Powerful Task Design

Rigorous and Engaging Tasks to Level Up Instruction
First Edition
Powerful Task Design
March 2018 | 216 pages | Corwin
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ISBN: 9781506399133
Available from January 0001
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ISBN: 9781506399140
Available from January 0001

Description

How can educators use technology to increase students’ engagement in activities essential to rigorous learning? What are the most effective tools for analyzing, designing, and refining those tasks of learning? And finally, how can we increase the cognitive rigor and thoughtful integration of technology into learning tasks, in order to better prepare students for college and beyond?

In Powerful Task Design, these questions and more will be answered, as you get to know the Powerful Task Rubric for Designing Student Work. Applicable for educators across all disciplines and grade levels, you’ll use the tool to analyze, design, and refine cognitively engaging tasks of learning. This guide will help you

  • Explore and use the Powerful Task Rubric piece-by-piece in an easily digestible format to help you delve into the tool’s design components.
  • Use technology to complete interactive tasks, and understand first-hand how technology is a critical design component in student task design that brings about more profound and relevant learning.
  • Identify opportunities for creating powerful tasks in the areas of engagement, academic strategies, questions, and cognition.
  • Supplement your task design arsenal with tools like the Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning (DIAL).

This must-have resource brings together the research and strategies educators need to design engaging, powerful learning tasks. Student performance has a direct correlation to the power of the learning task - this book will help you positively impact both. 

Contents

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About the Authors

Introduction: The Power of the Task

  • 1. The Work of School
  • A Task Is a Task
  • Task Predicts Performance
  • The Design Components of a Task
  • Technology in a Working Model, or When Terri Met Sally (Ahem, John)
  • The Powerful Task Rubric for Designing Student Work
  • 2. Analyzing Learning With the Powerful Task Rubric
  • One Content, Five Tasks
  • Where Was the Power?
  • 3. The Power of Engagement
  • The Qualities of Engagement
  • Interaction as Engagement
  • A Task Is Powered Up
  • 4. The Power of Academic Strategies
  • It Starts on the Playground
  • Strategies of Personal Response
  • Identifying Similarities and Differences
  • Summarizing and Note-Making
  • Note-Taking Becomes Note-Making
  • Reflection in Note-Making
  • Nonlinguistic Representations
  • Generating and Testing Hypotheses
  • Reflection and Closure
  • 5. The Power of the Question
  • Where Does a Question Come From?
  • See-Think-Wonder
  • Where Do Teacher Questions Come From?
  • How to Open a Question
  • Technology and Questions
  • 6. Engaged in What? The Power of Cognition
  • Cognitive Demand
  • Learning Through Accepting Meaning
  • Thinking and Making Meaning
  • Making Meaning on Top of Meaning
  • Sliding Across the Cognitive Continua: A Hierarchy, Not a Sequence
  • Math Cognition and the Task Rubric
  • Encoding and Memory
  • 7. Power Up: Using the Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning
  • The Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning
  • Premises and Research Behind the DIAL
  • Using the DIAL
  • Three DIAL Implementations
  • Tips for the Tool
  • 8. Putting It All Together

Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

References

References

Index

Index

Resources

Description

How can educators use technology to increase students’ engagement in activities essential to rigorous learning? What are the most effective tools for analyzing, designing, and refining those tasks of learning? And finally, how can we increase the cognitive rigor and thoughtful integration of technology into learning tasks, in order to better prepare students for college and beyond?

In Powerful Task Design, these questions and more will be answered, as you get to know the Powerful Task Rubric for Designing Student Work. Applicable for educators across all disciplines and grade levels, you’ll use the tool to analyze, design, and refine cognitively engaging tasks of learning. This guide will help you

  • Explore and use the Powerful Task Rubric piece-by-piece in an easily digestible format to help you delve into the tool’s design components.
  • Use technology to complete interactive tasks, and understand first-hand how technology is a critical design component in student task design that brings about more profound and relevant learning.
  • Identify opportunities for creating powerful tasks in the areas of engagement, academic strategies, questions, and cognition.
  • Supplement your task design arsenal with tools like the Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning (DIAL).

This must-have resource brings together the research and strategies educators need to design engaging, powerful learning tasks. Student performance has a direct correlation to the power of the learning task - this book will help you positively impact both. 

Contents

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments

About the Authors

About the Authors

Introduction: The Power of the Task

  • 1. The Work of School
  • A Task Is a Task
  • Task Predicts Performance
  • The Design Components of a Task
  • Technology in a Working Model, or When Terri Met Sally (Ahem, John)
  • The Powerful Task Rubric for Designing Student Work
  • 2. Analyzing Learning With the Powerful Task Rubric
  • One Content, Five Tasks
  • Where Was the Power?
  • 3. The Power of Engagement
  • The Qualities of Engagement
  • Interaction as Engagement
  • A Task Is Powered Up
  • 4. The Power of Academic Strategies
  • It Starts on the Playground
  • Strategies of Personal Response
  • Identifying Similarities and Differences
  • Summarizing and Note-Making
  • Note-Taking Becomes Note-Making
  • Reflection in Note-Making
  • Nonlinguistic Representations
  • Generating and Testing Hypotheses
  • Reflection and Closure
  • 5. The Power of the Question
  • Where Does a Question Come From?
  • See-Think-Wonder
  • Where Do Teacher Questions Come From?
  • How to Open a Question
  • Technology and Questions
  • 6. Engaged in What? The Power of Cognition
  • Cognitive Demand
  • Learning Through Accepting Meaning
  • Thinking and Making Meaning
  • Making Meaning on Top of Meaning
  • Sliding Across the Cognitive Continua: A Hierarchy, Not a Sequence
  • Math Cognition and the Task Rubric
  • Encoding and Memory
  • 7. Power Up: Using the Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning
  • The Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning
  • Premises and Research Behind the DIAL
  • Using the DIAL
  • Three DIAL Implementations
  • Tips for the Tool
  • 8. Putting It All Together

Final Thoughts

Final Thoughts

References

References

Index

Index

Resources

SAGE Publishing Logo

Powerful Task Design

Rigorous and Engaging Tasks to Level Up Instruction


March 2018 | 216 pages | Corwin

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Paperback 01/01/2025 9781506399140 $40.95
Lifetime 01/01/2025 9781506399133 $37.00

How can educators use technology to increase students’ engagement in activities essential to rigorous learning? What are the most effective tools for analyzing, designing, and refining those tasks of learning? And finally, how can we increase the cognitive rigor and thoughtful integration of technology into learning tasks, in order to better prepare students for college and beyond?

In Powerful Task Design, these questions and more will be answered, as you get to know the Powerful Task Rubric for Designing Student Work. Applicable for educators across all disciplines and grade levels, you’ll use the tool to analyze, design, and refine cognitively engaging tasks of learning. This guide will help you

  • Explore and use the Powerful Task Rubric piece-by-piece in an easily digestible format to help you delve into the tool’s design components.
  • Use technology to complete interactive tasks, and understand first-hand how technology is a critical design component in student task design that brings about more profound and relevant learning.
  • Identify opportunities for creating powerful tasks in the areas of engagement, academic strategies, questions, and cognition.
  • Supplement your task design arsenal with tools like the Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning (DIAL).

This must-have resource brings together the research and strategies educators need to design engaging, powerful learning tasks. Student performance has a direct correlation to the power of the learning task - this book will help you positively impact both. 


Table Of Contents:

  • Acknowledgments
  • About the Authors
  • Introduction: The Power of the Task
  • 1. The Work of School
  • A Task Is a Task
  • Task Predicts Performance
  • The Design Components of a Task
  • Technology in a Working Model, or When Terri Met Sally (Ahem, John)
  • The Powerful Task Rubric for Designing Student Work
  • 2. Analyzing Learning With the Powerful Task Rubric
  • One Content, Five Tasks
  • Where Was the Power?
  • 3. The Power of Engagement
  • The Qualities of Engagement
  • Interaction as Engagement
  • A Task Is Powered Up
  • 4. The Power of Academic Strategies
  • It Starts on the Playground
  • Strategies of Personal Response
  • Identifying Similarities and Differences
  • Summarizing and Note-Making
  • Note-Taking Becomes Note-Making
  • Reflection in Note-Making
  • Nonlinguistic Representations
  • Generating and Testing Hypotheses
  • Reflection and Closure
  • 5. The Power of the Question
  • Where Does a Question Come From?
  • See-Think-Wonder
  • Where Do Teacher Questions Come From?
  • How to Open a Question
  • Technology and Questions
  • 6. Engaged in What? The Power of Cognition
  • Cognitive Demand
  • Learning Through Accepting Meaning
  • Thinking and Making Meaning
  • Making Meaning on Top of Meaning
  • Sliding Across the Cognitive Continua: A Hierarchy, Not a Sequence
  • Math Cognition and the Task Rubric
  • Encoding and Memory
  • 7. Power Up: Using the Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning
  • The Diagnostic Instrument to Analyze Learning
  • Premises and Research Behind the DIAL
  • Using the DIAL
  • Three DIAL Implementations
  • Tips for the Tool
  • 8. Putting It All Together
  • Final Thoughts
  • References
  • Index

Recent Product Reviews:

"Antonetti and Stice once again provide outstanding leadership, research, and guidance through an ever expanding and vital conversation on learning design. This book further shifts the conversation from technology to learning, from simply rehashing techno-centric approaches, to ready-to-implement rich learning experiences for students further empowered through digital tools and resources. In this book, you'll discover creative solutions to interesting digital instructional design challenges from real classrooms and real students. These best practice models will help any teacher, new or experienced, formulate a blueprint for digital learning experience design - with a tremendous emphasis on learning and cognitive engagement. I especially love the connections made in Chapter 5 with technology and questions. Through this book, John and Terri demonstrate that they are two highly connected teachers who 'get it.'"
Dr. Marty Park, Chief Digital Officer for the Office of Education Technology, Kentucky Department of Education, Kentucky Department of Education
"Powerful Task Design will help you rethink how to get the full value from the technology tools you have available in your classroom. I found John and Terri’s work to be both practical and transformative. Teachers will come back to this book time and time again as we are challenged to find ways to push thinking, rigor and engagement to a higher level for your students."
Amy Berry, National Board Certified Teacher, Coordinator for Student Services, Meade County Schools, KY
"Antonetti and Stice push educators to create well-designed tasks that fully engage students and create powerful results. We want the students to learn first and then utilize technology tools to make learning more meaningful. Combining Antonetti’s brilliant work with his engagement cube and Stice’s technology genius is 'just mind-blowing.'"
Allen Martin, Instructional Technology Resource Teacher, Bowling Green Independent Schools, KY
“An easy-to-follow tool for educators wishing to reflect on the rigor of their classroom tasks with excellent tips to take learning to the next level!”
Clint Heitz, Instructional Coach, Bettendorf Community School District, Bettendorf, IA
"It is painfully obvious that something needs to be done to do more than simply engage students; we need to cognitively engage them and this book gives you the tools with which to do just that. Everything is here for you to make those changes."
Melody (Dani) Aldrich, High School English Teacher, Casa Grande Union High School, Casa Grande, AZ

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