"IDK" Now Means Increasing Domain Knowledge

Display slide 2 and play music as participants enter the room. Instruct participants to fill out a sticky note with a celebrity or character that they can impersonate or would like to see impersonated. As the session begins, pick up the sticky notes from the tables and get a pulse for which content areas are represented by participants in the session.

Display slide 3. Introduce yourself. Briefly mention the agenda and the Instructional Strategy Note Sheet. Inform participants that new instructional strategies will be introduced to them throughout the session. These strategies are tools to support higher-order thinking in authentic ways. Encourage participants to use their note sheet to jot down ideas for how they would personalize the strategies for their specific classes. Within the presentation, time is allotted to allow participants to reflect on the strategies.

Display slide 4. Introduce the Fold the Line instructional strategy. Ask participants to create a straight line in order by birth date (month and day only, no need to consider the year). January birthdays should be on the far left and December on the far right as you look at the line. Before they begin forming the line, explain to participants the caveat that they may not talk or mouth any words silently. They may, however, hold up fingers to help them distinguish where they might stand. After everyone is lined up, start on the left and ask each person to say their birth date aloud. This will confirm whether they were able to order themselves correctly. If any participants are out of place have them “fix” the order as you move down the line.

Ask, "What made this task difficult?" and allow participants the opportunity to share out. Then, explain that the next task is going to be similar, but this time they will be able to talk to one another to see where they belong in the line.

Click to bring up the next few lines of text on the slide. Say, "Now, on a scale from 1-5, order yourselves using your knowledge about Marzano's Design Questions two and three. Think about how knowledgeable you are when helping students interact, practice, and deepen new knowledge." A participant who identifies as a 1 has minimal experience helping students interact, practice, and deepen new knowledge. Maybe they are so new to teaching that they don't feel like they have enough tools yet to do this at all. A participant who identifies as a 5 feels extremely confident in helping students interact, practice, and deepen new knowledge. In fact, they could help novice teachers with strategies and support.

Once participants have thought for a moment, allow them to move to their new place in the line, with 1’s on the left and 5’s on the right. As they organize themselves, encourage participants to discuss the topic with the participants standing near them in order to gather support for their stance.

Once everyone is lined up, go ahead and Fold the Line. Have the participant at one end of the line come over to the other end. Participants will follow the leader so that when they stop, each is across from a partner with a different number than their own. For example, the participant standing at the very end of the line as a 5 will walk down to the opposite end of the line and face the person at the beginning of the line as a 1. (Participants who chose 3 might be paired with another 3, which is fine in this scenario.)

Once participants have identified their partners, ask them to find a seat together. Partners will work together for the exploration activity.

Allow a moment for participants to write on their Instructional Strategy Notes Sheet how they could use the Fold the Line strategy in their own classrooms. Provide an opportunity for a few people to share out about what they wrote down.

Display slide 5 and briefly highlight the objectives for the session. Doing so will provide a roadmap of where you will go together during the session and will let participants know what to expect.