Course Content

Flexible Grouping and Learning Pathways

This course equips educators to design learning experiences that honour student differences through intentional, flexible grouping and adaptive learning pathways. Moving beyond fixed ability groups, participants will explore structures that allow learners to collaborate, lead, and receive support in fluid ways based on task, interest, and need. The course provides strategies for co-creating goals, offering choices, and ensuring all students experience success in inclusive environments.

This course blends storytelling with practical learning. As you move through the course, you will alternate between reading your chosen story and engaging in Learning Interludes that deepen your understanding of inclusive education.

To view the course content, click on each section header below. This will reveal the readings and materials for that part of the course.

How the Course Flows

The course follows a consistent sequence:
Prologue → Learning Interlude 1 → Chapter 1 → Learning Interlude 2 → Chapter 2 → Learning Interlude 3 → Chapter 3 → Learning Interlude 4 → Chapter 4 → Learning Interlude 5 → Epilogue → Learning Interlude 6

Each chapter of your story highlights key ideas in action. After each chapter, you will complete a Learning Interlude that unpacks those ideas through guided content, tools, and activities.

What’s in a Learning Interlude?

Each Learning Interlude contains three Learning Links. A Learning Link is a short, focused learning unit that includes:

A short video explaining an essential concept.
A follow-up activity to help you apply what you have learned.

After each Learning Link, you will find both individual and group activities. Choose the activities that are most meaningful and relevant to your role, goals, and context. There is no requirement to complete them all.

If you are facilitating this course for a group, Facilitator Notes are included at the beginning of each Learning Interlude. These provide guidance, timing suggestions, and tips for leading group discussions and activities.

You will also find:

Printable tools and templates to support your planning.
Reflection prompts to help connect new ideas to your own practice.

These interludes help you make sense of what you have read and offer practical strategies you can use right away, whether you are learning individually or with a group.

▶ Inside the Story: Prologue

Inside the Story: Prologue

As you move through this course, we encourage you to return to the story you selected during the “Inside the Story” sections. Each chapter aligns with the learning interludes and offers a vivid, contextualized look at inclusive design in action. Feel free to explore additional stories if you're curious how the same principles play out in different contexts. Short overviews of the chapter are included here to help you discern if you want to explore other stories.

Finding Strength in Shared Stories

Prologue: The Reluctant Reader ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Zach enters Grade 7 with a long-standing belief that he is not good at reading. He has had years of being placed in lower-level groups and has silently internalized the message that reading success is not for him. When group discussions begin, he often opts out or contributes briefly, trying to avoid being seen as struggling. Ms. Donovan, his teacher, sees glimmers of deeper thinking and wonders if the problem lies more with how reading is being approached than with Zach himself.

Pathways Through Numbers

Prologue: One Size Doesn’t Fit All ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

At Riverstone Elementary, teachers across Grades 2 to 5 express a shared concern: math blocks feel rushed and uneven. Some students finish early and disengage, while others struggle to begin. Staff realize their instructional routines often cater to a narrow band of learners, leaving others overwhelmed or underchallenged. A team meeting sparks reflection: What would it look like if math learning could start from multiple points instead of a single starting line?

Inquiry in the Wild

Prologue: One Room, Many Needs ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Tasha teaches biology in a multigraded rural high school class at Prairie View School. Her students range from Grade 10 to 12 and bring vastly different levels of prior knowledge and confidence. She notices that rigid grouping structures and uniform lab activities leave some students bored and others overwhelmed. After reflecting on participation patterns and academic outcomes, she wonders what would happen if she let students approach learning in more personalized ways.

Confidence in Two Languages

Prologue: More Than Translation ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Paulina, a quiet Grade 5 EAL student, has been at Harvest Hill Elementary for two years. Although she understands much of what is said in class, she speaks very little in group settings. Her teachers recognize that she is bright and capable but have not yet found a way to help her fully participate. Past grouping strategies based on academic readiness have often isolated her further. Her current teacher begins to wonder what if grouping by strength and identity could unlock her voice.

Designing for Belonging

Prologue: Structure Isn’t the Enemy ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Kayla, the learning support teacher at Prairie View, has long noticed that group work does not work for every student. Some learners groan when asked to turn and talk. Others fade into the background, their contributions unnoticed. A few dominate out of discomfort or habit. Kayla begins informally tracking group dynamics during co-teaching blocks and finds that while teachers are trying hard, the group structures themselves may be unintentionally contributing to exclusion. Rather than abandoning collaboration, she wonders what if we designed grouping differently.

▶ Learning Interlude 1: Foundations of Flexible Grouping

Learning Interlude 1: Foundations of Flexible Grouping

Occurs After Prologue → Before Chapter 1

Module Name: Grouping with Purpose

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can explain the difference between fixed and flexible grouping.
I can describe how grouping choices impact inclusion and belonging.

🎬 Learning Link 1: From Labels to Learning - The Problems with Static Groups

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Grouping Structures Reflection Guide (📄PDF): Reflect on your current grouping practices. When are they flexible, and when might they unintentionally track or label students?
Personal Grouping Journey Journal (📄PDF): Reflect on your own school experiences of being grouped. How did it affect your identity, confidence, or participation?
Fixed vs. Flexible Sort Sheet (📄PDF): Analyze a list of common grouping scenarios and determine whether they reflect fixed or flexible practice.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Group Structure Gallery Walk (📄PDF): Share different grouping strategies used in your team or school, noting which are most inclusive and dynamic.
Labels We Carry Dialogue (📄PDF): Discuss how academic or behavioral labels have impacted students’ access to peer learning opportunities.
Reframing Fixed Practices Workshop (📄PDF): Identify one static grouping routine and reimagine it using principles of flexibility and responsiveness.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Types of Flexible Grouping - Task, Interest, and Readiness

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Flexible Grouping Planner (📄PDF): Plan a future lesson using at least one form of flexible grouping (i.e., task-based, interest-driven, or readiness-aligned).
Group Type Reflection Sheet (📄PDF): Choose a recent group-based activity and evaluate its purpose, structure, and adaptability.
Student Grouping Lens Journal (📄PDF): Reflect on how your students might perceive your grouping choices. Do they feel empowered, tracked, or surprised?

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Design Jam: Flexible Grouping Structures (📄PDF): Collaboratively develop grouping strategies that support academic engagement, student agency, and belonging.
Interest and Strength Mapping Session (📄PDF): As a team, brainstorm ways to group students based on passions, strengths, or curiosities.
Ready for What? Roundtable (📄PDF): Explore how “readiness” can be used without reinforcing hierarchy, and share ways to make it inclusive.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Belonging in the Mix - Identity and Representation in Groups

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Group Composition Reflection (📄PDF): Analyze how diverse identities are represented in groupings and whether patterns of exclusion or imbalance emerge.
Belonging in Groups Journal (📄PDF): Write about a time you saw a student thrive, or withdraw, based on group dynamics.
Inclusive Grouping Commitment Card (📄PDF): Identify one intentional practice you will use to ensure all students feel seen and valued in group work.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Identity-Aware Grouping Protocol (📄PDF): Use this tool to reflect on student identities and ensure groups avoid reinforcing stereotypes or exclusions.
Belonging in Group Work Scenario Swap (📄PDF): Review scenarios of group work breakdowns and redesign them with dignity and inclusion in mind.
Classroom Grouping Equity Audit (📄PDF): As a team, review your grouping practices for equity, representation, and opportunity.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Grouping Structures Reflection Guide (📄PDF): A reflective tool to assess and refine your current grouping practices through an inclusion lens.
Flexible Grouping Planner (📄PDF): A practical template for designing group-based activities using task, interest, or readiness criteria.
Identity-Aware Grouping Checklist (📄PDF): A tool to support equitable and intentional group formation that reflects and respects student diversity.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes research on flexible grouping, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), identity-affirming instructional design, equity in collaborative learning, and inclusive classroom structures.

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 1

Inside the Story: Chapter 1

Finding Strength in Shared Stories

Chapter 1: A New Grouping Model ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Rather than assigning students to reading groups based on past achievement, Ms. Donovan surveys her class about their interests and offers a menu of text options: graphic novels, biographies, fantasy, and current events stories. Zach chooses a graphic novel about youth climate activists. His group includes students who are enthusiastic about the topic, not necessarily the strongest readers. For the first time, Zach feels like he belongs in his group. The shared interest creates instant buy-in and the pressure of comparison melts away. Group energy builds as students realize they are here to explore ideas, not just prove their reading level.

Pathways Through Numbers

Chapter 1: Math Choice Boards ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Inspired by UDL principles and flexible grouping strategies, the teaching team co-creates math choice boards. Each board includes visual puzzles, hands-on manipulatives, collaborative challenges, and abstract problems, offering something for every learner. Students are coached to make intentional choices, considering what helps them learn best. Some gravitate to pattern blocks, others to diagrams or written explanations. Engagement improves, and off-task behaviors begin to drop.

Inquiry in the Wild

Chapter 1: Layered Inquiry Labs ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Tasha begins redesigning her science labs around a tiered structure. Each lab offers a spectrum of participation options from structured observation to full experimental design, allowing students to choose based on interest and readiness. Students who previously hesitated during hands-on labs now feel comfortable starting with simpler tasks, while others embrace the freedom to pursue deeper investigations. Tasha notices a shift: students are more engaged and confident when their roles are responsive to who they are.

Confidence in Two Languages

Chapter 1: Identity-Aware Grouping ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Instead of grouping by English proficiency, Paulina’s teacher creates mixed-ability groups that honor shared interests and cultural backgrounds. Paulina is paired with peers who also speak another language at home or enjoy art, one of her strengths. The teacher integrates visuals, L1 (first language) supports, and multilingual classroom materials. Within this new grouping, Paulina begins to contribute through drawing and gestures, gradually finding her place in classroom conversations.

Designing for Belonging

Chapter 1: Barrier Spotting ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Kayla begins a collaboration with Mr. Hartley, a Grade 8 science teacher, by co-observing student interactions during a lab task. Together, they track not just task completion, but who is speaking, who is acting, and who is disengaged. Through student feedback and reflection, they uncover key barriers: noise sensitivity, unclear expectations, low confidence, and language processing challenges. Kayla maps these findings onto common group roles and begins identifying areas for targeted support and design.

▶ Learning Interlude 2: Planning with Learning Progressions

Learning Interlude 2: Planning with Learning Progressions

Occurs After Chapter 1 → Before Chapter 2

Module Name: Designing Clarity and Flow

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can describe the role of learning progressions in supporting growth.
I can use progressions to design flexible goals and tasks.

🎬 Learning Link 1: What Are Learning Progressions?

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Progressions Reflection Journal (📄 PDF): Reflect on how you currently track growth. Where could a progression-based lens add clarity or possibility?
Learning Progression Self-Scan (📄 PDF): Assess your familiarity and comfort with using learning progressions across subjects.
Progressions in Practice Sort (📄 PDF): Review a set of sample student goals and identify whether they reflect a linear, static, or flexible progression approach.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

What Is Progress? Dialogue Protocol (📄 PDF): Engage in a structured conversation about how your team defines and recognizes student growth.
Progression Concept Mapping (📄 PDF): Work together to define core concepts and map how they unfold across developmental stages or skill levels.
Team Audit: Current Use of Progressions (📄 PDF): Review unit or task designs to identify where progressions are embedded, or where they’re missing.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Using Progressions to Plan Flexible Tasks

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Flexible Task Planning Template (📄PDF): Design a task using a progression to offer multiple entry points and next steps for learners.
One Task, Many Levels Activity (📄PDF): Take a common classroom activity and adapt it to meet a range of developmental stages or competencies.
Student Profiles & Progressions Sheet (📄PDF): Match a set of student profiles to a learning progression and brainstorm personalized next steps.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Task Design Studio (📄PDF): Collaboratively design a task that builds from a sample progression and includes embedded choice and scaffolds.
Progression-Based Learning Stations (📄PDF): Break into small groups, each exploring a different way to apply learning progressions to content areas.
Anchor & Extend Planning Jam (📄PDF): Use an anchor standard or outcome and brainstorm progression-based adaptations that extend both support and challenge.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Making Progress Visible to Students

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Student-Friendly Progression Redesign (📄PDF): Take a formal curriculum progression and rewrite it in student-accessible language.
Learning Maps for Students (📄PDF): Create a visual tool to help students self-monitor and reflect on their growth along a progression.
Feedback & Progress Reflection Sheet (📄PDF): Practice writing feedback that names growth and links student effort to progression steps.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Making It Visible Workshop (📄PDF): Share and co-develop ways of helping students track, celebrate, and reflect on their progress.
Designing Student Progress Tools (📄PDF): Create draft visuals or trackers to represent progressions in a student-friendly way.
Progress Celebrations Brainstorm (📄PDF): Explore ways to authentically acknowledge growth across levels without ranking or labeling.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Sample Learning Progressions Bank (📄PDF): A curated selection of sample progressions across academic and social-emotional domains.
Flexible Pathways Planning Template (📄PDF): A tool to design tasks with multiple entry points, embedded progression steps, and differentiated success criteria.
Student Learning Map Template (📄PDF): A customizable template for helping students visualize and reflect on where they are and where they’re headed.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes key research on formative assessment, learning progressions, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), growth-oriented feedback, and personalized learning pathways.

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 2

Inside the Story: Chapter 2

Finding Strength in Shared Stories

Chapter 2: Planning With Students ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Ms. Donovan co-develops book club roles with the class, allowing students to choose roles that match their strengths. Zach selects the “connector,” a role that lets him draw links between the book’s themes and real-world issues. He thrives, linking scenes from the graphic novel to local climate protests and current news stories. He brings in photos, articles, and even a podcast episode that echoes the book’s events. The group begins to see Zach as a leader, someone who adds depth and perspective to the conversation. He starts staying after class to share ideas with Ms. Donovan.

Pathways Through Numbers

Chapter 2: Clarity Through Progressions ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

To deepen understanding, teachers involve students in co-constructing learning progressions. Together, they map out what growth looks like in place value, multiplication, and problem solving. Students begin identifying their own “just-right” zones and choose tasks from the board that align with their goals. Teachers notice students gaining metacognition. “I’m ready to try the next level,” one says, while another reflects, “I’m not there yet but I know what I need to work on.”

Inquiry in the Wild

Chapter 2: Planning With Purpose ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

To ensure growth across her diverse group, Tasha co-creates inquiry skill progressions with her students. Together, they break down what it means to question, design, observe, and report. These learning progressions serve as guides for reflection and planning. Group roles such as data collector, questioner, or illustrator are now assigned based on both comfort and emerging strengths. Students begin to view science not as something they must get through but something they actively shape.

Confidence in Two Languages

Chapter 2: Student Strength Planning ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

To make strengths more visible, the class co-creates a “Ways We Learn” board highlighting diverse learning preferences and communication styles. When asked to add her ideas, Paulina includes drawing, using her home language, and listening as her preferred ways of showing understanding. This board becomes a classroom reference point, guiding grouping decisions and learning tasks. Paulina begins to see her ways of learning as valued and legitimate, not something she must hide or change.

Designing for Belonging

Chapter 2: Progression-Based Co-Planning ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Using learning progressions for collaboration and content, Kayla and Mr. Hartley design lab roles that reflect different levels of participation and leadership. Rather than assigning roles arbitrarily, they build in student choice with tiered scaffolds. Some roles are observation-based with sentence starters, others involve synthesis and leadership. This allows students to enter at their current comfort level with a clear path toward growth. Kayla supports students in choosing roles based on their learning profiles and interests.

▶ Learning Interlude 3: Group Dynamics and Collaboration

Learning Interlude 3: Group Dynamics and Collaboration

Occurs After Chapter 2 → Before Chapter 3

Module Name: Interactions that Matter

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can plan for positive interdependence within groups.
I can name at least two strategies that support student collaboration.

🎬 Learning Link 1: Building Psychological Safety in Groups

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Safety Self-Assessment (📄PDF): Reflect on your current group structures—where might students feel unsafe or hesitant to contribute?
Student Lens Journal Prompt (📄PDF): Imagine group work from a hesitant student’s perspective. What helps? What hurts?
“Safe to Take Risks” Reflection Sheet (📄PDF): List classroom practices that support risk-taking, and identify one area for growth.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Psychological Safety Audit (📄PDF): In teams, assess your classroom environments for indicators of safety and connection.
Case Study Discussion: Broken Trust (📄PDF): Analyze a group breakdown scenario and co-design strategies for rebuilding trust.
Belonging in Groups Brainstorm (📄PDF): Co-create ways to make every student feel valued and seen in collaborative settings.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Roles, Norms, and Peer Support

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Role Reflection Tool (📄PDF): Reflect on which group roles are commonly offered in your class and who tends to get them.
Norms That Matter Inventory (📄PDF): Evaluate your current class norms. Which ones promote collaboration? Which need a refresh?
Peer Support Planner (📄PDF): Identify natural student helpers and plan structures that balance support without enabling dependency.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Group Norms Design Studio (📄PDF): Collaboratively draft a shared set of group norms grounded in equity and inclusion.
Role Diversification Challenge (📄PDF): Brainstorm inclusive group roles that highlight diverse strengths beyond the academic.
Peer Support Protocol Jam (📄PDF): Design strategies that help peers scaffold each other’s success, without taking over.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Reflecting and Repairing Group Functioning

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Group Repair Reflection Tool (📄PDF): Reflect on a time when a group dynamic faltered. What could have helped repair it?
Student Group Log Template (📄PDF): Try using a personal group log that tracks group participation and self-reflection.
Feedback That Builds Sheet (📄PDF): Practice writing feedback to groups that acknowledges effort, names contributions, and fosters growth.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Repair & Reflect Protocol (📄PDF): Practice a restorative circle process for unpacking and healing group tensions.
Feedback Role Play Sessions (📄PDF): Practice giving and receiving feedback as educators and as students might.
Celebrating Collaboration Gallery Walk (📄PDF): Share student work or group stories that illustrate authentic collaboration.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Collaboration Strategy Menu (📄PDF): A reference guide of research-informed strategies to support group functioning, voice, and equity.
Student Roles and Group Norms Builder (📄PDF): Editable planning templates for assigning meaningful roles and co-creating group norms with students.
Group Repair Protocol (📄PDF): A structured tool for supporting group reflection, accountability, and re-connection.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes resources on collaborative learning, cooperative structures, psychological safety, peer scaffolding, and restorative practices.

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 3

Inside the Story: Chapter 3

Finding Strength in Shared Stories

Chapter 3: Encouraged to Lead ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Inspired by Zach’s engagement, Ms. Donovan invites him to co-lead a group reflection. He helps design discussion prompts and volunteers to facilitate part of the session using a slideshow. His peers listen with interest and admiration. One student tells him, “You made me think differently about the main character.” For the first time, Zach feels seen not for what he cannot do, but for what he brings. He begins to read ahead in the novel and journal ideas without being prompted. His confidence blossoms, and other students now ask to join his group.

Pathways Through Numbers

Chapter 3: Flexible Math Labs ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

The team introduces math labs once a week, collaborative open-format sessions where students rotate through stations based on task type and interest. Roles are fluid. One day a student is solving a puzzle solo, the next they are coaching a peer. Teachers assign roles strategically using grouping data from observations and self-assessments. The room hums with quiet dialogue and constructive struggle. Confidence grows not just in computation but in collaboration.

Inquiry in the Wild

Chapter 3: Group Dynamics Reimagined ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

As the unit progresses, Tasha introduces flexible group rotations that shift midway through the inquiry cycle. Students move between expert groups and mixed-readiness groups, supporting one another through peer coaching. With defined norms and evolving trust, students grow more confident in supporting and being supported. Instead of static lab partners, students now collaborate based on task needs and individual growth goals. Collaboration feels dynamic, not fixed.

Confidence in Two Languages

Chapter 3: Collaboration That Uplifts ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

During a multilingual heritage project, Paulina is asked to help her group translate simple phrases between English and her home language. For the first time, her linguistic background becomes an asset to others. Her group leans on her expertise, and she takes pride in contributing. She starts participating more actively in group planning using translation apps, picture dictionaries, and visuals to communicate. Her peers express appreciation, and she begins to smile more during group time.

Designing for Belonging

Chapter 3: Partnership Protocols ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

The team introduces new structures to support safe and successful collaboration. These include color-coded visual cues for group norms such as ask before touching or one speaker at a time, a peer-prompt tool, and optional quiet zones for regrouping or working independently. Kayla models with students how to use these protocols and ensures every class adopts a shared set of flexible group norms. Students begin using these tools proactively, and classroom tone shifts toward collaboration rather than compliance.

▶ Learning Interlude 4: Pathways that Empower

Learning Interlude 4: Pathways that Empower

Occurs After Chapter 3 → Before Chapter 4

Module Name: Differentiation through Choice and Flow

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can offer multiple entry points and pathways for a task.
I can connect pathway choices to learner profiles and goals.

🎬 Learning Link 1: What Makes a Pathway Flexible?

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Pathway Self-Audit (📄PDF): Review a recent learning experience you designed. How flexible were the entry points and progression?
One Task, Many Roads (📄PDF): Take a single outcome and map out multiple flexible pathways to get there.
“Barriers to Flow” Journal Prompt (📄PDF): Reflect on what tends to interrupt student flow and how flexibility might support re-engagement.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Pathway Mapping Jam (📄PDF): As a team, co-design tiered options for a common task that reflect readiness, interest, and profile diversity.
Learning Roadmaps Gallery (📄PDF): Share and provide peer feedback on flexible learning pathway examples from each other’s practice.
Flow State Fishbowl (📄PDF): Observe or role-play a task designed for optimal student engagement. Debrief what makes it work.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Choice, Scaffolding, and Ownership

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Scaffolding Strategy Sort (📄PDF): Identify which scaffolds support access without limiting ownership.
Ownership Spectrum Reflection (📄PDF): Place current student tasks along a spectrum from compliance to co-creation.
Choice Point Inventory (📄PDF): Identify 3 tasks you can revise this month to include meaningful choice.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Choice & Voice Design Sprint (📄PDF): Work in groups to redesign a traditional task with embedded choice that still meets shared outcomes.
Ownership Case Study Review (📄PDF): Analyze examples of high-agency classrooms. What structures make them possible?
Scaffold Swap Meet (📄PDF): Share your best scaffolding strategies for supporting flexible pathways and collect new ones from others.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Integrating UDL and Pathway Design

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

UDL Reflection Sheet (📄PDF): Reflect on how the UDL principles (Engagement, Representation, Action & Expression) align with your current design practices.
Barrier Spotting Tool (📄PDF): Use UDL guidelines to identify potential access or participation barriers in a sample lesson.
Mini Redesign Challenge (📄PDF): Choose one lesson and redesign it using UDL principles and multiple pathway entry points.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

UDL in Practice Planning Session (📄PDF): Apply the UDL framework to a shared unit and plan differentiated pathways as a team.
Inclusive Design Roundtable (📄PDF): Share stories of where pathway design made a difference for engagement and inclusion.
From Framework to Practice Protocol (📄PDF): Trace a concept from UDL theory through to planning and classroom practice.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Learner Profile Planning Tool (📄PDF): Guide for designing flexible tasks based on learner interests, strengths, and needs.
Tiered Task Builder (📄PDF): Template for designing tasks with varying levels of complexity and support.
Flexible Pathway Planner (📄PDF): Visual map for planning multiple routes to a shared learning outcome.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes resources on Universal Design for Learning, differentiation, flow theory, task design, and inclusive pedagogy.

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 4

Inside the Story: Chapter 4

Finding Strength in Shared Stories

Chapter 4: Reading, Rethought ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

As the unit concludes, Ms. Donovan introduces learning progressions for students to self-select how they will show their understanding. Zach chooses to record a podcast episode with his group, exploring the book’s themes through dialogue and music clips. He writes part of the script, records a voiceover, and edits the final product. The podcast is showcased on the class website, and Zach’s parents reach out, saying it is the first time he has seemed excited about reading. His work shifts the way teachers see student expression, validating that comprehension can be powerful even when it is not anchored in traditional output.

Pathways Through Numbers

Chapter 4: Owning the Journey ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Students begin documenting their math journeys using journals, voice recordings, and reflection posters. They describe which strategies helped them most and what they want to try next. Some prefer working in pairs, others use music to focus, and some choose to revisit hands-on tools even as they progress toward abstract reasoning. The diversity of approaches is no longer seen as a problem, it is a strength. Teachers shift from delivering lessons to guiding pathways.

Inquiry in the Wild

Chapter 4: Student-Led Symposium ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

With agency over their process, students begin preparing for a culminating inquiry symposium. They choose how to share their findings. Some create digital slideshows, others build photo journals, models, or live demonstrations. One group combines a video journal with an annotated infographic. Tasha offers scaffolds but resists the urge to standardize. The presentations are diverse, creative, and deeply personal. Students take ownership not just of the content but of their own development as learners.

Confidence in Two Languages

Chapter 4: Pathways to Expression ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

When it is time to present, Paulina chooses to create an audio recording in both English and her first language, accompanied by bilingual visuals. The group presentation showcases the diversity of communication within their team. Afterward, classmates offer positive feedback on her clarity, creativity, and courage. Paulina begins initiating ideas in other group projects and volunteers to help new EAL students navigate classroom routines.

Designing for Belonging

Chapter 4: Pathway Menus ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Building on momentum, Kayla helps other teachers create group task menus where students can choose their mode of contribution: writing, drawing, building, speaking, or synthesizing. One student, who typically avoided speaking tasks, thrives when given the option to design diagrams. Another finds confidence in documenting group ideas with sticky notes. As choice and clarity increase, students report feeling more in control and more valued. Engagement rises and the tone in collaborative work becomes more trusting.

▶ Learning Interlude 5: Adapting as We Go

Adapting as We Go

Occurs After Chapter 4 → Before Epilogue

Module Name: Responsive Grouping and Formative Insight

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can describe how to use formative data to adjust grouping.
I can co-reflect with students about what is working.

🎬 Learning Link 1: The Feedback Loop - Gathering and Responding to Data

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Formative Reflection Log (📄PDF): Reflect on a recent grouping decision and what feedback or evidence informed it.
Mini Data Inventory (📄PDF): List current sources of formative insight you use. What’s missing or underused?
Adjustment in Action Journal (📄PDF): Write about a time you adapted mid-lesson or mid-week. What prompted the shift and what was the outcome?

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Formative Evidence Share-Out (📄PDF): Share examples of how you’ve used exit slips, conferences, or observations to guide regrouping.
Data-Informed Dilemmas Protocol (📄PDF): Bring a grouping challenge and collaboratively brainstorm responsive moves using real or fictional data.
Feedback Loop Mapping (📄PDF): As a team, map how data currently flows from student to teacher to action. What could be tightened?

🎬 Learning Link 2: Grouping Changes in Real Time

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Responsive Moves Reflection (📄PDF): Identify a current learning task and brainstorm small, responsive changes that could support group success.
Timing the Tweak Log (📄PDF): Track how long it takes to pivot groupings and what tools or routines make it easier.
Barriers to Flexibility Inventory (📄PDF): Note where rigidity shows up in your grouping systems. What would it take to loosen them?

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

“On the Fly” Simulation (📄PDF): Practice adapting grouping mid-lesson using a scripted scenario and shared strategies.
Grouping Flow Protocol (📄PDF): Map how and when grouping changes typically occur in your classroom or school. Analyze and refine.
Flexible Routine Redesign (📄PDF): Work with colleagues to build flexibility into daily or weekly structures through scaffolds and expectations.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Student Voice in Grouping Decisions

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Student Voice Reflection Sheet (📄PDF): Reflect on how students currently experience grouping. Where is their voice considered?
Student Survey Design (📄PDF): Create a 5-question check-in for students about grouping experiences and preferences.
Co-Reflection Planning Sheet (📄PDF): Plan how to build in moments where students reflect on group dynamics with you.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Grouping Voice Scenarios (📄PDF): Analyze situations where student voice was or wasn’t used. Discuss impact and alternatives.
Student Feedback Design Lab (📄PDF): Co-create tools or prompts to invite authentic student input into grouping decisions.
Respect and Autonomy Roundtable (📄PDF): Discuss how to balance student preferences with instructional goals and equity in groupings.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Formative Check-In Protocols (📄PDF): Ready-to-use prompts and tools for gathering ongoing insight into student understanding and engagement.
Responsive Grouping Tracker (📄PDF): A flexible tool for documenting changes to groupings, rationales, and outcomes over time.
Student Grouping Reflection Cards (📄PDF): Conversation starters to help students self-assess their experience and contributions in groups.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes resources on formative assessment, responsive instruction, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and student-teacher co-reflection practices.

▶ Inside the Story: Epilogue

Inside the Story: Epilogue

Finding Strength in Shared Stories

Epilogue: A Shift in Identity ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

During a class celebration, Zach shares a digital collage about his reading journey, featuring quotes, reflections, and sound clips from the podcast. He talks about how being grouped by interest, not ability, changed how he saw himself. Ms. Donovan reflects on the risk she took in shifting her approach and how it paid off. Zach’s story spreads to the staff room, inspiring others to rethink reading groups across subjects. For Zach, the change was more than academic, it was a transformation of identity, possibility, and belonging.

Pathways Through Numbers

Epilogue: Data Informed Decisions ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

In a final staff meeting, teachers share student work samples, journal entries, and audio reflections. They notice patterns: students are more confident, more articulate about their learning, and more willing to take risks. The team decides to continue using student reflection as a key data source for grouping. What started as a flexible math strategy becomes a schoolwide shift in mindset. Voice, agency, and access now shape the core of planning.

Inquiry in the Wild

Epilogue: Looking Back to Look Ahead ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Tasha shares her students’ inquiry journeys with new staff, highlighting how flexible grouping and layered tasks transformed her classroom. The once rigid biology lab is now a space of curiosity, collaboration, and student driven discovery. She reflects that while the content stayed the same, the way students accessed and experienced it made all the difference. What began as an experiment in grouping has become the foundation of her inclusive practice.

Confidence in Two Languages

Epilogue: A New Kind of Leader ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

By the end of the year, Paulina’s quiet leadership has shifted the way her teacher and her peers think about voice and participation. Her teacher now begins each project by asking students about their preferred ways to work and communicate. For Paulina, flexible grouping did not just support language learning, it opened a pathway to confidence, connection, and classroom leadership.

Designing for Belonging

Epilogue: Co Creation Culture ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

At a year end staff learning day, Kayla presents the co design process used with classrooms. Students are invited to share their reflections, and their feedback is clear: when collaboration includes choice, clarity, and flexibility, it feels safer and more empowering. Kayla ends her presentation with a powerful takeaway: it was not structure that students resisted, it was structure without voice. When we design for belonging, we co create the conditions where every learner has a place at the table.

▶ Learning Interlude 6: Writing Your Own Story

Learning Interlude 6: Writing Your Own Story

Occurs After Epilogue

Module Name: Sustaining Flexible Practice

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can name a change I will make to promote flexible grouping.
I can explain how this change supports inclusion and student agency.

🎬 Learning Link 1: Shifting Habits and Systems

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Habit Shift Reflection Sheet (📄PDF): Reflect on one practice you want to shift to promote greater flexibility. What might need to change in habit or mindset?
Grouping Autopilot Check (📄PDF): Identify one routine where grouping happens by default. How could it be redesigned?
Micro-Shift Action Journal (📄PDF): Name one small shift you will trial this month to enhance flexible grouping.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

System Shift Mapping (📄PDF): Work as a team to identify one system-level barrier and brainstorm collective shifts toward flexibility.
Barrier Busters Protocol (📄PDF): Use real scenarios to analyze and problem-solve common challenges to sustaining flexible grouping.
Schoolwide Flexibility Brainstorm (📄PDF): Envision what a school rooted in flexible grouping looks like. Create a visual mind map.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Collaboration and Co-Design with Students

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Student Co-Design Reflection (📄PDF): Journal about a current grouping or learning structure. How could students help shape it?
Listening to Learners Planning Sheet (📄PDF): Plan how you will gather student feedback to guide flexible grouping decisions.
From Voice to Choice Tracker (📄PDF): Note where student voice is currently heard, and where it could be integrated more meaningfully.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Student Partnering Lab (📄PDF): Design one co-planned grouping structure or task alongside a student (real or hypothetical).
Feedback to Action Protocol (📄PDF): Review student voice data and collaboratively develop responsive changes to grouping.
Student Panel Simulation (📄PDF): Role-play a student panel sharing experiences with grouping. Respond as educators and reflect.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Long-Term Vision for Flexible Grouping

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Vision Casting Template (📄PDF): Describe your long-term goal for inclusive, responsive grouping in your role or setting.
Flexible Practice Reflection Log (📄PDF): Look back on your growth across this module and identify three practices you’ll carry forward.
My 6-Month Commitment Card (📄PDF): Choose one practice to maintain and one to explore over the next term.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Collective Commitment Poster (📄PDF): Co-create a visual reminder of shared commitments to flexible practice as a staff or team.
Visioning Walkthrough Protocol (📄PDF): In groups, walk through a scenario or space and imagine it fully transformed by flexible grouping.
Sustainability Planning Jamboard (📄PDF): Use a digital or physical Jamboard to brainstorm how to sustain momentum post-module.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Next Steps Commitment Poster (📄PDF): A visual template for capturing individual and collective goals related to grouping.
Flexible Grouping Action Plan (📄PDF): A guided planning tool to define specific changes and strategies.
Reflective Planning Snapshot (📄PDF): A one-page overview for checking alignment between grouping, goals, and student needs.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes research and resources on sustained inclusive practices, co-design with students, collaborative planning, and shifting schoolwide systems for flexibility.

▶ Reflection and Recognition