This document provides a playbook for redesigning student learning experiences at Lovett School. It includes frameworks and design drivers to help educators reimagine how students learn. Six learning experience configurations are presented that illustrate how Lovett's new learning spaces can support different types of learning, including designing with writable surfaces, inquiry-based learning, using micro-environments, integrating ubiquitous technology, designing for flexibility and agility, and designing for learning groups. The goal is to promote shifting thinking from "how we teach" to "how they learn".

1. Redesigning the environment,
reimagining the experience
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
PLAYBOOK
The Lovett School

3. THIS PLAYBOOK
IS BUILT TO:
•
help educators redesign student
learning experiences through six
different lenses
•
amplify the work of the initial story
studio workbook
•
illustrate how Lovett’s six new
learning spaces can be configured to
support students and their learning
•
promote a shift in thinking from
“how we teach” to “how they learn”

5. “Compassion is the glue that
holds us together.”
- Lovett Educator

7. FRAMEWORKS
The conceptual foundations for action
1

8. THE LOVETT VISION FOR LEARNING
Lovett offers experiences that inspire our
students to love learning. We encourage
them to think critically, communicate
effectively, engage creatively, and collaborate
purposefully.
We provide the opportunities and resources
that help our students develop independence
and self-direction and extend their learning
beyond the walls of the classroom as they
grow intellectually, emotionally, physically,
aesthetically, morally, and spiritually.

9. THE LOVETT STUDENT:
•
•
•
is a person of character who lives the
ideals articulated in our character
pledge and is prepared to think and
act with empathy as a responsible
global citizen in an increasingly diverse
landscape.
•
is creative, constructing imaginative
ideas and innovative alternatives and
applying his knowledge to non-routine
problems, particularly those without
rule-based solutions.
is an effective communicator who
listens attentively, speaks articulately,
writes clearly, and conveys his ideas and
understandings in a variety of formats
using the language of his discipline.
•
works collaboratively to create a new
knowledge base, comprising multiple
perspectives. She builds leadership
skills by facilitating group discussions,
forging consensus, and negotiating
outcomes within a diverse group.
thinks critically and reflectively. As
a researcher, he is able to navigate
abundant information, analyze and
synthesize what he finds, and draw
evidence-based conclusions. As a
problem solver, she is more interested
in asking good questions and
developing ideas than in memorizing
facts.

10. DESIGN DRIVERS
What are the elements that support the
design of a student learning experience?
How can these factors drive the ways in
which we utilize our spaces?
Content: what students know
Skills: what students do
Mindsets: how students think

11. Tools: what students use to learn
People: who students learn with
Environment: where students learn

12. CONTENT
Consider content as the
context for learning and
not the sole outcome.
The attainment of a body of
knowledge represents a foundation
for understanding the world.
For your consideration:
What is the content of your unit? What content objectives do you
have?
Where are the compelling questions in your content? How can you
frame learning around authenticity?
What new sources of content can you employ?
Given your role as a designer, how could you assemble and blend
different media to promote the understanding of concepts across
the arc of a lesson or unit?
Could you intentionally craft an experience where students choose
from a selection of media to afford them choice in how they learn
and what content they learn with? What would this look like?

13. SKILLS
I am always doing that which
I cannot do, in order that I
may learn how to do it.
- Pablo Picasso
Being able to engage in a range
of learning behaviors contributes
to the capacity for independent
learning.
For your consideration:
Where in your current curriculum are you intentional about promoting
student skill development? Are those skills defined explicitly for
students?
As a designer, how will you use your new space to intentionally create
the conditions for the development of a specific skill?
How will you measure a student’s progression through the arc of
attainment of a particular skill? What constitutes success? If a student
struggles, how could you intervene to course correct?
Consider digital environments for learning. Does the emergence of
online learning suggest that there is a new context for skill development?
Should skill development occur in both physical and digital domains?

14. MINDSETS
Its not important whether
children hit the target today,
it’s whether they come back
to try again tomorrow.
- Rick Stiggins
Habits of the mind are how
students process in the context of
learning.
For your consideration:
How will you associate the skills that you identify as important
with a particular habit of the mind in order to build a deep, rich
learning experience?
What metrics could you develop to measure habits of the mind?
How will you, as an expert learner, intentionally and visibly
model a range of mindsets for students?
To be able to evaluate the development of mindsets in students,
how must your role change during class? What will you do
differently?

15. TOOLS
We become what we behold.
We shape our tools and then
our tools shape us.
-Marshall McLuhan
Strategic tool use amplifies
learning, adds value, and can take
learning to a new place.
For your consideration:
What resources will be used across the arc of the student learning
experience?
Which resources have you typically used in helping students
learn? Which have you used successfully? Why has this use been
successful?
What resources could you add? Would it be possible to allow
students to self-select how they use resources to learn?
How can technology expand the types of resources students have
available to them that they can strategically employ?
How do you know a specific resource adds value to the student
learning experience? How will you measure the impact of the tool?
What metrics would you identify to support this measurement?

16. PEOPLE
When one teaches,
two learn.
- Robert Heinlein
Learning is a social endeavor.
Learning how to learn with others
is a critical skill of a lifelong
learner.
For your consideration:
How will you design learning experiences that create connections
between learners?
How can people beyond the classroom become teachers? What
happens when the walls of your learning environment become
permeable?
How can your students become teachers? How could the design
process be used to promote that?
Ultimately, can your redesign of the student learning experience
promote the emergence of a universal role in class– that of a
learner?

17. ENVIRONMENT
Everyone and
everything around
you is your teacher.
- Ken Keyes, Jr.
Students learn from adults, peers
and their environment. The
environment is the third teacher.
For your consideration:
How will you intentionally shape the learning environment each
and every day, leveraging the components around you?
How will you design your spaces– both physically and digitally– to
support independent, small group and large group learning?
How can you create a culture in your learning spaces where
students have ownership of the spaces?
What will your digital learning space look like? What platforms will
you use to build a digital space that supports and drives student
learning?
How will physical and digital spaces interact together? How can
you help students understand that the digital environment can be
used for academic pursuits and not just social connectivity?

18. LEARNING DISPOSITIONS
Ultimately, the goal of a student learning experience is to promote the creation
of learning dispositions.
Dispositions are patterns of behavior, which guide the student in how he or
she acts when engaged in learning, and are based in knowing, doing, and
thinking.
The teacher as designer intentionally supports the development and
acquisition of dispositions by planning learning experiences that engage
students over multiple opportunities in knowing, doing and thinking. The
planning process also includes a thoughtful consideration of the design of the
learning space and how the space supports this process throughout the course.
We should be interested
in how students behave
when they know, but
also when they don’t.
- Arthur Costa

19. THE BIG IDEA
What I know / What I can do / How I think...
...contributes to the foundation of how individuals act as lifelong
learners.
...supports the choices learners make regarding where learning
occurs, who they learn with, and what tools they use to shape their
learning.
Ultimately, dispositions guide the learner in successfully negotiating
new learning opportunities independently and with others, and
provide the compass for life-long learning.
For your consideration:
How do you currently help students
build the capacity to act on their
own behalf as a learner?
How will you be intentional about
creating learning experiences that
promote the assemblage of sets of
disposition?
KNOW / DO / THINK / ACT

21. CONFIGURATIONS
Spaces to engage and empower
2

23. FOCUSING ON THE ENVIRONMENT
In the 1940s, pioneering Italian teacher
and psychologist Loris Malaguzzi founded
the Reggio Emilia approach to learning
on the premise that children develop
through interactions, first with the adults
in their lives– parents and teachers– then
with their peers, and ultimately with the
environment around them.
ENVIRONMENT, SAID MALAGUZZI,
IS THE THIRD TEACHER.

24. WHAT WE HEARD FROM YOU
Designers and teachers share an important skill:
the ability to listen deeply and with empathy.
During our workshop together, we listened
to what interested you most about your new
learning spaces. Those interests focused
on collaboration, how to use the furniture in
unique ways, how to use writable surfaces, how
technology is leveraged, and how the inherent
flexibility and agility of the spaces support
learning.
With that in mind, we crafted six learning
experiences that reflect those interests. Each
experience is designed with the six design
drivers in mind and includes a diagram of how
the space can be arranged to support the
learning experience.
It is our belief that these scenarios can provide
you with ideas on creating, as teacher designers,
the full arc of the student learning experience for
a particular unit.

25. The six scenarios:
1. Designing with Writable Surfaces
2. Designing for Inquiry
3. Designing with Micro Environments
4. Designing with Ubiquitous
Technology
5. Designing with Flexibility and
Agility
6. Designing for Learning Groups

26. DESIGNING WITH WRITABLE SURFACES
I want my students to write
on the classroom.
-Lovett Educator
Student groups interact around writable
walls as well as individual, rollable and
tabletop whiteboards.
Sample Layout:
Classroom 217
WRITABLE WALL

27. Sample Learning Experience:
CONTENT
Mathematics | Problem-solving
There is high value in putting pen or pencil to paper. In your
classrooms, you have the additional capacity to put marker to wall,
table, and whiteboard space. How will students constructively and
creatively draw on your learning space?
For this example, students engage in solving a series of
mathematical problems on any writable surface in collaborative
teams. The teacher provides feedback on their process by sticking a
post-it note on the working surface. The lesson could be modified
to have students add the first element of a solution and then go
to the next problem and build on a solution in a “math problem
meets speed dating” process. Encouraging students to sketch and
diagram their solutions adds depth to the experience.
Students then capture their problems and solutions for future use
with their smartphones and store the imagery in Google Drive
or on Evernote. Also, students could use Flickr or ThingLink to
annotate images with text, additional images, and video.
SKILLS
Critical Thinking, Collaboration
MINDSET
Persistence, thinking flexibly,
thinking interdependently
TOOLS
Walls, desks, rollable whiteboards,
individual whiteboards, markers and
Evernote, Flickr, or Thinglink
PEOPLE
Students work in collaborative teams
ENVIRONMENT
Classroom 217

28. DESIGNING FOR INQUIRY
We only think when
confronted with a problem.
-John Dewey
The “fishbowl” enables a central activity to
be observed and interpreted by students
sitting at the surrounding regular and mid
height desks.
Sample Layout:
Classroom 202

29. Sample Learning Experience:
CONTENT
English | Interpreting literature
Promoting discussion in learning spaces is a valued capacity.
Ensuring that all contribute in meaningful and rich ways takes
that discussion to another level.
In this example, students are processing a theme found in a piece
of literature which all have read. Each group has been assigned an
interpretive question associated with the theme. Each team spends
five minutes in the center of the room in the “fishbowl” processing
and discussing their question.
Students on the perimeter, and in their teams, process and
evaluate the discussion happening in the fishbowl center. Their
thoughts are recorded in a shared Google document. The teacher
then debriefs the question with all students to enlarge the
interpretation of the question. Important interpretations from
this discussion are recorded in a master Google document and
shared with the class.
SKILLS
Critical Thinking, Collaboration
MINDSET
Thinking about thinking, thinking
flexibly and interdependently, and
taking responsible risks
TOOLS
Students could record using pen and
paper, or could use a laptop to process
the discussion
PEOPLE
Students record interpretations using pen
and paper, or could use a laptop to process
the discussion
ENVIRONMENT
Classroom 202

30. DESIGNING WITH MICRO ENVIRONMENTS
Design informs the learner
of the intent of the learning.
Configure the furniture to host a range of
smaller interactions, both among peers
and teacher to student.
Sample Layout:
Classroom 201

31. Sample Learning Experience:
CONTENT
English | Writing and providing feedback
Having multiple environments in play at one time within a learning
space is a unique way to build support for a variety of learning
modalities. Utilizing the furniture in the room to create small
spaces to serve a specific learning task can support learning needs.
In this example, students are engaged in writing an essay during
class time. The teacher is meeting with individual students in a
“conferencing nook” set up by using the additional furniture in the
room. There is an intentional element of design that says this space
is for a different type of interaction that supports an associated
learning experience.
This furniture could also be used to create storytelling spaces, a
private collaboration space for two or more students, to support
a student to student peer coaching experience, or a “cave space”
where individuals occupying those pieces of furniture are working
independently from the rest of the engaged group.
SKILLS
Creativity, Critical Thinking
MINDSET
Persisting, listening to others,
thinking about thinking, thinking and
communicating with clarity and precision
TOOLS
Learning space furniture
PEOPLE
Teacher and student in a team
ENVIRONMENT
Classroom 201

32. DESIGNING WRITABLE WALL
WITH UBIQUITOUS TECHNOLOGY
WRITABLE WALL
This isn’t the time to use
technology to refine the
model we had before; this is
a time to harness technology
to let children go as far and
as fast as they want.
- Stephen Heppel
The physical learning environment acts
as a home to the learning context of the
virtual cloud.
Sample Layout:
Classroom 219
CLASSROOM 219

33. Sample Learning Experience:
CONTENT
Science | Lecture
How technology is leveraged can add a new layer or dimension to
learning. Having robust connectivity to the information resources
of the Web can completely change how content is used, and more
importantly, mashed up and remixed.
In this example, students are involved in a lecture with the teacher
on homeostasis and recording notes in a shared Google document
in teams of four. Each team is not assembled together in the
physical space; rather, they are organized collaboratively in a Google
document. The teacher has created a set of questions for investigation
that extend and challenge the students to apply and analyze the
lecture content in new ways. The lecture is paused and students then
address these questions at appropriate points in the lesson.
By doing this, the teacher emphasizes search skills, the ability to judge
online content for accuracy and reliability, and the ability to extract
content from a variety sources that can be used to build a solution to
a question. The teacher also adds another layer of engagement to the
lesson. Students create their answers in a Google document that is
shared with the teacher. Students also add questions for the teacher
that help them refine their understanding and continue the learning.
SKILLS
Collaboration, Communication
MINDSET
Thinking interdependently, questioning
and posing problems, and responding with
wonderment (bringing their own passions)
TOOLS
Laptops, Google Documents
PEOPLE
Students work in collaborative teams,
and are arranged collaboratively in the
Google Document
ENVIRONMENT
Classroom 219

34. CLASSROOM 218
DESIGNING WITH FLEXIBILITY AND AGILITY
A.
B.
Every classroom should be
spaces where children prove
anything is possible on a
regular basis.
- Will Richardson
The casters and tabletops attached to the
students’ chairs are especially well-suited
for a variety of interactions on a diversity
of scales.
C.
D.
WRITABLE WALL
Sample Layout:
Classroom 218

35. Sample Learning Experience:
CONTENT
Science | Developing guiding questions
Flexibility is the ability to change the shape of a learning space.
Agility is the ability to do it quickly.
In a science classroom, students are introduced to the concept of
cancer. To actualize the understanding of cancer, the teacher asks
each student to write two statements about what they know about
cancer, and five questions that they have. Each student then pairs
up with another by merging the two individual desks into a small
collaborative surface. The two students debrief and develop a
shared list. The two students then merge with two others to form a
grouping of four. Again, the students debrief and develop a list.
After this occurs, the teacher then assembles the students in front
of the writable walls in their groups of four and asks the students
to identify their top three questions and two statements and defend
why they were selected. These are shared and recorded on the wall.
This sets the stage for an inquiry process rooted in an authentic
topic and driven by student generated questions.
SKILLS
Critical Thinking, Collaboration
MINDSET
Listening to others with understanding
and empathy, questioning and posing
problems, and thinking about thinking
TOOLS
Writable wall, classroom furniture,
brainstorming paper or post-it notes
PEOPLE
Individual first, then a group of two, then a
group of four, then a whole class grouping
ENVIRONMENT
Classroom 218

36. DESIGNING FOR LEARNING GROUPS
Alone we can do so little,
together we can do so much.
-Helen Keller
The Verb furniture is perfectly suited for
small working groups.
Sample Layout:
Classroom 220
CLASSROOM 220

37. Sample Learning Experience:
CONTENT
World History | Sequencing and
developing frameworks
People learn by processing visual information. The eye and brain
form a powerful collaboration that enable the collection and
processing of visual information into meaning.
On the first day of class, students in collaborative teams are given
iconic imagery of the major themes of the course. The goal of the
experience is to have students sequence the images in the order
they believe to best represent the course trajectory over the year of
study.
The activity enables the students to discuss, sequence, reflect and
re-arrange events to develop a visual framework for what they
will study. These images then form the cornerstone and visual
cue for each unit of study throughout the year. To complete the
experience, each individual student completes a written description
of how the team functioned and problem-solved together to begin
developing the skills and lens for metacognition.
SKILLS
Critical Thinking, Collaboration
MINDSET
Persisting, managing impulsivity, listening
to others, thinking flexibly, thinking about
thinking, and applying past knowledge
TOOLS
Iconic images selected by the teacher
PEOPLE
Students work in small collaborative teams
ENVIRONMENT
Classroom 220

39. LOOKING FORWARD
How to use this playbook
3

40. CREATING NEW EXPECTATIONS
When changes occur in schools, there is an immediate impact
to the climate of that school. In the case of your new spaces,
a new classroom climate has been established by creating
open, flexible, writable and colorful environments. Those are
immediate and noticeable changes.
Over time, changes to the climate of a school can become
ingrained in a school’s culture, and become part of the
language and nuances of that school, what the school is, and
how the school educates its students.
Truly outstanding schools like Lovett are intentional about
how they create culture, and how they can integrate the
immediate impact of a change in the climate of the school
into the fabric of its culture.
At its essence, a school’s culture guides and creates the
school’s disposition.
Teachers have always established a cultural feel to their
classrooms-it’s what you do and do well. With new spaces
comes the need to reflect about how to create a new culture
of learning so that all use the space appropriately and
constructively in the service of learning.

41. Here are some suggestions:
• Transition your language from ‘classroom” to “learning
space.” It sets a tone for what the space is for.
• Immerse students on the first day in the space,
introduce them to the space like you would the
curriculum. Allow them to explore, make the space
their own, and understand what the space offers. Start
developing ownership on the first day.
• Have students use three colors of post-it notes from
your kit to place on elements of the space. The three
colors could be used to gather feedback on positive,
negative and interesting/intriguing things about the
space. Show that you value their opinion.
• Organize a learning space walk with the other teachers
to explore all the spaces together, so that students can
understand the intent of new spaces on a larger scale
and the space ecology of that floor.
• Conduct regular interviews with students about the
space. Ask them at the end of a lesson about how
space could have been used differently in the lesson
and activity. Ask: “How could this space been used
differently?” “And better?”
• Enable students to organize the space according
to the learning task. Start the lesson in a traditional
space arrangement and see how they repurpose it.
Build student ownership in this way.
• When using technology in class, ask them to “Go
45” with their MacBook. This means that they
have to shut it halfway which prevents use. Help
them understand when and why technology use is
appropriate for learning, and help them to learn
to manage the distraction that technology can
sometimes add.
• Invite other teachers not part of your group into those
spaces. They’re interested. Include them, and allow
them to offer their insights into the spaces. Learn
from them, and help start them thinking about how
they can build some of the capacities of the new
spaces into their rooms.
• Get parents and community members into the
spaces. These are great community workshops
spaces. Celebrate that by showcasing them to your
school community.

42. INDIVIDUALIZING YOUR EXPERIENCE
“What does this mean for me?” This
playbook offers an introduction to your
new spaces that suggests the diversity
and flexibility available, but is in no
way exhaustive.

43. Moving forward:
• take these six examples and remix elements of them to
create your own student learning experiences
• explore the range and diversity of activities, digital
enhancements, and configurations available to you
• challenge yourself to explore the “for your
consideration” sections of the playbook as a way to be
reflective about your practice, students’ learning and
your new spaces
• mark up the plan with which settings work and what
which ones don’t and why
• then ask your colleagues what they’ve discovered
• document how your students are creating their own
spaces
• feel free to send imagery and insights:
email at contact@thethirdteacherplus.com
or tweet at us @thethirdteacher

44. Paper, gears, brain, tools, people and box icons were created
under the Creative Commons License with icons designed by
Tom Schott, Dima Yagnyuk, Linda Yuki Nakanishi, Lauren Gray,
Alex Fuller and Polina Flegontovna from The Noun Project.