Learning Challenge Lessons Secondary English Language Arts

Teachers will receive: Learning Challenge lessons that are relevant and timely, on topics that interest and engage students Detailed lesson plans and activities for running Learning Challenges in their classroom Full-color activity cards to accompany each lesson.

Fans of the The Learning Challenge who want ready-to-use lessons for their secondary ELA classrooms need not look any further. This book provides teachers with everything they need to run dialogue-driven challenges so that students engage more deeply and develop literary skills critical to ELA standards. Students will analyze texts in lessons grounded in cognitive conflicts such as To be successful you cannot fail, but most successful people have experienced many failures along the way (Lesson 7: Was Jay Gatsby a success?) Love is impossible to define, and yet everyone knows what love is (Lesson 11: Is Romeo really in love?)

The Learning Challenge Lessons have been created to accompany The Learning Challenge and provide teachers with everything they need to run thoughtful, dialogue-driven Challenges. The Learning Challenge Lessons, Primary, book includes 20 developmentally-appropriate lesson plans that will help young learners: • Learn new vocabulary in the context of dialogue • Challenge themselves to think through complex concepts • Encourage their natural curiosity and seek answers to questions they pose themselves

"James Nottingham’s work on Challenging Learning is a critical element of creating Visible Learners. This new series will help teachers hone the necessary pedagogical skills of dialogue, feedback, questioning, and mindset. There’s no better resource to encourage all learners to know and maximize their impact!" John Hattie, Professor & Director, Melbourne Education Research Institute University of Melbourne Looking for more examples and more lesson plans to get started with Learning Challenges? Help is here! Created to accompany The Learning Challenge, the twenty lessons collected in this book grapple with timely concepts and provide teachers with everything needed to run thoughtful, dialogue-driven challenges for elementary school students. Each lesson engages students around an exciting topic of current importance—including social media, voting, health, friendship, space exploration, language, fairness, and other issues—and invites students into the "Learning Pit" to explore their thoughts with others through dialogue. The developmentally-appropriate lessons plans are designed to help young learners Learn new vocabulary in the context of dialogue Challenge themselves to think through complex concepts Follow their natural curiosity and seek answers to questions they pose themselves Think critically about issues and discover alternative viewpoints Explore disagreements reasonably and co-create meaning with others Detailed lesson plans make it easy for teachers to facilitate rigorous and thought-provoking dialogue for students. Teacher resources include Activities to help students progress from surface level thinking to deeper understanding Techniques to get students "into the pit," where contradictions and uncertainties force deeper thinking—and then out of the pit again Full-color activity cards to accompany each lesson Diagrams to help illustrate relationships between concepts for students Each compelling topic challenges young students to think, to be reasonable, to make moral decisions, and to understand another person’s point of view—all critical skills in today’s complex world. Jumpstart meaningful learning for students with these rigorous and engaging Learning Challenge lessons.

Embrace challenge and celebrate eureka! Challenge makes learning more interesting. That’s one of the reasons to encourage your students to dive into the learning pit—a state of cognitive conflict that forces students to think more deeply, critically, and strategically until they discover their "eureka!" moment. Nottingham, an internationally known author and consultant, will show you how to promote challenge, dialogue, and a growth mindset through: Practical strategies that guide students through the four stages of the Learning Challenge Engaging lesson plan ideas and classroom activities Inspiring examples from Learning Challenges across the world If you and your students focus on grades alone then rich learning opportunities might be missed along the way. A more rigorous and exploratory path to learning leads to a deeper understanding of concepts. When students experience The Learning Challenge, learning lasts for a lifetime. "Nottingham shows us how to use generative concepts as focal points for engaging deep student thinking and discourse. His visual model of ′pits and peaks′ helps us realize that cooperatively grappling with cognitive conflicts in the pit is necessary to eventually reach new peaks of understanding. Nottingham provides a wealth of strategies, tools and examples to aid the teacher. The vast array of questions to stimulate student thinking is second to none." H. Lynn Erickson, Educational Consultant Author, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom, 2nd ed. "Nottingham has provided a clear, concise, and research-based approach to creating cognitively challenging classrooms that captivate, activate, and invigorate learners. This book takes every reader through the learning pit, challenging their prior beliefs, and leads them to construct and consider an innovative way to promote stronger and deeper learning for their students." John Almarode, Professor of Education & Co-Director of the Center for STEM Education and Outreach James Madison University, College of Education, Harrisonburg VA

"James Nottingham and Bosse Larsson offer an important and useful new addition to the ongoing conversation about mindset first introduced by Carol Dweck. Too often, theories such as mindset get reduced down to the simplest dichotomies and ideologies. Here, Nottingham and Larsson challenge our own mindset about the very idea of mindset theory itself, showing us what is possible if we really understand the theory and use it to challenge ourselves and our students." Jim Burke, Teacher, Burlingame High School, and Author, Common Core Companion Series This book answers key questions about Carol Dweck’s theory of Mindset – What is a ‘growth mindset’ and what difference can it make? Why are growth mindset interventions not working in schools (yet) and what can be done to change this? What is a ‘failure mindset’ and why is it more influential than an adult’s fixed or growth mindset? Drawing on their experiences of presenting alongside Carol Dweck on many occasions, James Nottingham and Bosse Larsson tackle head-on these questions with research-backed clarity, and share proven strategies for mindset success. Mindset doesn’t matter when things are easy; it is only when faced with challenges that working from a growth mindset influences learning. Highlights of the book include: Comments and insights from Carol Dweck to enhance your understanding of her important work A detailed and nuanced examination of how mindset works and what you can do to make it more effective for your students An exploration of the relationship between mindset and grades Strategies to encourage a growth mindset during moments of challenge Comprehensive lesson ideas for teaching students about mindset Why praising ‘effort’ can be powerful but also problematic, with an identification of what type of praise is best Examples of how to make the most of mindset theory and practice Everyone has a mindset that shapes their personality, motivation and development. This book shows you how to create the right conditions for a growth mindset to flourish in your classroom, your school, your staff and your students.

Better questioning for better learning Effective questioning builds on natural curiosity, moving students out of their comfort zone and into the learning zone in a purposeful, accessible way. With this insightful guide, you’ll fine-tune the three essential skills of questioning—know your intent, plan your responses, and stay purposefully silent—to elicit noticeably improved responses from students. Features include · Questioning sequences that work in any discipline · Techniques for deepening learning through questioning · Organizational strategies for pair, small-group, and whole-class dialogues · Best practices for balancing questioning, thinking tools, and strategic silences · Exercises, activities, and review and reflection sections

Embarking on your first solo road trip. Receiving a special surprise that arrives out of the blue. Finding a sudden flash of inspiration that sets you on a wondrous new path. When we think about the moments that stand out in our memory, it's clear that our minds hold onto the unusual or unexpected. By tapping into students' innate curiosity, you can design memorable, meaningful learning experiences that captivate their interest and ignite their imaginations. Structured around four key elements that fuel engagement-surprise, curiosity, freedom, and inspiration-Keeping the Wonder offers practical strategies and abundant inspiration for K-12 educators to create lessons that are fun and compelling. Combining enchanting anecdotes, real-world experience, and a wealth of research, the authors share their collective expertise as educators and founders of the innovative Keeping the Wonder workshop. In this dynamic handbook, Jenna, Ashley, Abby, and Staci offer a fresh approach to learning through the lens of wonder. By providing creative ideas for switching up standard lesson plans in ways both subtle and profound, they show us how to recapture our fascination with the world by employing all of our senses, and enhance engagement and critical thinking for students and teachers alike. Endorsements Before reading Keeping the Wonder, I saw my social studies classroom for what it was: brick walls, desks, and a few colorful posters. Today, I see magic seeping through the cracks of every space. Keeping the Wonder reignited my passion for student engagement and learning with every turn of the page. -Dr. Jacob Bauer Zebley, high school social studies teacher and 2015 Cecil County Teacher of the Year From personal stories, practical advice, and research-based strategies, Keeping the Wonder is a book you will reach for time and again. After reading, you'll start looking not just at your own classroom and curriculum through the lens of wonder, but the world around you. A must read for any teacher who is looking to bring that sense of curiosity and love of learning back into their classroom. -Caitlin Mitchell and Jessica Cannata, cofounders of EB Academics and bestselling authors of The Empowered ELA Teacher