MENDON-UPTON REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICT UPTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Capitalizing on the opportunities presented by the Vision of the Graduate is all about mindset. At Nipmuc, we’ve worked to establish a “What if?” mindset in which students and teachers regularly reflect on current practice and imagine what is possible. One way to support this mindset is to play the “What if?” game.
The What if? game is a simple protocol in which small groups share a series a statements that all begin with the phrase, “What if?”. For instance, “What if we eliminated bells?” or “What if we stopped grouping all of our classes into departments?” or “What if we asked our students what they want to learn rather than what we want to teach?”. The only rules are to start your comments with the phrase “What if?” and not to allow anyone to skip their turn. Rather than getting stuck on what’s not possible, participants in the “What if?” game can only build off previous thoughts or suggest a new “What if?” statement of their own. By recording each of the answers, you can build a bank of exciting ideas while building a mindset of possibilities.
Let’s take a moment to try a modified version of the “What if?” game. Turn to the person beside you and share a “What if?” statement that encourages us to reflect on our past practice.
Now that we have taken a moment to consider how the “What if?” mindset can create a culture of possibilities, let’s apply this mindset to the Vision of the Graduate. At Nipmuc we’ve sought ways to couple the idea of “What if?” with the design process in order to explore the potential of the Vision of the Graduate. In the sections below, we have highlighted several “What if?” questions that drive our work. We have included the way we explore each question, what our work looks like in practice, action steps you can take to adapt or adopt these ideas, and resources to help you along the way.
We have more information than we plan to share in this presentation; however, it’s our hope that you find worthwhile ideas that encourage you to apply the “What if?” mindset in your schools.
WHAT IF WE LET OUR LEARNERS LEAD THE WORK WITH VISION OF A GRADUATE?
At Nipmuc, we explore this question through… A full-day workshop to explore the Portrait of a Learner.
What it looks like in action…In December 2018 Nipmuc held a workshop with 24 students, 2 graduates, 2 middle school students, and 5 teachers in order to explore the MURSD Portrait of a Learner. The goals for the day were to explore the portrait of a learner, develop a shared understanding of how the skills embedded in the portrait of a learner will impact our learners, create learning experiences that allow students to practice these skills, and design a reflective tool and process for the portrait of a learner.
Action Steps:
Get your team together! Email all students inviting them to join you for a full-day workshop during a regular school day. Be sure to get a representative group of students, representatives from sending schools, graduates, and teachers.
Plan your workshop. Our sessions focused on getting an understanding of the Portrait of a Learner, seeing the connection between skills and professions, focusing on reflection rather than achievement, designing innovative learning experiences, and creating a reflective tool. See the resources to review, adapt, and/or borrow our protocols.
Leave with a product. Exploring concepts is important but make sure that you have a concrete idea of what you want out of the day. Be product-oriented in your workshop design.
Resources/Links:
Lead Learner website: Check out the activities and outcomes from our learners as they explored the Vision of the Graduate.
What if we reimagined the school day to define the time and space to bring the Vision of a Graduate to life?
At Nipmuc we explore this question through... Inspired Learning Days (formerly 21st Century Learning Conferences).
What it looks like in action…Inspired Learning Days are days when we throw away the traditional schedule and organize a conference for our students. These events are designed as a professional conference (like the one we’re attending now) but are offered to students. Driven by student voice and choice, Inspired Learning Days are co-constructed with students through school-wide brainstorming sessions and student-designed workshops. They align with the Portrait of the Learner, creating non-traditional opportunities to explore the skills students will need in the world beyond high school. Additionally, Inspired Learning Days are intended to be fun by providing active, hands-on, and memorable learning experiences that are a highlight of the student experience. At the conclusion of the Inspired Learning Day, all students reflect on their experience through the reflective tool (see below).
Action Steps:
Connect the event to your guiding beliefs. Inspired Learning Days provide the opportunities to take chances in bringing your vision to life. Put your beliefs about learning, core values, and mission at the front of your planning.
Run a school-wide brainstorming event. School-wide brainstorming events help to generate PR about the day, generate ideas about sessions, and - most importantly - allow students to drive the learning activities.
Review the checklist! Included in the resources is a checklist of key features of an Inspired Learning Day. This is not a recipe but rather an idea generator to guide your planning.
Resources/Links:
Checklist: Looking to double-check your progress in planning an Inspired Learning Day. This checklist will provide some guidance for your "to do" list to make an awesome day of learning.
Nipmuc 21st Century Learning Conference Website: In true design process fashion, Nipmuc's Inspired Learning Days are the iteration of another project - 21st Century Learning Conferences. Check this site to view the schedule, program, and partners from our previous eight conferences.
WHAT IF ASSESSMENT OF THE PORTRAIT OF A LEARNER WAS FOCUSED ON SELF-REFLECTION AND GROWTH? (RATHER THAN ACHIEVEMENT)
At Nipmuc we explore this question through...a reflective tool for students rather than a traditional rubric.
What it looks like in action…In place of traditional analytic rubrics, we created an assessment tool that includes “I can…” statements, reflective questions, and opportunities for feedback. The redesigned assessment tool provides feedback only through the format of “What if?” and “I wonder” to prompt growth and ongoing learning rather than serving as a summative assessment focused on achievement.
Action Steps:
Create your draft. As noted in the section above, the full-day workshop with students can serve as a way to create your assessment tool. Our draft reflection tool included “I can” statements, reflective questions, and opportunities for feedback. Borrow these criteria or customize them to match your community.
Put your draft to work. Don’t wait long to put your newly designed tool to work. A key part of the design process is testing and gathering feedback.
Reflect on what works.
Resources/Links:
Original Draft: Take a look at the original draft of the assessment tool that was created by students during our full day workshop. You can see how the tool evolved into the image above.
What if every learner had a story to tell that connected to the Vision of a Graduate?
At Nipmuc we explore this question through...Portrait of a Learner Scholars.
What it looks like in action…Portrait of a Learner Scholars are students who serve (literally) as the face of our Portrait of a Learner. They created digital profiles that we shared with the community to help everyone understand the Portrait of a Learner through the power of storytelling. Following the January 2019 Inspired Learning Day, all of Nipmuc’s students reflected on their learning using the PoL reflective tool. Teachers then reviewed their reflections and provided feedback using “What if?” and “I wonder” statements. After providing feedback, they recommended several students for consideration to be recognized as Portrait of a Learner Scholars.
Action Steps:
Start with a pilot. While we believe all of our students have a powerful story that connects to the Portrait of a Learner, we started small. We ran a blind selection process based on students’ reflections on their Inspired Learning Day experiences.
Workshop it! Plan a workshop for your scholars in which you help them explore the Portrait of a Learner and find ways to tell stories of their learning. Check the resources below for the activities, sentence starters, and process we used. Feel free to borrow or adapt.
Focus on presentation. We used Canva as a tool to create our profiles. (It’s free and easy to use.) We also brought in a parent who works as a photographer to volunteer her time to take profile pics of all of our students.
Resources/Links:
MURSD Portrait of a Learner Scholars Page: Meet the Nipmuc Portrait of a Learner Scholars! Click on each of the profiles to view the students and how they bring the Portrait of a Learner to life.
Lead Learner Workshop Session: View the activities we ran during our full-day workshop with students to establish the Portrait of a Learner Scholars.
What if we created learning experiences that brought our vision of the graduate to life?
At Nipmuc we explore this question through...Learning Adventures.
What it looks like in action…Learning Adventures are learning experiences that reflect our beliefs about learning, align with the Portrait of a Learner, are co-constructed with students, are nontraditional in their design, and connect to the curriculum. They provide innovative, fun, and meaningful opportunities to practice the skills in Nipmuc’s Portrait of a Learner.
Action Steps:
Build a common definition. The term “Learning Adventure” is new to our school community but the concept is something that we have been focusing on for years. Work together with your students and teachers in order to decide the types of experiences that align already exist in your curriculum.
Provide guidance to your learners. Sometimes the most challenging part of trying something new is knowing where to begin. Provide a series of potential action steps to help students and teachers to get started. Feel free to review (or borrow) the model goal in the resource section below to get ideas on how to design co-constructed Learning Adventures with your students.
Start small. Rather than trying to revamp the entire curriculum, develop a Learning Adventure for each course in your program of studies.
Resources/Links:
SMART Goal: Educators in Massachusetts all need to create a professional practice and student learning goal as part of the educator evaluation process. Check out this goal that we created to help teachers in their work to create Learning Adventures in their curricula.
Lead Learner Website: We explored Learning Adventures with our students and teachers through a Lead Learner Workshop. Check out the activities on the website.
Learning Adventure Packing List: What is a Learning Adventure, anyway! Check out the draft of our collaboratively designed "packing list" of the components that make up a Learning Adventure.
What if ALL learners had the opportunity to DESIGN AND PARTICIPATE IN LEARNING EXPERIENCES WITH MULTI-AGE PEERS?
At Nipmuc we explore this question through...K-12 MURSD Learning Adventures Team.
What it looks like in action…The MURSD Learning Adventures Team is a grant-funded learning experience that provides opportunities for students and teachers across elementary, middle, and high school to explore the Portrait of a Learner. The team is comprised of 24 students (8 elementary students, 8 middle school students, and 8 high school students) and ten teachers (two from each school in the district). Over the course of four sessions in the current school year, they will explore the Portrait of a Learner; design, plan, and carry out a Learning Adventure; and share their learning with the community as a way to support K-12 understanding and implementation of the Portrait of a Learner.
Action Steps:
Build your Learning Adventure Team! As you share messages about the Vision of a Graduate, put out an application across all grade levels for students and teachers who’d like to be part of this experience.
Plan your workshops. Decide what you’d like to accomplish through with your Learning Adventure Team. We decided we wanted a fun, actionable way to explore the Portrait of the Learning, show its relevance across grade levels, develop a group of students and teachers who are experts about the Portrait of a Learner, and build an innovative learning experience that helps us to close the gaps between our beliefs and our practice. Feel free to borrow or adapt our work which is included in the resource section below.
Highlight your learning. Let your Learning Adventure Team members share how their learning experiences connect with the Vision of a Graduate.
Introductory Video: Learn about the basics about Learning Adventures and get inspired in 150 seconds.
Learning Adventures in Action: View this website to see the activities, outcomes, and pictures (of course) from the opening session of our Learning Adventure Team.
What if we were totally transparent about our work to align with the vision of the graduate?
At Nipmuc we explore this question through...forward-facing websites and digital timelines.
What it looks like in action…We built websites… a lot of websites! We’re believers in the power of professional sharing and transparency. By building websites, we create a dynamic resource that allows any member of our community to check our progress, share with others, and stay connected to our work. Likewise, by always publishing our work, we focus on creating a polished (to the best of our ability!) product. It helps us to stay in the design process mindset by prompting us to continually reflect on our work. In addition to websites, we also maintain digital timelines that help us to share the journey of our school. Check out some of the examples in the section below.
Action Steps:
Get the right tools for the job. We are frequent users of Weebly (website creation), Canva (graphic design), and Sutori (digital timeline). Each of these tools is easy to use, collaborative, and free. With a short learning curve, you can jump right in and begin building digital resources.
Build a culture of transparency. By regularly sharing out your process, outcomes, and action steps - you can create the culture of ongoing, ever-changing programming. Our work as educators should be continually evolving. Giving everyone in your community insight into each stop on your school’s journey to the future is critical in keeping everyone moving in the same direction.
Resources/Links:
Websites, websites, and more websites: Check out the following sites that we built through Weebly to share our work with our community.
Nipmuc Roadmap: A digital timeline that captures our journey to reimagine school. Built with Sutori, this no-cost timeline allows us to share pictures, links, and text that capture our work.
What if the vision of the graduate became our superpowers?
At Nipmuc we explore this question through...our Portrait of a Learner superpowers.
What it looks like in action…We’ll confess… this is a developing part of our work. When planning our K-12 MURSD Learning Adventure Team, we challenged ourselves to think about how the Vision of the Graduate could be made as relevant as possible to our district’s youngest students. In exploring this question, we decided to reframe our Portrait of a Learner dispositions to become “superpowers”. In our district, this means that each student will develop the superpowers of being mindful learners, global citizens, solution seekers, effective communicators, inspired innovators, and skillful collaborators. Just like Superman’s strength or Spiderman’s “spidey sense”, these dispositions will empower our students to be difference makers in their world beyond school.
Action Steps:
Revise your language. Pull together a team to review and revise the language in your Vision of the Graduate to make it accessible to all learners. (Take a look at Easthampton’s work to build a continuum of terms across grade levels.)
Engage your students. Build a common definition of what each aspect of your Vision of the Graduate means by framing the discussion in the context of superheroes.
Resources/Links:
MURSD PoL Adventure Team Session #1: Check out the "Practicing Our Superpowers" activity we ran with students across grade levels to explore this concept.