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Start not with what’s new, but with what’s ready to be used again.
Not long ago, I was in a PD session where the facilitator introduced the See, Think, Wonder routine. You know the one: students look closely at an image or a short text, name what they see, think through what it might mean, and wonder about its deeper implications. I nodded along--Yep, I know this one. It felt familiar, even blase. The kind of strategy that feels like it’s lived in your teacher's brain for years.
But then the presenter said something that shifted the energy in the room: “When’s the last time you actually used this protocol with your students?” And I had to pause. Because while I’d seen See, Think, Wonder many times, and could even recall moments when I had introduced it to others, I honestly couldn’t remember the last time I had used it in my own classroom. That simple question opened up something for me—not a sense of guilt, but a kind of curiosity. A wondering: Why did I stop? When did I stop? What else have I quietly set aside without realizing it? Rediscovering familiar strategies
It reminded me of the way I sometimes approach working out. I know how to do a bicep curl. I’ve seen them demonstrated, watched friends knock out reps, maybe even done a few myself once upon a time. But just because I know how to do a curl doesn’t mean my arms are getting any stronger. And honestly, it’s easy to forget how long it’s been since I actually picked up a weight.
That’s what this moment in PD felt like. A reminder not just of the strategy, but of the strength that comes from using it regularly. Not for novelty. Not to “check the box.” But because the routine itself—simple, accessible, repeatable—can quietly build our students’ capacity for observation, interpretation, and curiosity. That reminder stayed with me. Since then, I’ve made it a point to bring See, Think, Wonder back—not just as an idea, but as a habit. I’ve reintroduced it into my own practice and shared it with teachers across the city. Most recently, in a New Visions district-wide PD, I helped to lead a session where we didn’t just talk about the protocol—we practiced it, modeled it, and planned for how to use it with students the very next day. The strategy hasn’t changed, but something about coming back to it with fresh eyes—and inviting others to do the same—gave it new weight. There’s a comfort in recognizing a strategy. But there’s also an invitation hidden there: to ask “When’s the last time I brought this into the room with my students?” Sometimes the answer is last week. But sometimes the answer surprises us. It might have been months—or even years—since we actually made space for it. Familiar tools, fresh impact
This isn’t about shoulds or should-nots. It’s about staying open. About remembering that strength is built through repetition, and that familiarity isn’t the same thing as presence. It’s about finding our way back to tools that work—not because they’re flashy, but because they’re steady. Reliable. Like a good curl. Like See, Think, Wonder.
So if you find yourself in a meeting or workshop and think, “I’ve seen this before,” maybe that’s exactly the right place to start. Not with what’s new, but with what’s ready to be used again. Maybe it’s time to dust off Turn and Talk—not just for quick sharing, but as a regular rhythm to externalize thinking, especially for students who benefit from processing aloud before writing. Maybe it’s time to revisit the good old Stop & Jot, not as a filler, but as a purposeful pause that gives students a chance to mark their thinking before it slips away. Maybe it’s time to bring back a Think Aloud, not just as a demo once per unit, but as a consistent practice that reveals how readers make meaning. None of these are new. But like any muscle, their strength comes from use. And there’s something comforting—and powerful—about that.The tools are already in our hands. We know what works. Maybe the only thing left to do is return to it—with purpose, and with our students in mind.
Fuse culturally relevant pedagogy with creative expression to deepen literacy and critical consciousness in your classroom.
The first weekend of February, our team at CPET had the great pleasure of hosting young people and faculty from Shanghai, China for a weekend of Literacy Unbound. A wonderful co-created space, we built it around placing NYC in conversation with Shanghai via exploring the texts of various NYC neighborhoods.
Literacy Unbound is a signature CPET approach that brings teachers and students together as creative collaborators to reimagine challenging, classic texts through multiple modalities. This approach to literacy reinvigorates classroom communities using arts-infused, project-based, collaborative curricula developed around a shared text, increasing student engagement and building community in the process. What follows is one portion of our workshop: what we did to introduce and experience together a bit of the vibrant and beautiful neighborhood of East Harlem. We know that all young people need background knowledge — we know it’s a major access point to success in literacy, and we know that many subjects have “content” to “cover.” We’d like to suggest that opening it up and “uncovering” or “unbinding” it can be both a deeply impactful and culturally relevant alternative to lecturing to introduce that background knowledge, and here is one engaging way to do it. Setting the stage
In order to read the poem “Puerto Rican Obituary” by Pedro Pietri, we knew participants would want some knowledge of both the poet and the neighborhood about which he writes.
We decided giving participants a “walk” through the colorful statement pieces that are the murals of East Harlem would be one visually meaningful way into the vibrance of the poet’s neighborhood. We prepared slides of about 20 of the murals, from the prolific paintings of De La Vega, to the likenesses of Celia Cruz, Che Guevara and our poet himself, to contemporary tile mosaic pieces from Manny Vega. We visually situated Pietri in his neighborhood through exploring its political and powerful art, then asked participants to engage with and co-create their own interpretations of that art before reading. Since Pietri’s best known piece is at once both a gorgeous elegy and a damning indictment of systemic societal injustices facing Puerto Ricans in America, it was key to situate it in the neighborhood that birthed it. Our brief but relevant dive into the beautiful culture that shaped Pietri’s poetic works allowed us to engage in the trifold way Gloria Ladson Billings articulated for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: first, through learning, that students are growing morally and intellectually; second, through cultural competence, that students are both appreciating and developing fluency other cultures; and third, through critical consciousness, analyzing real world problems, especially those that result in social inequities. Incorporating art and movement
First, we looked at the murals through a “walking tour” of East Harlem: participants spent about 10-15 minutes viewing and engaging with photographs on slides of murals in East Harlem as we briefly shared background knowledge on the artists and their subjects. Then, they “stopped” in front of one (on the screen or in their packet, for they were in both places) and sketched an element (a person, place, thing, color, idea) of a mural that stayed with them on an index card.
Second, we included a Literacy Unbound Sculpture Garden moment, where folks paired up and “sculpted” each other into the images they had created on their index cards, allowing each other to embody elements of the art (especially its tone and mood) walking around the room to see each other’s creations and takeaways from the art they viewed. Third, we took a reflective moment to share what we noticed, what would stay with us, and what we learned about East Harlem before engaging with Pietri’s poem. An alternative to lecture
Rather than offering a brief lecture for students to take notes on Pietri or East Harlem, or both, we punctuated key information about the poet with an image of his mural, and the murals of his neighborhood.
We gave participants a space to:
Making the neighborhood more accessible before reading the poem — via color and key visuals rather than just words and facts — allowed participants to open themselves up to the work of art/poetry in front of them. Participants shared about the vibrance of the art, the political tensions inherent in the art, and the elements of Puerto Rican culture woven throughout the murals. Creating small moments of culturally relevant conditions in lieu of a background lecture for engaging with this powerful poem involved researching key visuals from Pietri’s neighborhood, putting them in conversation with each other and participants, and trusting students to pull out important elements and share them meaningfully with each other before reading the poem.
We know: time is very tight in your lessons, especially in middle and high school classrooms.
We’d like to suggest that, sometimes, you can swap out a lecture or mini lessons for brief, meaningful cultural explorations. The palpable joy of engaging with beautiful art, color, and each other together with students’ meaningful questions about society, culture, and justice will be a powerful experience, and this pedagogy is more likely to bring about lifelong memorable moments students associate with their understanding of your classroom content.
Shape future-ready graduates by fostering 21st century skills for tomorrow’s challenges.
Across New York State and beyond, schools are focused on implementing the Portrait of a Graduate (POG) initiative to define the essential skills, mindsets, and competencies students should develop by the time they graduate high school. What sets the POG apart from other educational frameworks is its explicit focus on the whole child—not just academic outcomes, but also the social-emotional, civic, and interpersonal dimensions of student development. It recognizes that success in the 21st century requires more than content mastery; it demands adaptability, empathy, and critical thinking.
Unlike traditional standards-based approaches that often emphasize subject-specific benchmarks, the POG is a vision-driven, student-centered framework that crosses disciplines and grade levels. It emerged as a response to growing concerns from educators, employers, and communities about the readiness of students to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world. As workforce demands evolve and the nature of citizenship becomes more global and interconnected, school systems have recognized the need to better align teaching and learning with the broader competencies students need to thrive. Foundations for future-ready graduates
In my more recent work, I have been deeply engaged in unpacking the key pillars of POG—exploring what they mean, why they matter, and how they can be effectively integrated into instruction.
The New York State Portrait of a Graduate framework highlights seven core competencies:
While each of these components plays a crucial role in shaping well-rounded graduates, I’ve found that Innovative Problem Solving and Effective Communication open particularly rich pathways for reimagining classroom practices. These areas push us to create learning environments where students aren’t just consuming knowledge—they’re generating ideas, collaborating, and communicating purposefully. But as promising as the Portrait of a Graduate framework is, challenges arise when considering: How do we bring these competencies to life in authentic and meaningful ways? How do we ensure this initiative supports teachers rather than adding to their burden? Let’s explore not only what these competencies mean, but also how we might begin to translate them into concrete, classroom-ready practices that support both educators and students in meaningful, lasting ways. Fostering innovative problem solving
Helping students become innovative problem solvers means going beyond rote tasks and inviting them to think creatively, take intellectual risks, and explore multiple pathways to a solution. Within the Portrait of a Graduate framework, this competency challenges educators to design opportunities where students can practice flexible, resourceful thinking in ways that feel engaging and meaningful.
One simple yet powerful strategy is “What Else Can It Be?”—a classroom exercise that pushes students to rethink the function of everyday objects. For example, students are given a familiar item such as a paperclip, pencil, or rubber band and asked to brainstorm as many alternative uses as possible. This activity typically unfolds in three stages:
This deceivingly simple activity cultivates divergent thinking and encourages students to approach challenges with curiosity and openness—habits of mind that are critical in a world that values adaptability over fixed answers. Strengthening Students' Communication Skills
Another pillar of the POG framework--Effective Communication—asks us to help students express themselves clearly, confidently, and appropriately across a range of contexts. Yet, in many classrooms, students are expected to “perform” communication skills (e.g., presentations or discussions) without ever being taught how to develop them in intentional, scaffolded ways.
A practical strategy to support this growth is “Say It Another Way.” This exercise builds flexibility in expression by encouraging students to rephrase complex or challenging statements to improve clarity and accessibility for a given audience. For example:
Over time, this practice not only boosts comprehension, but also fosters a critical awareness of audience, purpose, and tone. It gives students a low-stakes opportunity to experiment with voice, perspective, and word choice—foundational elements of effective communication in both academic and real-world settings.
Preparing for the 21st century
As we translate the Portrait of a Graduate from vision to practice, the real work lies in how we implement these competencies—innovative problem solving, effective communication, and beyond—into everyday learning experiences. This integration doesn’t require comprehensive curriculum overhauls, but rather a shift in how we see our role as educators: not just deliverers of content, but cultivators of human capacity.
By thoughtfully incorporating strategies that prioritize creativity, flexibility, and expression, we help students become more than just successful test-takers. We support them in becoming curious thinkers, confident communicators, and compassionate contributors—ready to meet the demands of a complex and interconnected world. 4/22/2025 What Can You See? Creating Literacy Entry Points With Explicit Instruction in Structure and Form
Form is more than formatting — it’s the frame that makes meaning visible.
It started with a check.
Not a big one—no commas or decimal points. Just a small rectangle with a date, a name, and a dollar amount. Neat, predictable. And totally opaque to my students. We were reading Ordeal by Cheque by Wuther Crue—a wordless narrative told entirely through a series of fictional checks. The task was complex but doable: piece together a story based on these transactions, analyze what happened, and make a claim. It had the intrigue of a puzzle and the potential for deep inference work. But when we put the first check under the document camera, something unexpected happened. The room went quiet. Not the focused kind of quiet—more like the what am I looking at? kind. It turned out that the hardest part wasn’t the story. It was the form. Which line was the name? Where was the date? Who was giving the money and who was getting it? These were the questions that came first—and for good reason. We hadn’t taught the structure. And I get it. Checks aren’t exactly a part of most teenagers’ daily routines. But this moment reminded me of something I’ve learned (and relearned) over and over again: if we want students to read deeply, we need to start by helping them read the form. Before we get to the big ideas or higher-order questions, we have to spend time on the what is this thing? questions. Not as an aside. As the entry point. So we zoomed in. Literally. Reading the form
We used a See, Think, Wonder protocol—but this time, for the check itself. What do you see? “There’s a number up top.” What do you think it means? “Maybe that’s the date?” What do you wonder? “Is the name the person writing the check or the person getting the money?” These observations weren’t off-topic. They were the topic. And they gave us a way in.
From there, we layered in language. We built a vocabulary foldable—one flap for “memo line,” another for “signature,” another for “pay to the order of.” It was simple but powerful: now, students had words to name what they were seeing. Noticing turned into knowing. We weren’t just reading the story. We were reading the form. That same move—the shift from seeing to naming—applies across genres. Take poetry. Before we ever introduce words like stanza or line break, we can invite students to notice: What do you see? “There’s a bunch of short lines, then a space, then more lines.” That’s a doorway. Once students walk through it, we can offer the language: those bunches of lines? They’re stanzas. That space? It signals a shift. Now we’re building a bridge from what they can observe to what they can understand. From noticing to knowing
Once we’d built that foundational knowledge with Ordeal by Cheque, we moved into our next layer: structure. We used the Lifelines strategy, a kind of sentence-frame scaffold that helps students slow down and name what they’re seeing in the text. “It says…” (the evidence). “This means…” (the interpretation). “This is important because…” (the significance). Repeated over time, this structure doesn’t just support comprehension—it teaches students how to think through a text.
And then, with all that in place, we let students fly. Collaboration grounded in form
We used a strategy called Debate Team Carousel. Students worked in groups of four, each with a paper divided into four quadrants. The first student made a claim about what happened in Ordeal by Cheque—something like “The checks reveal a hidden love affair.” Then they passed the paper to the second student, whose job was to add a piece of evidence to support the claim. The third student added a counterargument, challenging the interpretation of the evidence to support the claim. And the fourth student had the opportunity to add their two cents, negotiating between the claim and the counterclaim based on the evidence. Each round was built not just on content knowledge, but on reasoning, voice, and collaborative writing. And all of it was grounded in their careful reading of the form.
Suddenly, the room was anything but quiet. Students were huddled over their papers, whispering, negotiating word choice, re-reading a check for the third time to be sure. It was the kind of messy, generative thinking that only happens when the foundation is solid.
There’s a lesson here, and it’s not just about checks.
It’s about how we teach students to read. Before we can ask them to make meaning, we have to show them how the meaning is built. What’s the shape of this text? What are its parts? What do you see before you start thinking or wondering? When we start there—with what’s visible—we invite students into the work. We say: you already know how to notice. Let’s build from that. And when we return, again and again, to the basics of structure and form—not just as vocabulary, but as tools for understanding—we’re not watering down the work. We’re strengthening the foundation. Because deep thinking isn’t just about hard texts. It’s about having the scaffolds to hold that thinking up. So next time your students stall on a poem, or a graph, or a quirky one-page story told through a series of checks, pause before jumping into theme or tone. Zoom in. Ask: What do you see? And let that be the beginning.
Strengthen your team’s capacity for data-driven dialogue with a tool built for clarity and coherence.
If you’re a school leader who has dedicated precious team time to the inquiry process, or if you’re a teacher who engages in an inquiry process with your team or with a coach, you know the value of the time spent in inquiry hinges on the effectiveness of your team’s execution.
That said, where’s the gap? It can be hard to find. Do we not have the right strategies to implement for effective instructional change? Do we not have a willingness for peer-to-peer intervisitation that can allow us to see the strategy implemented from many different perspectives? Perhaps yes to both, honestly. However, first and foremost, the question to ask is, do we have a strong system for team inquiry in the first place? Answering in the affirmative can often start with using a clear, clean team tool to communicate team movement through their inquiry process. Team inquiry: an overview
Whether you trace inquiry-based learning all the way back to John Dewey, or whether you use Data Wise out of Harvard University or the Deming Cycle (PDSA: Plan, Do, Study, Act) out of Bell Laboratories or any of the other wonderful ways into this work, you know that the spirit of inquiry work is placing the opportunity for learning on the learner. In teacher teams, this means teachers themselves guide how to improve instruction through a cycle of looking at student work or data, implementing innovative interventions, and studying the impact. This process — done consistently and repeatedly across departments, subject areas, or even whole school or whole district communities — can powerfully impact and uplift student learning outcomes.
Creating & using a team inquiry tool
Inquiry can enhance and uplift teacher teamwork toward measurable excellence, and yet, it can also fall flat.
One of the main ways I have seen inquiry go awry is through complex, convoluted, or complicated processes that are not understood or used by all teachers. If the spirit of inquiry means teachers are guiding the interventions and innovations, then at minimum, we need a common understanding of the tool and process! If your team needs a straightforward way to enact, assess, and plan for inquiry, one way forward is to use this tool, adapted from The Deming Cycle, to:
Processing goals, a rationale, a plan for implementation, and an opportunity to assess are the bones of what is needed for strong inquiry, and paring it down like this can really help teacher teams to get to the heart of how to enhance instruction for students.
There are, of course, many layers and impactful additions to make this process even richer and more robust (interviewing students, for instance, to get their perspective on the data or intervention, or surveying students for their experience are just two of many powerful and impactful layers that come to mind). However, starting here and getting clarity about what to do and how to do it can set teacher teams up for lasting impact and success. Sometimes enhancing inquiry is as straightforward as ensuring your common tool is simple and easy to use — it can make all the difference in clarifying the cycle process, outcomes and next steps for you, your peers, your admin, and your whole school. Here’s to greater clarity and excellence in Inquiry! 4/3/2025 What’s the Problem and How to Solve It: How Leaders Can Support Peer-to-Peer Conflict Resolution
Turn conflict into clarity with a simple, effective peer-to-peer resolution approach.
Within any organization, but especially in complex organizations, peer-to-peer conflicts come with the job. When everyone is moving at lightning speed, roles and responsibilities are ambiguous, or the pace of the work is simply impossible to keep — as human beings, we’re likely to let someone down at least once.
In the best working and learning environments, we can raise our hand and say, “I made a mistake, I’m so sorry,” and everyone can move on. But some mistakes, misunderstandings, and missed expectations aren’t as easy to resolve. Many leaders don’t want to get involved in the tiny squabbles of their teams — and rightly so! But teams who are constantly embroiled in conflict aren’t productive, don’t meet goals, and don’t grow professionally or personally. So even if you aren’t a touchy-feely leader, ensuring that your team is well equipped with the personal and professional skills to identify, mediate, and move on from internal, peer-to-peer conflicts is essential to cultivating a healthy organization that reaches its goals. Problems vs. conflicts
Problems are challenging or complex barriers to a goal that require a solution. Problems come up in everyone’s job and they usually aren’t emotionally disruptive. They may be stressful, for sure, but they don’t usually create reactive or negative feelings toward a colleague, team member or supervisor.
Problems need to be solved. Conflicts, on the other hand, need to be resolved. Conflicts occur when problems become personal and involve hurt feelings, which can tap into an individual’s values around trust, transparency, and fairness. When a problem escalates to a conflict, the team has to address the barrier, as well as the interpersonal conflicts that have emerged. Peer-to-peer clearing conversation
In healthy organizations, peers can identify when a problem has evolved into a conflict, engage in personal reflection to identify the root issues, and engage in seeking solutions. These processes bring people closer together, increase trust, and improve morale.
Most adults don’t have formal education in conflict resolution so it’s valuable to spend some time with your team talking through the importance of personal reflection, expectations setting, and ways of communicating to increase connection and reduce conflicts. Consider practicing these types of conversations with low-stakes issues and ensuring that everyone feels comfortable with the reflective activity as a routine in your professional learning and team building time. After establishing some of the basic principles of expectations setting, the Peer-to-Peer Clearing Protocol is a set of steps that two people can follow in order to “clear the air” after a pain point or conflict. The chart below outlines the steps someone might take when they realize they’re experiencing a conflict with a colleague that just isn’t going away on its own. Mediating a clearing conversation
Sometimes conflicts between peers or between leaders and those they supervise become too intense for them to process independently. Having a third party mediate the discussion can create the important space that each person needs to hear alternate perspectives and move into healthy and productive agreements moving forward.
A note on workplace harassment and improper conduct
Most conflicts between team members are caused by gaps in communication, missed expectations, personality differences, or working styles. Sometimes, an issue stems from an incident of workplace harassment or improper conduct. In these situations, always follow your organization's policies for reporting to your Title IX office, Human Resource representative, or mandated reporting policies.
Discover how project-based learning helps multilingual students shine by creating hands-on experiences that facilitate language-learning opportunities.
Meeting the needs of multilingual learners (MLLs) in classrooms filled with students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds requires innovative and inclusive approaches. Project-based learning (PBL) is an instructional framework that supports language acquisition and provides ongoing feedback on their progress. By engaging students in real-world, inquiry-driven projects, PBL allows MLLs at various levels of language proficiency to demonstrate an understanding of their knowledge in ways that traditional assessments often cannot capture.
Language acquisition is complex and multifaceted, particularly for those learning a second language (L2) — unlike first language (L1) learners, who typically acquire first languages in a nurturing environment, MLLs often face challenges that hinder their educational progress. These challenges encompass sentiments of isolation, cultural transitions, and disparate timelines for language acquisition. Recognizing these factors is essential in creating a supportive learning environment that fosters growth. Project-based learning is a dynamic teaching method that encourages students to learn and apply knowledge and skills through engaging projects. Its emphasis on inquiry, collaboration, and real-world relevance, makes it an effective formative assessment and ideal experience for multilingual learners. Authentic engagement and motivation
PBL leverages students' interests by allowing them to explore real-world problems or challenges. This authentic engagement particularly benefits MLLs, who can connect their learning to their lived experiences and communities. Engaging in initiatives of personal significance enhances students' motivation, facilitates their access to language and unfamiliar content, and fosters sustained investment in their learning journey. This, in turn, promotes a deeper level of comprehension and retention of language skills.
Language use across modalities
Project-based learning naturally integrates all four language modalities: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. MLLs can enhance their language proficiency in context, moving beyond rote memorization to meaningful communication. For example, when working on a group project, students may collaborate to develop a presentation, allowing them to practice speaking and listening. They may also participate in reading and writing tasks as they research information and document their findings. This holistic approach accommodates students at various proficiency levels, enabling them to demonstrate their learning through different forms of expression.
Collaborative learning environment
PBL encourages collaboration among students, which is particularly advantageous for MLLs. Working in structured groups allows students to practice language in authentic, low-pressure situations. Peer-to-peer interactions allow MLLs to observe and mimic language patterns (local colloquial speech), expand their vocabulary, and refine their understanding of sentence structures in the new language. These interactions are vital for language acquisition, as they mirror the natural process of learning through communication.
Furthermore, well-facilitated group work allows for role differentiation. For example, students who possess more proficiency in conducting research in their native language can collect information and subsequently translate essential points. Conversely, other students possessing more robust verbal skills can share the results of their work with the entire class. Also, students collaborating on a project concerning ecosystems may engage in developing visual infographics or constructing models, contingent upon their respective levels of language proficiency. This collaborative dynamic enhances linguistic competencies and cultivates a sense of belonging and mutual respect among diverse learners.
Varied assessment opportunities
One of the main benefits of PBL is its flexibility in assessment. Conventional assessments often emphasize written or oral language output or production, which may result in overlooking multilingual learners' comprehension of content and their overall understanding. PBL, on the other hand, permits students to demonstrate their knowledge holistically. For example, a scientific assignment focused on renewable energy may necessitate that students conduct research, compose a report, develop a model, and present their conclusions. Each component provides students various opportunities to demonstrate their comprehension in diverse manners, offering a more holistic representation of their learning. This multifaceted approach to assessment allows students of differing proficiency levels to exhibit their knowledge in manners that align with their strengths. For example, a student may demonstrate their understanding through a visual project, a video presentation, or a PowerPoint deck rather than exclusively depending on their writing skills.
Scaffolding and support
Implementing PBL provides ample opportunities for scaffolding and contextualizing language, a crucial element for supporting MLLs. For MLLs, language acquisition is most effective when tied to clear, meaningful contexts. PBL naturally integrates visuals, hands-on activities, and real-world applications, which make abstract language and concepts more accessible. This targeted support enables students to focus on content rather than get overwhelmed by language barriers.
Teachers can design projects with built-in scaffolds, such as graphic organizers and sentence frames, and bilingual resources, such as dictionaries or thesauri, to assist students in expressing their ideas. For example, a history project on the civil rights movement might include timelines, photographs, and videos alongside primary source texts. These multimodal resources help MLLs understand content while building their academic language proficiency.
Development of critical thinking and problem-solving
Beyond language development, PBL cultivates critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity — universally valuable skills in education and beyond. For MLLs, project-based learning bridges their prior knowledge, often rooted in their native language and cultural background, to new concepts they are learning in English. For instance, a student studying immigration policies might draw on personal or family experiences, enriching the project with unique perspectives while deepening their engagement with academic language. By valuing and incorporating students’ lived experiences, PBL accelerates language acquisition and validates their identities, creating a classroom environment where diversity is celebrated.
In conclusion, project-based learning is a valuable tool for supporting multilingual learners. It offers an inclusive, differentiated, and meaningful approach to instruction and assessment. By engaging students in collaborative, real-world projects, PBL creates opportunities for MLLs to demonstrate their understanding in ways that honor their strengths and respect their linguistic and cultural identities.
Reset your mind and reclaim your classroom with these quick and effective mindfulness techniques.
It’s sixth period. You didn’t get done nearly as much as you’d hoped during your planning period. In second period a student made a ruler helicopter (where did he even get that ruler from anyways?) and sent a pencil flying across the room and almost hit another student. Your fourth period went well, even if you did walk into that unfortunate pun. Lunch came and you snagged a few bites in between listening to your students tell you about who’s beefing with whom and why. Now your students have decided they’d prefer not to pay attention today and it feels like you’ve spent more time corralling than covering actual material. How are you going to get through the last few periods?
If that sounds familiar, know that you aren’t alone. Working with young people who are growing and changing is, by nature, overwhelming at times. Overwhelm is fought not by just ignoring it, nor by pushing it way down, but by rephrasing and reframing. Instead of fighting fire with fire, we can choose to focus on rooting and remaining in the present moment: Where am I right now? What is happening now? How is my body feeling right now? Mindfulness techniques are easy and quick ways for us to refocus ourselves on our bodies and the present moment, giving a quick reboot to get through the last few periods — or honestly even the next five minutes. Not only are these useful for you, they can also be used for resetting a classroom as well! Here are four mindfulness exercises you can use to reset, both for yourself and your classroom. Sensory lists
A great way of brushing off the past and rooting ourselves in the present moment is to make sensory lists. To-do lists help us with framing and breaking down tasks, grocery lists help us stick to only getting what we need, and sensory lists help us take stock of what is, right now.
The 5-4-3-2-1 technique is a set of lists that helps us remember where we are and what is right in front of us. First, take a moment to take in your surroundings. Name 5 things you can see — your stapler, a computer, coffee mug, etc; then, name 4 things you can feel — the AC/heat, your favorite socks, the hand sanitizer residue; 3 things you can hear — the bell, the students in the hall; 2 things you can smell — cleaning supplies, crayons; and 1 thing you can taste — the cold coffee in your mug. Be as descriptive as you can be. You can write them down if you need to, but you can also just think and notice. The goal is to root yourself in your physical area and break the spin cycle of getting carried away with the day.
Bodily awareness
Besides rooting ourselves in our physical location, we can break daily anxieties by centering ourselves back in our bodies. This is best done sitting down, though any comfortable position works.
If you can, sit up straight with both feet on the floor and your hands in your lap, and close your eyes. Take a deep breath in, and out. Again, in… and out… continuing to breathe slowly, drawing your attention to your feet. What do they feel like right now? Wiggle your toes if you need to. When was the last time you did that? Slowly move your attention up your legs, your torso, your arms, your neck, and your head, tensing your muscles and relaxing, focusing on each part of your body as you go. End with a couple deep breaths before you open your eyes again.
Writing for full presence
Sometimes our heads are spinning so much that we can only get out of them by, well, getting out of them. For this exercise, all you need is something to write with, be that a pen, a laptop, or whatever you have around your classroom.
Set a timer for five minutes, then just write. Don’t judge. Don’t cross out. Don’t worry about doing it “right.” The point is to write down whatever is on your mind so that it gets out of your head and down on paper. You can expand this task as long as you like, but even just five minutes can do a world of wonders for your presence of mind.
Circular / box breathing
Easily the most scientifically backed mindfulness technique, this is also one of the quickest and easiest to do, anywhere, at any time. By focusing in on our breathing, we can force our bodies to move from a neurological state of sympathetic (alert/on edge) to parasympathetic (normal activity, relaxed). It slows our heart rate and naturally helps us be in the moment by focusing only on our breathing.
Take a moment to focus on your body; you can close your eyes if it helps. Then, focus on taking a deep breath while counting to 5-7 (depending on ease/comfort). Try to breathe with your diaphragm — with your tummy, like babies breathe. Then hold that breath for 5 counts. Breathe out for 5. Repeat 2-3 times until you feel your body slowing down. This can be done in 30 seconds, or over several minutes.
All of these tools, both for yourself and your classroom, work best when they are built into your classroom routines and norms. If students are aware and expecting that they will be using or engaging with these tools, they will be much more open to taking them seriously. While there is no way to stop chaotic days from happening — unless you know of one, then please tell me! — these tools can help both you and your students calm down and, if nothing else, get to that final bell.
Effective support for multilingual learners ensures academic success while respecting their linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
Differentiating instruction is not easy, but when done well, it promotes higher levels of learning and opportunities for multilingual learners to acquire a new language, feel like they belong, and achieve in our classes. It also allows us to demonstrate our superpower as educators — our ability to reach all students.
It’s also easier said than done. As classroom teachers, we receive a list of students and their labels: SWD (Student with a Disability) or ENL/MLL (English Language Learner/Multilingual Learner) — but labels tell us nothing about what our students know and can do. And not knowing can be our kryptonite. To meet the needs of all students, we need to push past the labels and invest in their potential. To do this, we must be able to recognize the stages of language development and how they correspond with students’ language fluency levels. Stages of language development
No one learns a language overnight. In the chart below, we’ve illustrated the five stages of language development for multilingual learners and how these stages correspond with the New York State English as a Second Language Achievement Test, aka the NYSESLAT. Based on their performance on the NYSESLAT, students are categorized into levels from entering to commanding, as seen in this chart. Students’ levels are determined by their composite performance on all four subtests of this assessment (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
Fluency Level: Advanced
Approx. time in level: 5 - 7 years
NYSESLAT Level: Commanding What students can do: Sometimes called Continued Language Development or former ENL stage, students at this stage can communicate fluently in most contexts. Students at this stage are comfortable and fluent, though they may sometimes incorrectly use idiomatic expressions. Students can:
Students at each stage need a different level of support when learning a new language. This is because students learning a new language are also facing a host of other complex social, emotional, linguistic, and cognitive challenges. Especially in middle and high school, where a sense of belonging is critical to identity formation, multilingual learners face an unfamiliar language, along with significant shifts in culture and community. This can feel destabilizing, increasing a sense of distance, difference, and isolation. It’s not all bad news, though. When learning a new language, the sounds and symbols used sometimes connect to the primary language, initially resulting in faster connections and learning. Students can also make strong language and literacy connections between their home language and the new language when they process new content knowledge. Maximizing language development
So, how do we differentiate for our multilingual learners? How can we help them build on their home language and expedite the language acquisition process in English? First, acknowledge all the rich language experiences they bring into our classrooms. They arrive in our schools not as empty slates but with rich language experiences that we want to build on, especially where commonalities may exist in language structures such as vocabulary.
Then, we want to maximize their time in school and their exposure to the English language. We need to contextualize language to build language proficiency in the context of communicating while using the academic language of school. Contextualization happens when we make language clear and understandable using visuals, real objects, demonstrations, hands-on tools, infographics, and other media. Instructional scaffolding can happen with approaches such as reader's theater and total physical response (or the academic version of Simon Says) to tailor instruction to meet the diverse needs of multilingual learners with varied activities. Finally, we want to ensure that we’re collecting some data to understand students’ developing English language and literacy skills using a reading diagnostic assessment, a language level assessment, and our own classroom data from formative assessments. Connecting the evidence and what students can do will help us identify how they level up. Scaffolding for success
One way to start planning instructional scaffolding is to consider areas where differentiation may occur. We often differentiate instruction via process (how students think about what they’re learning), content (what focused topics students are learning), and product (how students represent their learning). But how do we differentiate for language without simplifying the depth of critical thinking or complex content concepts?
Here are a few ways to get started: Differentiate by: Process
Materials and resources can provide scaffolding as follows:
Differentiate by: Content
Scaffolding can occur through our instruction by using:
Differentiate by: Product
Finally, strategic student grouping in our classes can assist with scaffolding for our multilingual students. What is expected in the form of final projects or summative assessments can also be differentiated to allow our language learners to demonstrate learning and their genius via linguistically scaffolded tools, including:
Strategies by language fluency level
For some additional ways to think about scaffolding for multilingual learners but doing so based on their language fluency levels, download the resource below:
Supporting multilingual learners necessitates a comprehensive understanding of language development phases and strategic differentiation that leverages students' prior language experiences. By employing tailored scaffolding in process, content, and student grouping, we can establish inclusive learning environments that respect students' native languages while promoting language development in their new language. Importantly, teachers can help multilingual students do well in school while still retaining their cultural and linguistic identity when they look past labels to see each student's unique potential and provide the right level of support for their current language development stage.
Adaptable vocabulary strategies that help students decode and apply words meaningfully in real-world contexts.
As a teacher, I’ve noticed that vocabulary instruction often carries a reputation for being dry, tedious, or even disconnected from the larger goals of reading and writing. But when done thoughtfully, it’s anything but. Vocabulary is the connective tissue that helps students make sense of complex ideas, navigate challenging texts, and articulate their own thoughts with greater confidence.
This has made me wonder: how can we teach vocabulary in ways that feel meaningful — not just another academic hoop to jump through, but a tool that students recognize as valuable in their own lives? These questions resonate deeply, especially when I think about students grappling with unfamiliar words and texts. The goal isn’t just about knowing words; it’s about seeing language as something students can decode, manipulate, and make their own. Research offers plenty of insight into this. Goodwin and Ahn (2013) emphasize the power of teaching word structure — those prefixes, roots, and suffixes that act as keys to unlocking meaning. Beck, McKeown, and Kucan (2013) highlight the importance of intentional, explicit vocabulary instruction that connects words to real-world contexts. The strategies I’m sharing here build on this research, with a practical edge: each comes with a linked resource from our library to make implementation easier. These aren’t one-size-fits-all solutions. They’re adaptable tools meant to meet your students where they are and help them see the power of words in action. Morphological awareness: words as building blocks
When students learn how to break down words into prefixes, roots, and suffixes, they gain a sense of control over the language. Morphology helps demystify unfamiliar terms, making complex texts less intimidating.
Example: Use a "Vocabulary Web" to explore the root struct (meaning "to build"). Students can branch out into related words like construct, instruction, or destruction, identifying how the root connects their meanings. Linked resource: Vocabulary Web Reflective analysis: thinking beyond definitions
Teaching students to reflect on words — considering their meanings, uses, and nuances across contexts — can deepen understanding in ways that memorizing definitions never will.
Example: Incorporate the Frayer Model to analyze a word like resilient. Students define it, explore its characteristics, and think through examples (a person overcoming adversity) and non-examples (a fragile object breaking under pressure). Linked resource: Frayer Model Template Vocabulary in context: finding clues
Encouraging students to infer word meanings from context builds their ability to engage actively with texts. This approach shifts their focus from frustration to curiosity when encountering unknown words.
Example: Use a “redaction strategy.” Black out key vocabulary in a passage and ask students to fill in the blanks based on surrounding clues. This sparks discussion and reinforces their critical thinking. Alternatively, ask students to self-redact any words they come across while reading that they do not know. This creates the added benefit of visualizing the language barrier that may exist that prevent students from accessing challenging texts. Linked resource: Redaction Strategy Word associations: making connections
Helping students connect new words to what they already know can make vocabulary feel more relevant. Synonyms, antonyms, and real-world applications all contribute to a richer understanding.
Example: Try semantic gradients. If teaching “cold,” students place related words (like chilly, freezing, arctic) on a spectrum, refining their grasp of subtle differences. This is an excellent strategy to make vocabulary into a student-student dialogue opportunity, developing more nuanced understandings of language variations. Linked resource: Semantic Gradient
Each of these strategies, paired with our ready-to-use tools, is designed to support vocabulary instruction. More importantly, they offer students pathways to see words not just as barriers but as stepping stones to stronger comprehension and expression.
Ultimately, vocabulary instruction is about more than words. It’s about equipping students with the tools to navigate the world — academically, yes, but also as curious, capable thinkers. When students feel empowered to wrestle with language and find meaning in it, they’re not just learning; they’re growing.
Empower students to create strong, confident pieces of writing by guiding them through the process as a team.
Academic writing can be overwhelming for young people to master. Managing multiple writing skill sets — making a claim, supporting it with evidence, expanding upon it with reasoning, seamlessly opening and closing your writing, connecting your idea to the previous paragraph all while maintaining formal style, tone, and voice is a lot to manage!
Given this challenge, one key support that has become a commonplace practice at almost every grade level is for the teacher to provide a written exemplar (a teacher-generated version of the writing piece) to support young people in their creation of any given assessment. However, sometimes, instead of feeling supported by the exemplar, young people are mystified by it, or they only learn that their writing teacher is an exemplary writer. (Often it is the how and not the what that mystifies young writers.) One successful twist on the exemplar that can invite young people into the process, give them confidence, and help them see how it was created is group writing. What is group writing?
Group writing is the creation of any piece of writing together, as a group. For our purposes, I am suggesting using this technique for the creation of an exemplar, together as a class. It can be as small as writing together in part (an introductory paragraph, for example) or writing an entire piece together (the full essay, for example). Essentially, instead of handing out a fully fleshed out piece that you as the teacher have written to show students how it’s done, I am suggesting that we instead undertake the writing process together with students in class.
How to group write
Group writing can happen in a great variety of ways. After giving out the assignment and the rubric (or whatever materials you provide for students to know what is expected in order to thrive), here's one way to picture how the group writing process might look in your classroom:
Select what to exemplify Imagine it’s the first day learning about the assignment, so you would like to start with an exemplar of the introduction. Ask someone to get it started Standing at the board, typing into a slide, writing under a document camera, or otherwise, begin by asking a brave student pioneer to offer a claim that would answer the prompt. Let them know that we will all workshop the initial claim offered, so we just need someone to get us started. Ask other students to refine it Once you have written the initial claim offered where all can see, ask students to add nuance to it, or otherwise make it stronger, since many brains writing this piece can be better than just one brain writing it alone. Move through each component of what you're exemplifying Whatever else you include in your introduction for the assignment — for instance, background information, three reasons that support your claim, or otherwise — follow the same process. Ask someone to offer an initial sentence, write it for all to see, and nuance it together with word choices, additional clauses or phrases, etc. as young people offer them. Reread the full exemplar Once you have completed all components of your introduction, reread what you have written together. Typically, it’s a powerful, beautiful, rich piece that is equally as strong as an exemplar you would have handed out, yet it is enhanced, because students created it with you, saw how to do it, saw that they could do it, and are now ready to begin their writing. Invite students to start their own pieces Once you have the group-written exemplar up for all to see, let students get started on their own introductions. Essentially, they have now participated in a robust guided practice (“we do”) and are now ready to write independently (“I do”).
Group writing works in many different contexts, for just about any kind of writing. It is an empowering, collaborative, demystifying process that is highly successful in helping young people understand how to create a phenomenal piece of writing. So with your next writing assignment, if you want to support students with their writing — helping them to bolster their self confidence and better envision how a piece of writing is created — try a group write!
Literature comes alive through this multimodal experience that turns reading into a dynamic, embodied journey.
“Look around the room.” Eyes flicker, landing on other people, the windows, the rough, textured carpet. “When I clap my hands, move to fill any empty space.” A pause. Then -- clap. Bodies shift, some quickly, some hesitantly, creating a new arrangement of movement and presence. Another clap. “Now, as you move again, acknowledge the people you pass — but silently. Just recognize their presence in this space today.”
This time, heads lift. Eyes meet. Silent smiles and nods ripple across the room. “Wonderful. We are about to embark on a journey — all the way to Antigua.” And just like that, the room transforms. Our steps are no longer random; they map our imagined journey from New York City to the Caribbean. As we move, we start to see — the sandy beaches and blue waters of St. John’s, the bright green okra sprouting from the soil, the fire ants crawling over each other in tangled urgency. We begin to hear — the strong, tinny beats of Benna music, the harmonies of the South Leeward Mission Choir. We taste — the heat of Pepper Pot, the sweetness of Doukona laced with cinnamon. 
Then, we read. Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl.
And suddenly, everything we encountered before is there again, but this time in the text. The mother's sharp, rhythmic voice delivers a long, unbroken string of instructions to her daughter, telling her how to behave, how to cook, how to be seen and unseen. The foods we tasted — okra, doukona — become part of the lessons. The music we heard — Benna — appears as something the girl is warned against singing in Sunday school. Through these details, the world we stepped into before reading is now intertwined within the story itself, making the text feel immediate and lived-in rather than distant and unfamiliar. Literacy as an embodied experience
At CPET, we see literacy not as a static skill but as an active and immersive process. Before students ever touch a text, they bring with them a range of lived experiences, cultural knowledge, and sensory understandings. When we expand how students enter a text — through movement, sound, image, and sensory engagement — we create deeper access points for interpretation, discussion, and meaning-making.
This kind of work is at the heart of Literacy Unbound, where teachers and students step beyond traditional reading strategies to engage with literature in dynamic, multimodal ways. By using the body, the voice, and the imagination, we make content knowledge an experience, not just a prerequisite for comprehension. Making texts accessible: reading comprehension & engagement
The benefits of this approach extend beyond engagement — they also support comprehension. A study published in Reading Psychology found that incorporating movement, sound, and visual elements into reading instruction significantly improved students' critical reading skills and positively influenced their perceptions of reading activities.
In Literacy Unbound, students don’t just read literature; they step inside it. They take on perspectives, inhabit settings, and wrestle with the emotions and stakes of a text. This deep engagement leads to:
For teachers and leaders, the question is often: How do we make texts accessible while maintaining rigor and improving reading comprehension? Literacy Unbound offers an answer — not by simplifying literature, but by expanding the ways we approach it.
Join the Literacy Unbound Institute
Each summer, the Literacy Unbound Institute brings together educators and high school students as players, co-creating a shared world of storytelling and inquiry. Through an immersive, inquiry-driven process, participants explore how literature can be activated through performance, soundscapes, movement, and visual storytelling — blurring the lines between reading, interpretation, and creation.
From July 7-11, 2025, at Teachers College, Columbia University, teachers and students will work side by side, experimenting with multimodal approaches to literature and discovering new ways to expand literacy engagement.
Spots are limited, and decisions will be sent out in early April. Bring Literacy Unbound to your school
For educators looking to extend this work beyond the summer, CPET offers additional opportunities to bring Literacy Unbound into classrooms through tailored professional development and coaching. Whether it’s a one-time workshop or a fully immersive classroom project, we work with schools to integrate multimodal literacy strategies that engage students in deep, creative exploration of texts.
Because when literacy is unbound, it is no longer something to be unlocked. It is something to be lived.
The best reading experiences don’t just confirm what students already know — they challenge, complicate, and expand their understanding.
I used to think I had to tell students everything before reading a challenging text. Before Their Eyes Were Watching God, I’d launch into a historical overview of the Harlem Renaissance. Before Frankenstein, I’d explain the Enlightenment, Romanticism, and galvanism. The idea was that if they had enough context upfront, they wouldn’t feel lost.
And in a way, it worked. When we started reading, students recognized ideas we had discussed — the social structures that shaped Janie’s world, the philosophical questions that haunted Victor Frankenstein. But then something interesting would happen. A passage would complicate what they thought they knew. The historical context gave them a foundation, but the text didn’t always confirm it neatly. Instead, it pushed back. Some details reinforced what we had talked about, while others unsettled it. Janie’s journey wasn’t just about the expectations placed on Black women in the early 20th century — it was about the deeply personal ways she resisted them. The Creature wasn’t just an extension of Enlightenment anxieties — he was also a character with a voice that disrupted the categories we had built. That’s when I realized that background knowledge isn’t something students get before reading — it’s something they also build while reading. The goal isn’t to frontload so much that the text becomes predictable. It’s to give students just enough footing to begin, and then help them navigate the way the text interacts with — and sometimes challenges — what they think they know. What do we mean by "content" and "background" knowledge?
What does the text and author assume that I already know to enter into the text? Is there a pre-knowledge tool to figure out what my students know or don’t know? How do I use that to curate our scaffolding of offering background knowledge?
Building content knowledge before reading
These strategies offer students ways to build background knowledge before reading a text.
Students rotate through different stations, each presenting a key issue or debate tied to the text. At each stop, they generate arguments for both sides before moving on. This strategy helps them see major themes as contested rather than settled.
Students engage with a central passage or excerpt before reading the full text, responding to four prompts:
Example: Before Their Eyes Were Watching God, students examine an excerpt from Hurston’s “How It Feels to Be Colored Me,” considering how ideas of race, identity, and independence connect to their assumptions about the novel. Example: Before Frankenstein, students analyze a passage from Rousseau on human nature, questioning whether society corrupts people or if people are inherently flawed. These questions set them up to engage with the Creature’s development throughout the novel. Navigating Multiple Perspectives
Students examine two different historical or cultural perspectives related to the novel’s time period. This helps them see how a text is shaped by competing social forces.
Building knowledge during reading
As students read, they don’t just apply what they learned beforehand — they deepen, challenge, and revise it. These strategies help them engage with the text as an active conversation.
A structured close reading strategy where students read a passage three times, each with a different focus: first for comprehension, second for structure and language, and third for connections to prior knowledge.
Students pause at key moments to break down an excerpt with the prompts:
Example: In Their Eyes Were Watching God, students use Lifelines to analyze Janie’s reflections after Joe Starks’ death—what she says about herself, what it reveals about her changing sense of freedom, and how it shifts the novel’s direction. Example: In Frankenstein, students use the strategy when the Creature recounts learning language and observing the De Laceys, breaking down how he interprets human behavior and why his response to rejection is so significant. Exploring Historical Echoes
Students pause to connect a key moment in the text to real historical or cultural moments, asking:
Example: In Their Eyes Were Watching God, students compare Janie’s trial to real-life cases where Black women had to defend themselves against societal judgment. What does Hurston’s portrayal reflect about racial and gender biases of the time? Example: In Frankenstein, students examine how the Creature’s experience echoes real debates about exclusion and oppression. How does Shelley’s portrayal align with historical fears about "the other"? A text as a conversation
Background knowledge isn’t something static that students receive before reading — it’s something they build in conversation with the text. What they think they know at the start will evolve, deepen, and sometimes even unravel as they read. Our job isn’t to prepare them with all the answers but to give them just enough to enter the text with curiosity, ready to test and explore ideas along the way.
These strategies — both before and during reading — invite students to engage with texts as ongoing conversations. Some moments will confirm what they expected. Others will challenge what they thought they knew. And that’s the real work of reading: not just decoding words on a page but making sense of a world that doesn’t always fit into neat categories. If we teach students to hold contradictions, question their assumptions, and revisit their interpretations, we aren’t just building background knowledge — we’re helping them become the kind of readers who can navigate complexity and embrace uncertainty.
Literacy isn’t a responsibility to be delegated; it’s an opportunity for collaboration.
As an instructional coach, one of the most pressing questions I grapple with is this: Who is responsible for teaching literacy? Naturally, the burden often falls on English Language Arts (ELA) teachers. After all, reading and writing are the foundation of their curriculum. But through my research and my work as a coach over the last 14 years, I’ve come to see that this responsibility cannot rest solely on their shoulders.
Recently, I’ve been working closely with content area teachers to explore a broader perspective on literacy. It starts with a simple but transformative question: What does literacy look like in your classroom? This question opens the door to deeper exploration:
The responses are insightful but often surface a disconnect. Many teachers identify critical skills like analysis, reasoning, or making evidence-based arguments, but they struggle to see these as literacy skills. I try to help them bridge that gap by highlighting that discipline-specific literacy is deeply embedded in their work — and it cannot be outsourced to the ELA classroom. To truly understand this, we need to zoom in and examine what literacy looks like in different disciplines. Each subject has unique demands and requires students to develop specific reading, writing, and thinking skills. This is what is often called discipline-specific literacy — and it’s at the heart of building confident, capable learners across every content area. Discipline-Specific Literacy: A Closer Look
Science Literacy
Science is a highly technical discipline. According to my work with science teachers, I’ve come to understand that scientists must:
These processes translate into specific writing tasks such as lab reports, research papers, and explanatory texts. Yet, I’ve seen science teachers assign a lab report without fully unpacking its structure, format, or purpose for students. Without explicit guidance, students struggle to produce work that meets expectations.
Mathematics Literacy
In math, literacy may not seem as obvious, but it is just as essential. I once walked into a math classroom where the teacher had displayed a list of professions requiring math skills to emphasize its importance to her students. Some were expected, like accountants or engineers, while others were surprising, such as electricians or pilots. Over time, I’ve come to understand that Mathematicians must:
Writing tasks in math include explaining solutions, interpreting graphs, and analyzing data. These tasks demand clarity and precision, skills that need to be taught just as rigorously as solving equations.
Social Studies Literacy
Social studies teachers face unique challenges with literacy. My coaching work with history teachers has taught me that Historians must:
This translates to genres like historical essays, document-based questions (DBQs), position papers, and biographical sketches. But too often, students are given a primary source without the scaffolding needed to understand its technical terms, vocabulary, and historical significance. These gaps leave students floundering and perpetuate the idea that literacy isn’t integral to every discipline. But the issue extends beyond social studies — it’s a challenge across all subject areas. The Time Challenge
One of the biggest concerns I hear from teachers is time. “I don’t have time to teach them how to read; we have so much content to cover.” I empathize with this tension, I do. But the reality is this: without equipping students with literacy skills, they’ll continue to struggle to engage with the content meaningfully.
Taking time to teach the attributes of a lab report, the structure of a DBQ, or the logic behind mathematical reasoning is not a detour from the curriculum — it’s the bridge that allows students to access it. Reimagining Literacy Instruction: A Shared Responsibility
As educators, we must shift the conversation: literacy is not the responsibility of one teacher or department. It’s a shared commitment across disciplines, where each content area brings its own unique set of skills, genres, and approaches to literacy.
When science teachers explicitly teach students how to write a lab report, when math teachers’ model how to analyze data, and when history teachers guide students in reading primary sources, the magic happens. Students become empowered not just to consume knowledge but to create it. Transforming literacy practices begins with a commitment to discipline-specific approaches. School leaders can initiate this shift by organizing professional development sessions that emphasize the significance of integrating literacy skills into every subject. Teachers, in turn, can adopt practical strategies, such as explicitly teaching the structure of a lab report or modeling data analysis during lessons. These techniques can be introduced at the start of a unit and reinforced throughout, whether through whole-class instruction or small group sessions tailored to students' needs. At the end of the day, the question isn’t who is responsible for teaching literacy—it’s how we can all play a role in equipping students with the skills they need to succeed. Literacy isn’t a responsibility to be delegated; it’s an opportunity for collaboration. By working together, we can reimagine literacy instruction, build classrooms where content and literacy work hand in hand, and empower every student to thrive in school and beyond.
Learning by doing is more than an idea — it's key to fostering creativity and critical thinking.
I wasn’t surprised two years ago when my daughter, Glory, then only 4 years old, came home saying she had spent the afternoon with other classmates advocating to her principal for more preschool-sized equipment in their elementary school playground. (In fact, she had come home the week prior with a clipboard and a picture of Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill, telling me we needed to collect public signatures to advocate for change in representation.) Why was it that her preschool experience was so remarkably rigorous, real-world, and relevant? Because her teacher (and her whole school) believes in project-based learning.
Almost a decade ago, I had the great pleasure of being a founding leader at a charter school in the Bronx. We established the school on a foundation of project-based learning. Every course would have, at minimum, a Fall and Spring opportunity for students to demonstrate their learning in rigorous, real-world, relevant ways. Teachers and students created projects beyond our wildest imaginations. Aliyah had editors from Penguin/Random House present in person, critiquing 9th grade writing and speaking with them on a panel. Amrita had students visit a farm to discuss genetically engineered food, then invited the farmers to sit in on students’ socratic seminars and evaluate how robustly they understood the biology behind it. Students would talk about their work, their classes, their ideas in the hallways, outside of school, and probably for years to come. Projects stay with students and imbue their brains with powerful experiences of having demonstrated learning in engaging and elevated ways. PBL in policy and practice
Now, I know that project-based learning brings out a range of reactions in educators, from wide smiles to furrowed brows. Folks argue that it’s too fluffy, or there isn’t time for it alongside the needed curricula, or it isn’t a reasonable, realistic lift with everything else to accomplish. But I would like to argue just the opposite: that PBL is rigorous, real-world, relevant (and doable!) learning. And we have innovative scholars, robust organizations, and even state education departments that agree.
In the early 1900s, John Dewey advocated for learning by doing, saying that we need to give students “something to do, not something to learn” because “the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” His constructivist approach resonates today as we facilitate students grappling with real-world dilemmas and promote their active engagement, learning from each other, and reflection on experiential learning. For the last 30 years, PBLWorks (The Buck Institute for Education) has promoted and supported learning by doing via high-quality project-based learning as a transformational experience for young people. Project-based learning is “deep, long-lasting, and relevant to the challenges of their lives.” To distinguish between “dessert projects” and robust PBL, these good folks have been kind enough to create seven essential project design elements (sustained inquiry, authenticity, student voice and choice, a challenging problem or question, a public project, critique and revision, and reflection) and seven project-based teaching practices (design and plan, alignment to standards, build the culture, manage activities, scaffold student learning, engage and coach, and assess student learning). PBLWorks provides a range of free tools and a range of quality workshops to support PBL in schools. Most recently, in 2024, the New York State Board of Regents noted it is moving toward expansive new ways to demonstrate learning, as shown by transformational shifts in demonstrating learning through their portrait of a graduate. One way students can show mastery in a subject area is through a project or presentation, in lieu of completing an exam. Student perspectives on PBL
These three thoughts alone — Dewey’s timeless theory that learning by doing is the best way to learn; the accessible, high-quality tools that PBLWorks provides to make it possible for any school or classroom to enact exceptional project-based learning; and the knowledge that policymakers are moving toward opening up graduation requirements to be met with projects and presentations demonstrate how rich and robust and real project-based learning can be.
It’s beyond time to make it part of everyone’s experience. But don’t take my word for it. Young people are those most impacted by school and learning, and listening to them is the best way to know what’s working and what’s in need of adjustment. Reflecting on project-based learning in their schools, Tanique, a then-high school student, said, “these are the things that are going to change people’s ways of thinking, teaching people to think out of the box and into real life.” Tiffany, a then-high school student, said, “we have to change the way certain things are taught. Doing things differently puts the joy back in education.” And Glory, my now-first grader, says, “school is where we learn how to make good changes.” May it be so for every young person. Consider the impact of incorporating PBL for increased authentic, uplifting, meaningful learning in your school.
A great coach doesn’t just watch — they listen, assist, and adapt.
When I graduated from my M.A. program over twenty years ago, an educational leader spoke at our graduation and shared a story about a recent visit to an elementary school. He described how he was visiting classes, introducing himself to students, and asking students questions about what they were learning and why they were learning it. One of the students he was chatting with then asked him, "So, what do you do?" And he explained his role as an educational leader and all of his duties that come with the role. The young student looked at him for a moment and replied, "So you don't really know what you do, do you?" The speaker laughed, and all of us laughed with our caps and gowns on in the audience; we appreciated his self-deprecating humor in trying to describe what he does as an educational leader, and how theoretical and confusing it can sound!
I loved that he told us this story, but it also haunts me when someone asks me, “So, what do you do as an education coach?” Which part should I mention — developing curriculum or helping teachers add more moments of engagement into a lesson? Should I mention how teachers have different strengths and needs, and so I adapt my practice depending on the teacher teaching and our rapport or level of comfort? In thinking about my work as an education coach and what it means to “coach” a teacher, it can be helpful to name some of the ways I work with a teacher while they are teaching in their classrooms. Full disclosure: I never want to be a burden, or an additional stress to the teacher while I’m in their classroom (or ever)! The purpose of visiting the classroom is to notice what the students are doing, and how the teacher is working through their lesson. But while I'm there, I try to make life a bit lighter and brighter for the teacher and students. Even if the class is 45 minutes long, I try to find ways to be a positive force in the classroom. Walk, notice, and jot
Walk around and notice what students are doing, what they are writing, and what they are discussing. I'm listening as a check for understanding but also to take the pulse of what the students are thinking, and the ways they are working together. I jot down observations or write down phrases that students say that stand out to me. This is all data that I will share with the teacher, sometimes during class and sometimes after class, depending on the level of importance of what I overhear, and how much it may or may not affect the rest of the class.
Take low-inference notes
Sometimes I sit with students and take notes, writing down exactly what the teacher says (as best I can) and exactly what the students say. These notes almost become a transcript for moments of the class, and later, if I am able to meet with the teacher, it is really helpful to read back a particularly powerful or complex moment. I’ve also noticed that teachers make so many decisions in a class period, and talk to so many different students and colleagues throughout the day — how can they remember verbatim these small but powerful moments? When I am able to capture these moments and share back a few specifics from during the class, they often say, “Oh yeahhh!” and they are able to return to that moment.
This also, I believe, empowers the teacher to feel heard and seen. I am there noticing these class moments that might be forgotten, but now they are highlighted and we can discuss them. Sometimes they are funny or brilliant moments, and it is especially wonderful to remind the teacher of the joyfulness in their lesson. Help out
If the phone rings while the teacher is at the front of the room, I will answer it and field the call by retrieving a student or relaying a message. I ask to help hand out papers or collect back papers. I will erase the board if the teacher needs it erased, or turn off the lights during a video or help with the sound or tech issues. I carry extra pens and pencils and give them out freely if anyone needs one; I tell them not to return it to me, but to not lose it so they can use it in the other classes. I will help in any way I can to help the class run more smoothly. I even carry a fresh dry-erase marker in my work bag as part of my “emergency stash,” just in case I need to write key information on a whiteboard or the teacher’s markers are dry. If I can help in these small ways, the teacher can focus on what’s important, and in the end, the students will benefit the most.
Act as a co-teacher
In one of my articles about co-teaching, one of the suggestions I make is to be present in class, and sit with students to take notes, and notice what you notice. I suggest that co-teachers can be an asset if they act as “vulnerable learners” themselves, and take notes alongside students, and witness the class through the lens of a student. When I do this, I notice the needs or possible gaps in the lesson, and try to fill in.
For instance, I was recently in a class where the school was changing buildings and had limited resources. The teacher asked students to copy notes from the board, and eventually answer questions about those notes. I was sitting in the back with a group of 8th grade boys, and we had a difficult time seeing the board. If you’ve been in an 8th grade classroom recently, you know that some students look like adults and others look like elementary school students. The tall kids were scattered throughout the room, so it was difficult to see the slides, let alone copy the notes. I started taking notes as neatly and quickly as I could, so students in the back of the class could begin to take notes from my notebook, instead of the projector that was difficult to see. While copying notes is not a form of teaching that I think engages students the most, this is what this particular teacher was doing with his limited resources. Knowing it would take more than one meeting for him to try other ways of teaching, I suggested that he begin inserting “turn and talk” questions about the notes they were copying down. He agreed and that seemed doable. It’s a small step that would at least give students the opportunity to talk through the material. Work directly with students
If I notice a student stuck in their writing or their problem set, I may go over to them and ask them to tell me about the assignment, and what they’re thinking about. I want to help them dislodge a thought that will get them started. I will sometimes work with a group of students, if the teacher asks me to, and then the teacher and I will debrief our experiences, and discuss what we noticed and why, and what the next steps could be.
Team teach
If have the opportunity to co-plan with a teacher, I will utilize the “team teaching” co-teaching model, where we are both in front of the classroom, delivering a lesson together. This model works well when we are looking at a shared text, and modeling our reading thoughts about the text in front of students. After we share our metacognitive reading strategies, we ask students to notice and name what we did, and I chart those students' comments and noticings on the board or chart paper to hang in the classroom as a class guide. From there, we invite students to have “their turn” and pair them off to try sharing their metacognitive reading thoughts with a partner and a text.
Create a resource
When I’m in a teacher’s classroom, I have the luxury to notice what I notice and consider what resources or small tweaks can have the most impact on student learning. I was recently visiting a class where students were writing an essay and required to use textual evidence. I noticed how students were struggling to introduce and then explain quotes, so as soon as I could, I took a few minutes to make a T-Chart of sentence starters to introduce and explain textual evidence, such as:
Being in the physical classroom allowed me to notice where students needed support in their essay writing, and I was able to create this resource in a timely manner and share it with the teacher. She agreed this was a challenge in her students’ writing, and decided to make this into an anchor chart to hang in her classroom for all her classes to utilize. But again, this resource stemmed from being physically in the classroom and noticing what students were grappling with at a point of frustration.
There are many ways to coach teachers, and many ways to physically be in a classroom. It is a privilege to enter a teacher’s classroom and share space with a teacher and their students — I do not take this role lightly, and hope my presence helps the class run more smoothly, and become more engaging. I'm not there to be an educational anthropologist, where I take notes and present my findings and data analysis. There are small moves I can make that will help the teacher and their students, and I constantly ask myself, what am I doing, and how is it helping? While the answer may be long winded, in the end I am always thinking about how to elevate the students’ learning experiences in the short window that I am part of the class.
Sometimes the tools we need for change are already in front of us — we just need to notice them.
At our first full staff meeting this semester, I sat at a table with three images of a plant in front of me – a shoot, an unfolding leaf, and a flourishing plant. The header asked “What does growth look like?” I tried to be reflective, present. Take the exercise seriously, I thought. Growth is first painful, then a stretching, then a blossoming. I wrote these underneath each picture: done! I did not feel like I was learning anything new with it, only like I was saying the answers the teacher — in this case, the facilitator — wanted to hear.
Across the table, my colleague Jen picked up some markers from the supplies that were provided and started illustrating her page, adding sunlight and water to the margins. Even though the markers were provided, and I see them all the time, it hadn’t occurred to me to use them. “This is a professional setting, not a place for coloring,” my inner disciplinarian yelled. But Jen was doing it, and Jen had been here much longer than I had, so I started coloring too. Pain became PAIN with lightning around it in blue and red. S t r e t c h i n g was green, stretched and loopy. Blossoming, well, blossomed! I noticed how Jen had drawn a flower rising through the header and decided to color each word of the title as well. With markers, “What does growth look like?” split into separate words. “What” got a big blue/purple question mark. “Does” was a sharp comic bubble action. “Growth” was a stretching potted plant. “Look” became a smiling pair of eyes in glasses. “Like” became a thought bubble of feeling. As I colored the words separately, I began to see them differently. “What does growth look like?” became:
It was like I was seeing the question for the first time. The shoot struggling in the dirt was not just small, hidden growth, but now “discomfortable movement towards new practices, messier than we’d like, that seems like we aren’t always moving”. My answers to the activity, previously rote and trite, were now literally colorful and new. The coloring sparked generative new thoughts and conversations — not because the activity changed, but because my perspective did. 
Old lessons, new perspectives
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. There’s a lesson I know works, but after leading the same material multiple times a day for years, it gets old. But the lesson is pedagogically sound, and I don’t want to add another “to-do” to my list. When I was thinking through how to fix this, I thought back to the box of markers on my table, and how that changed things for me — and hopefully for you as well! As teachers, we don’t always have to create something brand new. Changing how I think about and present a lesson rather than what I present is usually an option. But what can this look like for you? Walking through my experience at the table might help.
Noticing
In my example, I had to notice that the box of markers was on the table. There were resources right in front of me that I didn’t see, because I wasn’t looking for them. What does that look like for you? What are your boxes of markers? It could be literal markers and paper. Instead of having students just pull quotes from a text into a Google doc that demonstrate concrete imagery, could you have them write and decorate them on chart paper? Your box could be using a Kahoot, turning an individual assignment into group work, or presenting your lesson with the assistance of memes and videos. Take a look around your room — what is available? What resources does your school let you use in class? What works for your lesson?
Modeling
It is not enough to think differently, especially when we all — both teachers and students — are used to thinking in traditional ways. Someone needs to model new thinking. For me, that was Jen, coloring. Now that you have your resources, come up with a model. What could this new version of the lesson look like? For instance, having students play a game to illustrate grammar rules instead of just lecturing. What visual/audio/tactile aids are needed for students to grasp the work? Maybe in addition to your mini-lesson, you share a Youtube video or an Instagram reel that contains the same information. Is a finished example enough, or do you need to walk through the creation of the work together? What will give your students permission to explore freely?
Imagining
Now for the easy part — let your imagination run wild! Take the box of markers and spill it out over your classroom. As the lesson wraps up you can call your class together and reflect on how this new experience went. In my group, we talked about why Jen and I colored, how that changed our thinking, and how we could use this exercise in the future. We continued this practice with the rest of the meeting’s activities, and it became a part of the way we interacted with each other. Your classroom is full of opportunities to cultivate a culture of new exploration without adding new to-dos to your schedule. Happy coloring!
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Help your classroom grow from a space for learning to a community of mutual support and growth.
This is the third and final installment in our Rethinking the Three Rs series
We all recognize that special feeling in a classroom when students are working productively together, the teacher seems at ease, and there is a tangible sense of trust and engagement.
This is not easy to accomplish. In fact, in a classroom with 25 or more students, we may never achieve complete engagement and a sense of trust with every single learner — but we can strive for it. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about what actually holds a classroom culture together. So much goes into it — hours of thoughtful planning, choosing or adjusting content, offering clear instructions, established routines and rituals, and so much more. However, I think that relationships are the superglue that holds together the ecosystem of a productive classroom environment. Classroom relationships are a complex web of trust — we, as the teacher, have a relationship with the class as a whole, students have relationships with each other individually, in groups, and also, teachers have relationships with individual students. I won’t go so far with the web analogy to say that we as teachers are the spiders building the web, but we kind of are! This beautiful and complex web is not to be underestimated. Laying the foundation for relationships
Establishing key routines and rituals to keep our classrooms organized and managed every day is foundational for strong classroom culture. I learned the hard way that for all students to “buy into” procedures and routines, it takes trust — students need to trust you and you need to trust them.
These include routines that create clear and consistent procedures that communicate classroom expectations to students, whether those are related to starting and ending lessons, entering and exiting class, transitions, bringing students back to attention, managing materials, or more. (For considerations and examples of effective rituals and routines, take a look at the first article in this series: Revisiting Classroom Routines.) Relationships with the class
From the minute students walk through the door into your classroom, you are establishing your persona. Your confidence and positivity will set the tone for the classroom and its climate. Simply staying calm and using consistent approaches to bring the class to attention reinforces your approach and helps students trust you and respect your expectations of them. The clearer you can be about what you expect, the more you can help students learn to trust you.
Don’t be afraid to strategically share yourself with students. As the adult in the classroom, you may want to only share parts of your life, but if you can share your interests, passions, and aspects of your personality, students will relate to you more as a full human being. Expert teachers C. Peterson-Snyder and A. Anderson at the Brooklyn Environmental Exploration School affirm that brief daily check-ins at the door have had a positive impact on their classroom culture. Greeting students at the door always sends a clear message that you are in control of the space and that you also care about each individual student. A personalized greeting, a word of support, or a follow up question can go a long way. Connecting with students as they leave the classroom is also a great way to maintain ongoing connections and accountability with each student. The imprint of a brief affirmation, reminder, or fist bump as a student leaves your classroom may set the tone for how they walk back into it. Consistent, caring interactions can foster trust, and over time, relationships that build an engaged classroom community. Acknowledging students as individuals
Finding ways to recognize each student as an individual and valuable classroom member is a key element of relationship building.
A range of research shows that acknowledgement and recognition has an impact on helping students feel confident and positive about themselves, which can lead to more participation and engagement. Don’t we all thrive on being acknowledged and recognized? Connecting with students goes beyond acknowledging each students’ presence and state of mind on a daily basis; it may include offering students ways to express their feelings about the course and topic at hand. This can be offered through exit tickets, journal entries, or short letters to you. Asking students to “pick an emoji” on the SMARTboard as an SEL activity is a starting point; however, I caution us about “checking off” the SEL box, rather than asking students to identify how they are feeling as a meaningful exercise. If you ask for students’ feelings or feedback, be prepared to acknowledge or address it — being responsive is a key part of caring. Using humility and humor
I always notice that when we as teachers can make fun of ourselves, it humanizes us and creates space for students to make themselves more vulnerable. A silly example from my own teaching is that I am terrible at drawing, yet, I never hesitated to grab the marker or chalk to offer students a visual (since I believe that images are key to support learning.)
Whenever I would try to draw, we would all laugh at my attempts, and invariably, students would jump up to help me draw, or I would ask for artistic support ahead of time. I learned that I could be honest and vulnerable with my students once I had established some classroom procedures and norms. Student-to-student relationships
Besides greeting our students and checking in with them individually, there are many wonderful activities that can be used to offer students opportunities to get to know each other while simultaneously letting you get to know them.
Learning each other’s names is a natural starting point, but positive partner and group interactions during activities such as Turn and Talk, 4 Corners, 4 As , Socratic Seminar, and group discussions can help build a sense of community as students practice active listening, articulate their ideas, and develop empathy by engaging with their peers' viewpoints. When structured thoughtfully, these interactions create an inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and heard, ultimately enhancing both social and academic growth.
In the end, relationships truly are the foundation of our classroom culture. Students, like all people, thrive when they feel acknowledged, connected, and cared for — in short, when they are in meaningful relationships. From my experience as a teacher and coach, I am convinced that intentional strategies and mindsets can foster these connections, transforming relationships into the cornerstone of a positive, engaging, and productive classroom environment. Building these connections isn’t just about compliance — it’s about creating a space where genuine engagement flourishes.
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Integrate student-centered approaches to reduce your workload while maximizing student learning and collaboration.
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a seasoned math teacher, Ms. M., whose passion for teaching was unmistakable. Her enthusiasm for math came alive as she demonstrated solving multi-step equations, making real-world connections to when these skills might be used. Using colorful markers, she modeled the problem-solving process, guiding her students through each step. Her students eagerly followed along, jotting notes in their notebooks and raising their hands to answer questions like, “What do I do next?”
The energy and structure in Ms. M.'s classroom were inspiring. However, as Ms. M continued to model problem after problem, some questions began to surface in my mind.
These reflections prompted me to consider the balance between teacher-led instruction and opportunities for student-driven learning. The limitations of whole-class instruction
Whole-class instruction has undeniable benefits. It provides structure, allows teachers to maintain control over the pace of the lesson, and can help manage behaviors. However, relying solely on this approach may unintentionally limit students' growth and a teacher’s ability to assess their understanding.
When students spend most of the class copying notes or watching the teacher work through problems, they’re engaged in passive learning. While this compliance might look like understanding, it’s worth asking: Are they truly grappling with the material? I’ve experienced this tension firsthand. As a teacher, it’s tempting to stick with whole-class instruction because it feels efficient. But over time, I realized that by holding the reins too tightly, I was doing most of the work. My students weren’t building the cognitive muscles needed to tackle challenges independently. A shift in approach: embracing "I Do, We Do, You Do"
One powerful framework that helped me balance instruction and engagement was the I Do, We Do, You Do model. Initially, I used this approach in reading and writing workshops, but I soon found it effective across all disciplines, including math. This method provides a clear structure:
This approach not only ensures students have time to practice but also allows the teacher to observe, assess, and adjust instruction in real-time. Now, let’s explore how Ms. M. could integrate this framework into her teaching, building on the context of the visit I previously described:
The benefits of mathematical discourse and letting go
Why advocate for this approach? Research, such as Jo Boaler’s work in Mathematical Mindsets, highlights the importance of mathematical discourse in fostering deeper understanding, reducing math anxiety, and promoting a growth mindset. When students take ownership of their learning through collaboration and problem-solving, they not only engage more deeply but also retain concepts more effectively.
By shifting some of the cognitive load to students, teachers can focus on circulating the room, checking for understanding, and offering targeted support. This dynamic, student-centered approach helps meet learners where they are and ensures that all voices are heard. For seasoned educators like Ms. M., letting go of traditional methods can feel daunting. But the benefits of integrating strategies like I Do, We Do, You Do are transformative. This framework not only empowers students to take charge of their learning but also lightens the teacher's workload, allowing for more meaningful interactions and assessment. I encourage all teachers — whether in math or other disciplines — to experiment with this model. By clearly defining what you’ll do as the teacher, what students will do collaboratively, and what they’ll tackle independently, you create a structured yet flexible environment where true learning thrives. RECENT READS FROM CPETLoading...
Ground your leadership in clarity and purpose with a step-by-step approach to prioritizing what matters most and aligning daily actions with long-term goals.
School leaders: we know you truly have the best job. You get to guide and lead your team to greatness, through new and exciting initiatives, witnessing staff and student growth every day.
Yet, school leaders: we know you truly have the hardest job. We know you encounter a host of competing priorities every day, the heavy weight of responsibility on your shoulders and a long list of indicators to master no matter which evaluation tool supports your practice. I have had the great privilege of journeying with a wide variety of school leaders and one of the most important factors in folks’ success is ensuring their highest priorities stay strong and central amidst a sea of everyone’s needs and next steps. This is where a Page One comes in. What is it?
Your Page One is an accounting of what matters to you most. When you lead from what matters most, you can stand in your greatness. If you return to your Page One frequently (weekly, ideally; quarterly at minimum) and connect your actions to your ideals, you are more likely to achieve your highest goals (and to remember them when overwhelmed by the mountain ahead).
So, to reconnect with what matters most to you as a leader, to recommit to your most deeply held strengths, values, vision, priorities, goals and commitments to excellence, and to reiterate your commitments via a written artifact you can return to revisit your highest order priorities, make yourself a Page One. How do you make one?
First, reflect: what do you want most to achieve this year as a leader? Where have you already succeeded/how far have you come? What next right moves will you make toward greatness?
Next, let’s make one! Click here for a simple, one page template. It is divided into quadrants. In each one, write down the following:
When you have completed the Page One template, commit to when and where you’ll revisit it. Open up your calendar and make yourself an invite that says “Revisit Page One” as frequently as once a week, or once a quarter at minimum.
Remember: your Page One is an accounting of what matters to you most. It’s a singular place where you can quickly recount everything you need to be completely successful. It can instantaneously reground you in what matters most so you can accomplish anything (and everything) and be the leader you want to be!
Ensure your highest level priorities stay strong whatever comes your way this year. Make and commit to your best leader self by creating and revisiting a Page One. RECENT READS FROM CPETLoading... |
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The Center for Professional Education of Teachers (CPET) at Teachers College, Columbia University is committed to making excellent and equitable education accessible worldwide. CPET unites theory and practice to promote transformational change. We design innovative projects, cultivate sustainable partnerships, and conduct research through direct and online services to youth and educators. Grounded in adult learning theories, our six core principles structure our customized approach and expand the capacities of educators around the world.
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