Instruction

Student engagement in their learning impacts the quality of thinking and the long-term effectiveness of the learning experience. Allison Zmuda facilitates staff development of informal observational tools to gauge engagement, identification of the “mindset” of students and the “learning myths” they believe that limit their thinking, and the creation of meta-cognitive assessments to bring shared awareness to what students are thinking/feeling and how that impacts their work.

A more indepth discussion of this topic can be found in Zmuda’s article published in Education Leadership (November 2008).

Project: describe what research looks like in the library so that it can be evaluate via an informal classroom observation tool and to improve the quality of the design of research tasks.View Project
Project: develop more efficient and effective ways to encourage differentiation in reading instruction for students in grades 3-8 for a school district in Minnesota. View Project

Another key part of a teacher’s job includes the regular review of learning results based on multiple measures (achievement data, student work, client feedback) and to make necessary adjustments to curriculum, instruction, use of resources, etc. to improve student performance. Allison Zmuda leads staff through the development of protocols, guides and strategies to evaluate student learning and addressing learning challenges. Two examples of these long-term projects can be found on the following sites.

http://www.gips.org/public/staff/differentiation/differentiation-strategy-bank
http://www.s-tama.k12.ia.us/literacy

Project: develop a list of red flags in high school mathematics that teachers can use to more effectively design lessons, formative assessments and summative assessments.View Project
Project: develop a classroom observation tool that teachers can use as they watch their own students work on an assignment in order to more effectively identify learning problems and create more targeted and responsive teaching strategies for a school district in New Hampshire.View Project