The curriculum lead team is building professional development around critical thinking for the 2025-26 school year. Two of these PDs will be open to teachers of all subjects, though English teachers will meet together in the afternoons. The other two, which Julia is building, are targeted towards English teachers. You can attend two (in August), three, or all four days! No prior knowledge is necessary to participate in any of the sessions. SIGN UP FOR ANY OF THE DAYS HERE!
Monday, Aug. 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The large group will gather in the morning to learn more about critical thinking and specifically inductive reasoning. In the afternoon, English teachers will reflect on prompts, experience an inductive reasoning task, and modify a specific lesson or assignment to emphasize inductive reasoning as a skill. Prompts might include:
— reflections from the morning learning
— natural opportunities for incorporating inductive reasoning tasks/where we're already teaching it
— barriers/challenges with incorporating inductive reasoning tasks
— specific strategies for teaching inductive reasoning
— analyzing evidence of inductive reasoning
Wed., Aug. 27 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The large group will gather in the morning to learn about the Question Formulation Technique, a structured method for generating and improving questions. In the afternoon, English teachers will experience a task using the QFT method, followed by time to continue working on the lesson from Day 2 or building QFT into a future lesson.
Wednesday, Oct. 1 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This English-specific day will begin with a shorter version/review of the graphic novel PD from this year, followed by experiencing an inductive reasoning task with material from a graphic novel. In the afternoon, participants will have time to work on curriculum, which might include:
—reading one or more graphic novels (a variety of options will be available on site)
—reviewing existing curriculum from a variety of graphic novels
—writing your own lesson/unit/assignment, perhaps for a graphic novel or anything pertaining to critical thinking and/or inductive reasoning
Friday, Jan. 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This English-specific day will begin with a shorter version/review of the Beyond Literary Analysis PD from this year, followed by experiencing an inductive reasoning task with a BLA focus. In the afternoon, participants will have time to work on curriculum, which might include:
—reading the Beyond Literary Analysis book (copies will be available on site)
—reviewing existing curriculum that utilizes a BLA approach
—writing your own lesson/unit/assignment, perhaps for a BLA task or anything pertaining to critical thinking and/or inductive reasoning
SIGN UP FOR ANY OF THE DAYS HERE!
if you attend both sessions in August, you have the option to purchase 2 Category C units for $124 through the University of Pacific.
When: Monday, November 17, 2025
Intended Audience:
ALL FUHSD TEACHERS interested in revising/creatings lessons with multilingual learners in mind! (Elective/CTE Teachers: this one is for YOU, too!)
If you’ve ever thought:
“I know my students who are English language learners need language support, but what does that actually look like?”
“Am I scaffolding this right?”
"What does an "sheltered" Amplified! course really look like in my subject-area?”
…then THIS is the professional development session for you!
See EL page for detailed information and registration.