IMPLEMENTING EL DESIGN PRINCIPLES AND HABITS OF SCHOLARSHIP INTO THE LIFE OF OUR SCHOOL
STUDENT CHARACTER, INTRODUCTION WRITTEN BY ASHLEA EDWARDS AND ALICIA PERRY
Over the past several years, CL has built a strong foundation for student character. Our work began by embedding and creating rituals around the EL Design Principles. You will find evidence of this throughout the school: illustrative paintings in our auditorium, weekly Design Principle Spotlights at Community Circle, the 3rd grade Moving Up Ceremony, crew meeting discussions, and student-created displays in the classrooms. This laid the groundwork for deepening our work with student character by focusing on the Habits of Scholarship. Initially, our efforts focused on perseverance for the 2013-2014 school year. Our school community (students, teachers, and parents alike) enthusiastically embraced the concept of perseverance. Therefore, in the 2014-2015 school year, we deepened our Habits of Scholarship work by focusing on craftsmanship, perseverance, and collaboration. We adjusted our Design Principle spotlight to include the Habits of Scholarship. We also created a Habits of Scholarship rubric connected to classwork and expedition work. This rubric was sent home twice during second semester of the 2014-2015 school year.
At this point in our journey, we have identified some trends and patterns, as well as next steps regarding our work with student character. Because of the strong foundation we laid with the Design Principles and the Habits of Scholarship, students across grade-levels are being held to a higher standard, reaching higher standards, and setting even higher standards for themselves. This is evident in our students' stamina and quality of work. We’ve also noticed that parents are eager to learn more about how to support this work and integrate it into life outside of school. Feedback from survey data suggests that parents are starting to let their children grapple and struggle before rescuing them out of difficulty. In addition, parents are learning about growth and fixed mindset and recognizing instances of perseverance in their child. Our next step with student character is to revise and deepen our use of the Habits of Scholarship rubric. Our goal is to implement the use of this rubric across all grade levels and all academic areas.
Over the past several years, CL has built a strong foundation for student character. Our work began by embedding and creating rituals around the EL Design Principles. You will find evidence of this throughout the school: illustrative paintings in our auditorium, weekly Design Principle Spotlights at Community Circle, the 3rd grade Moving Up Ceremony, crew meeting discussions, and student-created displays in the classrooms. This laid the groundwork for deepening our work with student character by focusing on the Habits of Scholarship. Initially, our efforts focused on perseverance for the 2013-2014 school year. Our school community (students, teachers, and parents alike) enthusiastically embraced the concept of perseverance. Therefore, in the 2014-2015 school year, we deepened our Habits of Scholarship work by focusing on craftsmanship, perseverance, and collaboration. We adjusted our Design Principle spotlight to include the Habits of Scholarship. We also created a Habits of Scholarship rubric connected to classwork and expedition work. This rubric was sent home twice during second semester of the 2014-2015 school year.
At this point in our journey, we have identified some trends and patterns, as well as next steps regarding our work with student character. Because of the strong foundation we laid with the Design Principles and the Habits of Scholarship, students across grade-levels are being held to a higher standard, reaching higher standards, and setting even higher standards for themselves. This is evident in our students' stamina and quality of work. We’ve also noticed that parents are eager to learn more about how to support this work and integrate it into life outside of school. Feedback from survey data suggests that parents are starting to let their children grapple and struggle before rescuing them out of difficulty. In addition, parents are learning about growth and fixed mindset and recognizing instances of perseverance in their child. Our next step with student character is to revise and deepen our use of the Habits of Scholarship rubric. Our goal is to implement the use of this rubric across all grade levels and all academic areas.
CLAIM#1--Students are successful when there is a purposeful connection between the EL Design Principles, Habits of Scholarship, and academics. Due to meaningful integration of these into 1) the school rituals and traditions, 2) academic content, and 3) classroom culture, students are able to demonstrate, reflect upon, and take ownership of what it means to be a member of the Clairemont community and a contributing citizen of their world.
SCHOOL RITUALS/TRADITIONS EVIDENCE -- Reflection by Alicia Perry, School Counselor
Clairemont has made strategic steps in recent years to sharpen and deepen our work with the Design Principles and the Habits of Scholarship so students are supported and strengthened socially and academically. Our starting point was simple yet impactful: intentionally and routinely teach our students about perseverance. The faculty received professional development grounded in our anchor text, “Performance Values: Why They Matter and What Our Schools Can Do To Foster Their Development” by the Character Education Partnership. Teachers intentionally taught what perseverance looked, sounded and felt like. Academic learning targets included perseverance. Soon, students began to use the vocabulary associated with persevarance in conversations with one another and congratulated each another for persevering. For example, it became so much a part of our culture, that one Kindergarten class audibly gasped when a character in a story did not persevere.
Another part of our work with perseverance is focused on our parents. A five-session series, “Building Perseverance In Your Child”, led by our school counselor, was overwhelmingly received. To date, we have offered the series three times and over eighty parents have invested their time to participate. Perseverance is now a part of our school-wide culture.
We expanded and deepened our work on Habits of Scholarship by including collaboration and craftsmanship last year. Small yet strategic steps have been made so our focus on Habits of Scholarship is embedded into our work and not a separate initiative. We adapted our popular and frequently used “Design Principle Spotlight” and created a “Clairemont Spotlight” which includes both the Design Principles and the three Habits of Scholarship. Crew members are recognized at our weekly Community Circle for demonstrating both. Lastly, our Student Culture Committee worked diligently to create a Habits of Scholarship rubric so that students would receive meaningful feedback on their growth in these three areas.
Clairemont has made strategic steps in recent years to sharpen and deepen our work with the Design Principles and the Habits of Scholarship so students are supported and strengthened socially and academically. Our starting point was simple yet impactful: intentionally and routinely teach our students about perseverance. The faculty received professional development grounded in our anchor text, “Performance Values: Why They Matter and What Our Schools Can Do To Foster Their Development” by the Character Education Partnership. Teachers intentionally taught what perseverance looked, sounded and felt like. Academic learning targets included perseverance. Soon, students began to use the vocabulary associated with persevarance in conversations with one another and congratulated each another for persevering. For example, it became so much a part of our culture, that one Kindergarten class audibly gasped when a character in a story did not persevere.
Another part of our work with perseverance is focused on our parents. A five-session series, “Building Perseverance In Your Child”, led by our school counselor, was overwhelmingly received. To date, we have offered the series three times and over eighty parents have invested their time to participate. Perseverance is now a part of our school-wide culture.
We expanded and deepened our work on Habits of Scholarship by including collaboration and craftsmanship last year. Small yet strategic steps have been made so our focus on Habits of Scholarship is embedded into our work and not a separate initiative. We adapted our popular and frequently used “Design Principle Spotlight” and created a “Clairemont Spotlight” which includes both the Design Principles and the three Habits of Scholarship. Crew members are recognized at our weekly Community Circle for demonstrating both. Lastly, our Student Culture Committee worked diligently to create a Habits of Scholarship rubric so that students would receive meaningful feedback on their growth in these three areas.
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HOS Aug 2015 from City Schools of Decatur on Vimeo.
CLASSROOM CULTURE AND ACADEMIC CONTENT EVIDENCE -- Reflection by Ashlea Edwards, Special Education Teacher
Throughout the year, our school placed a huge emphasis on three specific Habits of Scholarship: collaboration, perseverance, and craftsmanship. Being a special education teacher, it was easy to implement these habits at times, but very difficult at other times. I had to really take a step back and teach myself what collaboration, perseverance, and craftsmanship really meant. I had to learn that it was okay to let my students struggle in order for them to learn and implement these three Habits of Scholarship.
I began to uplift the Habits of Scholarship in my room by taking snapshots of students who demonstrated collaboration, perseverance, and craftsmanship. The students loved looking back at this display and seeing how they have demonstrated these Habits of Scholarship. In December my third graders began learning about the foundation of multiplication and division. In a small resource math class, the students collaborated to build arrays and grapple with real world problems involving arrays. It was easy to point out that the students were collaborating to build the arrays, persevering by trying to build all different types of arrays in order to find the best solution, and using craftsmanship in order build precise arrays. After giving an exit ticket, it seemed most of my students somewhat understood the concept of arrays. It wasn’t until the next day I realized one of my students not only understood arrays, but that he could explain them and give a real life example. I started my lesson by asking one of my students to explain to another student who had missed the lesson what an array is. The student began to stumble over his words until he looked down at the perfectly tiled floor and said, “THAT! That is an array!” It was in that moment I truly understood the role the Habits of Scholarship played in my teaching. Normally I would have stepped in when the student began to struggle but since taking on the mindset of perseverance, I let him grapple through his explanation. And I am glad I did because he explained arrays better than I would have!
This is just one example of how my students displayed collaboration, perseverance, and craftsmanship on a daily basis. For my final writing lesson, I had the students pick the habit they displayed most throughout the school year. The students worked through the steps of the writing process and wrote wonderful essays about their growth. As a teacher, it was such a proud moment reading those essays and seeing the students take ownership of their work and recognize that even as young students, they have what it takes to collaborate, persevere, and use craftsmanship.
Throughout the year, our school placed a huge emphasis on three specific Habits of Scholarship: collaboration, perseverance, and craftsmanship. Being a special education teacher, it was easy to implement these habits at times, but very difficult at other times. I had to really take a step back and teach myself what collaboration, perseverance, and craftsmanship really meant. I had to learn that it was okay to let my students struggle in order for them to learn and implement these three Habits of Scholarship.
I began to uplift the Habits of Scholarship in my room by taking snapshots of students who demonstrated collaboration, perseverance, and craftsmanship. The students loved looking back at this display and seeing how they have demonstrated these Habits of Scholarship. In December my third graders began learning about the foundation of multiplication and division. In a small resource math class, the students collaborated to build arrays and grapple with real world problems involving arrays. It was easy to point out that the students were collaborating to build the arrays, persevering by trying to build all different types of arrays in order to find the best solution, and using craftsmanship in order build precise arrays. After giving an exit ticket, it seemed most of my students somewhat understood the concept of arrays. It wasn’t until the next day I realized one of my students not only understood arrays, but that he could explain them and give a real life example. I started my lesson by asking one of my students to explain to another student who had missed the lesson what an array is. The student began to stumble over his words until he looked down at the perfectly tiled floor and said, “THAT! That is an array!” It was in that moment I truly understood the role the Habits of Scholarship played in my teaching. Normally I would have stepped in when the student began to struggle but since taking on the mindset of perseverance, I let him grapple through his explanation. And I am glad I did because he explained arrays better than I would have!
This is just one example of how my students displayed collaboration, perseverance, and craftsmanship on a daily basis. For my final writing lesson, I had the students pick the habit they displayed most throughout the school year. The students worked through the steps of the writing process and wrote wonderful essays about their growth. As a teacher, it was such a proud moment reading those essays and seeing the students take ownership of their work and recognize that even as young students, they have what it takes to collaborate, persevere, and use craftsmanship.
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