AERO Standards-Based Learning Guidance for 2021-2022 in the Content Areas

Assessment Practices for Accelerating Learning (K-12)

Presented by ERMA ANDERSON

September 9 / 16 / 23, 2021 (Thursdays) | 3:00-4:00pm (GMT+3)

Formative assessment is critical for showing us what students have and have not learned. However, formative data does not always provide clear, actionable steps for determining where students are in their learning and how best to move learning forward.

One way to use formative data more effectively is in conjunction with a quality learning progression, a blueprint for how learning typically develops over time.

In these three sessions, we will examine how the use of learning progressions can maximize the instructional value of formative assessment data.

Session 1 will examine how progressions connect daily learning targets with long-term expectations.

Sessions 2 and 3 will demonstrate how progressions can help better monitor student progress and scaffold learning.

Target Audience

Teaching the Language Standards with Joy and Engagement (Gr. 3-12)

Presented by KATRINA THEILMANN & STEVI QUATE

September 14 & 21, 2021 (Tuesdays) | 3:00-4:00pm (GMT+3)

Because of memories of red-inked papers, dreary worksheets that focused on correctness, and the drudgery of diagramming sentences, too often teachers dread lessons that focus on the language standards. But there are other ways to think about ensuring students meet these important standards: research-based strategies to teach students the joy that comes from using language powerfully, artfully, and thoughtfully. That’s what this webinar series is all about.

In the FIRST SESSION of our highly interactive webinars, we begin by examining the Critical Elements of the AERO language standards, the performance indicators, and the progressions. We will reflect on the research so that we have a framework to guide our instruction.

In our SECOND SESSION, we will move into options for teaching those standards. We will explore the role of explicit instruction as well as instruction embedded in student work. We will dig into shared reading and writing as well as read alouds as important instructional strategies. Building from those strategies, we will emphasize the role of inquiry in language study and the power of mentor texts.

The bottom line for our webinars is that meeting these language standards is an invaluable way for students to use language powerfully, and that the ways we teach those lessons can be and should be joyful and highly engaging.

Level

Learning Targets

Session 1

• Welcome and introductions;
• Overview of the AERO language standards Critical Elements 3-12 and performance indicators;
• The importance of knowing the progressions;
• The research regarding impactful approaches to teaching the language standards;
• Implications for instruction and assessment.

Session 2

• The shift from compliance to engagement;
• The role of inquiry in addressing the language standards;
• Exploring instructional practices: shared reading and writing, mentor texts and apprenticeships, sentence lifting, modeling, structured word inquiry, and more.

AERO Science Critical Areas Webinars

Presented by CHRIS CHARNITSKI

October 5 & 12, 2021 (Tuesdays) | 3:00-4:00pm (GMT+3)

SESSION 1, Oct. 5 — AERO Science Critical Areas: Grades K-5
Project AERO has put forward guidance for Grades K-5 educators to help them navigate these particularly challenging times. During this session, we will address the following ideas around elementary science education:

• Review the structure of the standards and key conceptual shifts presented in A Framework for K-12 Science Education;
• Tour the AERO Science Critical Areas and understand how they aim to support K-5 educators in developing meaningful learning experiences and 3D assessment for their students (this year and into the future);
• Consider some ways K-5 educators might bring the vision of the Framework and the AERO Science Standards to a virtual learning environment.

SESSION 2, Oct 12 — AERO Science Critical Areas: Middle School
Project AERO has put forward guidance for Middle School science educators to help them navigate these particularly challenging times in science education. During this session, we will address the following ideas around MS Science Education:

• Review the structure of the standards and key conceptual shifts presented in A Framework for K-12 Science Education;
• Tour the AERO Science Critical Areas and understand how they aim to support MS educators in developing meaningful learning experiences and 3D assessment for their students (this year and into the future);
• Consider some ways MS educators might bring the vision of the Framework and the AERO Science Standards to a virtual learning environment.

AERO Standards, Practices and Resources in Social Studies

Presented by ANITA REILLY & LABRINI STAMATIS

October 7 & 14, 2021 (Thursdays) | 4:00-5:00pm* (GMT+3)

*NOTE: The Social Studies sessions start one hour later than the other sessions -- 4:00pm GMT+3 (rather than 3:00pm).

SESSION 1, Oct 7 — AERO Snapshot: Understand the AERO Standards and Practices
This session is designed to engage teachers and curriculum leaders with AERO’s Social Studies curriculum. Participants will explore the content area standards and the importance of the relationship between content area standards and subject-based thinking practices. In addition, for schools new to teaching/assessing Social Studies practices, we will review best practices in the use of disciplinary literacy.

SESSION 2, Oct 14 — Resources in the Social Science Classroom
Gone are the days of the history textbook and history teacher filling the role of a subject expert. Social studies teachers now guide students through a bewildering and unprecedented wealth of resources. This webinar will focus on the use of primary and secondary sources in your classroom, skill-building for using and understanding the internet, and the critical importance of citations within our work even at the youngest levels. Finally, special emphasis will be placed on the role of discomfort that is part of critical social science research.

AERO World Languages Webinars

Presented by CHRISTINE BROWN & KATHY MORABET

October 19 & November 2, 2021 (Tuesdays) | 3:00-4:00pm (GMT+3)

SESSION 1: Oct. 19
The first webinar will provide teachers and administrators in international schools an update on the revised AERO/ACTFL WL Standards and Benchmarks, as well as the work of an AERO WL curriculum writing team that has developed model K-12 instructional units that can be used in any language.

Teachers will be introduced to available assessments that can be used to test student language proficiency over time and inform standards-based instruction. Recommendations for course coverage and multileveled class approaches for the 2021-2022 school year will be provided.

Dr Brown and Ms Morabet will be joined by members of the AERO World Languages Tier 2 Team.

SESSION 2: Nov. 2
The second webinar will showcase several units of study across levels of proficiency and grade levels. Teachers who have created and taught the units will demonstrate teaching techniques and strategies they have used this year in online, hybrid and in-person lessons. They will share new technology advances that can be used in an online environment.

Student work will be shared with participants. There will be a special focus on SEL within the new WL units. Recommendations for course coverage and multileveled class approaches for the 2021-2022 school year will be provided.

Dr Brown and Ms Morabet will be joined by members of the AERO World Languages Tier 2 Team.