by Andrew K. Miller | Mar 25, 2013 | Blog, Edutopia
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
Financial Literacy Month is April — just around the corner — and it’s never too early to prepare. Personally, I believe this is a great opportunity to use games in an intentional way to teach students financial literacy skills. Games can be used as a “hook” or anchor activity, as well an instructional activity that is revisited throughout a unit of instruction. A game can help scaffold the learning of important content as well as providing context for application of content. If you really trust the design of the game, it can also be an excellent assessment tool!
Fellow Edutopia member Brian Page (on Twitter @FinEdChat) has long been an advocate for financial literacy education and innovative ways for students to engage in it. He was the 2011 Milken National Educator recipient in Ohio, and co-creator of an EIFLE award-winning financial education game of the year, Awesome Island Game. He’s also a Money magazine “Money Hero”. Brian has a huge database of games that can help teach financial literacy skills to students of all ages. In addition, each game is aligned to commonly accepted personal finance national standards. Although the database is extensive, Brian has selected his favorite games and explained how they might be used intentionally in classroom instruction.
Bite Club
In Bite Club, players manage a “day club” for vampires. Players experience the familiar tension between servicing debt, spending money and saving for the future. By featuring vampires, who live forever, the game highlights the impact of long-term savings over a 45-year span in a 15-round game. The game aims to instill three learning objectives:
Save for retirement
Pay down debt
Manage current consumption
Brian says, “I prefer Bite Club as a game-based learning day alternative, and as an anchor activity. It is clearly the online game of choice of my female students. I recommend the game for high school age students.”
Gen i Revolution
Gen i Revolution was developed for middle school and high school students and is managed by the Council for Economic Education. The game gives students a chance to compete against each other while learning important personal finance skills. It includes fifteen financial rescue missions.
“I believe Gen i Revolution is best for middle school students,” Brian tells us. “The game is accompanied with 21 lessons that correlate with each mission. The lessons add value, but they are not necessary for an engaging and exciting learning experience.”
Financial Football
Financial Football is a fast-paced, interactive game that engages students while teaching them money management skills. Teams compete by answering financial questions to earn yardage and score touchdowns. The questions are primarily scenario-based, which is appropriate for the coursework. There are three levels: Rookie (ages 11-14), Pro (ages 14-18), and Hall of Fame (ages 18+). The various levels make it easy to differentiate and provide an avenue for participation by elementary, middle and high school students. Financial Football also has an iPad and an iPhone application.
Brian says, “I prefer to use Financial Football in a tournament format. I provide the game as an optional anchor activity as well. For educators who want correlating lessons, Practical Money Skills provides them here.”
In addition to these great games, you can see a list of Brian’s 30 favorite game- and scenario-based learning programs. If you are still unconvinced about using games for financial literacy instruction, or if you need research and data to convince stakeholders, Brian recommends reading D2D‘s research report on how casual financial literacy video games can lead to improvements in financial capability.
by Andrew K. Miller | Mar 15, 2013 | Blog, Edutopia
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
A recent blog by Grant Wiggins affirmed what I have long believed about creativity: it is a 21st-century skill we can teach and assess. Creativity fosters deeper learning, builds confidence and creates a student ready for college and career.
However, many teachers don’t know how to implement the teaching and assessment of creativity in their classrooms. While we may have the tools to teach and assess content, creativity is another matter, especially if we want to be intentional about teaching it as a 21st-century skill. In a PBL project, some teachers focus on just one skill, while others focus on many. Here are some strategies educators can use tomorrow to get started teaching and assessing creativity — just one more highly necessary skill in that 21st-century toolkit.
Quality Indicators
If you and your students don’t unpack and understand what creativity looks like, then teaching and assessing it will be very difficult. Here are some quality indicators to look at:
Synthesize ideas in original and surprising ways.
Ask new questions to build upon an idea.
Brainstorm multiple ideas and solutions to problems.
Communicate ideas in new and innovative ways.
Now, these are just some of the quality indicators you might create or use. Don’t forget to make them age- or grade-level appropriate so that students can understand the targets and how they are being assessed. You might create a rubric from these quality indicators or keep them as overall goals for the students to work on throughout the year. Wiggins mentioned this rubric as a start. The February 2013 issue of ASCD’s Educational Leadership also has an article that includes a rubric.
Activities Targeted to Quality Indicators
We have all used activities for students to brainstorm solutions to problems, be artistically creative and more. Now is a chance to be very intentional with these exercises. In addition to just “doing” them, pick the activities that specifically work on quality indicators of creativity. They can occur at varying stages of a PBL project, whenever the timing is appropriate to where students are in the PBL process.
Voice and Choice in Products
We know that students can show knowledge in different ways. In a PBL project, for example, public audience is an essential component, and students must present their work. PBL teachers offer voice and choice in how they spend their time and what they create. This is a great opportunity to foster the creative process. Students can collaborate on how to best present their information, what to include, and perhaps even a target audience. Coupled with the other strategies mentioned in this piece, voice and choice can build creative thinkers.
Model Thinking Skills
There are some specific thinking skills that creative people use. You will often find these in the quality indicators of creative people and embedded in the language. One example is synthesis. In synthesis, people combine sources, ideas, etc. to solve problems, address an issue or make something new. Being able to synthesize well can be a challenge. If we want our students to do well with this creative skill, we need to model the thinking of synthesis in a low-stakes, scaffolding activity that they can translate into a more academic pursuit. I find that the more I help students understand and practice these thinking skills, the better prepared they are to be creative! These mini-lessons and activities occur within the context of a PBL project to support student learning.
Reflection and Goal Setting
Whether you are using S.M.A.R.T Goals or short reflective activities, this is a critical component of teaching and assessing creativity. Students need time to look at the quality indicators and reflect on how they are doing when it comes to mastery. They can also set goals on one or more these quality indicators and how they will go about doing it. This reflective process and metacognition also helps build critical thinking skills, and should be used throughout the process of a PBL project, curriculum unit or marking period. Let’s provide opportunities for students to think critically about creativity.
If we want our students to be creative, we must give them not only the opportunity to do so, but also the finite skills and targets to be able to do so. When you combine these strategies, creativity can become part of the culture of a PBL project and classroom in general. You may or may not “grade” creativity, but you can certainly assess it.
How do you intentionally teach and assess creativity in your classroom?
by Andrew K. Miller | Mar 11, 2013 | Blog
This post originally appeared on Success At The Core blog, an organization that focuses on strengthening leadership teams’ ability to define quality instruction and advocate for it in their schools, as well as offering teachers practical methods to implement a shared vision of quality instruction in their classrooms. View Original >
As you unpack the Common Core Standards, one trend you will notice is that of Presentation. A valuable 21st century skill, we want our students to leave our classrooms with effective presentation skills. In addition, the Common Core literacy strategies are to be used across content areas. It is every teacher’s job to support students in learning valuable presentation skills, and assessing their work.
However, not every teacher has truly taught assessed presentations before. Many teachers use presentations as assessment tools, but often the focus is on the content and not the skills of presenting, or the assessment is muddled where both the skills and content are “lumped” into a category. As all teachers engage in teaching and assessing presentations, they must adhere to some best practices.
Effective Rubrics – As mentioned in this video, rubrics must be used throughout the process of teaching and assessing presentations. Students must use rubrics to internalize the language, and to self- and peer-assess their progress. These rubrics must be designed so that students understand what is expected of them and thus must be student-friendly in terms of language. Learning targets should be dis-aggregated so that science content, for example, is not confused with presentation skills.
Quality Summative Assessment – One of my favorite types of summative presentations is the Ignite presentation. In it, students have 10-15 slides that automatically transition after one minute or so. The slides have very few words, and are usually a series of images. Because of this, students must be well prepared to speak and appropriately pace their ideas, as they cannot rely on the PowerPoint slides as a “crutch.” This can lead to a quality presentation that avoids the monotone a traditional PowerPoint presentation can become.
Ongoing Formative Assessment – One shot is not enough: students must be given multiple opportunities to revise and reflect on their presentation skills. If students are to be successful at the Ignite presentation above, they must receive targeted feedback on many pieces of their presentations. Choice of images, speaking tone, pacing, volume; all of these must be formatively assessed multiple times before it is time for the summative presentation. This will ensure that the work students do is manageable and purposeful. Students learn to rely on the process of learning and avoid the fear of failing.
Obviously, there are further best practices teachers must adhere to when it comes to teaching 21st century skills, such as scaffolding and modeling. These best practices can also be transferred to other learning targets. Presentation skills must be taught and assessed to ensure career and college readiness for our students.
by Andrew K. Miller | Mar 4, 2013 | Blog, Whole Child Blog
This post originally appeared on The Whole Child blog, an ASCD initiative to call on educators, policymakers, business leaders, families, and community members to work together on a whole child approach to education. View Original >
Creating a safe and supportive learning environment is a critical to a whole child approach to education. Usually when we reflect and work on implementing the Whole Child Tenets in our schools, we forgot one critical component in making them manifest: the students. Students are as important as actors in creating a safe school as teachers. They can be actors in helping to create a safe learning environment, and project-based learning (PBL) projects can be a way in which we harness that service and target learning in the content areas. Here are some project ideas I have done, or have seen other school educators create.
School Norms: Often we create norms for students, or co-create them at the beginning of the year. However, you can take this up a notch and have a class or even a grade level create school norms where they address the needs of all stakeholders, including other students, parents, teachers, and even community members. Here students engage in in-depth research for an authentic reason, and engage in revision and reflection to make sure the norms created meet the needs of the entire school community.
Guns And Schools: This is obviously a controversial topic, but what better way to engage students than controversy? Through debatable driving questions, students create written products as well as digital media projects to examine the issue. They conduct in-depth research to support their ideas and present the information to a city council or the superintendent to ensure authenticity. Students also rely on community experts like police officers and lawmakers to make sure their work is accurate and well-developed.
Safety Audit: Instead of focusing on safety in just one project, allow students to evaluate the safety of the school and make recommendations. Students can create surveys, analyze data, and also research important related information. This prevents “death by presentation,” where all the presentations are the same and therefore bore the audience. In addition, it allows for student voice in topics that interest them and in their opinions and recommendations.
Digital Citizenship: School safety isn’t just at the brick-and-mortar facility, it’s also in the digital world. Even if you do not teach at a blended or online school, students need the skills to be safe online, and this type of PBL project can help them do that. Students create awareness around the issue or even give recommendations to other students about their “digital footprints.” Students have access to choice in products that show their learning, but more importantly have an authentic audience to receive it. From websites to letters, there is an opportunity for students to help each other and their community create safe digital learning spaces.
There are many more school safety projects out there, but these are just some of my favorites. Feel free to take these ideas and use them in the classroom. Now is the time for students to be active in not only examining the topic of safety, but creating safe schools themselves. PBL can be the key to that work!
by Andrew K. Miller | Feb 28, 2013 | Blog, Edutopia
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
More and more, we’re hearing the term “Digital Citizenship.” I think we should simply call it “Citizenship.”
In our increasingly connected world, what it means to be a citizen is contextualized by more than just our countries and communities; we are global citizens. Part of being a citizen these days is manifested in what we do digitally, and because of that, I will adhere to the term “Digital Citizenship” — for now. I hear parents, teachers and community members talking about their concerns over their children’s online behavior, and rightfully so. I believe it is our job as educators to teach and assess Digital Citizenship, and I also believe PBL is a great way to target this objective in an engaging and authentic way.
Target the NETS
The ISTE Student NETS #5 is itself called Digital Citizenship. As you build a PBL project, look at the quality indicators articulated below. If you want, unpack the standard more to include other quality indicators. These will help you in creating clear targets that students will understand and can achieve. From these learning targets, you and the students can create rubrics which can be used as reflective tools, and ultimately assess a final product in a PBL project. The more students understand and use these tools, the more they will internalize the language and understand what it means to be a digital citizen.
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
a. Advocate and practice safe, legal and responsible use of information and technology.
b. Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning and productivity.
c. Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.
Create an Authentic Purpose
This is a key piece. Start by asking yourself who needs this information and would find it useful. This will lead to an authentic audience. From there, what is your purpose? In the ISTE NETS excerpt above, there are many examples such as advocacy and exhibiting. But beyond that, students can create awareness, solve a problem, design a program and more. This authentic purpose will help you focus the inquiry and create a driving question that is purpose-driven and in student-friendly language.
Target Content Area Standards
A Digital Citizenship PBL project is an excellent opportunity to partner with the teachers of other content areas to teach and assess multiple standards. If you are the technology teacher, you can use this opening to build in some ELA reading and writing standards. To make sure it fits and that you are picking products that will assess the standards, read my blog on Integration Strategies for PBL. While the content for the PBL project is Digital Citizenship, other content standards can be built in, especially those that are skill-based. Students can write guides for the school or even advocacy letters. In addition, students might analyze related data, or engage in social studies research.
A PBL project can be an intentional and meaningful place to engage students in understanding digital citizenship. It can target learning in multiple subjects and help arm our students with the skills to make the right choices in our increasingly digital world. What Digital Citizenship PBL project ideas do you have? Share and collaborate.
by Andrew K. Miller | Feb 26, 2013 | Blog, Edutopia
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
As I work with teachers to implement game-based learning (GBL), they are always looking for any free tools that exist. While some are willing to pay for iPad game apps or using the Kinect, these tools often cost money. Luckily, there are many tools out there that are free and that teachers could use in the classroom as soon as tomorrow. Some of these tools are not only the games themselves, but also lesson plans and ideas for using the game in the classroom. Here are some of my favorite free GBL tools.
iCivics
Many of us know of iCivics, founded by former Chief Justice Sandra Day O’Conner to improve civics education. New games have been added over the past year. “We The Jury,” for example, lets you decide a tough case for the Supreme Court. All the games come with curriculum materials to support classroom use. Not only do these units suggest activities grounded in the games, but they include other instructional tools as well. The game units are also searchable by content in the civics curriculum, from civil rights to foundations of government.
MangaHigh
Math is the focus of Manga High. Here you’ll find games that teach in a variety of math arenas, from shapes to algebra. In fact, you can search specifically for those games. If you pick algebra, you can search by learning target. This is a great way to ensure that you are picking a game that really focuses on a skill you need students to learn.
BrainPop
BrainPop has an excellent selection of games to teach a variety of subjects. In addition to the regular BrainPop games, there are also K-3 BrainPop Jr. games and BrainPop Games for ELL. While I might classify some of these as activities rather than games, there are plenty of resources here to teach everything from health to science. Some of the games overlap with MangaHigh and iCivics, but it’s a great site that can serve as a “warehouse” for games. In addition, there are often lesson ideas and even quizzes that could serve as useful formative assessments. (Although I might argue that if students beat the game, then isn’t that an assessment?)
Teach With Portals
I challenge anyone to play Portal and not feel engaged. Many teachers have submitted lessons or are using lessons from Teach With Portals. Here you can find lessons that target everything from Plot Structure to Gravity. Now, while Portal itself is a game that you have to buy, you can get Portal with Steam For Schools, which is a free tool to download Portal and another new game, Universe Sandbox — a universe simulator!
These are just a few of my favorite GBL tools that I have used and played. There are also some tools out there that are offered at reduced costs such as Minecraft Edu, and even licenses for Premium Games at Filament Games, for example. Regardless, let us remember that these are tools to start the process. As you use them, ask yourself the question that I use when picking games for the classroom: “Is it a good game?” This is a subject for another blog, but it is a great driving question to consider as you implement game-based learning.
by Andrew K. Miller | Feb 25, 2013 | Blog
This post originally appeared on the BrainPop Community, an organization that creates animated, curricular content that engages students, supports educators, and bolsters achievement. BrainPOP is also home to GameUp™, a free educational games portal for the classroom.View Original >
I love using games in the classroom, and I love supporting teachers in their implementation. As I continue this work, both in terms of advocacy and implementation, there remains a critical question that will either support games for learning, or undermine it. Is it a good game? I constantly watch the twittersphere and get emails from colleagues, game companies, and the like about “games.” Whether it’s “20 Games to Support ELL Students,” or “The 5 New Best Games for the iPad,” it can be daunting to even know where to start using games in the classroom.
I’ve got news for you. What people claim to be games, may in fact not be games at all. Or, even worse, they may bad games! Perhaps they are just digital activities or apps, and that is fine, but let’s not claim one to be a game when it is not. While there are many ways to distinguish a good game from an activity, consider these three to start:
Is it Edutainment? – Jeopardy is a prime example. Jeopardy is a fun activity, where you are almost fooled into learning because the game is fun. In general, “Edutainment” is based on this idea of “fooling,” in that we learn or must know something, but the learning isn’t really connected to a real engaging purpose. Furthermore, is recalling the answer to a question “learning?” Seems to me more like testing.
Does it have an engaging story? – A good game has a story that we immerse ourselves in. While this story might be epic like Final Fantasy, it can also be short and sweet. Within this story is an engaging character or role that we invest in as a player. We take on the role of an engineer, an adventurer, a virus, a shop owner, and many more in games. These authentic roles coupled with a purposeful story or scenario creates the engagement to play.
Is there application of knowledge? – If the game is simply asking you to recall facts and figures, they it may not be the best game. There is a time and place for this this type of learning, but good games require us to do more with the facts and skills we learn. The game helps us learn these ideas, but requires deeper thinking and learning! Just as we demand deeper thinking and learning in our curriculum and instruction at school, a good game should do the same.
by Andrew K. Miller | Feb 8, 2013 | Blog, Edutopia
This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original >
When we talk about “games,” that term covers a huge range. From video games to board games, from Kinect to pencil-and-paper games, all of these can contribute to student learning. There are many reasons why games can and do teach, but interestingly, they actually access the multiple learning styles we already know about. This infographic can help you review the different learning styles if you need to. We can align them to games to further justify how we might use games in the classroom.
Visual Learners
This is probably the most obvious way in which games align to a learning style. Digital games leverage visuals as integral to the process. However, it’s not just about the polish and creative artwork of a game. Games use visuals to create problems that players want to solve. These visuals give clues toward the solutions. The visual learner playing Portal, for example, must use visual-spatial learning to effectively navigate the game. Players are interacting with the visuals of the game. Instead of simply showing passive visuals, games immerse the learner in a visual experience.
Kinesthetic Learners
Some games get us physically moving, either through whole bodies or “hands-on” experience. The Kinect is prime example of games that require a lot of kinesthetic experience. (I addressed this in a previous blog.) There are also some physical games that don’t require a video game system, and even these help to engage kinesthetic learners in the learning process.
Auditory Learners
Some digital games have voice-overs and audio directions, but even more old school, when we play games together, we often coach each other or give pointers. For example, when I was playing the game Pandemic with my family and friends, I was required to collaborate by talking with other players. I collaborated to learn the instructions and also to strategize with my team to win the game. Now, while this game may not be considered a serious game that teaches content, it does teach collaboration, a critical 21st century skill. In addition, digital games have sounds, music and other auditory elements that give hints and clues for players to incorporate while playing. Consider having students collaborate to learn and play other educational games, as well as analyze other auditory components of games.
Read/Write Learner
Some consider this to be a learning style as well. When students play World of Warcraft, they are constantly reading and writing: reading engaging stories of characters and quest directions; typing strategies for raids and writing background stories for characters. Most games include reading as a critical learning modality to be successful, but many games also leverage writing for communication or even answer purposes. Games can engage the read/write learner.
Now, not every game accesses all of the learning styles concurrently or evenly, but many games can access more than one. As you pick games to use in your classroom, consider your students’ abilities through learning profiles cards (such as those offered by the Schultz Center), and use the games to scaffold learning that meets the unique needs of the children you teach.
by Andrew K. Miller | Jan 28, 2013 | Blog
This post originally appeared on NSTA, a blog that supports science educators in implementing science best practices in a variety of ares. View Original >
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for a conceptual shift in teaching and learning. Yes, content is changing in the upcoming NGSS. In addition to traditional subject matter, science and engineering are now integrated into the standards, where students will learn about the principles of engineering and engage in the engineering design processes. In addition, many concepts are cutting across content. For example, the concept “systems and system models” is used in the exploration of nuclear energies as well as ecosystems. Also, scientific and engineering practices are aligned multiple times with the disciplinary content. The NGSS calls for a deeper understanding and application of content. The focus is on core ideas and practices of science, not just the facts associated with them.
While many teachers are already teaching for application of knowledge as well as engineering and core concepts, these key features will cause a deliberate shift in instruction requiring all teachers to reflect on their practice. Project Based Learning (PBL) is a learning model that not only aligns to these key features, but also strongly supports NGSS-based teaching and learning.
First of all, let’s clarify the difference between projects and PBL. Instead of a curricular add-on at the end, the project is the context for the learning. Students are given an authentic task and a student-friendly driving question to investigate over the course of the project. Within this project, the teacher scaffolds the learning for students and arms students with skills through traditional labs, lectures, and other instructional activities. Instead of teaching all content and skills before the project, the teacher teaches through the project, which is engaging and relevant to students. Using a “need to know” list generated by students, and revisited through the project, the teacher gives lessons and instructional activities to meet the needs of students. Students learn 21st century skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and communication. The project has an audience outside the four walls of the classroom, and students create a variety of products for this authentic audience. These are just some of the essential elements of a PBL project.
Just as the draft NGSS calls for deeper understanding and application of knowledge, PBL demands the same. When teachers design PBL projects, they pick power standards to focus on, standards that usually take significant time to teach and focus on depth, not breadth. The NGSS are being designed to be those type of standards and thus easily used when designing a PBL project. In fact, a teacher designing a PBL project might target one of the crosscutting concepts, as that concept permeates the entire year of content. PBL calls for in-depth inquiry into the content. Students investigate a rigorous driving question, and do so by unpacking it into many subject questions. In addition, they must apply this knowledge as they construct products that answer the driving questions and complete the project. The product reflects a deep understanding of content, as students have reflected and revised throughout the learning process. It’s not just one encounter with the content per se, but multiple encounters.
As we notice the new engineering focus of NGSS, we might consider design challenges, a key component of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. However, design challenges are not necessarily PBL by default. One can take a design challenge, add some PBL essential elements to it, and make it into a PBL project. A common design challenge is to build an effective bridge, either physically with toothpicks, or digitally using a tool like SketchUp. However, there are some components that need to be added to it to make it truly a PBL project. Right now, the bridge is a great activity. In fact, it can be a great activity within the PBL to scaffold material. To make it PBL, students could make recommendations for retrofitting a local bridge and present this information to city officials and engineers. Yes, the product might be a bridge design, and yes, students may engage in a toothpick contest along the way. The difference is the work goes outside the four walls of the classroom, and actually is an authentic situation, where students are engaged in real-world work. As the design process and other components of engineering are leveraged in the NGSS, PBL projects can be designed to teach and assess these standards.
The NGSS will need to be met with pedagogical models that can leverage the required depth of understanding, and PBL can meet that challenge. PBL provides the strength of inquiry, rigor, and relevance that can capitalize on the key components of the NGSS.
by Andrew K. Miller | Jan 21, 2013 | Blog, Whole Child Blog
This post originally appeared on The Whole Child blog, an ASCD initiative to call on educators, policymakers, business leaders, families, and community members to work together on a whole child approach to education. View Original >
21st century skills are quickly becoming taught and assessed in schools across the nation. Whether through explicit instruction or models like project-based learning, educators are quickly realizing that lower level content comprehension is not enough. The Whole Child Initiative calls for tenets that rely on these skills. We create a safe environment through collaboration. Critical thinking creates rigor and challenge. Communication can create engagement with the community. 21st century skills, when paired with content can create powerful and meaningful learning. The Common Core State Standards explicitly call for these skills, so through uncovering the 3 C’s in the Common Core, we can see how educators must teach and assess them.
Collaboration
In every grade level of the English language arts common standards, you will find the common standard that calls for “collaborative discussions.” I do mean every! This means that at each grade level, we must not only be teaching and assessing the skill of collaboration, but we must think about how it looks different from grade level to grade level. We know that group work and collaborative work can be effective, but now collaboration is more than just an instructional tool. It is a skill that needs to be taught and assessed.
Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
Roland Case has done some great work on unpacking the concept of critical thinking into quality indicators. One of these quality indicators is perseverance, being able to complete a challenge and work through the obstacles. In the mathematics common standards, there are specific mathematical practices that are mentioned. One of these is “make sense of a problem and persevere in solving them.” This is an explicit call in the Common Core to teach and assess one facet of critical thinking. In addition, as you unpack the Common Core, you will still thinking skills and related language for critical thinking. From being able to “evaluate,” “reflect” or “analyze,” the focus is on higher-order thinking skills that require that critical thinking be taught to all students and assessed.
Communication
Across each grade level in the English language arts common standards, communication—both written and oral—is evident. The Common Core calls for students to communicate effectively, and through a variety of mediums. Digital tools are mentioned, as well as oral and written skills. English teachers have always been responsible for this skill, but now all subjects are being called to teach and assess communication skills.
Unpacking the Common Core State Standards allows us to see the need to teach and assess 21st century skills to our students. When we look at the Whole Child Tenets, we can see alignment between them and 21st Century Skills. Perhaps the Common core will leverage the need to teach to the whole child.
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