This OER takes a look at the intersection of human growth and development from a trauma perspective, the neuroscience of learning, specifically how the concepts of survival and exercise influence the student learning process. How does Culturally Responsive Teaching support dependent learners to become Independent Learners and understanding the role of culture in student learning.

The following is a lesson on the Arthur Costa's Habits of Mind, which I typically use in my one-year below transfer composition course, but this is also applicable in college prep courses.This lesson is one of a series that introduces a habit of mind (Thinking Flexibly, in this case) in order to help build students' awareness of their own habits and how to modify them through observation (examining the cartoon and description of the habit), application (applying this habit in their own lives via reflection), and creation (creating a comic) that pushes students to use humor, another habit of mind, in order to further reflect on this habit. All in all, these multiple lessons culminate into a larger assignment, The Habits of Mind Portfolio, where students analyze and reflect on how the habits they've learned throughout the semester is seen in their classroom interactions, study habits, home life, and the processes of creating their compositional works done throughout the semester. 

Habits of Mind Rubric & Self-Assessment lesson including reflection for student's knowledge and skills obtained during prior lesson and/or Habits of Mind activities.

Student teams act as engineers and learn about systems thinking and scale by reassembling the separated pages of the engaging picture book, “Zoom,” by Istvan Banyai. The book is a series of 31 wordless pictures that start very close-up and then zoom out—from a rooster’s comb to outer space. Like a movie camera, each subsequent page pulls back to reveal the context of the previous scene as something different than what you originally thought. When the 31 un-numbered pages are jumbled, it is a surprising challenge for teams to figure out how the pictures connect. The task prompts students to pause and look closer so as to adjust to new points of view and problem solve to find a logical sequence. It requires them to step back and take a broader view. Students learn that engineers work together as teams and look at things very closely so that they see different things and come up with more than one solution when problem solving. To conclude, students go outside and practice their skills by imagining and then drawing their own Zoom-like small booklet stories inspired by items found in nature. The classic duck/rabbit ambiguous drawing is provided as a kickoff visual aid.