Tag: Deeper Learning

Andrew Lerario explains how he uses the iterative design process in order to give students more power within projects and share the “cognitive load” of project management.

The ever-present focus on standardized test scores hides opportunities to recognize and build on important progress that is likely already happening in their schools, and is essential for academic success, as well as the overall success of students, teachers, classrooms, and the larger school community.

A learning target is an “I can” statement written in student-friendly language (for example, “I can graph linear equations.”

Deeper learning and continuous improvement are answers to different halves of the same question. The future of schooling, and the future of our communities, depends on our willingness to reintegrate things we have allowed to drift apart

Edwards Deming, a founder of continuous improvement methods, once brutally summarized the field of education as “miracle goals and no methods.” Having spent the past 30 years trying to spread deeper learning to more students more often, I recognize myself in this sentence.

The author describes what has led a school district in Portugal to redesign themselves, and why the staff are doing it in partnership with the students.

When I started teaching, I kept hearing things like, “You’ll want to make sure you set classroom norms in the first week.”

The connection between a lack of reading proficiency and low-income background is well-established. And while the barriers are real, this is a solvable problem—not simple, but solvable.

It started with a simple idea: to bring a 60-minute visual countdown clock into my class. What began as a classroom management tool turned into something bigger—a small shift that made the room more predictable, accessible, and humane for every learner.

I used to think I was too cool and progressive to give quizzes. But a quiz tells you whether students are learning what you think you are teaching them, quickly and precisely. It’s a perfect data-collection tool: If students learned what you wanted them to learn, they will answer the questions correctly. If they haven’t, they won’t, allowing you to provide targeted help to specific students based on which questions they get wrong. The only caveat is that you shouldn’t grade the quiz, because attaching a grade to a quiz ruins your data.