PLP stands for "Personal Learning Plan". Each student here at SRA will have the opportunity to compose a PLP and form a team of supporters around them who will help them on their journey. This document will become a guide map for students. They are co-authors of this plan along with their team, including a facilitator who will be their primary guide. Every assignment, project, reflection opportunity, and experience students encounter or embark on will connect with this plan and can be checked against it. Students should feel empowered by their level of control and voice in the process and encouraged by the level of support they are granted through their team.

SHOAL stands for an opportunity for students to Survey Hazards and Opportunities that Advance Learning. Shoals are spaces in waterways where the sand washes in from the current and creates a shallow space where it is easy to embark on a boat or wade into the water slowly. One goal of our learning program is to create as many shoals as are necessary for students to wade in and out of the challenging currents of learning and life. First, students are granted a period of time to draft their PLP and spend time reflecting on their strengths, needs, and goals in Success Lab prior to starting academic work. That first shoal sets the tone for the work ahead. Every day and each week, there will be opportunities to wade in and out, assess their progress in Success Lab, connect ongoing work to their PLPs, and confer with their PLP team.

A river's current is the force the makes it flow out to the sea. Our students are on a journey to somewhere bigger, more challenging, and awesome than the walls of our school, and learning to navigate both with and against different forces is a core skill we want them to learn. After safely preparing in a shoal, students are ready for CURRicular ENTry, which represents the beginning of or continuation of progress toward earning credits through either coursework or projects.

All boats require some force to propel them forward, and an oar is the simplest tool for this purpose. In our program, we will use Ongoing Academic Reflection (often in the student's Success Lab course) to tie XPs to their PLP and to navigate the challenges of the currents they face--whether academic, social, personal, or societal. At SRA, through personalized learning, we believe any student with an oar can paddle through the currents they face. When things get tough, students may bring more oars aboard via adding another student to their boat for a project, or by consulting with a PLP team member to tackle a difficult question or challenge.