Pre-course

Complete the registration survey to provide information about yourself, your school or district, and your goals for participating in the Learning Differences MOOC-Ed.

Thinking Differently about Student Learning

Participants will further their thinking about learning differences and the "myth of average" among their students. Educators will begin to develop and apply learning differences teaching competencies which will support student learning. The essential questions for this unit are:

What are learning differences?

How does thinking about students' learning differences affect my teaching practice?

What are the benefits of focusing on students' strengths rather than weaknesses? What are the challenges of this approach?

Working Memory

This unit focuses on the impact of working memory on student learning and behavior in classrooms. Participants will learn and apply strategies to better support students' working memories. The essential questions are:

What is working memory and how does it affect student learning?

How can teachers support students who struggle with working memory or leverage students with strong working memory?

Which strategies or solutions related to working memory best meet your students' needs?

Executive Function

This unit establishes a basic understanding of executive functioning skills by explaining what they are and how they impact student learning. The essential questions are:

What are executive functioning skills and how do they affect student learning?

How can teachers develop students' executive functioning skills in classrooms?

Which strategies or solutions related to executive functions best meet your students' needs?

Student Motivation

This unit focuses on the impact of students' motivation on learning and behavior in classrooms. Participants will learn and apply strategies to better foster student motivation. The essential questions are:

What are intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and how do they affect student learning?

How can teachers build intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in classrooms?

Which strategies or solutions related to motivation best meet your students' needs?

Strategies for Supporting the Whole Student

The purpose of this unit is to get you thinking about the complexities and relatedness of learning differences. Then, we hope to begin honing your skills to approach a student and identify how to leverage that student's learning profile to best support him or her. We have referenced this as being a "learning scientist" throughout the course. The essential questions for this unit are:

How do the constructs of learning work together to build a complex, individual learner profile in each of my students?

How can I collect student data to select and implement strategies to support individual student needs?

Internalizing a Growth Mindset

In prior units, we built knowledge of and strategies for addressing various constructs of learning differences. In this unit, we bring these elements together to apply in your classroom and outline opportunities for future learning. The essential questions are:

What progress have you made in your classroom with regard to learning differences?

What strategies or next steps would you take to continue down this path?

Interested in the Learning Differences Coaching Component?

During the course, instructional coaches, media coordinators, and teacher leaders will have the opportunity to participate in three additional modules that are focused on strategies for coaching and supporting other teachers in their work with learning differences. The outline for the coaching portion of the course is in the next tab.