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Discuss with your small group.
1. What would a school look like whose culture is centered on valuing
participation throughout the school community?
2. What would curriculum, instruction and assessment look like in
such a school?
3. How would teacher and administrator roles change in such a school?
Generate a list for each question, agree on the five critical things
one should see or hear in such a school for each question, and draw
a graphic representing such a school.
Which of the descriptors that you and your small group came
up with are characteristic of the school you work in? Looking at the
lists presented by the instructor below, which of these descriptors
are characteristic of your school? What does this say about your school?
- Students are working in the library, computer lab, laboratories,
and hallways, individually and collaboratively with peers.
- Students are engaged in required helpfulness:
- Older students are seen working with younger students;
- Students are engaged with peers as peer helpers, conflict
resolvers and tutors;
- Students spend time each week in service learning projects
on and off campus.
- Class meetings and school-wide forums are held regularly to
gather student input regarding meaningful school issues. These
meetings are often facilitated by students.
- An effort is being made to include all student groups in the
daily life of the school; students are not seen on the fringes
of the school campus, alienated and voicing displeasure with
the school, staff and peers.
- A large percentage of the students participate in and lead
a wide range of school activities.
- Signs on campus encourage students to join activities and
do not indicate hurdles to complete; the words “students
must” do not appear on school postings.
- Time is provided at least weekly for teachers to work together
on curriculum, instruction and assessment.
- Most students, faculty and staff are known and welcomed by
name, and many parents and community members are known and welcomed
by name.
- Drug, alcohol, smoking, fighting infractions are statistically
small and show an annual decrease.
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What would curriculum, instruction and assessment be like
in a school that is designed to foster meaningful participation by all
students?
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Curriculum
- Curriculum is project-based, set around complex issues, some
of which relate to school and community issues.
- Students have choices in the specifics of what they investigate,
how they do the investigation, and how they demonstrate what
they have learned.
- Service learning is a part of every student’s academic
program.
Instruction
- Teachers ask students questions that require students to
do critical, reflective thinking.
- Teachers spend much of their time coaching students, and
students spend much of their time working individually and in
small groups.
- Students are usually not sitting in desks in rows.
- Students are not seen sitting unengaged in the back of classrooms.
- School resources are readily available; computers and resource
materials are easy for students to access.
Student Assessment
- Students exhibit and reflect on what they have learned.
- Standards for quality work are well known, and often designed
with student input.
- Teachers use student work to guide classroom and school practices.
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How would teacher and administrator roles change in such
a school?
- Principals, teachers, students, parents, community members
and classified staff, are engaged in school-wide decision making
around issues of substance, including establishing school priorities,
budgeting to support those priorities, and hiring of personnel.
- Norms for decision-making, consensus-building, and conflict
resolution are mutually agreed upon, followed, and regularly
reassessed.
- Meetings focus on meaningful input and decision-making rather
than information giving; agendas are posted with opportunities
for agenda input; relevant information is provided ahead of
meetings; participants are at meetings on time; meetings start
on time and end on time.
- Divergent thinking is encouraged and heard in formal meetings
and in informal conversations.
- Put downs, side conversations and comments that indicate exclusion
are not heard in or out of meetings.
- Mistakes are celebrated as learning experiences, and responsibility
for mistakes are shared without blame.
- Teachers work collegially, sharing curriculum and instructional
strategies, talking about students and student work, coaching
each other to be more effective. Time and resources are provided
to support this.
- Teachers talk freely about feeling valued by administrators,
parents and students as participants in the whole school community.
- Administrators, faculty, classified staff, students, and parents
seem to enjoy being together; across roles, people seek each
other out, talk together, laugh together.
- Faculty and staff are not seen brooding in the faculty room
or in the parking lot.
- Students are given classroom and school-wide responsibilities
of increasing importance with age.
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