What’s in the Equipped for the Future (EFF) Teaching/ Learning Toolkit?

The EFF Toolkit is an on-line collection of resources designed to 
illustrate and support good standards-based instructional practice.  It 
includes:
§       teaching examples
§       descriptions of how to carry out specific activities
§       supporting materials to guide purposeful, contextualized, 
standards-based instruction.

Go to http://eff.cls.utk.edu/toolkit to find out more!

After you try out the Toolkit, let us know what you think (email: 
eff at utk.edu )- how easy was it to use?, were you able to find things you 
needed?

The Home Page introduces the EFF Teaching/Learning Cycle, on which the 
toolkit is based.  You may want to begin exploring the Toolkit by learning 
about this Cycle.  You can see the eight steps of the cycle by moving your 
cursor over the colored numbers, or learn more about them by clicking on 
“steps” in the menu bar.  To see or print out the entire cycle, click on 
the mouse icon in the center of the circle of steps.

The Examples section is where you'll find descriptions of how teachers use 
the Teaching/Learning cycle to plan and carry out contextualized, 
standards-based instruction.  On the menu page, the examples are listed in 
two ways by Standard and by Instructional Setting so that readers can more 
easily search for examples that are relevant to them. Each example focuses 
on one EFF Standard and explicitly describes how the activities address 
that Standard.  Throughout each example are links that take you to other 
sections for more information abut the Standards, the Cycle Steps, the 
Tools used in the learning activity, and other Supporting Materials.  This 
allows the reader to decide how much depth and detail they want to explore.

The Tools section is a collection of activities that are listed according 
to the four stages of the Teaching/ Learning Cycle: Preparation, Planning, 
Carrying out the plan, and Reflection.  Each tool includes a stated 
purpose, a suggested process for carrying out the activity and a link to 
examples that use that tool.  For tools that include worksheets, there is a 
link to a Word file that can be downloaded and edited as needed.

The Supports section includes a variety of supporting materials -- 
descriptions of techniques and approaches, information about teaching 
skill-specific and metacognitive strategies, background theory and 
research, etc -- that give practitioners more information on EFF-friendly 
practices.

Using the Toolkit to Support Instruction

Individual teachers might go to the toolkit to find specific activities or 
to get inspired by the creative lesson examples from other teachers. They can:
·       look at examples of the entire teaching/learning cycle process and 
how it unfolds differently in different contexts. (Teachers don't always 
use the same starting points or sequence of steps. Teachers have varied 
ways of using the standard to inform instruction.)
·       look for tools/activities to use at a particular step (and see how 
they’re used in practice).
·       look for examples of teaching to a particular Standard or of 
teaching in a particular context (ESL, family literacy, etc.)
·       consider submitting a learning activity for inclusion in the kit!


Using the Toolkit to Support Professional Development

The kit provides a rich set of materials that teachers, together, can use 
as a source of shared exploration and discussion about EFF teaching. They 
might:
·       agree to try out some of the kit's tools and then share how they 
worked, perhaps also considering ways to modify the tools to better suit 
their program’s needs.
·       read all the examples that address the teaching context they’re in 
and discuss what they learn from this.
·       read and discuss the way one particular example might look 
different in their own program context.  (This is a helpful reminder that 
you may not find your exact context reflected in the toolkit the students 
and their particular needs will likely be different.  So, while you may get 
ideas from the kit, you will need to use what the kit offers flexibly to 
develop lessons that are responsive to your own students.)
·       take turns presenting their own lessons, describing how they guided 
their students through the teaching/ learning cycle and discussing parts of 
the process that felt challenging.
·       explore the kit independently, following their own trail of links 
and then sharing the highlights of what they found.
·       together, and with the help of the tools in the kit, practice 
building standards-based lessons that respond to the interests, needs, and 
concerns of the students in the program
·       select an example that the group likes, brainstorm all the reasons 
it wouldn’t work in their program, and then strategize ways to address the 
barriers or to adapt the example to the program circumstances.
·       discuss the program policies and practices that support the kind of 
teaching demonstrated in the kit and then reflect on possible program 
improvements.
discuss how the kind of teaching described in the kit fits with their own 
program's curriculum.



Aaron Kohring
Coordinator, LINCS Literacy & Learning Disabilities Special Collection
Moderator, NIFL Content Standards Discussion List

Center for Literacy Studies, University of Tennessee
EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance
Phone:(865) 974-4109 main
           (865) 974-4258 direct
Fax:   (865) 974-3857
e-mail: akohring at utk.edu