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    May, 2023 Collaborative, Engaging Professional Learning Available! Sign Up Now!

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    April Resource of the Month: Quick, Research-Based Strategies and Resources to Engage, Empower and Excite!

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    When we think of "real world," we often think of careers or work; however, part of real-world learning also relates to the fact that we all bring unique abilities and experiences that impact our learning. As educators, we must be focused on supporting students to know themselves as learners and create learning opportunities that span a wide spectrum of diversity among them. Digital Promise has created a navigation tool through their Learner Variability Project (LVP) work to support teachers in finding resources and strategies that engage, empower and promote excitement in learning for all students. 

    We chose the LVP Navigator as this month's resource because of the synthesized amount of research by Digital Promise and the offer of great strategies to help us engage the full diversity of learners. The added bonus is that they organized everything in an easy-to-search navigation experience. 

    Overview
    To find strategies to meet the needs of your diverse learning population, after you open the navigator, choose a model. Next explore different factors such as learner background, social-emotional learning, cognition, etc.. that LVP has aggregated to help you hone in on targeted areas. Then find curated strategies and resources to use immediately! 
    ​Here’s an example
    A 7th grade Science teacher has a series of readings that students need to engage with as a part of the learning process. To take into account learner variability, she chooses the “model” 7-12th Grade Literacy in the navigator tool.
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    She’s interested in factors related to “disciplinary literacy,” so she selects this factor,
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    which brings up research about this factor and a curated list of resources and strategies she can use in the classroom.

    ​For example, one strategy she’s interested in is “advanced graphic organizer” She pulls up the strategy, reviews it, and adds it to her lesson.     ​
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    Recommendations  
    1. There’s so much here in the navigator! We recommend spendings some time just pursuing the factors alone. They can help us think through different variabilities in learners' situations that we may not have considered or tend to forget about.
    2. Intermediate or High School content area teacher? Use the literacy models to support all disciplines! 
    3. Do you work with adult learners through professional development? In addition to math and literacy models, there is one for adult learners.
    4. Learn more about Learner Variability Learner Variability Is the Rule, Not the Exception.

    Don’t Forget!
    1. After you use the LVP Navigator, tell us what you think here in the comments below.