A design-minded teacher facilitates learning that is flexible, creative, and collaborative—with a healthy mix of critical thinking, trial and error, failure, and success. In The Cardboard Classroom, authors Doug Robertson and Jennifer Borgioli Binis offer practical guidance and sample projects developed from Robertson’s authentic classroom experiences to help you find space for this engaging approach to instruction in your daily practice.

Elementary educators will:

• Discover why design thinking is more the identity of the teacher than instructional strategy
• Learn how design-minded teaching advances student learning and improves engagement
• Study real-world examples and experiences of the design process in action
• Receive comprehensive examples of projects you can utilize and adapt to fit your classroom’s needs
• Obtain reproducible tools and templates to enhance your understanding of the material

Contents

Preface

Introduction: Lighting and Thunder

Part 1: Overview of Design-Minded Teaching

Chapter 1: What Does Design-Minded Thinking Mean?

Part 2: Design-Minded Teaching in Practice

Chapter 2: Define—What’s the Problem? What’s the Goal?

Chapter 3: Design—How Can We Solve the Problem?

Chapter 4: Build—How Do We Create a Solution?

Chapter 5: Test and Revise—What Happens When We Try Out the Solution and Respond to Data?

Chapter 6: Reflect—What Did We Learn?

Chapter 7: Putting It Into Practice

Part 3: Becoming a Design-Minded Teacher

Chapter 8: Specific Designs

Chapter 9: Assessment in the Design-Minded Classrooms

Chapter 10: Cure-Alls, Buy-Ins, and Trust

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

References and Resources

Index