Professional Learning Networks (PLN) Program Guide

Professional Learning Networks (PLNs)

Connect. Collaborate. Strengthen Your Practice.

APEX Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) bring educators together for practical, collaborative learning built around the needs teachers tell us matter most. Each session features engaging, research-based instructional strategies led by experienced educators and trusted APEX partners—with ideas you can put to work in your classroom right away.

PLNs are designed specifically for Elementary (K–5) and Secondary (6–12) educators, making the learning relevant to your students and your classroom. Through hands-on experiences, meaningful conversation, and collaboration with fellow APEX educators, you’ll gain new strategies, share ideas, and continue building a supportive professional learning community.

Come ready to learn, share, connect—and take your teaching to the next level with APEX!

SECONDARY AND ELEMENTARY

Kagan Day 1 and Refresh

SECONDARY AND ELEMENTARY:  Thinking Maps for Historical Inquiry, Investigation, and Research and to Support Disciplinary Literacy

Rachael Yaden, WEP Project Facilitator

• This professional learning session equips educators to use the eight Thinking Maps as consistent visual tools for historical inquiry, investigation, and research. Teachers will explore how Thinking Maps can scaffold the full inquiry process—from activating prior knowledge and developing research questions to sourcing and analyzing documents, organizing evidence, examining multiple perspectives, establishing chronology, evaluating historical causation, and transferring understanding to new contexts.

• Participants will apply the Circle Map to activate prior knowledge, source information, and develop research questions; Bubble and Double Bubble Maps to describe historical concepts and compare perspectives; Tree Maps to classify evidence and organize themes; Brace Maps to analyze the parts and features of historical documents; Flow Maps to establish chronology and trace historical developments; Multi-Flow Maps to investigate causes, effects, and historical significance; and Bridge Maps to develop analogies and transfer historical understanding. Through these applications, educators will strengthen students’ historical thinking, research, and evidence-based reasoning while providing a common visual framework that supports inquiry across grade levels and content areas.

SECONDARY:  From Evidence to Action: Historical Argumentation, Civil Discourse, and Critical Inquiry in the Age of AI

Rachael Yaden, WEP Grant Facilitator

Participants will apply Thinking Maps alongside Claim-Evidence-Reasoning (CER), Document-Based Questions (DBQs), and Inquiry Design Models (IDMs) to organize evidence and develop historical arguments. Bridge Maps and other Thinking Maps will support disciplinary thinking and writing as students identify relationships, synthesize information, and communicate historical understanding. Structured Academic Controversies and deliberative discussions will provide frameworks for examining competing perspectives, supporting claims with evidence, listening to alternative viewpoints, and engaging in productive civil discourse. Teachers will also consider how inquiry can extend to civic action projects that encourage students to apply historical understanding to contemporary issues and informed action.

The session will also address the opportunities and challenges presented by artificial intelligence. Educators will learn strategies for evaluating AI-generated historical content, verifying information through credible primary and secondary sources, recognizing inaccuracies or unsupported claims, and using Thinking Maps to organize, evaluate, and synthesize information from multiple sources. Emphasis will be placed on helping students use AI ethically and responsibly while maintaining the essential disciplinary practices of sourcing, corroboration, contextualization, evidence-based reasoning, and original historical writing.

Together, these strategies create a coherent progression from inquiry and evidence evaluation to historical argumentation, disciplinary writing, civil discourse, and responsible civic engagement. 

ELEMENTARY: TBD

SECONDARY:  From Inquiry to Action: Designing Powerful Social Studies Learning for Civic Engagement 

Debra Cullen, SREB Consultant

• This professional learning session empowers educators to design meaningful social studies experiences that move students from curiosity and investigation to evidence-based conclusions and informed civic action. Using the C3 Inquiry Arc and Inquiry Design Model (IDM) as a framework, teachers will explore how compelling questions, credible sources, disciplinary thinking, and authentic assessment can transform historical learning into opportunities for deeper understanding and civic engagement.

• Participants will examine how Thinking Maps can serve as visual scaffolds throughout the inquiry process—supporting questioning, source analysis, comparison, chronology, causation, evidence organization, and argumentation. Teachers will develop strategies that help students investigate complex historical and contemporary issues, construct and communicate evidence-based arguments, and demonstrate historical thinking beyond simple content recall.

• The session culminates in designing learning experiences that connect historical understanding to relevant contemporary issues and provide students with authentic opportunities to communicate conclusions and take informed action. By intentionally connecting inquiry, historical thinking, and civic engagement, educators will create powerful social studies learning that prepares students to think critically, engage thoughtfully, and participate responsibly in their communities.

ELEMENTARY:  TBD