At Byrdseed.TV: When is a donut healthier than a salad?
Byrdseed Logo
Byrdseed.TV Example Lessons Depth & Complexity

Cross Curricular

Focus on Thinking, Not the Product

When I was a new teacher, you would have seen some pretty fancy products hanging in my room, but if you stopped to consider how my kids thought about the content... well, often my students just restated facts that I had already told them.
Lunar Survival Skills

Lunar Survival Skills

We're supposed to rank fifteen items according to usefulness if we were stranded on the light-side of the moon. The items range from pistols to powdered milk. Some seem useful, but are actually worthless while others seem unnecessary on earth, but are actually vital when stuck on the moon. However, the structure of the activity as a website is not optimal. Let's improve this and make it an awesome problem–solving exercise for our class.
Group Investigation: Lessons Built on Curiosity

Group Investigation: Lessons Built on Curiosity

John Dewey's Group Investigation is a favorite model of instruction of mine. It's simply built on curiosity!
Concept Formation: A Model for Inductive Thinking

Concept Formation: A Model for Inductive Thinking

Here's are the steps for running an inductive lesson based on Hilda Taba's model of Concept Formation. Plus a sample lesson about the Nile River.
Sharpening Questions

Sharpening Questions

With some small changes, we can turn fluffy opinion questions into thought-provoking evaluation questions.
Matching Flowers and Pollinators

Matching Flowers and Pollinators

How to add a couple of Analyze-level tasks to this Synthesize activity.
Graphic Organizers Are Not Final Products

Graphic Organizers Are Not Final Products

Ending with a Venn Diagram is like comparing two vacation spots… but never actually going on the vacation!
Creating Seemingly Unrelated Analogies

Creating Seemingly Unrelated Analogies

Want to encourage students to find unexpected connections across content? Here's a quick framework based on the most important terms from both bits of content.
What could we do with this Wax Museum event?

What could we do with this Wax Museum event?

How one might revamp a "Wax Museum" project into something that focuses more on thinking than product.
Introducing Universal Themes and Generalizations

Introducing Universal Themes and Generalizations

Generalizations, big ideas, abstractions, universal themes... they are designed to help our gifted students learn. However, what I didn't realize was that they would help me teach!
Next Page »

Want to share something?
Everything written on Byrdseed.com is licensed as CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted. What does that mean?

About • Privacy Policy • Disclosure

Copyright © 2009 - 2026 Byrdseed, LLC