Areas we can explore that will set the wheels in motion for you, your teachers, students, and administrators:
- Develop bigger goals of schooling by working with staff, students, and community to articulate a vision of the graduate: the skills and attitudes we are committed to focusing on to prepare students for life.
- Examine subject-area standards to unpack concepts, knowledge and skills for units of study.
- Design assignments to measure goals of learning and provide opportunity for students to personalize.
- Use timeless (e.g., Socratic seminar, science fair) and modern ways (e.g., design of infographic, end result of genius hour) of demonstrating learning to get students immersed in assignments.
- Design instructional tools to support student research: develop questions, identify credible sources, and synthesize information.
- Adapt the processes/cycles of experts (e.g., writers, artists, engineers, policy-makers, game designers) to support student design and development of a solution, performance, or prototype.
- Develop assignments that can reveal how students’ skills and attitudes are growing over the course of their PK-12 experience (e.g., creative writing, engineering challenge, civics project).
- Identify criteria and descriptors to evaluate student work that are clear to teachers, students, and families and are aligned to grade-level standards.
- Grow teacher practice of providing students regular, actionable feedback based on criteria.
- Articulate the role of a digital portfolio and develop supporting tools for the identification of artifacts, student reflection, and goal setting.