Professional Development

Differentiate with Low Floors and High Ceilings

Starting with grade-level material and trying to extend up is a fool’s errand. It’s SO much simpler to aim high and scaffold down.

Lesson Makeovers: 3 Big Ideas

After looking at dozens of lessons folks sent in, I came up with three big ideas to address.

Why I Don’t Use “Create” in Bloom’s Taxonomy

The word “Create” can mask low-level tasks. Here’s why I avoid using it in objectives.

Why “Challenging” May Not Be The Right Goal

So many of us say, “I want to challenge my students!” But, would you want a job that you describe as “challenging”?

Difficult vs Complex Tasks

What separates difficulty from complexity? And why do complex tasks lead to much more natural differentiation?

Writing Differentiated Lesson Objectives

My early lessons didn’t even have objectives, let alone good objectives! Here’s how to build four-part, differentiated lesson objectives.

Creating Sequences of Questions

High-level questions on their own simply aren’t enough. We must create sequences of questions!

Depth and Complexity – An Introduction for Teachers

Depth and Complexity is a powerful, but often misunderstood, framework for teaching students to think more like experts.

Asking Questions That Make Students Think

How can we ask questions that make students think rather than just remember?

Improving Wait Time

How much time do students get to think? How much time do students need to think? How can we bring those into alignment?

Impostor Syndrome

Students who breeze through school may run into problems in college.

New Uses for Everyday Things

Here’s how Joelle Trayers gets even her youngest students ready to think in unexpected ways.

Universal Themes

Universal Themes are an easy way to connect lessons, units, and content areas, even going across grade levels, and into students’ personal interests.

Climbing Bloom’s with Depth and Complexity

Combine higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy with the prompts of Depth and Complexity!

Reduce Anxiety: 5 Question Rule

Adults can limit anxiety by implementing the Five Question Rule.

Response to Lit: An Inductive Approach

Here’s how one teacher uses inductive thinking to help students respond to literature.

Inductively Analyze Website Reliability

Rather than giving students rules to apply to websites, let them analyze websites to create rules.

An Inductive Exploration Of Geometry

With inductive thinking, students will work from parts to whole, discovering big ideas along the way!

Building Creative Confidence with the Torrance Tests

Here are a bunch of ways to quickly practice creativity with your students for zero dollars.

Reduce Anxiety: Worry Time

Adults can learn to help students reduce anxiety with the tool Worry Time.

Brain Needs or Heart Needs

We think of gifted kids as only having academic needs, but – in their own words – they also have many needs of the heart.

Analyzing Conflict with the Content Imperatives

How to go deep into conflict using the Content Imperatives.

Complex Task: Academic Tournaments

Who would win in the Tournament of Least Useful Geometric Shapes or Bravest Shakespearean Characters? Create an academic tournament and watch your students’ brains sweat!

Multiple Perspectives in Primary

Even our youngest students can learn to think from multiple perspectives!

Writing Concept Attainment Lessons

In a Concept Attainment lesson, we give students examples and non-examples of a concept — without telling them what that concept is!

Introduction to Watercolor

Cindy Phan shares her method of introducing watercolor to students using a mosaic technique.

Developing Questions that Prompt Thinking in Math

Math is a particularly tricky subject for asking higher-level questions. Here are a couple of techniques I’ve used to prompt students to think, not merely calculate.

Students and Personality Types

How can our students be so different? And how can we help them to understand themselves and each other better.

Add Layers To Direct Instruction

Take direction instruction beyond a monotonous practice of the same skill over and over.

Multipotentiality: Excellent at Many Things

Why being good at many things can be a bit of a burden.

Teaching Criticism

Ask students to go beyond “I don’t like it” and form critical opinions based on a set of criteria. Students can produce written arguments or turn their opinion into oral presentations.

Running A “Notice, Wonder” Lesson

Use these puzzling images to build a classroom culture that is comfortable with curiosity, ambiguity, and taking intellectual risks.

Introduction to Differentiation

When differentiating, most teachers simply start in the wrong place!

Running A Group Investigation Lesson

Learn to lead a lesson that is built entirely on student curiosity.

Asynchrony (For Adults)

In some areas, a student may be shockingly advanced, while in others… surprisingly average. This is asynchrony in action.

Can Students Solve Your Classroom Layout Problems?

What if your students designed your classroom layout?

Curriculum Compacting

Melanie Bondy explains how compacting will help you to “shrink the curriculum” and give students opportunities to use their time more effectively.

Moving Students from “On-Level” to “Advanced” in Writing

What separates our on-level writers from our advanced writers?

Introduction to Puzzlements

How I accidentally discouraged curiosity in my classroom.

My Top 5 Depth and Complexity Mistakes

I spent about a decade making some pretty major mistakes in my use of depth and complexity.

Making Depth and Complexity Posters

Why buy premade posters when you can show off your students’ thinking about Depth and Complexity?

Depth and Complexity and Graphic Organizers

Let’s see a few examples of how Depth and Complexity slides nicely into any graphic organizer.

Building “Not Like The Others” Tasks

A delightfully ambiguous framework that is quick to prepare, but can last forever!

Graphic Organizers and Higher Order Thinking

A few quick tips on how to better use graphic organizers to support higher-order thinking.

Rethinking Extension Menus

Is creating nine, two-sentence tasks really an effective way to differentiate?

Unexpected Intensities

Do you know a student who’s a little bit… intense?

Addressing Disorganization

Know any kids who, despite their brilliant minds, have a bit of a hard time keeping things in order, turning things in on time, or remembering to put their names on their papers?

Curriculum Acceleration: Step by Step

Melanie Bondy, of Mine Vine Press, explains how to accelerate curriculum for your advanced students.

An Introduction to Models of Instruction

As a new teacher, I only knew one model of instruction: Direct Instruction. I was like a chef who only knew how to deep fry!

Complex Task: What Would X Think of Y?

Here’s a simple task that will add complexity to any content from any grade level!

Creativity Beyond The Fluff

Just because a task is “creative” doesn’t mean students are at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Content Imperatives

Learn to use the Content Imperatives, a set of five additional tools that work with Depth and Complexity.

From “Identify” to “Analyze” – Famous Structures

Rather than just learning about one structure, let’s climb Bloom’s and think more deeply.

Complex Task: Subjective Graphs

What would it be like if students graphed characters from stories? Historic leaders? Elements from the period table? Objects in space?

How To Let Your Brain Exhale

From Summary to Synthesis

Here’s how you can move from merely “summarizing a text” to a high-level task that culminates in synthesis.

Who Asks The Questions? And Who Answers?

What would the pie chart look like for these three situations: the teacher asks the students, a student asks the teacher, or a student asks another student a question? I can tell you my pie chart would have been very lopsided.

The Curse of Knowledge and Checking for Understanding

How knowing your material well easily becomes a curse… and what to do about it!

From “Too Many Choices” To “One Quality Task”

Fixing an under-developed (but interesting) task that was originally part of a choice menu.

Go Beyond “Identify Figurative Language”

So students can identify a simile, metaphor, and hyperbole. What next?

Explain Concepts with the Frayer Model

Giving a definition just doesn’t cut it! Use the Frayer Model to explain (and assess!) vocabulary.

Updating Old Questions: Conflict and Character Change

I update an old question about conflict and character change in the story Hatchet.

Exposing Students to Classics

Some kids are exposed to a wide range of classic art, music, and films at home and others aren’t. Let’s even the playing field by quickly integrating classics into our lessons.

Aim High, Scaffold Down in Math

A high level of thinking in math also requires the support of thoughtful scaffolding.

Models of Instruction: Inquiry Training

Want your students to ask better questions? Why not train them to inquire!?

Depth and Complexity: Patterns and Quadrilaterals

Why just “identifying patterns” isn’t deep enough.

Why “Analyze” Is My Favorite Level of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Analyze is like a gateway that connects the lower- and higher-levels of Bloom’s. But make sure you’re truly asking an Analyze-level question!

Engagement Isn’t The Goal

While “engagement” is fun, it shouldn’t be our main goal.

All About Pre-Assessment

A collection of helpful tips about differentiating through pre-assessment.

Comparing Fraction Strategies

Comparing fraction strategies? Let’s take it even further!

Think Like a Disciplinarian (or an Expert!)

Here’s how I got better at using the Think Like An Expert technique.

Improving Evaluative Questions

How to improve questions at the “evaluate” level of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Meeting Gifted Students’ Social and Emotional Needs

How can you tell if your students’ social-emotional needs are being met on your campus?

Help Students to Memorize Anything

How to memorize the countries in Africa, the Japanese writing system, or a deck of cards.

Beyond Identifying a Story’s Problem and Solution

So your students can identify a story’s problem and solution. Then what?

Going Beyond “Name That Genre!”

What will my students do after they’ve named the story’s genre?

Don’t Make A Mere Model!

This task is all about the product, but completely ignores how students will think.

When to Go Deeper? When to Just Move On?

When should teachers take the time to build an advanced version of something? And when should they just let students move along?

Updating Old Questions: Comparing Two Leaders

How I’d upgrade a dull “which one is better” question.

Updating Old Questions: Pay Raise

How I’d update a low-level, overly engaging math question.

Misconceptions About 🏛️ Big Idea

For too long, I let my students turn in blah Big Ideas. Here’s how I fixed it.

Differentiation of the Environment

Lisa explains how Log Cabin Living changed her classroom environment. Sort of.

Comparing Strengths and Weaknesses

Go beyond merely explaining strengths and weaknesses and get students thinking in interesting ways.

Updating Old Questions: Volcano from Two Perspectives

How I’d break down and rebuild a task about judging a volcano.

Context Clues and Classics

How to use a classic to revamp a study of context clues.

Fancy Product? Simple Thinking – Wax Museum

A big, impressive product doesn’t mean that there was big, impressive thinking.

What Makes A Math Puzzle Actually Puzzling?

This math puzzle wasn’t so puzzling. What went wrong?

Improving These Novel Study Questions

Let’s fix these nine, underdeveloped discussion questions!

Go Beyond “Explain This Quote”

I’d show a quote and then ask, “What does this quote mean?” And that was it!

Concept Formation

A model of instruction that moves from specific examples to concepts to one big idea.

Depth and Complexity Walkthroughs

You’re implementing Depth and Complexity, but how do you know if you’re doing it well? Five things to look for.

Assessing Differentiation Strategies With Walkthroughs

How do you know, when you’re walking through a class, whether the students are receiving appropriate work?

Assessing Differentiation Strategies with Student Products

Student products give an instant glimpse into whether differentiation is happening on your campus.

From Frantic Questions to Sensible Sequence

Why was I asking five, unrelated, low-level questions in a row?

Help my students remember these confusing terms!

When we want students to memorize two terms, we actually shouldn’t aim for memorization!

What if Dr. Seuss Covered a Poem?

Rather than just “paraphrasing” a poem, what if we did a cover version?