Guide for Planning a Learning Expedition.

This guide aims to help teachers plan, reflect on, and revise learning expeditions. Growing out of the metaphor of an Outward Bound wilderness expedition, learning expeditions are long-term, in-depth investigations of a topic that engage students in the world through authentic projects, fieldwork, and service. The work centers on critical thinking, essential skills and habits, and character development. Ongoing assessment is woven throughout the expeditions. The first section discusses how to plan a learning expedition. The key elements--topic, guiding questions, learning goals, projects, ongoing assessment, and final assessment--are identified and described, and formats for planning outlines and overviews are presented. The second section presents six narratives of learning expeditions with their accompanying plan outlines, written by experienced Expeditionary Learning teachers. The expeditions ranged from first grade through high school and addressed a variety of topics: Galileo and scientific revolution; migration of humans, animals, and plants; ecology applied to community service; emergent literacy skills; architectural design of a new aquarium; and creation of a simulated bird sanctuary in the classroom. Together, the collection illustrates the common core of elements of a learning expedition and the freedom with which individual teachers and their students adapted and used them. Each expedition includes a narrative, a plan outline, comments on assessment, and resources. Finally, the 10 design principles of expeditionary learning are reviewed. (Contains 20 references and resources.) (TD)