Why wait?
Does someone who has 10,000 subscribers want to publish this blogpost ? CLICK HERE
"If you are a teacher, then you are the school system for the 25 students sitting in front of you."
Sir Ken Robinson
You can give feedback today to students about their levels of mastery of the 21st Century survival skills that Tony Wagner describes. See how skills are part of a history class CLICK HERE
I wish I had known about this process before.
The group of around 150 schools is in the development phase... for the mastery transcript.
...what can the rest of us do while we wait for the report from the 150 private schools? We can each take the idea and apply it to our classrooms.
Most teachers currently give academic points and a grade A to F as feedback. We can also let the students know that "You have demonstrated the survival skills of organization and collaboration/cooperation in this project. If you work at it a bit more, you can also demonstrate two more of Tony Wagner's global skills."
How?
(1) Select a list of skills that you want students to master
(2) Ask the student to create projects to demonstrate the skills
Here's how a teacher in Florida uses skills as part of a World History class (click here):
"Within this 21st century skill framework there are common strands, or learning skills, that will allow students to thrive in the world of work and to be productive entrepreneurial citizens."
The 21st Century Skills as described by Tony Wagner
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
COLLABORATION ACROSS NETWORKS AND LEADING BY INFLUENCE
AGILITY AND ADAPTABILITY
INITIATIVE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
EFFECTIVE ORAL AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
ACCESSING AND ANALYZING INFORMATION
CURIOSITY AND IMAGINATION LINK
You can find other lists of skills at BIG PICTURE LEARNING
A comment by Charles Cornelius (2009 blogpost)
So where's Maths?
"Interesting that Wagner has not included Maths as one of the essential survival skills. In a later chapter on testing he discusses this, pointing out that employers "appear to place comparatively little value on content knowledge in either math or science as a prerequisite for work today" (p.91) and supports this with a survey of the skills sought by employers that put maths knowledge in 14th place. To graduate from high school in the USA students must pass a maths exam that includes algebra; given that few ever use it again, even MIT graduates, he questions why this is the case, and whether the other Maths that is taught in schools is relevant. Is it being used to solve problems, recognise patterns and as a way of thinking, or just as a way to do lots of rote learning and sums?
As I have found out, questioning the significance of maths in the school curriculum raises hackles. When I raised this question on a teachers' forum once, I was once told to resign as a teacher because I clearly did not understand my job, along with various other horrified and appalled responses including suggestions that I wanted to handicap children for life, so Tony Wagner has my utmost respect for raising the question."
-- Charles Cornelius
EXAMPLE to show how the students demonstrated each skill
While we wait for the MASTERY TRANSCRIPT to be released, we can...
...Build a list of skills and use that list to guide how students move through your courses.
You can invite other teachers at your school to participate ... encourage students to build A BIG PROJECT that earns academic points in several subjects. Here's an example TINYURL.com/SunNHD A National History Day project is an example of a project that takes several months, can involve several subjects and might include other students.
In a typical project, students might demonstrate four of the skills. Entrepreneurship might require starting an online business based on the project (perhaps the students could have created a line of products to commemorate the "Man who saved the world" -- perhaps a mug or a T-shirt?).
In the chart on the right, quotes in italics come from the process paper that the students prepared. CLICK HERE
Wagner's 21st Century Skills
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING :
COLLABORATION:
AGILITY AND ADAPTABILITY:
INITIATIVE AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP :
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION :
ACCESSING AND ANALYZING INFORMATION:
CURIOSITY AND IMAGINATION:
**OPTION = a teacher's comments about possible additional items to strengthen the project
How the students demonstrated the skills
"We interpreted “taking a stand” as making a critical decision in the face of adversities."
The two students worked together
"We included a short “Choose your own adventure” section on the home page to function as a hook and put the viewer in Stanislav Petrov’s shoes at the time of the incident."
(**OPTION: Create a mug and a t-shirt with Stanislov's photo?)
The students created a website and a process paper.
(**OPTION: add a video)
Look at the dozens of references!
"I initially stumbled upon Stanislav Petrov’s story while surfing the web roughly a year ago. I was astonished at how I had never heard of this man before, given that he may legitimately be the only man that can say he saved the world. It was apparent that none of my peers knew about him beforehand as well."