Something Different to Try

Tired of the old “What I Did on My Vacation” essay? Learn more about your new students through their choices on this menu study than an essay will ever tell you. Who are your artists and leaders? Who prefers to express learning through poetry or music or math? Who are your problem solvers and designers? Using activities based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, Creative Productive Thinking, and Sandra Kaplan’s Depth and Complexity icons, menu studies allow for d

Research has shown that some students often already have mastered 35-65% of the year’s curriculum when they walk into your classroom on day one. Then there are those students who haven’t even mastered even 65% of last year’s curriculum. What to do? What to do? Free up time for those needier students by compacting the curriculum for those who already know it. Let them prove it to you. Through formal or informal pre-testing for the day, the week, or the unit, find those who already “kno