With the introduction of standards-based instruction, the idea of raising student achievement has never been more important. The VESC™ online course Raising Student Achievement focuses on research-based ideas and instructional strategies that have been proven to raise effectively student achievement across all ages and in all content areas. The course focuses on the characteristics of schools that are improving, and how they can be applied to the participants’ schools and classrooms.
The online course provides in-depth exercises, reflective questions, readings, and external information resources to make learning engaging and meaningful. As they engage in the various activities that comprise the online course, the participants use a variety of interactive strategies; these strategies are simple, but highly structured. These same strategies are to be used with students in the classroom to develop their communication and higher-order thinking skills.
TOPICS COVERED IN THE ONLINE COURSE
RAISING STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
- Raising Student Achievement
- Lesson 1: Whole System Change to Improve Student Achievement
- Lesson 2: What is a Change Agent?
- Lesson 3: How to be a Change Agent
- Transforming Schools
- Lesson 1: The Qualities of Schools That are Improving Student Achievement
- Lesson 2: Climate and Culture of Schools That are Improving Student Achievement
- Lesson 3: Organization of Schools That are Improving Student Achievement
- Building a Foundation
- Lesson 1: Collecting Student Background Information to Develop Strategies to Improve Student Achievement
- Lesson 2: The Planning Process
- Lesson 3: Setting Priorities
- Lesson 4: The Process of Understanding the Elements that Comprise High Student Achievement
- Lesson 5: Building a Plan to Improve Student Achievement
- Best Practices for Planning
- Lesson 1: Instructional Practices for Planning
- Lesson 2: Developing a Process to Design Instructional Strategies
- Lesson 3: Establishing Educational Outcomes
- Lesson 4: Developing Authentic Assessments
- Lesson 5: Designing Performance Tasks
- Teaching for Understanding
- Lesson 1: Crafting Understanding
- Lesson 2: Identifying Content Standards
- Lesson 3: Developing Strategies to Verify Learning
- Instructional Strategies
- Lesson 1: Constructive Communication
- Lesson 2: Structured Thinking
- Lesson 3: Brain-Based Learning
- Lesson 4: Building Higher-Order Thinking Skills
- Student Motivation – Achievement
- Lesson 1: Teacher’s Role
- Lesson 2: Teacher and Student Management of the Learning Process
- Lesson 3: Student Responsibility
- Lesson 4: Student Motivation
REQUIRED TEXTS
Understanding by Design, by Grant P. Wiggins and Jay McTighe; published by ASCD
Constructive Communication and Structured Thinking in the Classroom with Graphic Templates for Structured Thinking Skills, Vol. 1 (2 book set); published by VESC™
VESC Implementation Strategies for Constructive Communication and Structured Thinking; published by VESC™
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