As educators, your role extends far beyond teaching. You’re navigating the pressures of improving student achievement and engagement, all while managing the added challenge of student behaviors – making your mission to help students succeed even more complex.
The Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning TM was specifically designed to tackle these challenges by providing students with structures to:
Within teams, students collaborate and support one another, ensuring learning is accessible to every student in every classroom. This approach helps students build self-regulation, strengthen impulse control, and cultivate empathy, all while fostering authentic team-based student learning communities.
With student-led team learning at its core, the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning focuses on interdependent teams with clear roles, responsibilities, and protocols. Unlike traditional grouping, this approach ensures equal participation and accountability – fostering deeper understanding, critical thinking, and collaboration.
In student-led teams, peers become the primary source of support and communication, transforming the teacher’s role into that of a coach. This shift empowers students to take ownership of their learning, self-direct, and work collaboratively on challenging tasks, ensuring content is accessible to everyone.
This is a powerful structure for fostering student engagement and accountability, effectively transferring ownership of learning to students and promoting deeper content processing and retention. When implemented, these strategies enhance achievement across all reporting subgroups, including students with IEPs, diverse racial and cultural backgrounds, English learners, and those eligible for free and reduced lunch.
By fostering deeper engagement and collaboration, student-led team learning not only increases student achievement but also lightens the instructional load on teachers.
As students take on the bulk of the learning, teachers experience greater professional satisfaction, seeing their efforts translate into empowered, high-achieving learners equipped with essential skills for lifelong success.
At Lakewood Elementary School, student achievement more than doubles in ELA and nearly triples in math.
Walnut Middle saw a dramatic decrease in discipline referrals in their first year of student-led team learning – down from 777 to 489, a 37 percent decrease.
The Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning (4DL) Teacher Suite and Toolkit work together to provide educators with step-by-step guidance for implementing the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning.
The comprehensive 4DL Teacher Suite empowers educators with online professional development courses designed to support your transition to student-led team learning. Key features include:
Meanwhile, the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning Toolkit equips educators with ready-to-use resources for both students and teachers, supporting all subjects and grade levels. These tools help establish routines that make student-led team learning successful from day one.
For more information on the tools available within the Model of Instruction for Deeper Learning Toolkit, click here.
Our social mission is to end generational poverty and eliminate racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps through redesigned rigorous Tier 1 instruction that develops students’ agency.
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