Spark Student Thinking

Hi! I’m Deana- I’m retired(ish) after 30 years supporting students and teachers with student-centered instruction, student teams and rigorous learning. In this store, you’ll find hands-on activities that are ready to go in your classroom to support student thinking and independence. Every resource is designed with real teachers and students in mind—easy to prep, applicable across all grade levels and standards. Whether you’ve been working with student teams for years or are new to shifting your classroom to more rigorous instruction, this store has resources for you! My goal is to support you with high quality, easy to use resources that save you time and energy.

All of the resources in this store reflect my beliefs about teaching and learning: • No and low-prep o Print-and-go resources designed to save teachers time without sacrificing quality. o This allows you to focus planning time on more important things than creating student directions. • Universally Applicable to All Standards o Can be used with any standards at all grade levels. o You can use and reuse these activities in multiple lessons without a need to purchase another version that is standard specific. • Hands-On o All materials ask students to be actively engaged with the content you are teaching. o We need to engage student minds in every lesson every day. • Student Centered o Resources are designed for students to think for themselves with guidance and support from the detailed instructions. o Student Directions take students step by step how to complete the activity with little need for the teacher to explain or direct o This helps you focus on supporting student rather than being the only source of knowledge in the room. • Student Teaming/ Student Groups o Student protocols are written for team accountability and guidance. o Student teams become more autonomous through these resources and activities. • Support Teachers to try new things o The Teacher Guides and Student Directions are written to support teachers who want to try releasing more thinking to students. If you’re looking for purposeful, student-centered activities that are easy to use, you’re in the right place!

Books I've written: • Fostering Deeper Learning: A Handbook for the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning • Organizing for Learning: Classroom Techniques to Help Students Interact Within Small Groups • Engaging in Cognitively Complex Tasks: Classroom Techniques to Help Students Generate & Test Hypotheses Across Disciplines • Identifying Critical Content: Classroom Techniques to Help Students Know What is Important Books I've contributed to: • Student Teaming: You Got This! A Teacher's Survival Guide • The Essentials for Standards-Driven Classrooms: A Practical Instructional Model for Every Student to Achieve Rigor • Revising Knowledge: Classroom Techniques to Help Students Examine Their Deeper Understanding • Examining Reasoning: Classroom Techniques to Help Students Produce and Defend Claims • Creating and Using Learning Targets & Performance Scales: How Teachers Make Better Instructional Decisions • The Essential Flipbook for Achieving Rigor