
Student projects, products and
performance need to be at the center
of the classroom, with students
sharing their work with an
audience of significance.

When students have a real
audience for whom their
work might matter, the
classroom becomes a place
of energy and purpose.
The Montillation of Traxoline
It is very important that you learn about
traxoline. Traxoline is a new form of zionter.
It is montilled in Ceristanna. The
Ceristannians gristerlate large amounts of
fevon and then bracter it to quasel traxoline.
Traxoline may well be one of our most lukized
snezlaus in the future because of our zionter
lescelidge.
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences.
1.
What is traxoline?
2.
Where is traxoline montilled?
3.
How is traxoline quaselled?
4.
Why is it important to know about traxoline?
Wrong to Better
Let’s not “do the
wrong thing
better.”*
*From Buckminster Fuller
Let’s change
the conversation.
Three Words that
Change the Conversation
Wonder
Error
Justice
Wonder
A teacher’s job is to keep it
alive.
The central aim of education is
to “free the mind through the
discipline of wonder.”
Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book,1940
Error
Error = Errant
500 years ago, an errant was a person
embarked on a searching journey, a
journey for the truth.
A teacher’s job is to challenge students’
thinking and recognize the power of error in
learning.
Justice
A teacher’s job is to
foster it,
uphold it,
enhance it, and
act on behalf of those whose
rights to a full education may
be in jeopardy.
Five Teaching Principles
that Change the Conversation
value students’ points of view
structure lessons around big ideas
address students’ suppositions
pose problems of emerging
relevance
assess learning within teaching
“Neurons that fire
together, survive
together and wire
together.”
From:
The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology
of Interpersonal Experience, 1999
David J. Siegel, M.D.,
Professor of Psychiatry
UCLA Medical School
Slpeling is Ipmorantt
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid!
Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it
deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,
the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be
in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you
can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the
huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the
wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh?
The Three Most Important Factors
in Changing the Conversation
About Education
Instruction
Instruction
Instruction
Seek and value
students’ points of view
Sounds simple?
What story do the next two
slides tell you?
Two Coins
Structure Curriculum
Around “Big Ideas”
Big Ideas need to be debated in
many contexts.
No matter where we stand on
the Earth, we always see the
same side of Earth’s moon.
Please explain.
ADAPT CURRICULUM TO
CHALLENGE STUDENTS’
SUPPOSITIONS
When teachers design lessons
that provoke students to confront
their initial suppositions,
teachers maximize the likelihood of
student learning.
POSE PROBLEMS OF
EMERGING RELEVANCE
Posing problems of emerging
relevance and searching for windows
into students’ thinking can create a
classroom setting in which the
teacher and the student jointly search
for meaning and create new
knowledge.
These fish!!
•What is going on here?
•What can you do to find
out?
Assertion:
The simplest sounding questions are
often the richest in teaching and
learning possibilities.
The simplest sounding questions
often require some type of
technology to answer.
Social Studies Topic:
The Pacific Rim and
Globalization
Information

The countries surrounding the Pacific Ocean are
called the Pacific Rim. Many of these nations are part
of a consortium called the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperative, or APEC.

APEC Members are:
Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico,
New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines,
Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand,
United States
Big Ideas

The Pacific Rim countries play a key role in the
globalization of our world.

Globalization has many definitions. Some scholars
see it as a force that involves international trade,
investments and flow of money. Others see it as a
set of social and cultural threads that are expanding
our ability to communicate.

Globalization is a controversial issue.
Some see globalization as good.
Some see it as bad.
Questions

When did globalization begin?

What’s good and bad about globalization for
democracies?

What’s good and bad about globalization for workers
and business owners?

What’s good and bad about countries exporting and
importing goods?

What’s good and bad about the internet for how
countries communicate?
Lesson Plan:
Using the following 6 words, write a brief history of
Trading with Tools and Technology
Sandals
Stirrups,
Sails,
Industry Standards,
Subsonic Jets
The Send Button
Lesson Plan
• Begin your challenge by mapping the
continents on your Clementine. Locate
the Pacific Rim nations, and then locate
which nations are part of APEC and
which are not. Do you see any
patterns?
• Carefully peel your Clementine to
transform your Clementine globe into a
map. Do you see any patterns?
Curious and Uncertain
A piece of information and a good
question help us become both curious
and uncertain, and this is always the
road that opens us to the surprise of
new insights.
ASSESS STUDENT LEARNING
WITHIN
THE CONTEXT OF TEACHING
Guide students in their search for meaning
through NON-JUDGMENTAL assessment.
Use performance tasks as teaching tools, NOT
additions to the curriculum … if there is time.
Example Performance Task
from New York State Assessment
How many busses does the army need to
transport 1,128 soldiers if each bus holds
36 soldiers?
31, remainder 12
Our Quest in the Classroom
Helping students
look at their worlds
… with wide awake
eyes