Homework
The homework debate (How much? Does workload = school quality?) is old news, but new ways of conceiving homework in the context of evolving thinking about curriculum and assessment can reframe and refresh this tired topic—and better serve students.
BLOGS

*Resources written, produced, and released by the Independent Curriculum Group
PODCASTS
​Currently none, but stay tuned for some coming soon! Refer to the other resources at the time being.
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WEBINARS
Academic Journaling for Deeper Learning (*ICG)
Academic journaling often turns out to be an exercise done more for the sake of doing it than for a clear academic purpose. In this webinar, humanities teachers from The Cambridge School of Weston (MA) talk how they build student buy-in by making journal-keeping a fully relevant tool and resource for paper-writing, maintaining portfolio content, and reflection. By creating and maintaining physical journals—including print-outs of digital notes and short writing—students think more deeply about class material to drive not just reflection but deeper inquiry for Socratic Seminars and other kinds of active class discussion. Presenters Louis Hutchins and Samantha Simpson also address how journaling, or “day-booking” in CSW parlance, might be used across the curriculum.
Lectica: A New Kind of Assessment for Real Learning​ (*ICG)
As a graduate student observing in public school classrooms—in 1996—Dr. Theo Dawson was shocked by the stark contrast between the educational experiences available to advantaged versus disadvantaged students. She feared that this contrast was about to deepen, due to the rapidly growing high-stakes testing industry. It seemed clear that these “right answer” focused tests would narrow the curriculum and drive teaching—especially in disadvantaged schools—toward the memorization of facts, vocabulary, definitions, rules, and procedures, and away from practices that foster deep understanding and skill. Convinced that accountability testing was here to stay, Dawson set out to create a radically different testing technology—one that would drive the kind of teaching that increases engagement while supporting a lifetime of learning. Dawson and her team at Lectica, Inc.—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit—have doggedly pursued this goal, developing new methods, conducting research, and engineering the first fully scalable platform for creating and delivering assessments specifically designed to foster optimal learning.
These highly sophisticated assessments, called DiscoTests, will be delivered free of charge to individual teachers everywhere. Dr. Dawson discusses the learning model behind DiscoTests, some of Lectica's research, and shows how DiscoTests work.


​*Resources written, produced, and released by the Independent Curriculum Group
E-BOOKS & RESEARCH PAPERS
Currently none, but stay tuned for some coming soon! Refer to the other resources at the time being.​
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Cohort Courses
  • ​​Beyond: ​Beyond provides schools with a toolbox for developing and promoting indigenous advanced learning experiences built around their own missions and values and designed for their own student bodies. Drawing on learnings from schools already committed to “independent advanced curriculum,” the course will address the academic and pedagogical aspects of creating and sustaining advanced coursework and assessments in all disciplines as well as effective strategies for communicating about such coursework to key external audiences, including college admission offices and prospective community members.
​On-Demand Programs
  • Introduction to Personalized Learning: The Why, How, What: Just like the title suggests, this program is an introduction class to personalized learning. This program will provide educators with the basics on what personalized learning truly means, why it's important, and how to start developing personalized learning in their own classrooms. 
  • Personalizing Pathways: Creating Student Voice and Choice: In this program, we focus on personalizing pathways: creating student voice and choice. By the end of this program participants will be able to develop personalized pathways in a lesson and recognize how to use your pedagogical tools and content resources to create those pathways
  • ​​Student Agency: The Foundation of a Learner-Driven Pedagogy: In this program, we focus on student agency, which will give you the foundation to transition to a learner-driven pedagogy. The pedagogy is predicated on the belief, and research, that students should, in fact, drive their learning, and that more learning happens when students -- not teachers -- drive learning. 
Contributors:
  • Corinne Dedini, Assistant Head of School
  • Peter Gow, Executive Director of the Independent Curriculum Group (previous position)/Independent Curriculum Resource Director (current title)
  • Brad Rathgeber, Head of School & CEO

Schools Mentioned: