Julie Stern - Learning that Transfers (Podcast episode) - The Consortium – Alberta Professional Learning Consortium (APLC)

In this episode, we visit with Julie Stern, author of Tools for Teaching: Designing Lessons and Assessments for Deep Learning (Elementary and Secondary editions) and Learning that Transfers: Designing Curriculum for a Changing World. Julie also has a website well worth visiting for resources and examples. It is at https://www.edtochangetheworld.com. Julie discusses teaching for conceptual understanding, sharing examples from classroom visits and examples referring to various books that can be applied to all subjects and all grades.

Throughout the conversation, we discuss supporting students through literature in their efforts to acquire an understanding of the concept(s), exploring ways to connect those concepts from simple to complex to their interests, previous knowledge, interests, and experiences, and transferring that understanding to new contexts, examples, their lives, and more. This models the three step ACT Model of Acquire – Connect – Transfer in support of unit/lesson development AND student learning and application.

Our conversation also touched on the AI world, education, literature, learning, writing, and more. Julie provided access to a collection of AI Prompts for all stages of the ACT model. You can access that here and make a copy for your own use. Listeners (and viewers of this blog post) are invited to explore the possibilities for your curriculum, remember the website has several ACT examples in the “Storyboard Examples Section”.

Please contact your local APLC office if you’d like more information on Teaching for Conceptual Understanding. Several of our Professional Designers of Learning are trained in this work. You may also contact our office if you’d like to work with Julie Stern or members of her team.