CSI (Connecting Standards to Instruction)

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Audience: Special Education Leaders and Teachers

It is more important than ever for special education teachers and instructional leaders to connect their understanding of the rigorous learning standards with effective, specially designed instruction in order to prepare students with disabilities for success in the next grade level and ultimately, life after high school.

Topics covered:

• Understanding the Learning Standards (TEKS) – design and construct of the TEKS, categorization of the TEKS (Process Standards, Readiness Standards, Supporting Standards) and their role in instructional planning
• Using data, knowledge of the structure and design of the TEKS, and identification of the long strand standards to inform the decision-making process
• Developing an effective, informed, simple PLAAFP statement that focuses on involvement and progress in the general education curriculum
• Adapting Instruction to Support Student Learning – prerequisite skills, accommodations and instructional adaptations, and connecting standards to instruction

IEP to Action

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Prerequisite: CSI: Connecting Standards to Instruction – Audience: Special Education Teachers and Leaders

Participants will apply the knowledge learned in CSI: Connecting Standards to Informed Decision-Making to the IEP planning process. This hands-on training takes a deeper look into the process, readiness, and supporting standards and the role they play in our curriculum. We will focus our attention on the long strand standards — content standards that build across grade levels and have relevance in future learning and in life — that will provide your students with special needs multiple access points to the rigor of the curriculum.

Participants will:

• Practice and learn how to write meaningful PLAAFPS based on effective instructional strategies and student’s involvement and progress in the general education curriculum
• Use an informed decision-making process to select high-impact standards for IEP goals and objectives
• Select, practice, and write measureable, high-impact standards-based goals
• Select instructional strategies to support IEP goals and help students access the rigor of the standards
• Practice, develop, and select progress-monitoring models to support IEP goals and inform PLAAFP statements
• Build a plan for your Special Education PLC to learn the strategies for intervention and enrichment

Reaching Rigor: Creating Success for Special Education Students

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Prerequisite: CSI: Connecting Standards to Instruction – Audience: Special Education Teachers, General Education Teachers, or Both (K-HS)

Strategy instruction is the only instructional method that has been shown through research to enable and prepare students with disabilities and other “at-risk” students to meet the complex learning demands of secondary and post-secondary schools.

In this workshop, participants will

• Explore various strategies to support struggling students in the areas of reading, math, science, and social studies
• Practice methods for teaching strategies to students, help students evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy, and help students generalize and transfer the use of the strategy
• Develop an implementation plan for embedding strategy instruction throughout the school year to prepare students for accessing rigor and achieving self-determination

Special Educator as Process Champion (K-HS) – Offered starting June 2019

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Target Audience: Special Education teachers, leaders, and/or instructional teams

Special educators are often in a unique role of supporting students in multiple grade levels and content areas, but many feel as though it is impossible to develop expertise in all the student expectations. What if special educators committed to becoming champions of the process standards? The process standards are consistent across grade levels, highly correlate with overall performance on assessments, and help teachers differentiate for learners. They also serve as high-impact standards to assist teachers with effective progress monitoring and selection of standards for aligning IEP goals and objectives.

What you will learn:

• The importance of the process standards in the learning process
• Instructional strategies to support implementation of process standards across content areas
• Tools for assessing student mastery of the process standards to inform the IEP
• A plan for focusing the role of the special educator in the PLC

Achieving Fluency: Supporting Struggling Secondary Readers (6-HS) – Offered starting June 2019

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Target Audience: Secondary Special Education teachers, special education leaders, and/or instructional teams

Many students with disabilities still do not read fluently after elementary school. When students are fluent, comprehension improves. How do we build reading fluency while still helping our students meet the complex demands of secondary content instruction? This workshop teaches a framework for understanding fluency and word study in the context of secondary content. Participants will learn practical strategies to give students with disabilities access to text that connects to grade level standards and can be implemented in a variety of service delivery models to best meet the needs of individual students.

What you will learn:

• Assessment strategies
• Introduction to a reading process framework
• Low-prep ways to teach, practice, and transfer
• Strategies that integrate intervention with content instruction
• Integration of lead4ward resources

Special Education Academy

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Target Audience: Special Education teachers and leaders -or- collaborative teams of special education, general education, and leadership.

Are you looking for innovative ways to provide specially designed instruction for students being served by special education programs? The goal of the lead4ward Special Education Academy is to provide a learning and support system for educators with face-to-face professional development and virtual support throughout two consecutive school years. Participants will synthesize, adapt, and transfer current and new learning to provide effective instruction, intervention, practice, and assessment. Following a learn, practice and reflect model, academy members will leave with the confidence and competence to set in motion relevant change to promote students as lifelong learners.

Special Education ePLC

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The Special Education ePLC is designed to facilitate discussion among Special Education teachers who teach students with high incidence learning disabilities in inclusive settings across the state. Teachers will use the content from the online pre-recorded webinars to facilitate constructive conversations about how to make the content in the TEKS accessible for students with disabilities and provide methods for students to develop effective strategies to access that content. Each webinar will help teachers:

• Explore the specificity of key process standards
• Purposefully use the processes
• Learn how to effectively teach new strategies to your students
• Plan instruction
• Explore strategies for K-HS students who are struggling to access the content and rigor of the TEKS

Reading – Rockin’ Review: Volume 2 – Recommended Spring

Note: For Tested Grades
Updated Content Request PD

Let’s rock review for STAAR! A new twist on a classic, Rockin’ Review: Volume 2 for Reading will focus on how to motivate your students to engage with content that they may have struggled with earlier in the year. We will anchor on the content that is essential for kids to learn and address the highly tested concepts.

Using Reading examples, we will model NEW strategies, plan with the updated 1-2-3 plan, review the updated quick start guides, and deepen understanding of lead4ward resources that specifically facilitate effective review.

Teachers will learn how to: 

• focus review on priority TEKS clusters
• leverage content strategies to engage learners
• explore hands-on/minds-on activities that provide meaningful practice
• activate student voice to create engaging review
• empower students to analyze and take ownership of common errors
• plan your next steps

Let’s rock this!

Writing – Rockin’ Review – Recommended Spring

Note: For Tested Grades
Updated Content Request PD

Let’s rock review for STAAR! A brand- new Writing Rockin’ Review will focus on how to motivate your students to engage with aspects of the writing process they may have struggled with earlier in the year. We will anchor on the features of writing that are essential for kids to learn and address the highly tested concepts.

Using Writing examples, we will model NEW strategies, plan with the updated 1-2-3 plan, review the updated quick start guides, and deepen understanding of lead4ward resources that specifically facilitate effective review.

Teachers will learn how to: 

• focus review on priority TEKS clusters
• leverage strategies to engage learners
• explore hands-on/minds-on activities that provide meaningful practice
• activate student voice to create engaging review
• empower students to analyze and take ownership of common errors
• plan your next steps

Let’s rock this!

Comprehension Strategies in Action (K-5) or (6-HS)

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TEKS Clusters: Process, Figure 19

The ability to apply the cognitively demanding comprehension strategies is critical for understanding what is read. This session focuses on providing a framework for implementing learning and leveraging comprehension strategies that support the understanding of what is read and provide a foundation for analyzing what authors do.

This workshop includes:

• Turning theory into action
• Building an interactive reading notebook
• Integrating multiple texts and genres
• Finding low-prep ways to teach, practice, and transfer

Comprehension is Everything: Reading (K-5) or (6-HS) – Offered starting June 2019

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Comprehension is everything! The ability to apply comprehension strategies can be cognitively demanding and is critical for understanding what is read, heard, and viewed. It is important to understand the comprehension process to plan and execute effective teaching, learning, and application.

This session focuses on providing a framework for implementing and leveraging comprehension strategies to:

• Support the understanding of what is read
• Provide a foundation for analyzing what authors do and how they do it

Join the lead4ward team as we learn the “how” of teaching comprehension and leveraging an interactive notebook.

Reading & Writing Academy (6-EOC) – A Year-Long Service

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Are you looking for innovative ways to provide Reading and Writing instruction? The goal of the lead4ward Reading and Writing Academy is to provide a learning and support system for educators with face-to-face professional development and virtual support throughout two consecutive school years. Participants will synthesize, adapt, and transfer current and new learning to provide effective reading/writing instruction, practice, and assessment. Following a learn, practice and reflect model, academy members will leave with the confidence and competence to set in motion relevant change to promote students as lifelong readers, writers, and learners.

This academy emphasizes:

• Big idea/shift
• Making it work — pacing and timing
• Reading and writing process
• Effective independent reading practice
• Genre study
• Instructional variety
• Student Learning Reports

Souped-Up SUPER 8: Eight Foundational Practices for Teaching the Writer (3-5) and (6-EOC) – Offered starting June 2019

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Writing is for everyone and everyone can write, but writing is messy! How do we provide students a strong foundation and streamline the process of teaching writing? This session organizes eight power-packed instructional practices that provide a framework for effective writing instruction and student learning. We’ll focus on the writing process as the foundation for all aspects of writing: thinking, organizing, and creating. Teachers will experience writing through the lens of the student and will leave with tools that can easily be implemented the next class day and leveraged all year.

Wave Goodbye, Say Hello: New ELAR TEKS (K-5) or (6-EOC)

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TEKS Cluster: 2017 TEKS

Is it that time already? Join lead4ward as we sort through the new and old TEKS as a way to determine curriculum and instructional “keepers” and shifts.

This workshop includes:

• Comparing and understanding content and cognitive changes
• Learning the new lead4ward resources, including new Know to Show documents
• Exploring possible unit clusters
• Identifying routines, activities, and resources to continue
• Identifying new routines, activities, and resource needs

Connect, Integrate, and Mix It Up: Reading and Writing (3-5) or (6-EOC) – Offered starting June 2019

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The NEW Reading Language Arts TEKS offer an opportunity for a more connected and integrated approach to literacy. During this session, we will explore the prospect of approaching reading and writing as one literary process by providing participants a hands-on example. Direct learning, practice, and application ideas will be offered to connect multiple genres through the integration of reading and writing. Join the lead4ward team as we move students from passive participants to active learners!

Math – Rockin’ Review: Volume 2 – Recommended Spring

Note: For Tested Grades
Updated Content Request PD

Let’s rock review for STAAR! A new twist on a classic, Rockin’ Review: Volume 2 for Math will focus on how to motivate your students to engage with content that they may have struggled with earlier in the year. We will anchor on the content that is essential for kids to learn and address the highly tested concepts.

Using Math examples, we will model NEW strategies, plan with the updated 1-2-3 plan, review the updated quick start guides, and deepen understanding of lead4ward resources that specifically facilitate effective review.

Teachers will learn how to: 

• focus review on priority TEKS clusters
• leverage content strategies to engage learners
• explore hands-on/minds-on activities that provide meaningful practice
• activate student voice to create engaging review
• empower students to analyze and take ownership of common errors
• plan your next steps

Let’s rock this!

Math Intervention for ALL (3-EOC) – Offered starting June 2019

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We know that the growth of all learners is critical (and state accountability now advocates for it too)! Targeted math intervention for ALL learners can be the game changer. Let’s capitalize on the use of data to drive the “who/what/when” of math intervention and experience some lead4ward resources that can support the “how” of it all! This session will model structures that will enable all students to get a piece of the intervention PIE!

In this workshop we will address:

• Prevention: Effective use of lead4ward’s TEKS Scaffold, released STAAR items, and lead4ward’s teacher guides to proactively approach math intervention prior to instruction
• Intervention: Effective use of lead4ward’s new Tier 1 intervention tool as the vehicle to establish math intervention groups and identify specific math content needed to grow ALL learners
• Extension: Effective use of lead4ward strategies to intervene with mathematical content and processes standards to move ALL students to their next level of potential

Note: Problem Solving in the Math Classroom is suggested prerequisite.

Problem Solving in the Math Classroom (K-HS)

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Workshop available beginning June 2019
Do you want to develop self-sufficient, independent thinkers? Are your students struggling with how to start a math problem or effectively communicate their understanding of the content? This session will focus on the effective planning of the process standards to support students with “Tools to Know” to initiate the problem-solving process and “Ways to Show” their understanding of the content.

This workshop includes:

• Rubric for evaluating students’ use of the process standards
• Identification of the different types of mathematical thinkers and how to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of ALL students
• Instructional strategies for supporting students with how to start the problem-solving process and/or communicate their understanding of mathematics

Number Sense (1-4) – Recommended Summer/Early Fall

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TEKS Clusters:
Representing and Comparing Whole Numbers (Gr. 1-3)
Representing and Comparing Whole Numbers/Decimals (Gr. 4)

As place value is the foundation of all that grows in Mathematics, it is essential that our students have a rock-solid understanding of how to represent and compare whole numbers. This session focuses on the place value progression throughout the grades–how the conceptual understanding of place value extends to a better understanding of comparison of values as well as how to support a student’s ability to develop their own algorithms and effectively employ the use of properties of operations when adding and subtracting.

This workshop includes:

• Student-level activities that build conceptual and procedural fluency within the base-10 system
• Spiraling activities to continue reinforcing place value understanding throughout the year
• Strategies that use efficient, accurate, and generalizable methods to add and subtract two-digit whole numbers

Algebra for the Young Minds: It’s Elementary (3-5) – Recommended Fall

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TEKS Clusters: Addition/Subtraction of Whole Numbers (Gr. 3)
Multiplication/Division of Whole Numbers (Gr. 3)
Whole Number Operations (Gr. 4-5)

Being able to select the appropriate operation(s) and represent real-world situations with an appropriate number sentence/equation are foundational for young learners in securing their understanding of whole number operations. This session focuses on how to move students from concrete to abstract representations of math problems to build that algebraic mindset.
This workshop includes:

• Using strip diagrams effectively as a means of representing math problems
• Creating activities that allow students to connect the use of strip diagrams to the selection of appropriate mathematical operation and identification of the number of steps in a problem
• Adjusting existing instructional materials to reach more transfer and rigor

Studying the Parts that Make Up the Whole of Fractions (2-5) – Recommended Fall

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Workshop available beginning June 2019

TEKS Clusters:
Fractions (Gr. 2-4)
All Operations with Fractions (Gr. 5)

Is the sum of all your parts not equaling the whole when it comes to the Fractions strand of Mathematics? Fractions can be very complex for young learners until they understand the value of a “whole” and experience the “parts of the whole” through a variety of concrete representations. Spend a day experiencing the verticality of Fractions in the elementary curriculum.

This workshop includes:

• Engaging in activities that vertically align to the developmental acquisition of fractional understanding
• Connecting the concrete, pictorial, and abstract thinking of fractions
• Unveiling what released STAAR items demonstrate about the expectations of fractional understanding

The Long and Short of Measurement (3-5) – Recommended Spring

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TEKS Clusters:
Measurement (Gr. 3-4)
Geometry and Measurement (Gr. 5)

Measurement can be complex for young learners without having those hands-on experiences and relation to real life. Come lengthen your knowledge of the measurement standards, build capacity within your instructional practices, and weigh in on some new ideas.

This workshop includes:

• Keeping, tweaking, or trashing measurement lessons based on the study of the standards
• Unlocking the hidden messages found with the realigned/newly released STAAR items
• Recrafting some of our instructional practices to support a more conceptual understanding of measurement

Science – Rockin’ Review: Volume 2 – Recommended Spring

Note: For Tested Grades
Updated Content Request PD

Let’s rock review for STAAR! A new twist on a classic, Rockin’ Review: Volume 2 for Science will focus on how to motivate your students to engage with content that they may have struggled with earlier in the year. We will anchor on the content that is essential for kids to learn and address the highly tested concepts.

Using Science examples, we will model NEW strategies, plan with the updated 1-2-3 plan, review the updated quick start guides, and deepen understanding of lead4ward resources that specifically facilitate effective review.

Teachers will learn how to: 

• focus review on priority TEKS clusters
• leverage content strategies to engage learners
• explore hands-on/minds-on activities that provide meaningful practice
• activate student voice to create engaging review
• empower students to analyze and take ownership of common errors
• plan your next steps

Let’s rock this!

The Power of Process in Science (K-5) or (6-EOC)

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Process = Engagement + Thinking – That’s the Power of Process!
Process standards are all about “how” we learn! Explore how to go beyond basic-level thinking and help foster life-long learners and problem solvers through teaching the process standards.

Participants will:

• Discover how to easily plan and incorporate the process standards in daily instruction
• Learn ways to help foster scientific questioning and communication
• Learn how process standards help student learning in all content areas
• Understand how process standards will be assessed on the STAAR Assessments and how to best prepare students for the rigor of dual-coded questions

Physical Science Matters: Matter and Energy (6-8) – Recommended Summer/Early Fall

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Workshop available beginning June 2019

TEKS Clusters:
Elements and Compounds (Gr. 6)
Physical Characteristics of Matter (Gr. 6)
Interactions of Matter and Energy (Gr. 7)
Properties of Atoms, Chemical Formulas and Reactions (Gr. 8)

Exploring matter and energy is usually the first big unit of instruction for the school year. These concepts are sometimes difficult for students, and yet they are essential to an overall understanding of physical science. This workshop digs deep into the content that helps support conceptual understandings and how it plays a crucial role in middle school grades.

This workshop includes:

• Investigating what concepts are hard for students to understand at each grade level and ways to support learning
• Identifying specific grade-level lab investigations that address the difficult concepts of physical science
• Integrating Instructional Strategies that help support the transfer of learning from the taught to the tested
• Providing an in-depth look at how these concepts are tested on STAAR and how to address them in instruction

Physical Science: Force, Motion, and Energy (6-8) – Recommended Summer/Fall

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Workshop available beginning June 2019

TEKS Clusters:
Force, Motion, Potential, and Kinetic Energy (Gr. 6)
Law of Conservation of Energy (Gr. 6)
Force, Motion, and Energy Relationships (Gr.7)
Force, Motion, and Energy (Gr. 8)

From investigating potential and kinetic energy to learning about Newton’s Laws–middle school is jam-packed with force, motion, and energy! It is important that students build on the basic understandings of force, motion, and energy to gain the competencies necessary for physics.

This workshop includes:

• Learning ways to engage and build strong content understanding
• Exploring the important role each grade level plays in the development of the TEKS Cluster
• Identifying specific grade-level lab investigations that enhance learning
• Focusing on how STAAR items can inform our instruction and support learning

Earth Science: Exploring Space and Weather (6-8) – Recommended Late Fall/January

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Workshop available beginning June 2019

TEKS Clusters:
Organization of Solar System (Gr. 6)
Sun, Earth, and Moon (Gr. 8)
Characteristics of the Universe (Gr. 8)
Climatic Interactions (Gr. 8)

It is important for students to build on their understanding of space through understanding the organization of our solar system and how our atmosphere impacts the oceans and weather of our planet. This workshop is geared for 6th and 8th grades, which focus on space and weather.

This workshop includes:

• Exploring ways to connect the important content to everyday investigations and strategies to support conceptual understanding
• Focusing on how STAAR interesting items inform instruction
• Identifying grade-specific, hands-on lab investigations and activities that can enhance learning

Social Studies – Rockin’ Review: Volume 2 – Recommended Spring

Note: For Tested Grades (Grade 8 and USH)
Updated Content Request PD
Let’s rock review for STAAR! A new twist on a classic, Rockin’ Review: Volume 2 for Social Studies will focus on how to motivate your students to engage with content that they may have struggled with earlier in the year. We will anchor on the content that is essential for kids to learn and address the highly tested concepts.

Using Social Studies examples, we will model NEW strategies, plan with the updated 1-2-3 plan, review the updated quick start guides, and deepen understanding of lead4ward resources that specifically facilitate effective review.

Teachers will learn how to: 

• focus review on priority TEKS clusters
• leverage content strategies to engage learners
• explore hands-on/minds-on activities that provide meaningful practice
• activate student voice to create engaging review
• empower students to analyze and take ownership of common errors
• plan your next steps

Let’s rock this!

Power of Process in the Social Studies Classroom (4-EOC)

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starting June 2019

Do you want to develop self-sufficient, independent thinkers? Are your students struggling with how to apply their understanding of the content to a variety of stimuli? This session will focus on the effective planning of the process standards to support students with “Tools to Know” to initiate the critical-thinking process and “Ways to Show” their understanding of the content.

This workshop includes:

• Engaging activities that reveal ways to analyze and interpret social studies information (primary sources, secondary sources, and visuals)
• Ways to foster social studies reasoning skills and how to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of ALL students
• Instructional strategies for supporting students with how to start the critical-thinking process and/or communicate their understanding of social studies content
• Comprehension strategies that will enable the successful acquisition of new content knowledge
• An understanding of how process standards are assessed on STAAR and how to best prepare students for the rigor of dual-coded questions in tested and non tested courses

Social Studies Playlist: Strategies and Routines (4-EOC)

New Content Request PD

TEKS Clusters:
All clusters.

Move beyond the lecture and liven up your Social Studies classroom. Engaging students in the learning process is mandatory for content retention. How can you do that when there is so little time and so much content? Discover historical analysis routines and practices for students to embed and internalize for transfer to independent analysis of primary and secondary sources. Experience effective strategies from the lead4ward playlist that include rigorous thinking and rich content! Effective social studies routines and engaged strategies will enrich all social studies classrooms.

This workshop includes:

• Discovering historical analysis routines and practices you can use that will help students embed and internalize their learning and transfer it to independent analysis of primary and secondary sources
• Experiencing effective strategies from the lead4ward playlist that include rigorous thinking and rich content

Full Streamlining Ahead with the Social Studies TEKS (K-5) or (6-EOC) – Offered starting June 2019

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The streamlined 6-12th Grade Social Studies TEKS will be implemented in the 2019-20 school year with K-5 following in 2020-21. What changes have been made, and how will they impact instruction and student learning? In this workshop, participants will:

• Study the streamlined standards to determine instructional impacts
• Use new lead4ward resources to help plan instruction around the standards
• Examine the alignment of the Spiral Standards and discover how they help to bridge concepts between grade levels and courses
• Connect content with process standards to promote a more rigorous approach to instruction
• Explore activities that allow students to access and transfer content knowledge

Social Studies ePLC – A Series of Prerecorded Webinars for PLCs

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The 8th Grade Social Studies ePLC (online Professional Learning Community) helps teachers build their understanding of big-picture concepts and content nuances through webinars and other resources that address each major topic.

The 2019-20 ePLC:

• Aligns with the streamlined TEKS and trends from STAAR
• Embeds process-based instructional best practices and strategies from the Social Studies Playlist (NEW)
• Subdivides major topics into units of study to allow more flexibility during PLC meetings (NEW)
• Addresses the “how” and “when” for intervention (NEW)

Teachers often struggle to translate the volume of TEKS standards and Social Studies content into manageable chunks of instruction. Front-loading teacher planning time with lead4ward’s ePLC allows them to spend constructive time within their PLC designing engaging experiences and planning targeted lessons that promote content retention, comprehension, and historical thinking skills.

How and when should we intervene to ensure students are successful? And what methods could we use for students at different thresholds? New this year, each topic also includes a webinar that discusses what intervention could look like for students who are struggling to access the stimuli and/or need support with inferential thinking.

NOTE: There is no ePLC for high school US History this year.