Lesson+5+Assignment

Lesson 5 Assignment:
=== I would like you to consider one of the student outcomes that we discussed, those being, Flexibility and Adaptability, Initiative and Self-Direction, Social and Cross-Cultural Skills, Productivity and Accountability, and Leadership and Responsibility. Think about a way to implement a component of that student outcome either in your classroom or your school. It may be something that you are doing already. It could be a new way to approach encouraging these behaviors. Using the 21stCentury model, integrating these outcomes should go hand in hand with a core subject area. Be creative and post your response below: In transferring knowledge gained in a resource room to the general education classroom, my students struggle with Flexibility and adapability. I often try to mirror the lessons that they would experience in the classroom, or have them use real life items to relate the concepts so that they are able to understand that the concepts dont live in a vacuum. Grouping them by different ability levels when they are in the classroom also helps them learn to adapt to people who think slightly different then them. Karen Banks-Carlisle ===

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In Language Arts, as a class we can discuss different leaders and some of the characteristics that they have. I teach Special Education and at times there are students of different age groups some of the classes. We would create a Venn diagram and write a song, poem or rap of the characteristics of a leader. Before we do our writing we would name some leaders and what they mean to us.======

Angel W.

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In Language Arts, I had one of my classes read the book Bridge to Terabithia. In addition, we were learning about sentence and paragraph structure. When we were finished, I had the students create their own story of a fantasy world like we read in the book. I had the students brainstorm, create an art project, type they story, and present the story to the class. By assigning this project, it allowed the students to explore the knowledge they gained about writing and take it to the next level. Furthermore, it allowed the students to be creative with their learning. Overall, the class did awesome. ======

Teri L.
I truly believe that one way to address and incorporate much of the above is through Service Learning. I plan on implementing a cross-curricular unit in the winter and spring that will include project based learning with a service component. Students will be responsible for comparing and contrasting different states/cultures and end project products will be based on individual choices of products and learning styles. The students will choose a community problem and brainstorm ways they can help or solve a community issue. I'm researching and building this project now. In order to address critical thinking skills and problem solving, we are doing the Action Based Research Scenarios with Ohio Future Problem Solvers.

Gail West I am currently having my students create a Diorama Project on Biomes of the World. This project enforces them to be held accountable for creating a project that must also be presented to the class. Some of the students have already presented and WOW have they done an outstanding job. This diorama was based on creativity, responsibility of completion, presentation, and having all the requirements met that were expected. I believe that they are many skills enforced when students do projects that are required to be completed at home. I also provided them with resources to help encourage them if they could not get help at home. Amanda B Our schools introducing project based learning to the students will activate all of these skills discussed. To focus on one area of these skills I would look at flexibility and adaptability. Students will need to be flexible when working with other students. These group projects allow them to take part in their own learning and to learn from each other. Flexibility is being able to not only give incite, but to take in others incite on the area being discussed. Adaptability will simply being able to learn in a new way. Instead of sitting at a desk and reading from a textbook students will be collaborating their ideas to complete projects. The students will learn these skills as the projects are being constructed. Aubrey Richards Our school is also introducing project based learning, and while it will indeed necessitate and develop all of the 21st Century skills and behaviors, I suspect that the need for student flexibility and adaptability will be the critical first step in developing all the other skills. The demands of learning, achieving, and succeeding in an increasingly interdependent global economy will require all our citizens to adapt to societal, economic, and technological changes which are likely to be sudden, rapid, and ongoing. Cross-curricular programs will increasingly become a necessity as educators must balance the financial and time demands made upon the educational system as it seeks both to respond and to become proactive to the demands of tomorrow's adult citizenry. For example, as my school supplements our core math curriculum with an internationally respected, scientifically based research program "Touch Math", students will be incorporating skip counting into music, art, PE, and even the playground. Thus, for students and educators alike, flexibility and adaptability, may likely be the precursor for all subsequent skill sets.

Janet Carrettin

It is important that our students learn all of the listed skills. I think one of the most important skills our students need is to hold themselves accountable for choices/decisions they have made. One simple way I held my students accountable was giving students jobs in the classroom. My students knew if their jobs did not get done in the proper way they would be held accountable. In this simple way, the students were able to see how some small things would affect the rest of the class and the students realized how important it was to do the best job they could (with whatever job they were asked to complete). In the bigger picture, by incorporating more projects into our curriculum, our students will have to learn to use several of those skills. Working in groups, students would have to be accountable their portion of the assignment and to each other and they would be forced to learn to get along with different types of people to work towards a common goal. I also think that students would learn to have self-motivation, develop leadership skills, and overall become more flexible people. These skills are all very important to helping our students grow into young adults. Ashley Cain

The first thought I had is that I would like to see our school get involved in FIRST Lego League as mentioned in the presentation. I've coached a robotics team for high school before, and I judge competitions in the Cincinnati, Dayton, state and national levels. The skills that students gain are incredible. They definitely learn problem solving in a fun and challenging way. They have an opportunity to examine a problem from the local to global level. Students are encouraged to present their solutions to the problem to community groups to practice leadership skills. They create calendars to complete their work in the six week build season. The teams are created by those who volunteer usually and the students have to learn how to work together. They make decisions about how each member will function and the responsibilities each will have. They have to decide how to make decisions - by consensus or by vote. They reflect on the outcomes of their work and as they go to competition, they have an opportunity to critically reflect on the work they've done and how they could improve it if they had more time. I am judging a competition close to us in November and hope to ask some staff members from my school to go see the competition in action so that we can prepare to compete next year. There is also Jr. Lego League for 2nd and 3rd graders and regular league for 4th - 8th grade students. This is something that would create energy in our whole school and the community as well. Jill Davis

Our school is going to integrate project based learning into our curriculum. I believe this will help students develop many skills because they will need to be able to work in small groups to complete projects. They will learn to collaborate with other students. The students will have to be flexible and adapt to working with groups. Project based learning will also help students learn social skills because they will have to communicate with their peers to meet their project goal. They will have to be able to make decisions, problem solve, and most importantly work together to meet a common goal. Allison Underation

I was actually thinking of having the students make a class/school newspaper. The studetnts will be working on self direction because they would choose a topic to write about that motivates them. They would also be working together as a team to decide what to "publish" and make sure not to hurt anyone's feelings if their work isn't chosen at that time. Leadership and responsibility would also be touched on because who proofreads, who decides where the articles would look best, and make sure to hit the timeline that the class decides on. The school could also work together at different levels K-8 graders all together to accomplish a goal.

Christina Clason

Our school is changing to shift a greater focus on project based learning. I support this initiative because it will drive the change in curriculum and practice. This will allow my students to work in small groups for a greater portion of their school day. By increasing small group times, students will have to learn to be accepting of others from different cultures or simply people with different belief systems. They will have to be flexible in order to accomplish goals. They will be asked to monitor and improve their time management skills. Finally students will be asked to give each other feedback about their experiences working together. This will provide many opportunities to students to learn to deal with both positive and negative feedback. Amy Damavandi My school has adapted Project Based Learning. This approach to instruction touches on all aspects of Life and Career Skills. With Project Based Learning, the students are given assignments that continuously change; it helps them manage their own goals, they are able to collaborate amongst their peers, leadership roles, individual responsibility and the ability to produce results. I think that Project Based Learning is going to help the students become engaged in the material and in turn inspire them to learn and become better entities in our society. ~Shannon Boros When instructing my students I try to incorporate real life examples so that the lesson is more relatable. In the past I have allowed students to be in small groups so they can collaborate with their peers while doing research projects. I also give my students options, allow them to make suggestions, share their ideas, and make decisions. We will be starting Project Based Learning at my school this year. I feel this will go hand and hand with 21st Century Learning Skills. I'm looking foward to learning innovative ways to inhance my knowledge and approach when teaching these skills. I'm very excited! Tiffany P.

I would like to teach a social studies unit on social and cross-cultural skills. I would dedicate a week or so to this unit, and get to know my students and their parents on a cultural level. I would like my students to bring in items they eat, wear, or use to celebrate something from their culture. I believe it is important for adults and children to not only learn about where other people come from, but understand it. At the end of the unit, I would have a cultural day celebration and invite the students and parents to have a feast (everyone would bring something to eat from their culture) and have each student give a mini 5 minute presentation on their food/ items they brought in from home. Also, I would have them journal about something they learned about another culture.

Richelle Short Our students need more guidance in their social and cross-cultural skills. This is why our school is also developing a greater integration of Project-based learning with a focus on collaboration, group-work and a hands-on approach to content in the classroom. So many of our students live in a "bubble" where the only interactions they have on a daily basis are with their family and grade-level classmates. The main goal of this semester's project-based learning is to allow these students to learn the social and interactive skills they will need to work in groups and in an environment different than their homes. Each student will be paired or grouped with students that they would normally not work with on a daily basis in the classroom, in hopes that this will allow students to learn from others. In addition to working with others, our students will have opportunities to get information from and interact with people outside of the school environment; this includes members of their community, government personnel, residents of other states, etc. Hopefully, communicating with these "outside" resources will get our students to think outside the box and learn some life skills. Nichol Byczek One of the student outcomes that I would like to consider is the Initiative and Self-Direction outcome. I believe that students need help to utilize and manage their time effectively, work independently, and be self-directed learners. They depend way too much on someone telling them exactly what to do. That does not fit within the 21 Century Skills framework. Our K-2 teachers are doing action research this year with The Daily 5. The Daily 5 is a structure to ensure that all children are working at their level of challenge while taking responsibility for their learning and behavior. Integrated with language arts, the students read, write, and work with words independently or with peers as the teacher works with small groups. This structure will help students develop habits that will lead to a lifetime love of reading and writing and a lifetime of independent literacy and career skills. As students are offered levels of freedom, they learn to set goals, manage their time and become self-directed independent learners. Diana Zidian

This past week I had my 8th grade class do research on Darwin and the amazing creatures he discovered in his voyage around the world. I told them they would have to present the material this up coming week. I picked two very low learners to be the leaders of their groups. I gave them their directions and told them they must inform the group. To my surprise they not only gave the directions to their classmates but they answered questions that their classmates had. They have to this point done an excellent job as group leader. They have kept their groups on task and have taken control. Usually in class they sit back and let others lead the way. I am interested in see the final outcome on Tuesday. Steve Voegele

My area would be Leadership and Responsibility. Since I don't have a classroom, I want to institute student-of-the-month from each classroom. We will highlight these students by putting their pictures on a bulletin board. The teachers are to select students based on responsibility, good character traits, attendance, attitude, and leadership. Of course, these traits can all be developed within the classroom if the students don't have the opportunity to learn these at home. We purposely did not include grades so that students realize how important these other traits are; plus, sometimes students get discouraged because their grades are not the highest and can never seem to be recognized. Also, in grades 4-8, I would lile to start to have students select officers of their classes; these students will meet with the principal and asst. principal to discuss issues and how they can be a leader in their class. We have 8th grade officers already, and it is working out very well. Sally Porter

As Sally was talking about her school's current use of 8th grade officers, I began to think about how that would work out in my school. Then I determined that, while having a student council or something similar helps identify who the leaders in the student body are, I don't think that should be the entirety of the leadership skills addressed. In my music classes, each student has strengths and weaknesses. I've assigned projects which allow each student to work collaboratively to create a product that is entirely their own. I do not specify the form the final product must take. I do assign each student a leadership role in the creation of the project. This gives the students an opportunity to assign tasks to their peers, and to take on projects by their peers. So far, this has been mildly successful. I believe that over time this will blossom, however, it is such a new concept for my students, it will take a while to bloom. - Kevin Fancher

The student outcome that I would like to consider for our school is the Social and Cross-Cultural Skills. Students need to be able to brainstorm and work creatively with others. They need to be able to communicate and collaborate effectively within a team. They need to practice being a leader and a member of a group. Higher levels of imagination are learned from each other. Students need to practice active listening and articulating ideas effectively. Team learning projects help to develop these skills. I am incorporating cooperative learning structures in our school. Taken from Kagan, Delaney, Marzano, and others, these structures are just a framework to teach the core content. It's not the what, but the how. The teachers will participate in professional development that will demonstrate ways for their students to develop the abilities to work in diverse teams. They must be taught how to invent solutions to real world problems. The students sorely lack the very skills that will prepare them for the 21st Century. These skills must be practiced. Linda Mansfield

The student outcome that I would like to consider for our school is Flexibility and Adaptability. Students need to be able to work effectively with another and adapt to their different learning environments. Teacher can serve as role models for their students and help them in dealing with negative issues but also giving them positive feedback. Students should be able to adapt to change because throughout their entire life they will need to be flexible and deal with both criticism and praise. Teachers and students should participate in school character education programs and work together to work through the challenges to be successful. Teachers should also participate in professional development that can familarize them with flexibility and adaptability because they too have to be able to adapt to change. Carly Polder

The student outcome that I would place the majority focus on in the classroom is social and cross-cultural skills. The direction that education and societal success is headed places these skills at the top of the list. Students need to learn and apply skills such as communication, leadership, various roles as a team member, collaboration and research skills that integrate the classroom to the outside world. Project-based learning is the future of our school system that will rely heavily on these social and cross-cultural skills. As Linda stated above, we are placing these strategies in our classrooms through the incorporation of Kagan, Delaney, Marzano, and others that have provided a variety of frameworks. Stephanie Groscost

I think that all the skills that fall under this category are important. However, the skill of accountability is an issue in my classroom. It seems like the students are just expecting me to give answers or even complete their work for them. I will never know what goes on at home and I know I never will but homework is another issue with accountability. I have some parents that are still completing homework for the child. Then when they forget something they are always blaming others and not being accountable for their actions. I try my hardest to make my students accountbale for everything in our classroom. Letting them know that this classroom belongs to all of us and its all of our jobs to keep it neat and to keep our materials nice so we can use them over and over. I also use a charcter education curriculum that has been really helping with this issue teaching the students that they have to be accountable for all thier actions here at school and home. We do a lot of role playing in the classroom to show the right way to be responsible for ourselves and how to handle the situation when the teacher or another adult has to step in. My goal is that they learn to do things on their own and how to properly handle the situation when consequneces or others are brought into the conversation. Making sure they know there is someone to answer to all the time during life. I also like to reward for actions that are done without having to be told for example, when students take it upon themselves to go beyond what was asked they are always getting positive praise which helps with their self-esteem. It also makes others want to act the same way. Christle Busch I believe that initiative and self-direction is important for students to start learning in the early grades. When I taught high school reading and language arts it was always important for my students to work at an independent rate. (For example, I had my students write a research paper on an approved topic. I met with my students individually to give them tips and guidance for their research topic.) Students needed to be able to set their own goals that correlated with the criteria that I set for the rubric and due date. Independence is **key** so that the students were able to monitor, define, prioritize and complete written tasks without my immediate attention. The students became self-directed learners by using different forms of media to write a research paper, they learned to set goals and continue to grow their knowledge base for any future classroom assignments. Tina Bennington I too believe that all of the outcomes that fall under the Life and Career Skills component are crucial in our students lives, but I have chose to focus on is leadership and responsibility. Teaching kindergarten students, I find ‘leadership and responsibility sometimes quite challenging to teach, due fact that many of my students’ parents are still doing the majority of their daily tasks for them. I start from the time they walk in my door in the morning; by having them hang their own book bags, take out their homework folder, and disperse all of its contents into the correct bins. The students learn to be responsible for their belongings. I discourage parents from helping their child at school, so that the student may learn responsibility. I also assign my students jobs and put them in charge of the majority of our classroom duties. We talk about role models daily and students are pointed out to everyone when they are showing the characteristics of a student that is showing a leadership role, by going above and beyond our rules and directions. Students are also responsible for their learning when it comes to centers and cooperative learning. I believe that when we are out in the world we need to know how to work together and that is why I believe it’s crucial to teach them at a young age that they need to take responsibility of their own actions, surroundings and learning, with guidance from adults. Jessica Vale-Stanford I would like to implement the aspect of Initiation and Self-Direction in my school. I think this is an aspect that will help students both now and in the future. I would encourage teachers to use the Project-Based Learning to give students opportunities to exercise initiative and self-direction. These projects would also require students to set goals, use time wisely and manage their workload. Before, during and after the projects, teachers can discuss with students how they can or did demonstrate initiative, being self-directed learners who are able to prioritize tasks and complete them with little to no oversight. A focus at our school is journal writing, and that provides the perfect opportunity to reflect critically to inform future progress.

G. Joy Beasley

As a kindergarten teacher I would like to focus on the Productivity and Accountability aspect. I think it is important for my students to realize that they control their own outcome and no one else is responsible for their work. Students often blame the teacher when they don't get their work done. I am helping my students this year to realize that only they can do their classwork and that only they are able to finish it. Some of my students tend to day dream and play around at their desk when they are supposed to be doing independent work. As a way to help them realize they need to be productive and that they are being held accountable for their uncompleted work my students have to turn their color and lose a privilege when they do not finish their work. By doing this in my classroom already this year the amount of students not completing seat work has been reduced and the amount of work being finished even if the whole assignment is not completed (by a select few students) has increased. Johanna Coppock

I would like to work on initiative and self-direction skills with my students. Many times, students don't take the initiative with their education and expect the teachers or (when presented with cooperative learning activities) group members to take the lead and make decisions. In addition, students also wait for teacher directives to complete a task. I want to instill confidence in my students so that they can take the initiative in class and in a small group setting and to complete learning tasks independently. This is a daunting task! I provide assistance to my students when help is really needed, but I provide encouragement to complete a task independently when I KNOW a student has the skills to do so. Also, providing students with tasks that will produce consistent successful results boost confidence and the ability to self-direct. That is, I give students tasks that they can always complete well and independently before giving new, more difficult tasks. This builds a ladder to successful thoughts and the ability to feel that one CAN complete a task on his/her own and maybe even help others! Rachel Sonego ﻿I think that Project-Based learning will incorporate a lot of the Life and Career Skills that were discussed in this unit. At its most basic implementation, PjBL forces students to work collaboratively with other students, which would help students with collaboration and cooperation skills. PjBL will also help students to adapt to the essential question they are given. It would be wonderful to see the students edit their question based on further research and then see their project go in a different direction. Finally, PjBL will help the students work on self-direction. With so many groups in the classroom, it is going to be up to the student to make sure that they are fulfilling all of the components of the Project. Project-Based Learning will definately aid in the development of Life and Career Skills for our students. Meg Story Productivity and Accountability are the outcomes that I believe need to be focused on. Our school is doing "The Power of the 'I' " which is the idea of not accepting incomplete work. The idea is that the students cannot simply "choose to not do the work" and take an F, but rather that they must be held accountable and make up/complete the work. And I realize this can be harder on the teachers as far as keeping track and going the extra mile to bring the kids in extra times, including giving up teacher planning time to tutor kids, but if we simply allow the kids to opt out of homework, studying for tests, or whatever feels uncomfortable or difficult for them, what habits do we encourage for their adulthood? Plus we, as teachers, all recognize that the kids will never become smarter or smart enough just listening to half of what we teach and doing none of the practice or application. Our kids deserve better than that so this year I am not accepting "I didn't do my homework." BethAnn Harrison Flexibility and Adaptability, Initiative and Self-Direction, Social and Cross-Cultural Skills, Productivity and Accountability, and Leadership and Responsibility.

For the past few years, I have implemented Student Council. I feel that this teaches not only Leadership and Responsibility on the leaders part, but also it teachers Flexibility and Adaptability. I have also re-started this year goal setting for the students. I have them choose 5 goals per week, 1 per quarter and 1 per year. We revisit them weekly and adjust them as needed. They tell me the truth if they have accomplished them. Our weekly goals can include goals for their house, academic goals or goals for their behavior. I have found that they really like it. I place them on a spread sheet and we discuss them weekly. The students can also journal about them in their homeroom journal. This way they are focused on what they want to accomplish. Eventually, once they understand how to set and accomplish their goals, they also be able to pick out of a treasure box when they have accomplished their goals. It is a fun and easy way to teach Initiative and Self-direction. Trena Foringer

The outcome I'd like to see in my classroom and school is better social skills, life and career skills. My 5th graders are in the process of attempting to understand and respect one another. This year has been a challenge with various forms of bullying. As a class, we have been engaging in circle discussions in which we share stories, feelings, and experiences. They are learning that they have more in common with each other than originally thought. At the beginning of the day, we spend a few minutes talking about the day and night before, accessing who had a bad night or who might not be starting off on the right foot that morning. We are slowly learning to help one another instead of make fun of one another. Kimberly McGee

I would like to focus on Productivity and Accountability with my students. Because they are 5-7 years old, they are very dependent on others. Starting at the beginning of each year, I try to teach them that they are responsible for their homework. It is not mom or dads job to put it in the turn in box, it’s theirs. Stopping at the turn in box is part of their daily routine so it is their job to complete their homework and turn it in. Likewise, they are accountable for being in dress code. For example, it is not anyone’s job but their own to make sure they have on a belt. Brittany Petz

I think that all of these components are important and necessary for the success of our students. I am working on encouraging flexibility and adaptability with my own students. I have learned that structure is very important in the classroom, but that a little flexibility is okay too. I am trying to challenge my students in order to prepare them for the expectations they are going to face the following school year and beyond. As we begin to implement project based learning into the classroom, students will have the opportunity to work with other students where they will need to adapt to one another and challenge one another in order to find thier own creativity. In challenging them, I am also holding them acountable for themselves in thier behavior and thier academics. Gillian Roth

I think that the focus on Productivity and Accountability is very important. We all want our students to be successful members of society when they become adults. They only have a small window in life to learn the work ethic they need to be productive and the values they need to be accountable. There is no excuse for any educational system to have an output of young adults that are ill prepared for a work force that is increasingly demanding more and more skills of their potential employees. I would like to see a program that would have middle school students research one or two careers they are interested in. Begining with the type of education they will need and the skills they will need in order to even be considered for the job. I also believe that they need to know the amount of hard work that is involved in just preparing for a particular career before they can even apply in that field. I believe that the realization of what is required in some instances will have an impact on the mindset of some (or most) of our students. Vikki W.

Social and cross cultural skills are something I take very seriously. It is fairly rare that I have students do independent work (although it does happen sometimes). I want students to learn how to collaborate and communicate with each other to create an end product. So much of real life is based on working together. I've encountered a lot of problems with working together and it's something that needs to be improved. Jenny Kane

I would like to focus on Productivity and Accountability with my students. As we are coming to the end of the first quarter, I see that MANY of my students are consistently not turning in their homework. We talked about this at the beginning of the year and they know that after the end of the week, I do not accept any late work. One of the teachers at my school from last year started a "Homework Club." I am thinking about starting this for the second quarter. Some students might not have time to complete homework at home or they just choose not to do it, but by starting this homework club, students will have time during recess to complete any work that they did not finish. They will not be allowed to have their free recess time until their work is turned in. This is not necessarily a way to punish students for not doing their work, but a way for students to learn that they have to earn their free time in school. It is not fair for every student to have free time when some do not deserve it. My students need to learn that they need to be accountable for their work. Emily Volk

Lesson 5: In today's complexed and rigorous multi-cultural sociey, students must now learn skills that will prepare them for the further. We must teach our students to solve problems that does not exist today, as well as teach job and skills that are not even through of, we must teach students technology that had not been invented yet. we as teacher need to teach student how to learn in addition to what to learn. Tranditional learning is not adequate to the way we learn today. We as teachers must learn to facilitate lessons as appose teaching lessons. Our teachers must be able to explain to parents, students, and the community why a change in teaching methods is needed. Our school is moving towards Project Learning Base curriculum. Having this type of curriculum in place will allow students to use their knowledge and skills to become better problems solvers, as well as comprehending new ideas, which would lead to becoming independent thinker, and collaborators, and also communicator and decision makers. I feel that this process will empower our students with the necessary tools needed to be successful for life. <span style="color: #800080; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif;">Janice P