Embedded Files
"Learner-centered must start and end with learner agency and what the learner knows and can do; the journey should be guided by what the learner knows about themselves. With frequent opportunities to reflect on personal strength and needs, learners take on an ever increasing role in determining next steps, demonstrating their learning and celebrating their stories."
Creating opportunities for reflection
MTSS
Slate Tools
Celebrations!
What is learner agency and how do we promote it?
What is learner agency and how do we promote it?
Learner agency is student choice, voice, and ownership in the process. We do this in a few ways:
Create reflection opportunities
Give students the tools to monitor their progress.
Promote student conferences
Celebrate student goals and success stories
"We really are teaching ourselves out of a job. We want them to be ready to do this on their own."
-Mac, Mentor
Creating reflection opportunities
Creating reflection opportunities
Reflection is a part of almost every process in our system. Students and teacher reflect:
after a task is completed and rated
during conferences
after an entire experience
while using the continua and getting feedback
after a conflict of some kind
when behavior is an issue in a session
See some exemplars below:
A note about MTSS in a learner-centered community
Copy of MTSS + Behavior Flow Charts .pdfWe do have an MTSS team. We monitor all students at our school, behaviorally. Academics is an area of growth for the coming years. This MTSS process showcases what our steps are when tier one instruction and community norms are not enough for student success.
What are you tier one supports for behavior?
Mentoring (everyone has a trusted adult)
Building-Wide expectations
Culture-Building activities
Give students the tools to monitor their own progress
Give students the tools to monitor their own progress
Slate
Slate is our LMS, a website the West Ada Academies use to keep track of all data for students! Slate uses dashboards so students, parents, and teachers can view student data, work etc. Slate was built by Building 21. Below are resources to help you get to know Slate.
Competency Dashboard: the place where all competencies, ratings, and evidence is kept (pairs well without a studio, student-created tasks).
Task Dashboard: the place where tasks are created, assigned, and submitted (pairs well with a scaffolded studio)
"These tools are the students' tools. We just get to add their ratings and evidence. They own them."
"These tools are the students' tools. We just get to add their ratings and evidence. They own them."
-Tom, Building 21
Try Slate Now!
Visit the site: https://building21.org/open_resources/slate-dashboards/
Log into Demo as a student or teacher!
Username: demostudent --OR-- demoteacher
Password: demostudent -- OR-- demoteacher
Celebrate Success
Celebrate Success
We celebrate learning! When students complete their portfolio of evidence, they are given a slip to celebrate their work! The language supports both worlds we must live in currently: the credit and competency world. Students give the slip to the mentor and principal to celebrate. They are announced over the intercom and they sign a construction paper that says their portfolio completed. Students reflect on their journey through the studios, the evidence they created, and find a joy within it to share. Some share:
"I loved learning about..."
"Thank you Mr.___! You're awesome!"
"Next time, I will..."
Where are we now?
We already search for places where students can do things on their own. Sometimes we struggle with letting students do this and wonder where the line is of helping vs. enabling. In recent years, we have had some difficult discussions about what mastery means and how students can watch their own progress, explain their thinking, and make decisions on their own.
We are abandoning...
We are abandoning...
pedagogy of poverty
enabling total reliance
We are strengthening...
We are strengthening...
MTSS supports (What is our tier 1, 2, and 3)
What are the screeners?
What interventions?
never doing something for a student they can do for themselves
finding ways to celebrate learning and not just completion
We are newly embracing...
We are newly embracing...
Student conferencing
Coaching the Slate tools and how to use them to progress monitor for themselves
See how we are embracing learner-centered systems with our links below:
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