PROFESSIONAL LEARNING INSTITUTE The Make It Awesome Institute Where the science of reading meets creative, memorable, classroom-ready teaching. Keep the goal. Change the experience.

Bring It to Your School Try the Framework Make a Lesson Awesome

THE PROBLEM Effective instruction should not feel forgettable.

Every curriculum has good lessons. Every teacher has good intentions. But even evidence-based instruction can become predictable, disconnected, or flat.

The Make It Awesome Institute helps educators redesign everyday literacy lessons without sacrificing the instructional goal or the evidence underneath it.

Keep the goal. Change the experience.

THE MAKE IT AWESOME FRAMEWORK Five moves. One better lesson.

Click through the framework. The sequence matters: engagement comes after we know what students need to learn and what evidence we need to protect.

1 · Goal 2 · Friction 3 · Evidence 4 · Redesign 5 · Refine

STEP 1

Identify the goal.

Clarify exactly what students need to learn or practice. If the goal is fuzzy, the redesign will be too.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS REDESIGN Across the whole literacy block.

Phonological AwarenessSound play, segmentation, blending, and oral practice.	PhonicsWord recognition, decoding, encoding, and meaningful practice.	FluencyAccuracy, automaticity, expression, rehearsal, and performance.	VocabularyWord knowledge, morphology, context, and application.	Knowledge BuildingContent-rich reading, discussion, inquiry, and connections.
ComprehensionMeaning making, discussion, strategy use, and text thinking.	WritingPurposeful drafting, composing, revising, and sharing.	Small GroupTargeted instruction without turning the room into a worksheet factory.	AssessmentGather useful evidence without making assessment the whole experience.	InterventionMore precise—not simply more of the same.

FIND THE FRICTION Why is this lesson not landing?

Choose the problem you see most often

Too predictable Students are passive No real purpose Skills feel isolated Practice is too easy Too much at once

Try changing the structure—not the goal. If students can predict exactly what happens every day, add variation through challenge, collaboration, choice, performance, inquiry, or an authentic audience.

TRY IT The Task → Awesome Challenge

Choose a routine literacy task and a redesign move. Then see what happens when the learning goal stays put but the experience changes.

Choose the task Copy vocabulary definitions Read the same passage three times Complete a phonics worksheet Answer comprehension questions Write a paragraph for the teacher Read a content passage and take notes

Choose the redesign move Performance Challenge Collaboration Authentic audience Choice Inquiry

Make This Lesson Awesome

TASK

Copy vocabulary definitions.

Students copy definitions and perhaps use each word in a sentence.

AWESOME

Turn the words into a performance.

Students still learn and use the target vocabulary, but teams create a 30-second scene in which the meaning of each word has to be obvious without saying the definition.

WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT Not games for the sake of games.

Live Lesson MakeoversWatch ordinary curriculum activities get redesigned in real time.	Before-and-After ExamplesCompare the original task with the redesigned learning experience.
Collaborative Redesign StudiosBring lessons from your actual curriculum and improve them with colleagues.	Task → Awesome ChallengesPractice transforming routine work while preserving the learning target.
AI-Assisted RedesignUse AI thoughtfully as a brainstorming partner without outsourcing teacher expertise.	Ready-for-Monday PlanningLeave with redesigned lessons, tools, templates, and a plan for what happens next.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND? People who want evidence-based teaching to feel like great teaching.

Classroom Teachers Reading Specialists Literacy Coaches Interventionists Principals Instructional Coaches Teacher Educators Curriculum Leaders

BRING MAKE IT AWESOME TO YOUR EDUCATORS Make the professional learning feel like the teaching we want.

Available as a keynote, half-day workshop, full-day institute, multi-day institute, or customized professional learning series.

Contact Chase → Explore Professional Learning →

Evidence-based. Student-tested. Classroom-approved.