LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

CEU courses open for enrollment

The Civil Rights Movement in Context
Investigate the precursors to the Civil Rights Movement, its leadership, its opposition, and its legacy, including lesser-studied events of the movement and primary sources.
Take this course: Begins February 2.

From the education reference

service learning
Intentional combination of community service objectives and learning opportunities that benefits both the recipient and provider of the service. Student service learning projects should be structured to link learning tasks to self-reflection so that they enrich learning, strengthen communities, and teach civic responsibility.
discovery learning
Learning that takes place, not through instruction, but through examination, analysis, or experimentation.
cooperative learning
Instructional method in which students work together in small, heterogeneous groups to complete a problem, project, or other instructional goal, while teachers act as guides or facilitators. This method works to reinforce a student’s own learning as well as the learning of his or her fellow group members.
collaborative learning
An umbrella term for the variety of approaches and models in education that involve the shared intellectual efforts by students working in small groups to accomplish a goal or complete a task.
learning contract
An agreement between a teacher and a student regarding how that student will achieve specified learning goals or objectives.
learning disability
A discrepancy between expected achievement and observed achievement, also known as "unexpected underachievement."
Dimensions of Learning model
Model of learning developed by Marzano et al (1988) that links content area knowledge, metacognition, and critical and creative thinking with a taxonomy of thinking skills and thinking processes.
project-based learning
Teaching approach that engages students in sustained, collaborative real-world investigations. Projects are organized around a driving question, and students participate in a variety of tasks that seek to meaningfully address this question.
problem-based learning
Model of instruction in which the teacher poses an authentic problem for student resolution. PBL may be one among many strategies in a classroom or an entire curricular and instructional approach. In the course of problem-solving, students work cooperatively in groups to learn content and skills related to real world problems. The teacher acts as a facilitator to learning.
digital game-based learning
Instructional method that incorporates educational content or learning principles into video games with the goal of engaging learners. Applications of digital game-based learning draw upon the constructivist theory of education.

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Learning styles: An introduction
Students will read about and discuss learning styles. They will take a pencil and paper assessment to investigate their own learning styles, and practice determining the learning style of others with a story telling activity.
Format: lesson plan (grade 6–8 Guidance)
By Pat Nystrom.
Math for multiple intelligences
How a middle-school math teacher realized she was boring and jump-started her career — and her students — by using thematic planning, emphasizing problem solving, and teaching to multiple intelligences.
Format: series (multiple pages)
Teaching "style"
This exercise works best as a review at the mid-point or end of a literature course. Paired students describe the style of ten authors ranging from "ornate" to "plain," and then compare the authors' styles through a designated series of metaphors.
Format: lesson plan (grade 12 English Language Arts)
By Charlotte Osterman.
To know them is to teach them
We must maintain high standards and expectations, incorporate students' experiences into the curriculum, and use culturally relevant materials.
By Barbara Rush.
Experiential education
This article explains the history and theory of experiential education, which combines active learning with concrete experiences, abstract concepts, and reflection in an effort to engage all learning styles.
Format: article
By Heather Coffey.
Assessing the learning process
In Math for multiple intelligences, page 3
Assessment, like instruction, needs to be geared toward various learning styles, and teachers can create rubrics for ongoing assessment that keep a formal daily record of what students are learning.
By Gretchen Buher and David Walbert.
A Ram Sam Sam: A Moroccan tune with a twist
Students will enjoy singing, playing rhythm instuments, reading notations, and performing a Moroccan tune in two different musical styles on student keyboards.
Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 Music Education)
By Marie Batten.
Rethinking Reports
Creative research-based assignments provide alternatives to the President Report, Animal Report, and Famous Person Report that ask students to think about old topics in new ways, work collaboratively, and develop products that support a variety of learning styles.
Format: series (multiple pages)
Differentiating Instruction in Online Courses: Online course syllabus
Syllabus for the course Differentiating Instruction in Online Courses which helps teachers tailor online instruction to meet the unique learning styles of specific students.
Format: syllabus
LEARN NC goals and guiding principles
This document describes LEARN NC’s guiding principles and lists our short-term goals for 2009-2010.
Format: article/help
Observing other teachers
Learning from other teachers is an important means of professional development. Here are some suggestions for observing successful teachers in your school, in other schools, and on the web.
By Kathleen Casson.
Math for multiple intelligences
In Math for multiple intelligences, page 1
How a middle-school math teacher realized she was boring and jump-started her career — and her students.
By Gretchen Buher.
Call and response singing
This lesson is a study of call and response singing, especially as it relates to African-American spirituals.
Format: lesson plan (grade 4–5 Music Education)
By Melody Moore.
Carolina Online Teacher Program (COLT)
Now you can earn a LEARN NC Certificate in online instruction through the Carolina Online Teacher program (COLT). In five core courses and two electives, totaling a minimum of 17 CEUs, you’ll master the component skills of online teaching: effective collaboration and facilitation, creating learning communities, navigating the virtual classroom, and developing student-centered instruction.
Format: article/help
Formative assessment
This reference article discusses the history, concept, and application of formative assessment.
Format: article
By Heather Coffey.
Digital game-based learning
Digital game-based learning (DGBL) is an instructional method that incorporates educational content or learning principles into video games with the goal of engaging learners. Applications of digital game-based learning draw upon the constructivist theory of education.
Format: article
By Heather Coffey.
Open the gate, close the gate
Open the Gate, Close the Gate is a variety of activities to provide practice identifying and discriminating between open and closed figures. The activities are designed to meet varying learning styles, and to move students from the concrete level to the abstract level of learning.
Format: lesson plan (grade 1 Mathematics)
By Mary Deans.
Positively poetry: Part 6
Students will be learning about and writing limericks. Since limericks follow a strict rhyming pattern and word count, the students will work in partners to create their own limericks.
Format: lesson plan (grade 3 English Language Arts and Information Skills)
By Maribeth Warren, Pam Purifoy, and Tracy Dagenhart.
Human coordinate graph
Students will actively learn how to plot ordered pairs on a coordinate plane. They will also learn how to connect ordered pairs to graph a picture.
Format: lesson plan (grade 3–4 Mathematics)
By Cheryl Sexton.
Piggies
This activity is a fun, interactive lesson that integrates children's literature with math. (A great way to integrate author studies!) This activity allows students to be involved in all 4 learning styles (visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic). I spread this lesson out over two days.
Format: lesson plan (grade 1 Mathematics)
By Stephanie Hatcher.