Designing Activity Lists with Intent

Learning Map — Read Students Taking Charge in Grades K–5: pgs. 83–85, 110–112 to learn more about learning maps, which will help you plan backwards from your rubric and brainstorm resources to support students in achieving the goals.Then, create your own learning map for your ALU(s) by drawing your own or using Creating a Learning Map. (You can later use your learning map(s) to create/revise your activity lists.) 

Understanding the Scaffold for Learning — During the ALU, we must plan to meet students’ individual needs, readiness levels, and learning styles. The scaffold for learning helps you think of all the different ways that students can learn (participatory structures). This concept of the scaffold will help you as you design differentiated activity lists for your students to assure that students have access to more than one way to learn the content. It will also support student scheduling as they will have a need to choose how to learn, not just in what order.

View this instructional video on Leveraging 5 Types of Instructional Activities to begin to understand the types of activities you will create for your activity lists.

Read this article on Leveraging 5 Types of Instructional Activities to begin to understand the types of activities you will create for your activity lists.

Brainstorm a Scaffold for Learning — Utilize this blank template to brainstorm the instructional activities within your ALU and scaffold student learning. Use Create a Scaffold for Learning to walk you through the steps of using the tool. 

Designing a Learning Activity — Use the following How-To Sheets to guide you in designing different types of Learning Activities:

• How to Design a Learning Center 

• How to Create a How-To Sheet

• How to Plan for Screencasts and Podcasts 

• How to Design a Small-Group Mini-Lesson

• How to Create a Protocol for Group Collaboration

Five Types of Videos

Video as a Key Tool for Achieving Instructional Equity — View this instructional video or read this text to inform how you create your videos. 

In Dr. Sulla’s blog post “Five Types of Videos Teachers Can Use to Rock Remote or Hybrid Learning,” view samples of the five types of videos to give you a better picture of the differences among them.

Practice both your executive function skills and your understanding of the five types of videos by engaging in this activity: Categorizing the 5 Types of Videos. 

View this Insights Video for tips on how videos can provide access and equity.

Providing Students with Direction for Learning with Video — Using a directions sheet in tandem with assigning students a video is a great way to ensure that students actively engage with the content. See this sample, which can help students get so much more out of video by giving them information on how to engage with the video instruction. 

Designing Student Activity Lists

Read Students Taking Charge in Grades K–5: pgs. 129–132 to learn more about activity lists, a structure that empowers students and provides them with differentiated ways to learn. Add notes to your Efficacy Notebook.

Read this article about the Differentiated Digital Activity List to understand what makes a strong activity list.

Rubric for Creating and Implementing a Purposeful Activity List in LATIC — Read the first three rows of this rubric closely. It outlines the criteria for strong student activity lists. 

Rubric for Creating and Implementing a Purposeful Activity List in LATIC — Use the first three rows of this rubric to either self-assess or peer assess the activity list for your ALU. Create goals for next steps and begin to revise, as needed. (I/P)

Analyzing Your Activity Lists for Differentiation — To design a more differentiated learning environment, you will have to consider the various ways students can learn concepts and skills. Use this tool to analyze your activity lists for differentiation to ensure the success of all learners. Then, make any revisions needed to your activity list using your scaffold for learning and the knowledge gleaned from the learning activities above to guide you.