Academies and Workshops

• Methods to gain and maintain attention
• Techniques and practices to promote active learning and attentive students
• Specific partner response and processing techniques
• Proven routines for providing corrective feedback, holding students accountable, and monitoring responses

Instructional Planning and Design

• Differences between standards and objectives
• Lesson design components
• Effective usage of direct, explicit instruction
• Scaffolding to support learning
• Methods to intensify instruction

Classroom Management for Active Learning

• Jacob Kounin’s concept of “withitness”—what constitutes a “withit” teacher?
• Seating arrangements that promote engaged learning and interaction
• Management routines that maximize learning time
  

Participant Outcomes

• Learn attention-getting, monitoring, and partnering techniques to immediately use in the classroom.
• Acquire a set of specific techniques to foster active learning.
• Become skilled at ways to arrange the classroom for high-intensity instruction.
• Leave with a DVD containing 25 clips of outstanding teachers demonstrating the techniques.

Intensive Lesson Study: Learning About Teaching Through Intensive Study of Selected Key Lessons

Levels: K–12
Format: One day, usually combined with other training events or site visits
Audience: Administrators, all content-area teachers, coaches, and specialists

Description
Intensive lesson study leads educators to systematically analyze their teaching practice in order to understand what aspects best influence learning. Teachers and other educators work in small groups to plan, observe, critique, and revise a lesson. This workshop initiates an ongoing process that is continued through site implementation. The lesson study process includes the following six steps:

1. Set goals.
2. Plan the lesson.
3. Plan for lesson teaching and observation.
4. Observe and collect data on the lesson.
5. Analyze the data and revise the lesson.
6. Share the findings.

The Intensive Lesson Study workshop provides a focused day to familiarize teachers and school leaders with the lesson study process and begin work on the six steps listed above. These steps establish a strong professional learning community centered on instruction and begin a sustainable process for ongoing internal professional development. Prior to and during follow-up site implementation, the CORE consultant will facilitate completion of the six-step process.

The Intensive Lesson Study workshop is offered in conjunction with CORE’s Math Academy, Program Planning Workshop, and/or Mathematics Site Implementation.

Participant Outcomes

• Increase knowledge of mathematics.
• Increase knowledge of how to effectively teach mathematics.
• Develop a stronger professional learning community.
• Connect daily practice/lessons with long-term learning goals.
• Instill mutual accountability with peers to provide high-quality instruction.
• Improve the quality of lesson plans to promote student learning.

Program Planning: Connecting Objectives, Assessments, and Key Topics

Levels: K–12
Format: One day 
Audience: Administrators, all content-area teachers, coaches, and specialists

Description
This workshop is designed to prepare teachers for coherent and effective instruction by focusing on the connections between objectives, assessments, and key math topics for nine or more weeks of instruction.

The workshop emphasizes the following:

• Identifying key math concepts and skills
• Articulating clear, measurable objectives
• Connecting objectives to state or local standards
• Identifying or developing assessments to match objectives
• Understanding the development of math concepts and skills within the course curriculum
• Planning to address areas of weakness if needed in the curriculum
• Anticipating and preparing for common misconceptions and issues

Participant Outcomes

• Develop a nine-week outline or plan for math instruction based on your curriculum.
• Describe objectives that are aligned with standards.
• Identify assessments that are aligned with objectives.
• Prepare for teaching by understanding the key math concepts and skills that must be learned, the common misconceptions to be addressed, and how assessments will be used to evaluate and guide instruction.