Document ID Planning Learning	Title Planning Learning at Milestone – An Index of Templates	Print Date 08/28/2022
Revision 1.2	Prepared By Sean Anderson, Director of Learning & Teaching	Date Prepared 04/02/2021
Effective Date  04/02/2021	Reviewed By  Advisors	Date Reviewed 04/06/2021
	Approved By Advisors	Date Approved 04/06/2021

A Guide and Index of Templates for Planning Self-Directed and Teacher-Led Experiences: You want to help someone at Milestone learn something

Once you and your students have determined what is to be learned and why, there are choices to make — how? Where? When? With whom? This guide will help you make some of those decisions, using a series of nested questions.

Will students learn independently (“self-directed”), or in a teacher-led environment?

Self-directed — on their own or in small, intentional groups

Will they primarily be making, creating, designing, or fabricating something and learning along the way? Or, are they primarily learning through reading, watching, listening, and synthesizing ideas into a written, visual, or audio product?

Making

Work with your student(s) to plan a Design Project. Work hard to find a Project Mentor to partner with your student(s) — someone with expertise in the subject area and/or production methods.

All good projects require some “just-in-time” instruction (plan ahead for these in the “What learning support will you need to complete this project?” section of the Plan — but also be ready to deliver lessons as the need arises): use a Lesson Plan to be effective. Plan with the Project Mentor whenever possible!

Studying

Work with your student(s)to plan an Inquiry Study. Work hard to find a Research Mentor for your student(s) — someone with expertise in the subject matter and/or writing (or whatever method of demonstrating learning proposed by the students).

Support your student with frequent check-ins, especially around the benchmarks they set.

Teacher-led — a course will be proposed and offered

Are you going to facilitate a collaborative project in which students work together to make, create, design, or fabricate something, and you support learning along the way? Or, are you going to provide sequential instruction, delivered as a series of planned lessons with assessments?

Making — Project-Based Learning is a good fit for the students and the subject matter being studied

Create a Course Proposal, and present it for approval at School Meeting. Design with students whenever possible!

If accepted and approved, create a Design Project Plan

All good projects require some “just-in-time” instruction (plan ahead for these in the “What learning support will you need to complete this project?” section of the Plan — but also be ready to deliver lessons as the need arises): use a Lesson Plan to be effective.

Create a Syllabus to communicate the plan for learning to students and caregivers

Studying — a class based in instruction (but preferably not exclusively lecture!) is a good fit for the students and subject matter

Create a Course Proposal, and present it for approval at School Meeting. Design with students whenever possible!

If accepted and approved, create a backwards-design Unit Plan

Create a series of Lesson Plans to support the learning

Create a Syllabus to communicate the plan for learning to students and caregivers

Visually, this process looks like: