702L  The Brain:  Memory and Learning Strategies

This 6 lesson course examines teaching strategies that have been proven to enhance learning, and will explore why these strategies might be effective in terms of how the brain remembers. This course will focus on memory and seek to relate it to classroom practices. Specifically, the course will explain the two memory systems that have been definitively identified by neuroscience — explicit and implicit  — and show how certain instructional strategies may promote particular types of memory formation. When you complete Memory and Learning Strategies, you will have become acquainted with the basics of how the brain forms new memories. It is the instructor's intention that this information will combine with your own clinical knowledge and experience to enhance learning opportunities for your students.

703L  The Brain:  Understanding the Mind

It's important that teachers understand how their attitudes and presence in the classroom can affect how the brain learns. It's also important that teachers understand that they can help students develop a positive mindset and an enthusiasm for learning.
This seven-lesson course will give teachers and teacher leaders a chance to examine how social-emotional and external factors affect the brain's performance and, as a result, influence learning. Participants will also explore such factors as attitudes toward learning and motivation as well as the importance of proper nutrition and adequate exercise.

704L  Bridging Learning Theory in the Classroom

Giving the learner more control has been a key goal of education reform in recent years. The modern classroom should reflect a learning environment that is far different than what is now called the traditional model. When we eagerly adopt new learning theories, the implication is that older theories are outmoded, or just plain wrong, and that the newer theories offer a panacea — educate everyone in just the right way, at just the right time. This raises the question: Should older theories be discarded and newer theories be used to the exclusion of others? As we consider this question and related issues in this 6 lesson course, we'll explore several influential teaching models; discuss the role of personalization through the incorporation of learning and teaching styles into the educational paradigm; and preview how those learning theories are bridged in the classroom.

706L  Classroom Management:  A Teacher-Student Collaboration

This 7-lesson course asks you to think about classroom management as a way of interacting with students. It suggests that cooperation and enthusiasm for learning are not things that teachers build in students; rather, they are behaviors and attitudes that teachers help students recognize within themselves. The strategies presented will emphasize helping students discover that they want to be cooperative, active learners. Among other learning goals, this course will allow teachers to explore intent. You will consider what you bring to the student-teacher relationship, and examine how your personality, background, and biases influence how you interact with students. Additionally, you will investigate how an engaging curriculum can help eliminate most classroom management challenges. And you will have a chance to explore why it's important to give students a voice in the classroom, along with the strategies for doing so. You will then explore several classroom management models and determine how those approaches can be adapted for your own context.

707L Classroom Management: Building Relationships for Better Learning

This 7 lesson course presents a broad conception of classroom management. Participants will explore how interpersonal relationships can provide the key to successful classroom management. In this course, participants will reflect on their relationships with students and develop a plan for enhancing these relationships; practice successful strategies for eliminating inappropriate classroom behavior; learn how to develop students' emotional intelligence as a way to manage classroom behavior; and adopt an approach to classroom management that will not be a constant drain on class time. This course provides reflective activities, opportunities to observe and analyze classroom interactions, and actual skill practice. 

717L Differentiating Instruction

This 5 lesson course is designed to enhance participants' understanding of how to better meet the needs of different learners. Participants will examine the characteristics of a differentiated classroom; learn how to frame instruction around concepts and essential understandings; identify techniques for differentiating content, process, and product; and explore how to differentiate on the basis of students' readiness, interest, and learning profile. Participants will also reflect on their beliefs and practices relative to differentiation, read and analyze examples of differentiated learning activities, and design a differentiated activity.

723L  Helping Struggling Readers

The importance of knowing how to read can be summed up very simply: We must know how to read if we want to succeed in school and in life. In this seven-lesson course, we present strategies that teachers can use to help struggling readers. Among other course goals, participants will learn how to help students develop phonemic awareness and phonics knowledge, ways to teach vocabulary, and how to help students make meaning from text. Participants will also consider why sustained silent reading should be incorporated at all grade levels (K-12). Finally, after reviewing model reading improvement programs, participants will create an action plan that they can use with their own struggling readers.

729L  Observing for Dimensions of Learning in Schools

Dimensions of Learning was one of the first comprehensive instructional improvement models to be based on the learning process itself. We know that learning improves when the learner's self-knowledge is taken into account and a variety of techniques are used within the learning environment to enhance the learning experience. Dimensions of Learning reflects these understandings. The central goal of this course is to further delve into Dimensions of Learning by exploring the process of observing for Dimensions of Learning. This 7-lesson course is ideal for administrators and central office curriculum specialists interested in sustaining classrooms and schools that promote effective learning principles — principles reflected in the five Dimensions of Learning. We believe that by exploring this acclaimed instructional improvement model, you and your colleagues will discover a range of strategies for using Dimensions of Learning principles to promote substantial school improvement.

730L  Our Multiple Intelligences

In this online course, we'll introduce you to the theory of multiple intelligences. You'll have an opportunity to explore each intelligence area and create your own intellectual profile. You'll also be asked to consider how your understanding of the multiple intelligences theory can guide your instruction so that student learning is enhanced. Psychologist Howard Gardner, who identified the eight distinct types of intelligence that comprise the theory of multiple intelligences, has said that the theory is like an ink blot test. Those who read about it often have very different ideas about how to apply it to curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Nonetheless, when educators believe that all students are unique and learn in different ways, they seek to personalize the educational experience and, through varied instructional approaches, try to make learning more meaningful for all students.

731L  Our Multiple Intelligences:  Implications for Leadership

"When a school becomes a true MI school, every aspect of its program and curriculum changes," writes New City School principal Thomas R. Hoerr in his ASCD book Becoming a Multiple Intelligences School (2000). Managing such sweeping change obviously requires effective leadership. In this course, you'll explore which of the multiple intelligences, when honed, can enhance a leader's competence. You'll also consider how other intelligences not included in MI theory are key to effective leadership. And you'll explore Douglas Reeves's research on leadership characteristics that contribute to improved student achievement. This six-lesson course does not attempt to be a how-to guide for leaders. Instead, the ideas presented will allow course participants to explore various perspectives on effective leadership. We believe that if school leaders better understand how people learn, they can make better decisions about curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development. Moreover, if school leaders deepen their understanding of how to develop leadership traits that have been shown to be effective, student learning will be enhanced.

732L  Our Multiple Intelligences:  Translating Theory into Practice

It's hard to believe that the theory of multiple intelligences (MI) has been around for three decades. In that time, it has received national and international acclaim, and teachers around the world have been guided by what it suggests about learning and teaching. Even today, it is still relevant to classroom instruction. Our Multiple Intelligences: Translating Theory into Practice is a practical, 7-lesson, online course that provides updated information and ideas for using the theory to help students learn and understand. From an overview of the theory itself to practical and proven ways to use it with students, this course will help you use the theory of multiple intelligences to make learning come alive.

735L  Six Research-Based  Literacy Approaches          for the Elementary Classroom

This 7-lesson course provides participants with the reasons and research behind six components of a balanced literacy program for elementary students. You will explore the following reading instruction practices.

• Reading Aloud
• Shared Reading
• Guided Reading
• Independent Reading
• Words and Sounds
• Writing

The course also provides practical strategies on how to integrate these components into curriculum and instruction.

738L  Successful Strategies for Literacy and Learning

Many content area teachers balk at the idea of having to teach "reading" to their students, especially when their class curriculum is already so full. Still, several simple strategies that assist students in comprehending subject matter can be easily implemented into any lesson plan. These strategies not only help students connect with the ideas being presented to them in the text, but also give them a purpose for reading. This 8 lesson course will help participants understand why it's important for every teacher, in all subject areas, to become involved in teaching his or her students how to read, write, and comprehend the subject matter being presented to them. In addition, a Web-based bulletin board will give participants the opportunity to discuss their reactions to course content with colleagues also enrolled in the course. Using the simple strategies presented in this course will enable participants to take one step toward helping all students acquire the skills needed to excel not only in school, but also later in life.

741L  Teacher Behaviors That Promote Assessment for Learning

In this seven lesson course, participants will be introduced to the concept of assessment for learning. They'll learn the seven teacher behaviors that promote student learning and support sound assessment. Participants will also explore the standards for quality assessment. In addition, this course will give participants a chance to explore ideas about the purposes of assessment, fairness, standards-based planning for assessment, involving students in assessment, motivation and learning, and communicating student learning to other stakeholders.

742L  Teaching Mathematics Effectively:  Grades K-2

All children must be successful in mathematics because math achievement is the key to school and career opportunities, according to the National Research Council. Effective mathematics instruction

• Teaches students the mathematical concepts underlying these procedures.
• Facilitates their ability to reason and build on their conceptual knowledge.
• Gives them many opportunities to work on challenging and personally meaningful problems that encourage them to make connections within math. (Allen, 2003, p. 3)

This seven-lesson course addresses teaching mathematics to young children effectively in ways that build a child's level of confidence so that he or she can be successful. The first lesson briefly touches on what children need to learn. The other lessons focus on how to effectively teach mathematics. Each lesson includes course readings as well as links to appropriate Internet sites so that participants can explore topics in more detail. The Learner Forum provides an opportunity for participants to reflect on course content with colleagues.

747L  Understanding by Design:  An Introduction

This 7 lesson course introduces teachers in all grades and subjects to ASCD's Understanding by Design (UbD) program for curriculum, instruction, and assessment. This course offers insights into the research, learning theory, and design elements of UbD, and shows how educators can improve student achievement by teaching for understanding. Participants will explore curriculum design, assessment tasks, and instructional strategies that promote student understanding in the context of standards and high-stakes tests.

748L  Understanding by Design:  The Backward Design Process

This 6 lesson course is the third in a series designed to help practitioners understand and apply various aspects of Understanding by Design (UbD). It begins with an overview of the principles of unit design presented in the UbD framework. During the course, the learner will develop a unit based upon content standards, create appropriate assessments, and design instructional activities that ensure all students will be able to demonstrate genuine understanding. By the end of the course, the learner will be able to describe, explain, and apply the design principles and strategies associated with the UbD framework. This course is appropriate for individuals, school-based study groups, individual trainers, staff developers, instructional leaders, and administrators who have a role in bringing coherence to their school-based curriculum and assessment process.

749L  Understanding by Design:  The Six Facets of Understanding

This 7 lesson course is the second in a series designed to help practitioners understand and apply various aspects of Understanding by Design. It explores what Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, the framework authors, call the "six facets of understanding". These six interrelated behaviors provide avenues through which educators can observe and evaluate students' growing understanding of the curriculum they are studying. Beginning with an overview of why teaching for and assessing understanding can be both challenging and critically important, this course then addresses each of the six facets in greater detail. Subsequent lessons explore students' abilities to interpret what they learn, to apply it in new and unpredictable situations, to analyze different perspectives, to express empathy, and to exhibit self-knowledge. Each lesson emphasizes the relationship of the six facets to the backward-design process, including how the facets can be used to identify desired results and to improve assessment tasks and activities.

750L  Understanding Student Motivation

Nearly every teacher has faced students, or even a room full of students, who don't want to learn. For children to be successful learners, they must be motivated. Every child is inherently motivated, yet some children are not motivated by what is taught in school or by how it is taught. In order to find out what motivates children, teachers must get to know their students on a personal basis in order to understand their interests and needs. When teachers organize lesson plans and activities around the natural interests and needs of children, their students become motivated to learn. This seven-lesson course will help teachers learn about the conditions that foster student motivation. Among other goals, you will learn what the data say about unmotivated students, the importance of intrinsic motivation, how to meet children's needs to enhance motivation in the classroom, and strategies to cope with challenges.

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