3.
You are mostly in the ASSESSMENT Stage.
Teachers have built quality relationships with students and their day-to-day lessons are filled with student voices. But you would love to see stronger coherence from lesson to lesson. You wish teachers backwards designed their units from impactful, project-based assessments and in each lesson throughout the unit, students had opportunities to grapple with a compelling driving question. You know that if your teachers could become proficient in this type of curriculum design, student engagement and teacher joy would skyrocket. So...what's your next move? Introduce Research on Proficiency-Based Grading Introducing a completely new way to grade can bring up hesitations and concerns from teachers, families, and students. Start with the research. Engage stakeholders in conversation. Keep equity as your why. Facilitate Department or Grade Team Priority Standard Selection + Rubric Development/AlignmentThere are a ton of standards teachers are told to cover that come from a variety of places—CCLS, NGSS, state standards...they span content- and skill-based standards. It's a lot. The reality is some are bigger, heartier, than others. Those big ones need repeated opportunities for practice. How are teachers supposed to handle all of that? Pick priority standards. This is most effective for teachers and students when done in department or grade teams. It lends itself to vertical and/or horizontal alignment and co-created proficiency- or mastery-based rubrics for teacher teams. Support Teams to Develop Engaging Driving Questions + Impactful Summative ProjectsIn my experience, high levels of sustained student engagement come from a compelling driving question and the opportunity to address that question through a project that inspires creativity. As this is such a valuable part of the planning process, it's a great opportunity to co-create. Teacher teams or PLCs are built-in brainstorm spaces. Teachers can throw out a bunch of ideas, get feedback on which questions are most compelling, which word choice is clearest, and whether students can answer it in a multitude of ways. Encourage this critical work. Check out these resources:1. Support teachers to brainstorm compelling Driving Questions. — Get my Driving Question Worksheet to help you coach teachers to design the BEST question to build a unit around. 2. Give this resource to teachers. — My on-demand masterclass, How to Design Units that Engage Students and Advance Justice: 3 Secrets to Creating Standards-Aligned, Student-Centered Curricula in a Sustainable Way offers teachers three key practices to start this unit development work. 3. Keep listening! — Check out the following episodes of the podcast. There are several for you and one to share with your teachers. For the teacher who wants some examples of project-based learning units/projects: Check out these episodes—Using Music to Teach for Justice with Christopher Schroeder, Developing Students’ Criticality With My Media Critique Project, and Curriculum Series #6—Who Tells Your Story? with Laura Cruz. For the department chair or instructional leader who wants a step-by-step process: The Curriculum Series (all episodes are great, but #2—Developing a Course-Long Rubric is going to give them the information and steps they need right now.For the instructional coaches, mentor teachers, and other leaders who want to effectively coach for quality DQs: Curriculum Series #4—Crafting a Compelling Driving Question walks you through the process and pairs well with the DQ Worksheet resource above. For you and other leaders working to align these instructional priorities with your observation rubric: Co-Creating Observation Look Fors walks through how to do this and make your observations more impactful and less stressful for the teachers being observed. “For many young people, various stressors of their new lives create an overwhelming cognitive load that decreases processing capacity. They require a curriculum that slows down and allows for depth." - Lorena Germán, author of Textured TeachingWhen You’re Ready to Take it to the Next LevelHi, amazing leader!I’m Lindsay Lyons, and I help educators create feminist, antiracist curricula that challenges, affirms, and inspires all students.But this is a journey, often years in the making without strategic support. I help speed up that process using research-based and teacher-tested strategies. Most likely, you'll want to check out my free resources first, make sure my content gets results. If you're anything like me, once I realize someone is the real deal, I'm eager to check out all the things they have to offer. You might be ready to skip over that get-to-know-me phase and dive right into my programs. If that's you, I won't make you wait for a pitch. Keep scrolling! Products + Services For Where You Are NOWFor your teachers...1. At this stage, teachers are ready for my self-paced Curriculum Boot Camp course. This is my start-to-finish program for teachers to design original, relevant, engaging units that are centered in student voice and intersectional justice. Teachers can go at their own speed and check in with you, a coach, and/or their teacher team as they wish to brainstorm ideas. They will also have access to two 3-hour virtual coaching intensives each year, in which I guide teachers through the process of creating their newest unit. And they have lifelong access to this, so they can create new units for years with support from me. This one's for you...2. Want support facilitating department priority standard selection and navigating conversations about changing the way you grade? You got it. Book 2 coaching calls with me, and together, we'll make a plan to help you support the standards-based work in teacher teams (1 call) and guide teachers through conversations about and ultimately a transition to a more equitable system of grading and assessment (1 call). Want to chat about these options?
