Backwards Design for Integrated College Curriculum

I've been working with five college faculty teams around the country to refine and focus the outcomes-based, integrated curriculum work that is a part of the Project DEgree (PDE) model. After 18 months, the teams are getting really good at it and have successfully developed some relevant, rigorous curriculum integrating developmental reading, writing, math and college success.

Active & Cooperative Teaching Snapshots

In the last few posts I've shared about the active and cooperative teaching strategies workshop I designed and delivered with the faculty team at Owens Community College. After a full day of work on day 1, faculty took what they'd learned, applied it to a teaching segment they'd identified as one they wanted to enhance, and came back on day 2 to teach their revamped segment and get feedback from their peers. Here is what they did!

Metaphors as Checks for Understanding

Last time I wrote about my use of metaphors as an active and cooperative teaching strategy to engage learners with a big picture overview of new content. This week I'd like to share how I've also used metaphors as assessment tasks or checks for understanding.

Metaphors as Teaching Strategies

This morning I find myself on a very early flight to Denver, enroute to Toledo, OH to deliver the active and cooperative learning workshop for college faculty I wrote about last time. The focus of last week's post was on the use of demonstrations as an active learning strategy in teaching and training. Another strategy on the training agenda and the topic for today's post is the use of metaphors as an active learning strategy for delivering new content.