Designing Creative Learning Activities to Differentiate Instruction & Assessment

EDZU 9695 (3 credits / 45 hours)

Location: Online
Instructor: Dawn Nachtigall

Start Date: 08/07/2024
End Date: 08/27/2024

Course Syllabus

Want to design lessons that get them begging for more? Interested in trying to incorporate more cooperative learning activities into your lessons? What if you could assess student learning in a way that's fun for both you and them? Designing and using games in the classroom can not only help keep students interested but also can be a creative instructional and evaluation tool. In this class, we will investigate the value of games and other student-centered activities as avenues of differentiated instruction and assessment. Within an exploration of cooperative learning structures, we will design new and innovative lessons to bring back to your classroom.

Teachers enrolled in this course will...

Know

• the difference between “cooperative” work and “group” work.
• the four basic principles that make a lesson cooperative.
• the definitions of a “cooperative learning structure,” “differentiated assessments,” and a variety other practices essential to designing creative learning activities.
• more than 20 different cooperative learning structures and games that can be used in all disciplines at all levels.

Understand

• that differentiating instruction allows all types of students access to the curriculum.
• that differentiating assessment allows all types of students opportunity to “show” what they know.
• that cooperative learning provides ample opportunities to differentiate instruction.
• how cooperative learning structures can be used many times in any discipline at any level.

and Be Able To

• competently use the cooperative learning structures presented in this course.
• create activities and assessments that are both differentiated and cooperative by design.
• critically evaluate lessons used in the past and determine if they “reach” all types of learners.