Professional Development ＊ Byrdseed.TV

Differentiate with Low Floors and High Ceilings

For Teachers

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

For Teachers

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

Why I Don’t Use “Create”

For Teachers

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

For Teachers

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

For Teachers

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

Writing Differentiated Lesson Objectives

For Teachers

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

For Teachers

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

Depth and Complexity – An Introduction for Teachers

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

For Teachers

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

Improving Wait Time

For Teachers

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

For Teachers

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

New Uses for Everyday Things

For Teachers

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

Universal Themes

For Teachers

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

For Teachers

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

Reduce Anxiety: 5 Question Rule

For Teachers

Adults can limit anxiety by implementing the Five Question Rule.

Response to Lit: An Inductive Approach

For Teachers

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

Inductively Analyze Website Reliability

For Teachers

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

An Inductive Exploration Of Geometry

For Teachers

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

Reduce Anxiety: Worry Time

For Teachers

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

Building Creative Confidence with the Torrance Tests

For Teachers

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

Analyzing Conflict with the Content Imperatives

For Teachers

How to go deep into conflict using the Content Imperatives.

Introduction to Watercolor

For Teachers

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

Multiple Perspectives in Primary

For Teachers

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

Brain Needs or Heart Needs

For Teachers

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

Writing Concept Attainment Lessons

For Teachers

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

Complex Task: Academic Tournaments

For Teachers

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

Multipotentiality: Excellent at Many Things

For Teachers

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

Teaching Criticism

For Teachers

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.

Developing Questions that Prompt Thinking in Math

For Teachers

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.

Add Layers To Direct Instruction

For Teachers

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

Students and Personality Types

For Teachers

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

Can Students Solve Your Classroom Layout Problems?

For Teachers

What if your students designed your classroom layout?

Running A “Notice, Wonder” Lesson

For Teachers

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

Introduction to Puzzlements

For Teachers

The thinking behind my weekly Puzzlements mailer.

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

For Teachers

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

Introduction to Differentiation

For Teachers

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

Curriculum Compacting

For Teachers

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

Running A Group Investigation Lesson

For Teachers

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

Asynchrony (For Adults)

For Teachers

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

Making Depth and Complexity Posters

For Teachers

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

Depth and Complexity and Graphic Organizers

For Teachers

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

Rethinking Extension Menus

For Teachers

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

Unexpected Intensities

For Teachers

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

My Top 5 Depth and Complexity Mistakes

For Teachers

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

Curriculum Acceleration: Step by Step

For Teachers

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

Addressing Disorganization

For Teachers

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?

Building “Not Like The Others” Tasks

For Teachers

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

Content Imperatives

For Teachers

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

An Introduction to Models of Instruction

For Teachers

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: Subjective Graphs

For Teachers

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

Complex Task: What Would X Think of Y?

For Teachers

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

Creativity Beyond The Fluff

For Teachers

Just because a task is "creative" doesn't mean students are at the top of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Graphic Organizers and Higher Order Thinking

For Teachers

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

From “Identify” to “Analyze” – Famous Structures

For Teachers

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

Depth and Complexity: Patterns and Quadrilaterals

For Teachers

Why just "identifying patterns" isn't deep enough.

Who Asks The Questions? And Who Answers?

For Teachers

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.

From Summary to Synthesis

For Teachers

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

Exposing Students to Classics

For Teachers

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.

The Curse of Knowledge and Checking for Understanding

For Teachers

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

Updating Old Questions: Designing A Character’s Bedroom

For Teachers

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

How To Let Your Brain Exhale

For Teachers

Models of Instruction: Inquiry Training

For Teachers

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

Explain Concepts with the Frayer Model

For Teachers

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

Updating Old Questions: Identify Figurative Language

For Teachers

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

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

For Teachers

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!

Aim High, Scaffold Down

For Teachers

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

Engagement Isn’t The Goal

For Teachers

While "engagement" is fun, it shouldn't be our main goal.

Improving Evaluative Questions

For Teachers

How to improve questions at the "evaluate" level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

Meeting Gifted Students’ Social and Emotional Needs

For Admin

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

Updating Old Questions: Conflict and Character Change

For Teachers

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

Beyond Identifying a Story’s Problem and Solution

For Teachers

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

Think Like a Disciplinarian (or an Expert!)

For Teachers

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

Comparing Fraction Strategies

For Teachers

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

All About Pre-Assessment

For Teachers

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

Updating Old Questions: Name That Genre

For Teachers

How I'd improve a low-level question about a story's genre.

Updating Old Questions: Comparing Two Leaders

For Teachers

How I'd upgrade a dull "which one is better" question.

Misconceptions About 🏛️ Big Idea

For Teachers

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

Help Students to Memorize Anything

For Teachers

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

Updating Old Questions: Pay Raise

For Teachers

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

Differentiation of the Environment

For Teachers

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

Comparing Strengths and Weaknesses

For Teachers

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

Updating Old Questions: Volcano from Two Perspectives

For Teachers

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

Context Clues and Classics

For Teachers

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

When to Go Deeper? When to Just Move On?

For Teachers

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: A Mere Model of a Cell

For Teachers

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

Fancy Product? Simple Thinking – Wax Museum

For Teachers

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

Assessing Differentiation Strategies With Walkthroughs

For Admin

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

Assessing Differentiation Strategies with Student Products

For Admin

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

Depth and Complexity Walkthroughs

For Admin

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