Areas of Practice

AAIS provides a variety of services, customized to meet individual needs.  We have adopted the seven Learning Forward Standards for Professional Development and all our work is vetted through the lens of those standards and the four prerequisites for effective professional learning. We design a variety of customized face-to-face trainings and online courses to fit a school’s specific needs.  After an initial consultation with an AAIS partner, we collaborate with the site and/or district staff to design customized training. 

We have also adopted The Teaching for Understanding Planning Cycle. The term “PLC’s” is used widely across the nation as a means for increasing the quality of instructional planning and analysis of the demonstration of student mastery of learning targets within standards.  However, the understanding of the process to achieve the means is often vague and teachers and administrators are unsure of exactly what all a team must think about and discuss when designing instruction – both unit and daily lessons.  The Teaching for Understanding Planning Cycle™ (TFU) reflects the current research from educational experts such as Larry Ainsworth, Grant Wiggins, Jay McTighe, James Popham, Carol Ann Tomlinson, Robert Marzano, et al. which, when considered in the planning process, will increase the chances of student mastery of learning targets within standards at a much higher rate.  The cycle serves as a framework for teams to use as they start with the standards to be taught through analysis of student work that reflects the learning of that standard and the implications of the appropriateness of the decision-making of the team when designing instruction around those standards.

Portfolio of Services

CONSULTING SERVICES

TIME INVESTMENT:  Time investment varies based on the needs of the client.  The average time investment is 4-8 days over the course of the year.

Highly effective teaming

DESCRIPTION:
This training provides teacher teams with a foundation for becoming a high functioning team. This session identifies the stages of development of academic teams, the processes and protocols that support focused and effective meetings, and steps to creating a Pyramid of Intervention for students that is data driven and personalized for each student. Teachers also write a vision and/or mission statement for their team as well as identifying goals that are aligned with the school and district's goals.

TARGET AUDIENCE:
Interdisciplinary •  Teacher Teams  •  Academy Coaches  • Academy Administrators

TIME INVESTMENT:  Two days (initial training) plus follow-up

STANDARDS BASED INTERDISCIPLINARY PLANNING

DESCRIPTION:
This training teaches participants the processes and protocols for designing interdisciplinary learning that focuses on like concepts and skills. Teachers learn the process of looking deeply at content standards through an interdisciplinary lens to discover common concepts and skills. Once these concepts and skills are identified then topics, or big ideas, begin to emerge. Interdisciplinary enduring understanding and essential questions are the written as the framework for introducing the units of study. Teachers leave this session with the skills necessary to design interdisciplinary units of study that are rigorous in the nature of the design of student work, relevant because they are tied to the students' career focus and personalized due to students often being a part of the design process itself.

TARGET AUDIENCE:
Interdisciplinary  •  Teacher Teams  •  Academy Coaches

TIME INVESTMENT:  Two days (initial training) plus follow-up

Teaching on the block

DESCRIPTION:
Planning for and delivering instruction for an extended period of time presents challenges and opportunities.  This training addresses the challenges of structuring time effectively, engaging all students in learning both cognitively and physically, effectively pacing instruction, and planning for transitions between activities so that little to no instructional time is lost.  The training also prepares teachers to take advantage of the opportunities for incorporating cooperative learning tasks.  The training culminates in a facilitated work-session where participants create lesson plans and teaching resources for immediate classroom use.

TARGET AUDIENCE:
Teachers (all levels) • Deans of Instruction • Curriculum Specialists • Instructional Coaches

TIME INVESTMENT:  Two days (initial training) plus follow-up

tfu cycle instructional planning

DESCRIPTION:
The AAIS Teaching for Understanding (TFU) Planning Cycle training takes the key research-based concepts related to unit-level and lesson-level planning and presents them in an easy to understand framework so teachers may see how all the big ideas in education fit together. In this training, teachers will learn or refine their skills in:

•  Deconstructing high priority standards
•  Writing essential questions
•  Generating viable learning progressions
•  Designing quality formative and summative assessments aligned with content objectives
•  Planning daily lessons
•  Analyzing and responding to data

TARGET AUDIENCE:
Teachers (all levels) •  Dean of Instruction  •  Curriculum Specialists  • Instructional Coaches

TIME INVESTMENT:  Two days (initial training) plus follow-up