Five Keys to
Planning for Deeper Learning
Over the past year, an amazing group of Virginia educators has engaged with VASCD to describe just what it is we mean by
deeper learning
. Here's a sneak peek at one part of the project- five important considerations during unit and lesson planning that help to create a structure for deeper learning.
1.Big Ideas and Standards.
Planning first and foremost means thinking about how to help students connect their daily work to big ideas, themes, or questions that are worthy of ongoing thought and study. This means shifting the planning process away from accomplishing a list of activities with discrete objectives towards a more integrated approach that relies on the SOL but emphasizes the ways they are related to each other and to the world.
2.Authentic Experiences.
The answer to the question "Why are we learning this?" is built into authentic experiences and tasks, in which students learn and do things that real people outside of school learn and do. Authentic experiences are generally more challenging and engaging for students, and the resulting learning is better remembered and more readily transferred to new situations. The planning questions for teachers are "Where, to whom, and in what situations in our community (or beyond) is this content important? How can students best access those applications?"
