Authentic Education

Emily Quetone Khan digs into the #ReadingWars in her 6-part series for the Authentic Education blog. "As we continue to fight over whether teaching systematic phonics and word study is essential (TLDR: it is), it pulls time, energy and focus away from doing the actual work of learning about the students in front of us and what they need." #LeadingCurricularChange #CurriculumDevelopment #UnderstandingByDesign

Emily Quetone Khan's #ReadingWars series continues with a critical eye towards effective #CurriculumDevelopment. "It has always seemed reasonable to me that teachers would look at curriculum provided by (or mandated by) their schools and see some parts of it that will be useful and effective for students, and other parts that will not be. Deciding what is useful or effective should be based on research and what we know happens in the brain when we try to make meaning of print. It may also depend on the number of students in a classroom, their literacy skill levels upon entering the classroom, whether students are new to learning English, what literacy approach they were exposed to the year before, how their social-emotional, self-regulation and executive functioning skills are developing, whether they have a language-based or other learning disability– the list goes on and on." #LeadingCurricularChange #UnderstandingByDesign

Drawing on my 7 years as the Director of Curriculum at Katherine Delmar Burke School and my three years leading Grant Wiggins' Authentic Education, It's been exciting to work with Toddle and other Independent School Curriculum Leaders across the country to envision and launch the Academic Leaders Forum community. Looking forward to tomorrow's launch event and our upcoming workshop with Heidi Hayes Jacobs in just a few weeks. Independent School Curriculum Leaders - It's not too late to join! See you tomorrow!!

We're excited to dig into Monique Vogelsang's latest work with the launch of the Humanizing History newsletter. Monique was a part of our incredible team that developed the groundbreaking anti-racist K-12 Social Studies standards for the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) that were adopted in 2023.

Our #ReadingWars series by Emily Quetone Khan explores one of the most powerful tools educators have: Asking ourselves “How do I know?” We must interrogate evidence we come across even in our own classrooms. #LeadingCurricularChange #CurriculumDevelopment #UnderstandingByDesign

Emily Quetone Khan's #ReadingWars series for the Authentic Education blog continues its exploration of teaching literacy: "Seeing my students’ success as I implemented various elements of these approaches gave me a deeper understanding of effective phonics instruction and assessment. It also revealed that the potential was not in a single methodology or curriculum, but rather in the power of knowing my students as readers and leveraging this knowledge to help guide and shape their journey as readers and spellers." #LeadingCurricularChange #CurriculumDevelopment #UnderstandingByDesign

"Frameworks like #UnderstandingbyDesign and Project-Based Learning (#PBL) have been instrumental in shifting assessments away from the singular form of route-based information regurgitation. Formative assessments now come in all shapes and colors." In Sawyer Henshaw's most recent post to our blog, she discusses some of the primary formative assessments and feedback methods she and the team selected in their Game On! workshop that ensured student understanding and supported necessary learning for the summative assessment. #UbD #curriculumdesign #LeadingCurricularChange

We've been working with St. John's Prep on supporting their #curriculumdesign as they continue their journey with #UnderstandingbyDesign. It's been exciting to work with such a large group of educators across a diverse array of subject areas and grade levels. A key component of our work has been to ensure the consistent alignment of their school mission with their curriculum. #PDtheWayPDShouldBe

We are proud to have been deeply involved in developing the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS)'s groundbreaking anti-racist K-12 Social Studies standards adopted in 2023. The The Washington Informer recently took a look at what the new DCPS Standards mean for Indigenous History Education. #IndigenousPeoplesDay #LeadingCurricularChange #curriculumdesign

Having recently finished a week-long residency at The American School of Vietnam, we are thrilled to be working around the globe sharing ideas, techniques, and building engagement with #UnderstandingbyDesign and the power of thoughtful #curriculumdesign. We had a great time and look forward to continuing to support their #curriculumdevelopment through this school year and beyond. #PDtheWayPDShouldBe.