These Meta-Level Learning Goals Are

Future Forward Learning Goals are overarching, and transdisciplinary. We developed key criteria for these learning goals as well as a few illustrative examples.

Reasonable number and scope to capture all aspects of a learner's life. Goals should cover the range of skills, behaviors, and dispositions that we seek in the long run. We have found that limiting to 10 may be a helpful barometer (not a hard fast rule).

Apply to the range of topics and challenges that learners encounter in all corners of school life-curricular, social, and personal investigations. These lend themselves to both transdisciplinary and subject-specific tasks that can honor existing curricular choices as well as open up the design table to more meaningfully include students.

Describe desired complexity and sophistication. These goals can then be broken down in grade level bands for instruction and coaching.

Provide clarity for your target audience(s). We need to pay closer attention to how well we communicate about what we mean when we use broad generalizations. Fuzzy language implies fuzzy thinking.

The following examples that were drafted in partnership with Bena Kallick illustrate each of the key criteria listed above.

Seek to investigate challenging contemporary global and local issues by pursuing questions or a line of thinking.

Use design thinking and other processes to develop solutions, findings, prototypes, performances, and media.

Navigate through diverse sources and perspectives to make discerning and thoughtful judgments.

Generate, enrich, and craft communication through the strategic use of evidence and command of language.

Share stories, ideas, and points of view to engage others to think interdependently and potentially act collectively.

Think flexibly, take responsible risks, and listen with understanding and empathy as they engage with the world.

Establish nomenclature. It may be that your school elects to give these Future Forward Learning Goals a "name" to stake out the ownership and engagement of your community. We encourage you to do so. Whether these are your Meta Level Goals, Essential Learning Goals or North Star Learning Goals, it is important that they belong to your community and will serve as guideposts to make wise decisions moving forward.

Examine Established Learning Goals as a possible starting point. Right now is a rich opportunity to challenge our thinking about what we truly value through the process of crafting of Future Forward Learning Goals. It is not necessary to start from scratch. For example, many school communities and have crafted descriptions of what a Portrait of a Graduate should demonstrate/look like. These descriptions are in the spirit of what McTighe and Wiggins call "transfer goals"-goals that will be important not only within the life of school but also in their lives well beyond school. We know that these goals reflect college and career readiness, part of the driving force for developing these goals. There are clear meta-level learning goals embedded in IB's Approaches to Learning that serve naturally to guide decision making. There is also a rich source for essential goal setting in the introductory statements of purpose focused on life-long goals for learners in most standards whether through a national, state, or provincial organization. If you already are using one of these models reaffirm and reimagine them to reflect the times.

Gather insight and information directly from all members of the school community. Focus on student agency-having their voices inform what they learn, where they learn, how they learn, and how they demonstrate learning-have been the heart of global conversation with personalized learning for close to ten years. During the current triage phase of our response to COVID19, parents viewed first hand the impact of remote learning had on their children. Lessons are being learned at home right now that are central to planning ahead. Now is the time to pay close attention to our learners and harvest recommendations. In our previous blogpost, we recommended Virtual School Community Summits to bring the community together. Whether the summit takes place in a virtual town hall format or whether it is organized in smaller "zoom room" discussion groups, the mix of parents, learners, and educators seems critical. Certainly thoughtful surveys that encourage specific and actionable suggestions can prove fruitful. An invitation to articulate essential high priority learning goals can be integrated into discussions and into survey forms. We also recommend following a project called #JustAskUs supported by the National Parents Union, Student Voice -Prichard Committee, High Tech High, AERO, Big Picture Learning that is developing tools and approaches to directly engage learners in contributing their voice and perspective in reimagining education now and into the post-pandemic period. The title is inspired by Heather Wolport-Gawron's book, Just Ask Us: Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement, published by Corwin. If you wish further information contact the project coordinator: Masa Uzicanin

Generate new Learning Goals. Based on our current experience in triage mode, the need for new or refreshed learning goals has gained clarity. While most schools value d the idea of growing self-direction in students with the move to full-time remote learning, the urgency of growing this capacity has become more paramount. We move d to name a specific element of self-direction, self-management as a way to move from the broader, generalized statement which, in turn, generated the following future forward learning goal.
Develop self-management skills by making choices for learning and monitoring thinking.

Take a bigger challenge and break it down into smaller, doable increments.

Set goals and monitor/revise them as needed to optimize clarity, viability, and motivation.

Experiment with time management structures to balance focus on task at hand with brain breaks, meeting deadlines, and staying motivated by my thinking.

Another example that is typically highlighted in many Graduate of a Profile statements is collaboration. To clarify this goal, we suggest bringing community voices to engage in conversation about when and under what conditions they feel they can connect and contribute most effectively.
Engage deliberately and cultivate relationships with all members of the school community to build on, better understand, and be influenced by one another's ideas and perspectives.
Collaboration is a dynamic between the way people interact and the work they need to accomplish. Many schools often focus on the management of a task to achieve a common objective rather than the relationships that invite social construction. We moved to draft a future forward learning goal that values both.

Adapt with increasing skill by communicating with others in a given network to develop more effective thinking by listening and questioning.

Recognize how positive relationships impact motivation, openness to new ideas, and connection to the work.

Adhere to norms and demonstrates respectful behaviors as one engages with others to help maintain a safe environment that invites all to participate.

STEP 2: DETERMINING WHAT TO CUT OUT, WHAT TO CUT BACK, WHAT TO CONSOLIDATE, AND WHAT TO CREATE

Armed with a thoughtful and powerful set of Future Forward Learning Goals, the following is a process for examining existing curriculum to determine what matters most for your learners. While this "weeding" may be painful for some, it is imperative that there is consensus so relieve pressure for coverage and provide more space to generate new ideas with students. We have provided the following graphic organizer to help clarify the process:

Future Forward Curriculum Planning Process

First, examine and clarify your current curriculum narrative.

1. Compile existing units of study from your curriculum. Ideally, this can be done in grade level bands (e.g., K-1, 6-8) to ensure the choices you want to make do not put undue pressure on other grade levels to capture essential content. Working in departments on the high school level is obviously important, but it is also equally important to review across a grade level to see what the challenges will be for learners attempting to juggle multiple demands.

2. Examine each one and tell a brief story (thumbnail synopsis) of that unit. Why does it exist? What is the essential learning students will be able to continue to develop and transfer when that unit is over? What are the most critical standards to be in the foreground?

3. Review the storyline through the scope of the year. Are there connections between the units? What does your curriculum value the most?

Could you cut out unit(s) of study to make room for deeper investigation and development of key concepts and skills?
Second, ask yourselves the following questions:

In any composition there is an editorial review where the question of "cutting" material is central to the whole. What matters most given the time that we have for our specific learners with our specific conditions, we must govern how we decide. The unique situation we are facing, will dictate significantly different learning conditions is a sensible element in our deliberations. (Shortened academic calendar, staggered classroom schedules, alternative attendance on-site if it occurs in your location, increased on-line learning demand).

To be clear, when cutting units it will be critical to examine standards that were emphasized in a unit. Given that standards are cultivated over time, it is likely that the faculty teams can readily identify the most critical standards that have been in the "foreground" in the design of learning experiences. It is always a concern to us when we see a unit of study with 30 standards listed (this is not an exaggeration) since these proficiencies take time to develop. Bundling standards that naturally cluster together in student learning is a natural way to align assessments. A faculty team can look at bundled and individual standards to sort out which are the most essential to their specific learners and those that are not.

Could you cut back each unit of study significantly? It is highly likely that educators have already made key decisions to cut back during this current curricular planning Triage phase of COVID19 as of this writing. Given the abruptness of moving to a total online environment over the past weeks, lesson planning may have been arbitrary and left to each teacher. Curricular decisions may have been orchestrated with others in a school, grade level team, department or the process could have reflected both approaches.

Moving forward we suggest your planning teams review the "thumbnail" story of the curriculum through the year to determine places where they may elect to cut back and distinguish the most essential from the less critical material in their units. The task is to distinguish the most essential elements in the curriculum and place them in the foreground.
Could you create a new unit or module to replace this altogether?

Skills: Given the importance of cognitive and technical skills in the long term growth of learners, teachers will want to elevate critical skills integral in supporting students within a given discipline as well as sub skills tied to Future Forward Learning Goals.

Content cuts: Materials, information, facts, subtopics that are non-essential should be cut given the larger aims and goals of the unit. The tendency to "cover" content needs to be confronted in order to move forward. Distinguishing content that directly supports and is central to the Future Forward Learning Goals and storyline might prove to be a great challenge but also a rewarding one. Of particular value will be to proactively have our learners show the connections between the key content and that storyline as the curriculum develops. In our previous we referenced The Big History Project , which takes a big picture view of key concepts through history where learners construct a narrative based on those key conceptual ideas rather than simply diving into minutiae. The approach exemplifies how your team might step back and layout the conceptual framework that is accessible to learners in any course or learning program. To be clear, the review of these cuts will be ongoing once the new school year commences whether on-site or on-line or both.

Assessment cuts: Evidence of learning is bedrock to the design of learning experiences. Coupled with meaningful feedback, our learners can progress in their development. Considerations and decisions about what formative and summative assessments will be the most revealing and helpful demonstrations of learning should be determined as a faculty both across grade levels and vertically. Certainly the impact of state or provincial requirements for public educators and education organization policies (i.e. College Board, IB) is a major factor in decision making. Bottom line, if there are cuts in the curriculum then there will be corresponding cuts in the assessments.

Could you consolidate based on units of study and personal learning progress during the remote learning time?
Have a curriculum that has been consistent for at least 2 years? You could start here.

Given the nature of your course or grade level subject area layout, if there are related and clear connections between units then combining them is possible. To consolidate means an existing unit as a teacher reviews and revises elements and activities based on past experience. Certainly to combine elements to make a more effective coherent whole. On a practical review of the scope and sequence of a year's units, we can step back and not only determine what we might cut and where we might cut back, but where we can merge units of study. Consolidation can certainly occur

It may be that a geology course in a high school begins with a look at the formation of the earth as a planet for the first unit and in the second examines oceans and the third unit looks at land. It seems that these three could be combined to shorten the time and be reframed to look at the early story of planet earth: beginnings and elements.

On the elementary level, a fourth grade ELA curriculum might have a sequence that moves from a unit on historical fiction focused on a chapter book perhaps Number the Stars by Lois Lowry , to a unit on persuasive writing on an issue. It seems plausible to combine those two and consider having students take a stand on a critical issue raised in Lowry's classic work.

interdisciplinary units of study can be a fruitful design consideration when consolidating.
Have a standards-based report card? You could start here.

Generating new curriculum units responsive to the learners and to the zeitgeist is an option that seems particularly relevant. Certainly new units could be interdisciplinary derived from a reconsideration of your existing layout for the school year. A deliberate lens from multiple subject areas on common topics, problems, issues, and themes could provide a fresh perspective for learners. We strongly recommend the development of phenomena-based learning supporting inquiry into emergent problems and issues in a students life. These might be framed on a personal, local, or global level but what is key is there is an immediacy to the situation. (NOTE: Interdisciplinary units emerge from the natural connections we see "between disciplines", that is between the subjects. Phenomona-based is not anchored in our traditional school day but transcends the notion. We are not suggesting one is "better than the other", rather we hope to provide a menu of options as units are generated) .
A key organizing focus could be phenomena-based given the emergent issues regarding the pandemic. Whether an individual unit or a series of units, learners could examine the impact personally, locally, or globally. Certainly developmental considerations need to be primary here. Here are some examples:

On all levels, learners can document and share their experience both from the onset of the restrictions and the closing of on-site school to the present in their transition to school (whatever form that might take). The unit could be COVID19: My Story, Your Story, Our Stories

Secondary students can dive into an examination of the pandemic and/or consider specific angles. For example, as contemporary historians they might develop an annotated timeline since the first reports in November 2019 from China to the present. As journalists they could "cover" certain angles on the pandemic in a series of articles: the point of view of essential workers, impact on a range of families in the community or, the challenge to local government and decision making. Clearly, an area of fascination for all of us is the scientific research and scramble to develop treatments and a vaccine and certainly for our learners that could be covered in an empirical style.

Elementary students might engage and develop service based learning projects to thank local health care and essential service providers. Whether in the form of written communication or in a short video message, gratitude is appreciated and it is important to display. What is more, it may be possible to actually provide concrete support to members of the local community as the adaptation and easing into functional society occurs.

Leading Future Forward Curriculum Analysis, Revision, and Reimagining

This process needs to be implemented with all deliberate speed to develop a solid draft that functions as a rudder to help steer turbulent waters of where, when, and how learning happens in 2020-21. In teaming configurations whether grade level, grade level clusters (i.e.-K-2, 3-5, 9-10), department, or interdisciplinary teams, teachers can meet to review their upcoming plans. Likely to be virtual in nature, these formal reviews will be focused on making collective proposals on what to cut out, cut back, consolidate, and create informed by the Future Learning Goals. Using a collaborative decision making model, leadership in a school or district can coordinate these efforts, document them and share them. Transparency is critical.

Here are two possible starting points to begin the review process:

If your school utilizes curriculum mapping on a software platform, your teams can make a deliberate and formal walkthrough of your units and scope and sequence to make determinations about what to cut out, cut back, consolidate, and create.

Examine curriculum vertically to identify primary areas of fluency that are vital when students engage in more ambiguous and complex problems. For example, in math: Performs multiplication with multi-digit whole numbers.

Teams may want to utilize standards to inform grade level decisions and coordinate vertical choices. What is in the foreground of our subjects given the need to prioritize without putting undue pressures on other grade levels.

Pay particular attention to growing skill development either within a subject or transdisciplinary. For example, here is a sample from a Grade 1 Writing Report Card. The same focus areas are repeated on the report card through Grade 6.

Writing is focused; purpose is clear.

Writing includes details and descriptive words.

Writing is organized.

Writing demonstrates basic sentence structure.

Writing uses grade-level conventions of standard English.

Consider how these focus areas support one to draft a Future Forward Learning Goal in formal communication. For example: Crafts a purposeful and polished text in a given genre for a target audience.

Then, grade level or vertical department teams can make informed choices as to what genres to pay attention to both timeless and familiar ones (e.g., poetry, fairy tales, informational statements) as well as contemporary ones (e.g., interviews, emails, virtual chats).
Part 2: Part 3 (COMING SOON): Assessment and the Return to School: Engaging Student Voice, Self-monitoring, Meaningful Demonstrations, and Feedback Part 4 (COMING SOON): Responsive Return Strategies: Crafting Fresh Approaches to Schedules, Grouping of students and teachers and Shaping both physical and virtual learning spaces Building the Future Now: Deciding What to Cut, What to Keep and What to Create
Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

Decisions on curriculum matters have never been easy. Educators know that there are certain units of study and learning experiences that are particularly satisfying to teach and are hard to let go. There can be sharp differences of opinion on what matters most for learners between members of a grade level team or department. Conversely, there are great opportunities for collaboration and responsiveness to the needs, especially now, as we work through these decisions. Perhaps there is guidance in looking to the Latin root word for curriculum, which means a path to run in small steps. The familiarity with this path creates ruts that become deeper and make it more difficult to see with fresh eyes. As school faculties lay out a reimagined path in partnership with their learners and families, the opportunity it to leverage specific expertise in service to common and aspirational learning goals. Moving forward into the months ahead, future forward learning goals and a collaborative planning process will inform our choices on what to cut, what to keep, what to create in the curriculum.

In our next blogpost, Part 3 in our series*, we will consider the most meaningful demonstrations of learning to consider as students return to school in light of our future forward learning goals. How might we meet the challenge of determining their readiness to return both academically and emotionally? What types of feedback and grading makes sense as we review student formative and summative assessment? How will we develop self-navigating and self-monitoring skills that have already proven to be critical in remote learning?

*NOTE: We will explore the range of options and key considerations that school leaders, learners, and families might examine as they move forward in our four-part blog series on the Transition.

Part 1: How Will We Return to School? Curriculum Choices in the Face of COVID19.

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Building the Future Now: Deciding What to Cut, What to Keep and What to Create - Learning Personalized

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As the school year is winding to a close and everyone is desperate for a break, looking toward the opening of school next year is already causing unease. Throughout the world, educators face a critical challenge: how to design aspirational and future forward (post-pandemic) learning experiences rather than a temporary fix (triage).

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Refreshed Pedagogy for the Contemporary Learner 

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Refreshed Pedagogy for the Contemporary Learner 

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Streamlined Lesson Planning for Learner Engagement 

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Streamlined Lesson Planning for Learner Engagement 

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In design parlance, streamlining means to modernize and simplify: to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and visual appeal. Streamlining is not just paring back; it is making a process or product better. The pandemic cast a glaring spotlight on an education problem that has existed for years: Curriculum and lesson plans desperately need streamlining, both in terms of content and format. We can no longer be driven by a relentless instructional pace that values coverage over learner engagement. This problem is compounded by the demands on teachers to fill out planning templates that are often tedious and one step removed from writing for the desired audience: the students.

Many schools' current approach to lesson planning, whether synchronous or asynchronous, can be a roadblock to student motivation. Learners at every age should be able to decipher with ease the tasks and activities teachers plan for them. If the task isn't clear and compelling, it curbs engagement. At the secondary level, it is difficult to motivate students when they are overwhelmed with a tsunami of daily assignments written in multiple styles from seven different teachers, no matter how interesting the tasks themselves might be.

The Jolt of COVID-19

As education consultants, we have been promoting a focus on what is essential in lesson planning for years. Streamlining emerged as the apt term during COVID-19. The impetus for our initial work in this area came in March of 2020, at the request of the New Haven Public School Magnet Division in Connecticut. The school was seeking a timely response to the abrupt shift to remote learning, and the program director asked a key question:

How will we be able to communicate with the kids and the parents who will struggle with following the list of tasks, activities, and resources in the curriculum? Our teachers are asking for a simplified curricular approach in manageable chunks for lesson planning.

Certainly, educators across the globe can identify with the director's concerns. From the early period of the pandemic through the constantly shifting demands of the 2020-21 school year, teacher and family efforts were remarkable, but the demands were incredibly challenging. Teachers with the best of intentions were sending home packed activity schedules written in a wide range of idiosyncratic styles that were difficult for families to decipher. In April 2020, we interviewed the primary and secondary principals of Hong Kong International School, who noted that when their school went into lockdown during the Hong Kong riots in November 2019, they immediately saw how important it was to write lesson plans that spoke directly to parents and students. They were right: It is crucial that our choice of language and approach in the communication of planned learning experiences shift directly to a student and family audience.

Before the pandemic, the goal of writing lesson plans and tasks-in teacher-facing language-was to communicate the general teaching approach to school personnel. These shorthand sketches were not intended for a broader audience. What crystallized for us this past year was that if we believe that students should be stakeholders and partners in learning, then they also must be the audience in our learning designs.

To better account for this, we developed a new planning approach that streamlines the format of curriculum and lesson design: Learning sets, which communicate directly with students and their families to capture the story of the learning design.

Learning Sets Streamline Curricula

Learning sets are an easy-to-follow series of connected learning experiences we call episodes, written in a narrative style. Learning sets consolidate critical elements of a unit plan, using a more granular daily approach, into a streamlined format. They are designed to be visually engaging and easy to navigate through their use of language, style, and iconography.

To create consistency and focus in learning sets, we use a grid organized around three student-facing action prompts: engage, examine, and demonstrate. These prompts direct learners to purposeful action. Learning sets can work in any planning approach, and educators can adapt them to a specific learner management system or Google Classroom. If school leaders encourage use of this format to provide ease of communication, students and their families will benefit.

A small team of teacher leaders from Vista High School in California were excited to test out our prototype. We shared the icons, learning set features, and visual format to support their curriculum design. Figure 1 illustrates an excerpt from an English learning set from Vista High School in California.

Jody, one of the English teachers who designed this set, reflected:

The previous lesson planning template we had used was time-consuming with lots of boxes to be checked (literally), which did not meet our needs. The new template's value is in its organizational structure, especially with the various progressions built into the unit plan. As we worked with the template, we were able to see clearly where our units needed more development or differentiation. The icons served to visualize where we were not providing enough personalization or differentiation and were helpful in guiding students through the lesson. Students appreciated the template's organization and the clear statement of essential questions, expected outcomes, and formative and summative assessments.

Key Components of a Learning Set

Each learning set follows the same format but can be modified for individual situations, with targeted actions to engage, examine, and demonstrate learning with corresponding tools, tasks, and resources. The following components are ones we believe to be essential:

A compelling storyline. What am I inviting the student to engage in? How am I clarifying that upfront? Am I writing directly to students and parents as my audience?

Unit and lesson planning provides an organizational frame for teachers. With the relentless demand of laying out sequences and supporting resources, a teacher's energy can be sapped and they can lose the focus on framing learning directly and deliberately for their target audience-students and their families. A basic writing tenet is that the author needs to "hook and hold" a target audience; to do this, the deliberate use of language, tone, and context matters. Modeling classic backwards design, start with an essential question, overarching goal, and overview to frame the learning experience and help keep the bigger picture in mind. The narrative style, paired with the essential questions and an overview, must be designed to pique students' interest with an inquiry, design challenge, or creation that is worth pursuing.

Episodes framed by learning targets. What are the manageable chunks in this unit? How might I frame and organize them into episodes that naturally build one upon another? What is the short-term goal that is the driving purpose for the learning experience?

Learning sets provide clarity of purpose-the student knows what actions are expected and how that connects to the learning target. The word episode denotes a playful and deliberate frame for the narrative that students are experiencing. A learning target is a clear statement derived from standards and/or mission-driven goals of what a learner needs to know or be able to do, written in accessible, invitational, and actionable language ( I can ...). These targets are broken down into more manageable goals in service to the overarching goal. The key for engagement is how to play out the target through the three action verbs: engage, examine, demonstrate.

Action verbs. What are my students doing as they engage with the content?

Instead of outlining topics teachers will cover, action verb prompts directly engage students and align to the learning targets. The three verbs used in the learning set in Figure 1 connect to key actions students will take (or things teachers will do to set students up for those actions):

Engage: Generates curiosity and connections, sets parameters for the episode

Examine: Provides an investigation or exploration to probe thinking

Demonstrate: Applies learning to a new or complex situation that provides evidence for the learning target

Embedded in each action prompt are links to tools, apps, assignments, readings, or other resources to assist the learner. Strategic placement of these links within each action prompt ensures resources are immediately relevant (versus listing them at the end of a lesson plan).

According to Craig, Vista High School's lead instructional coach:

In the past, the overwhelming response from teachers was that they spent hours and even days creating curriculum documents but were still no closer to having the lessons, activities, and projects. Leading students to reflect throughout their learning experience could help all students to recognize the strategies, Habits of Mind, [and] actions that they use when asked to analyze, design, [and] evaluate. Students could increase their control over their learning as they could directly see what efforts, activities, prompts, and learning were related to course learning expectations.

Iconography. How can I capture these engagement actions with visuals to strengthen communication?

Using icons lessens the need for written text. When we have explored the use of iconography with teachers, the most common "aha" moment for them was that they spotted their patterns of practice. The use of the same few icons representing types of tasks (for example, read, write, test) reveals the range of learning experiences and prompt us to consider what other ways we can design the lesson to meet the learning target. Some learning-management platforms have icons built into their infrastructure, and there are ample free sources for education icons, but they don't always capture the higher-order thinking skills, dispositions, and behaviors that schools are committed to developing in their students. For example, when we are considering authentic assessments that we want students to engage in, what are the words or phrases that come to mind? Figure 2 shows some examples of icons we have developed and used in learning sets.

Your students can also sketch and upload icons for learning sets that represent their level of thinking and the actions they will take in their inquiries. This helps them to see the benefits of iconography to streamline written text.

Moving Forward

When we take on the challenge of streamlining lessons, we must prepare to sift through a bloated, inconsistent curriculum. In any field, the goal of streamlining is to make performance better and to shed antiquated features of a design or process. As Matt, another Vista High School teacher who piloted learning sets reflected, "In my experience, unit planners were for teachers and administrators. I saw learning sets, however, as an opportunity to invite students into the process and an effective reflection tool for already established units."

Learning sets lighten the bureaucratic burden on teachers' backs by shifting to a student-facing curricular narrative, using accessible language, appealing visuals, and diverse experiences that invite engagement.

Note: To learn more about the design of learning sets, including icons, template, and key components, go to .

Reflect and Discuss

Who is the primary audience for lesson and unit planning documents in your school? How could these materials be more student-facing?

How have remote and digital shifts during the pandemic changed your lesson planning process?

Could a model like learning sets help you create a more compelling curricular narrative? Why or why not?

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Streamlined Lesson Planning for Learner Engagement

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Unit and lesson plans should speak directly to students and families, not just to administrators.

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YouTube: How Habits of Mind and Social-Emotional Learning Create an Academic Mindset 

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YouTube: How Habits of Mind and Social-Emotional Learning Create an Academic Mindset 

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Complimentary  Webinar by Dr. Bena Kallick and Dr. Heidi Hayes Jacob

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Video (short):  From Cells and Bells to a Learning Community 

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Video (short):  From Cells and Bells to a Learning Community 

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From cells and bells to a Learning Community

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Video:  Prakash Nair on Learning Spaces 

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Video:  Prakash Nair on Learning Spaces 

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Unlocking Time: Reimagine Time in K-12 Schools 

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Unlocking Time: Reimagine Time in K-12 Schools 

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Reimagine time in K-12 schools | Unlocking Time

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Free tools and resources for school leaders, produced by Abl, to empower K12 schools to implement time strategies that fuel student-centered learning.

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Google Form:  Inquiry into Our Learning Program 

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Google Form:  Inquiry into Our Learning Program 

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What's Driving the Change to Reimagine School Schedules? 

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What's Driving the Change to Reimagine School Schedules? 

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Slow Pivots: What’s Driving the Change to Reimagine School Schedules? - Learning Personalized

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The continued goal is to make schools more agile, equitable, personalized, and aspirational for every student through how we use time to organize learning.

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Responsive Return Strategies: Schedules, Grouping, Spaces

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Responsive Return Strategies: Schedules, Grouping, Spaces

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Part 4 of a 4-Part Series
By Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda

The summer of 2020 is not a vacation for many educators who continue to work tirelessly to engage with their community on how to open school for the upcoming year. Each school and district continues to receive guidance from state, ministry, and national governments which may change suddenly given the unpredictability of the pandemic. In addition, the reality of implementing governmental guidelines may conflict with staff who may have their own children and live in neighboring districts where policies could conflict.

Because of the complexity and uncertainty of how to approach the upcoming school year, agility is becoming the mantra in school response plans as decisions are being considered for a range of return scenarios:

On-site with social distancing precautions.

Clearly the initial phase of reentry to school will entail social distancing and sanitizing precautions that will change as the medical community makes headway in the treatment and prevention of the virus.

Home learning via online platforms.

The phrase Home Learning certainly is predicated on the use of on-line learning but needs to be distinguished from the fact that on-line learning can occur at a school site or any location.

Hybrid models which combine features of both on-site and online.

State education departments will be initiating policies that may provide for parents to have a choice as to whether their students are allowed to stay home or to go to the school setting. There are obvious implications for staff who have their own children in neighboring districts.

There is an array of variables that each school and district must sort through to respond purposefully and effectively. In making your moves to re-enter school this fall, we reference two laws of physics: 1) the whole is sum of the parts, and 2) form follows function. By this we mean, the four programmatic structures that have everything to do with that is possible in the learning programs created for our students. In Bold Moves for Schools: How We Create Remarkable Learning Environments (ASCD), Heidi and her co-author, Marie Alcock, detail four critical structures and their interplay as paramount in creating that quite literally shape how our curriculum and learning experiences are planned.

Schedule. How we use time to structure learning plans.

Spaces. How we organize and use spaces to engage with learners.

Learner Grouping. How we intentionally group learners to grow their interests, skill sets, and discourse.

Personnel Configuration. How we intentionally organize personnel to be responsive to what the schedules, spaces, and learner grouping demands.

The Structural Nest

We have a genuine opportunity to reconsider format decisions in preparation for re-entry to school this fall presents challenges and possibilities regarding the structural 'nest.' There is an astonishing natural beauty to a bird's nest in its form and function. The nest's structure is responsive to climate, purpose, and available resources in order to be a place where nurturing the young is possible.

Our post generates options for each structure to correspond to the three response plans in consideration by schools and districts based on what we have seen pre-pandemic and in this transition phase. We strongly advise that the format structures are not selected in isolation by schedule, space, grouping of learners, and personnel configurations, but rather orchestrated to work together for cohesion.

Possible Options for Structural Nest

Possible Options for Structural Nest - V01 Draft

Click here to Review and Download 4-Page Possible Options.

The intention of the chart above is to lay out a menu of options to inspire fresh thinking and encourage you to generate additional options with your school community.

How might you leverage some of those ideas in continuing to develop your own reopening plans? We advocate the drafting of multiple prototypes that reflect these sets of connected choices. As you imagine the possibilities of one option, continue to envision other interconnections that are now on the table. To assist, we suggest a design tool to assist such as the one we have created below:
Link to Continuum Above: http://transform.curriculum21.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Program_Structures_RD.jpg
As a design tool, we suggest that teams review and research a full range of options to coordinate schedules, the use of virtual and physical space, possibilities for learner grouping, and different ways staff can be figured. The various combinations then can be developed as prototypes whether on-site, hybrid, or fully home learning based. Certainly, there could be multiple prototypes for any one of the three fundamental approaches that might emerge. With the array of prototypes sketched out, the pros and cons and each can be weighted by a leadership team or task force. What is more, it is quite possible that there may be a start of school in one return scenarios and find that due to changes in either the spread of the virus or hopefully its elimination due to a vaccine, that a school will have to very quickly adapt to another prototype. Preparation and as stated, agility, are key to an effective response.

Conclusion

This blogpost is our last in the four-part series dedicated to developing strategies and approaches to assist schools as we grapple with COVID19's startling challenges. We have attempted to provide a connected throughline between decisions regarding establishing future forward learning goals, planning curriculum, designing learning experiences, reconsidering assessment, developing learner agency, and structuring formats conducive to implementation. Coupled with the throughline, we took a deeper dive into recommending specific actions to add to the menu of options school communities consider as they shape contingency plans for the return to school.

In writing these blog posts, we do see that there are some seismic shifts that are already having a profound impact on learning-life in and outside of school.

Communication directly between teachers, parents, and learners has become paramount.

The actual formats and methods for developing activities and learning experiences have become streamlined.

Teachers have become skillful at utilizing online learning tools.

Curriculum as we have known has now consolidated.

Meaningful, ongoing feedback for students based on formative demonstrations of learning needs to replace the old assessment checklist.

The structures of school formats are becoming more agile and adaptive.

Moving forward as of this writing, it is impossible to know how long the current crisis will last. Given the resilience and commitment of learners, parents, and educators to see it through, there is great potential for the post-pandemic education landscape. Silver lining is an uneasy phrase to use in application to a crisis as devastating as a pandemic, but we lead with realistic optimism to design a future-forward school that offers safe and brave places for students to imagine, question, analyze, create, and share.
Our Four-Part Series
Part 1: How Will We Return to School? Curriculum Choices in the Face of COVID19
Part 2: Deciding What to Cut, What to Keep, and What to Create in the Design of Learning Experiences for 2020-21 School Year. Providing a tool to assist local educators in making these important choices.
Part 3: What COVD19 Has Illuminated about the Power of Self-Evaluation to Make Assessment Meaningful
Part 4: (WHAT YOU JUST READ) Responsive Return Strategies: Crafting Fresh Approaches to Schedules, Grouping of students and teachers and Shaping both physical and virtual learning spaces.

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Responsive Return Strategies: Crafting Fresh Approaches to Schedules, Grouping of Students and Teachers and Shaping Both Physical and Virtual Learning Spaces - Learning Personalized

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Part 4 of a 4-Part Series By Heidi Hayes Jacobs and Allison Zmuda The summer of 2020 is not a vacation for many educators who continue to work tirelessly to engage with their community on how to open school for the upcoming year.

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Dispositions for Educators Committing to Personalized Learning 

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Dispositions for Educators Committing to Personalized Learning 

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The true goal of personalized learning is for every learner to become increasingly comfortable with self-direction as they engage in interesting, relevant, rigorous, and important work regardless of age, past successes, and failures. When we provide the pedagogical conditions to personalize learning, the Habits of Mind serve as a set of foundational dispositions to grow effective thinking. Often, we focus on what students need to develop in order to have greater agency over their learning. Yet there are related dispositions that educators can pay attention to in support of students becoming more self-directed and responsible.

The following are five Habits for educators to pay attention to as they grow the pedagogical conditions:

Listening with Understanding and Empathy

Educators strengthen their relationship with students through seeing the world from their perspective and resonating with their feelings and emotions. Educators listen closely as they withhold their own agenda, asking questions to better understand the student's context as they work to elevate the thinking.

Persisting

Children do not become self-directed overnight - we need to recognize that this may be a mind shift and that it will take time for students to behave their way into taking charge of their learning. Educators need to take a long-range view and learn how to stay true to those behaviors despite new external demands that often serve as a distraction from what really matters.

Gathering Data Through all Senses

Educators in a personalized learning environment must constantly observe and document learner behaviors, products and processes. They must also pay attention to the learner's "gut feelings" about becoming more self-directed.

Thinking Flexibly

As students are becoming more self-directed, educators must increase their own repertoire of instructional strategies and processes to deal with the wide range of developmental growth.

Metacognition

Educators need to plan for, monitor and reflect on their learning design as they pay attention to how the four attributes of personalized learning- voice, co-creation, social construction and self-discovery - create a stronger relationship with their students.

As we continue to design assignments, learning environments, and dialogue with our students, are we embracing the learners in front of us while expecting independence in their work? Are we growing students' metacognition of their own learning? Are we taking guidance from them as to possible next steps in shaping the learning plan? Are we vulnerable enough to share what we are working on to develop more meaningful, worthy learning experiences?

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Requisite Dispositions For Educators Who Are Committing To Personalized Learning - Learning Personalized

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The true goal of personalized learning is for every learner to become increasingly comfortable with self-direction as they engage in interesting, relevant, rigorous, and important work regardless of age, past successes, and failures. When we provide the pedagogical conditions to personalize learning, the Habits of Mind serve as a set of foundational dispositions to grow effective thinking.

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Why helping humanity should be core to learning.  M. Fullan 

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Why helping humanity should be core to learning.  M. Fullan 

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Learner Roles - Lincoln School, Buenos Aires 

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Learner Roles - Lincoln School, Buenos Aires 

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OUr mission

We inspire and challenge all of our learners
to be kind and ethical members of a global community.
We empower them to develop into
self-aware, confident, innovative, and collaborative change-agents committed to honoring
diversity and enhancing their world.

Learning is the intentional process of making sense of the world through exploration, expression, and reflection. The journey of life-long learning is transformative, inspires action, and opens new pathways.

ATTTRIBUTES OF A LINCOLN LEARNER (allS)

1. Inquirer: Asks questions to explore a topic or issue, using prior knowledge, personal experience, and/or cultural frames of reference

2. Discerning Problem Solver: Determines the roots of the problem to address its complexity and shapes a solution path

3. Innovative Designer: Crafts imaginative and purposeful solutions, findings, prototypes, performances, and media using design thinking and inquiry processes.

4. Critical Researcher: Selects and analyzes a range of data sources and viewpoints, while ethically using the research process.

1. Global and Local Ambassador: Engages with others to identify and explore authentic contemporary issues in local and global contexts, and proposes solutions that will improve the lives of others.

2. Ethical Citizen: Makes ethical choices and demonstrates integrity by anticipating and evaluating the consequences of words and actions to promote positive impacts in the community.

3. Advocate for Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI): Embraces diversity and advocates for inclusive practices that promote equity and justice.

1. Responsive Listener: Contributes to interactions by respectfully seeking to better understand someone's point of view, using home or acquired languages.

2. Critical Reader: Works to comprehend and analyze different texts, in home or acquired languages, across various disciplines, for multiple purposes.

3. Articulate Speaker: Expresses information and ideas being mindful of purpose and audience in home or acquired languages.

4. Effective Writer: Generates rich and well crafted texts that show a command of language, and are informed by use of genre and strategic use of evidence in home or acquired languages.

5. Creative Producer: Expresses complex ideas creatively, in home or acquired languages, for a variety of purposes by producing original work emulating professional techniques using a variety of contemporary media formats.

1. Self-Monitor: Cultivates a growth mindset towards understanding own emotions, thoughts, and behavior and is motivated to develop interests and pursue goals with a sense of purpose and efficacy.

2. Self-Manager: Prepares for learning, plans for timelines and completion of work, manages own emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations, and contributes positively to school culture and climate.

3. Relationship Builder: Establishes, maintains, and advocates for healthy and supportive relationships with culturally diverse individuals and groups, collaborates with empathy and works effectively in teams, while resisting negative social pressure, resolving conflicts constructively, and seeking or offering help when needed.

In February 2020, Lincoln's Board of Governors initiated a Strategic Planning process with the intention of creating a new mission relevant for the evolving needs of students and developing the right organizational goals that would build a stronger, more cohesive school, better prepared for a new future. With information gathered from the community, the outcome was a strategic plan framework with clearly defined strategic objectives and clarity around the focus needed over the next 3 years, to build a pathway towards our new school mission.

Soon after the Strategic Plan retreat, the COVID-19 global pandemic spread across the globe, and the Argentine government closed all schools and initiated a very strict quarantine, restricting all movement throughout the country. Lincoln began Distance Learning, and our faculty taught from their homes, while a quarter of our student population remained abroad. The 2020-2021 school year also began in Distance Learning mode, and we decided to focus on establishing a sense of community, with Connection, Caring and Commitment as our unifying concepts. In November 2020, some restrictions in Argentina began to loosen, and in February 2021 we were allowed to open partially until April 2021, when we were forced to close again until June 2021.

Thankfully, this school year has started with a reopened campus, and in-person classes are currently underway. We are cautiously optimistic, continuing our strict health and safety protocols, and thankful for every day that we can be together. There is no question that COVID-19 continues to have a drastic impact on everyone's lives. As we consider everything we have learned before and during the pandemic, our desire for transformation has become stronger, and we have more clarity about shifting towards contemporary practices that are more relevant and inclusive, while becoming more cohesive and coherent as an educational organization. The opportunities before us are compelling and significant. The Lincoln community continues to convey a unique spirit of resilience and we know we are capable of the grand and beautiful work of continuous transformation.

Below are the four Strategic Objectives that are underway at Lincoln. We have defined specific End Results for each Strategic Objective as well as a series of action steps. Despite the complex challenges that we faced during the pandemic, we have made steady progress and we are on track towards these objectives.

Strategic Objectives are broad, complex, and substantial areas for attention over the next 3 years. Each Strategic Objective is broken down into specific End Results, which need to be addressed in order to achieve the Strategic Objectives.

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Learning is the intentional process of making sense of the world through exploration, expression, and reflection. The journey of life-long learning is transformative, inspires action, and opens new pathways.

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We will graduate students who are accomplished in the academic skills one would expect; at ease beyond their borders; truly fluent in a second language; good writers and speakers one and all; confident because they excel in a particular passion; artists no matter their field; practical in the ways of the world; emotionally unafraid and physically fit; humble about their gifts and generous of spirit; trustworthy; aware that their behavior makes a difference in our ecosystem; great leaders when they can be, good followers when they should be; on their way to well-chosen higher education; and, most importantly, architects of lives that transcend the ordinary.

We will share our prosperity with those who need it, initially through traditional financial aid and, as we grow, in more innovative and broader-scale ways that leap the walls of our campuses.

We will provide our faculty and staff members a special place to pursue the science and art of teaching. We want to align the rewards of teaching more closely with the value it brings to society, provide teachers opportunities to deepen their skills and be a place where careers, in and out of the classroom, can flourish.

We will advance education by setting an example as an effective, diverse and accountable school; by continuously investing in ways to become better at what we do; and by making available our discoveries, large and small, to colleagues in the cause of education.

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We will graduate students who are accomplished in the academic skills one would expect; at ease beyond their borders; truly fluent in a second language; good writers and speakers one and all; confident because they excel in a particular passion; artists no matter their field; practical in the ways of