Deeper Learning 2023

Most schools still function with age-level groupings and an industrial-era mentality about students, where we presume a common starting and ending point for all. While such systems may have helped us standardize education and make it more efficient, they make some students feel perpetually behind, hold back our most talented, and ignore the "middle." Rather than shooting for access for all students, authors Jennifer D. Klein and Kapono Ciotti have developed The Landscape Model to help teachers and leaders ensure the highest levels of success possible for all students. Recognizing that students are positioned across a landscape when it comes to their learning and growth, our model seeks to provide strategies for developing an asset-based understanding of what each student brings into the learning ecosystem (previous learning and educational access, cultural and other identity orientations, cognitive abilities, etc.), for co-constructing each child's horizon with students and their families (goals and aspirations, as well as their Zone of Proximal Development), and for constructing a personal pathway appropriate for that student (a culturally- and cognitively-responsive personal learning plan to reach those goals). The entire model hinges on student protagonism, and the goal is a level of "inclusive prosperity" which leverages talents and passions to ensure all students reach the horizon they and their families are working toward.


This session will provide an overview of the three elements of the Landscape Model, as well as the Eight Principles upon which it is based. Participants will have an opportunity to experience inclusive strategies, and to begin envisioning how they might use the model to build more inclusive prosperity in their schools.