NVSD Posters to Nurture student Growth Core Competencies NVSD Posters to Nurture student Growth

Learning Targets Effectively use NVSD posters to support the integration of the Core Competencies in the classroom  The objective of today’s session is to share the new NVSD CC posters in order to facilitate you in sharing the information with your schools. All information gathered today will need to be relayed to your schools!  All information gathered today will need to be shared with your school!

Shape of the Session Poster introduction + strategies HUB Core Competencies Matching activity + gallery walk Develop a plan to share with school staff Pick up posters The Hub website: nvsd44curriculumhub.ca

What’s the use? Stick it Magnet competencies Reference tool Focus tool Prompts for reflecting The intention behind today’s session is to offer teachers and administrators ideas on how to make Core Competencies visible in the classroom. We hope that these posters will help teachers do that and facilitate the self assessment process by the end of the school year. 

Posters as a reference tool Put posters on the wall in a place that is directly in your sightline as a teacher. Use these posters as a reference tool for yourself to remind yourself to speak to them, to reference them, to notice when you see this in your students or model it yourself and to name it for your students when students demonstrate this or you model it. This will help to develop common language, awareness and confidence. As part of the explicit teaching of the Core Competencies and the integration of them in the classroom students should be taught what the posters are, what they mean, what the language means and why this is important to them. Posters can also be moved around the room in a way that best suits the teacher and/or the students.

The magnet approach Kathleen Julie Susan Janis Daniel Megan Chris This strategy encourages students to identify which Competency they are currently working on (or would like to work on). This is a valuable way to have students identify goals that they would like to continue working on to show progress in these areas later in the school year.  Poster's language and purpose need to be taught to students at all grade levels. For the posters to be an effective tool, students need to know their purpose, understand the language and use them as reference tools to develop understanding and support their growth and that of their peers. This should be a part of your planning, unit and lessons, and be explicit for students should you choose to use it this way. ,   In the magnet approach, students identify a Core Competency (or facet) they are focusing on and place their name magnet beside this Core Competency poster in the classroom. As student become more familiar with the CC language, they may identify a specific facet they would like to focus on. This strategy can be extended with the addition of goal setting in relation to the CC or by having students move their peers’ magnetic names when they see another student demonstrating an aspect of the CC (possibly with an explanation of why they moved the name) We need ongoing strategies to expose students to the facets of the Core Competencies, examples of discussion prompts could include: What the Core Competencies look like, sound like, feel like? How and where do we notice Core Competencies in ourselves and others?  How might we get better at them? Janis Daniel Megan Chris Joanne Bobby

Situate yourself – Stick it Write your name on a stickie: - Place it on a poster near a CC that you are personally working on OR - near a CC that you would like to focus on in your class this term Opportunity for teachers to identify which Core Competency they are personally working on. Commit to this Core Competency by writing their name on a sticky note and attaching it to the CC they are working on. Focus for teachers could be personal or a part of their classroom/professional practice. Extension: Develop a plan to support growth in relation to identified Core Competency, share with colleagues, offer/receive feedback, revisit and reflect on growth and establish next steps. As a demonstration of the last strategy, we will ask you to do the same.  1.Write your name on a stickie 2.Stand up and place the stickie on one of the CC posters.  3.You can choose to place your stickie in one of two ways: 1.Near a Competency that you are personally working on (like your students would do) 2.Near a Competency that you would like to focus your teaching around in your classroom. 

Posters to focus learning Today, we are focusing on… What does this look/sound like? Specifically, we are working on… STRATEGY 3: Identify for students what the focus is, e.g. Today while we are engaged in STEM activities we will be using our Creative Thinking skills as we develop ideas for our structure designs. Brainstorm what this could look like, sound like, feel like etc. Draw student's attention to the statement and the connection to the poster, using the language of the core competencies to guide their exploration. Draw attention to and name it when a student demonstrates this. Include the “why” or “how” this students demonstrated this.  Example: Through play and exploration, students can work together to build upon one another's ideas and to use their imaginations and creativity to develop ideas and solve problems along the way.

Today, we will be working on our creative thinking competency. Example Today, we will be working on our creative thinking competency. Imagine how the story could have ended differently if the dragons hadn’t eaten the salsa? Imagine how this story would be different if the dragons were unicorns? We can also draw attention to the Core Competencies through story.  After reading a story, highlight for students that they will be working on developing their Creative Thinking competency by using their imagination.

Prompts as a strategy I contributed meaningfully to my group when... I shared my learning when... I worked well with others when... I thought about different perspectives when... What questions do you still have? How has your thinking changed?  Why? STRATEGY 4: Generate prompts to elicit the core competencies before, during and after learning opportunities.  Students can reflect on these throughout their learning process. Have groups brainstorm prompts for each of the core competencies.  Collect, collate and share out to staffs. Activity ides for staff: Using the I can statements (available on the HUB), build prompts for Journal entries that students could answer.   Using stickie notes, generate more prompts and add them around the posters

Reflective Journal Entries Can be used as self-assessment! Through noticing, naming and nurturing the core competencies students will be able to: build their reflective capacity  self assess on their progress through authentic learning experiences  reflect on their growth over time that can then be synthesized for their year end summative assessment Example:  1. Choose a lesson or activity that captures your students interest. 2. Have students reflect in their journals using prompting questions. 3. Throughout the year the students will have opportunities to reflect in their journals on their progress in relation to the different competencies. 4. At the end of the year, students reflect on their growth using their journals as a reference for the summative self-assessment.

What is on the HUB? The NVSD Curriculum Hub houses many useful documents for the integration of CC Self-assessment in the classroom. To access the CC section, click on the Core Competencies tab on the top right at nvsd44curriculumhub.ca Namely: CC templates that are organized by level. The numbers do not reflect a grade – simply complexity!  CC Posters in French and English The HUB is a living document and will continue to grow and evolve as our level of understanding grows and our skill sets and curiosities bring us to new places.

There's more! One very useful document includes this one that offers examples of how teachers may use the CC through various subject areas.  Additionally,  Help guides on how to integrate CC in the classrooms  I can statements in English and French Useful presentations including a timeline Links to Ministry documents  Book lists and graphic organizers 

Matching As a way to brainstorm ideas, we will work with the resources on the tables to provide concrete examples of how to use the posters and templates to help students self-assess. 

Example Today, we’ll be using the example of making predictions. This falls under the critical thinking competency and many activity/teaching ideas are provided in Adrienne Gear’s Reading Power resource. 

Making predictions Do make predictions, we will be using one of these books – predictions can be done at any time during the reading activity – before, during or even after. 

Self-assessment As a template example, we could use this one where students would draw out their predictions. This would show their thinking competency.  Even though the template is a ‘summative” assessment, it can be used in any way you’d like. All templates are word documents and can be altered. In this case, only the “draw my thinking” box would be used for students to show their predictions. Later in the school year, if students choose to use this as a good example of their “Thinking” Competency, they could explain why on the top section of the template. By using self-assessment regularly in your classroom, students will become more familiar with the practice – thus facilitating the year end self-assessment! 

Matching: your turn! Now, with the resources on your tables, we leave it to you to find other ways that you could use the Posters and templates to help students practise their self-assessment.  We’ve left some resource books on your tables as a tool to help you with ideas – they are entirely optional! 

Table activity On your white chart paper, identify ways that you could use the posters to facilitate self-assessment in your classroom. Add as many examples as you’d like! On your table you have large chart paper, Core Competency self assessments, a Core Competency poster and a commonly used teacher resource.  As a group discuss how you could connect the posters with a classroom learning activity and then have student self-assess their learning or their engagement within the lesson.   Record your groups ideas on the chart paper. May be useful to divide sheet into prim/int.

Gallery walk Photos are permitted! Gallery Walk, leaving your chart paper on the table with your poster, self assessment template and resource, walk around and explore what ideas other groups have come up with. If you see a great idea, feel free to take a photo so you can remember it later! Walk around the tables and get ideas on how the posters/resources could be used. 

School Plan With your school teams, begin to devise a plan on how you will present this information to your staff Within your school teams, you have a few minutes to develop a plan for how you will share the posters and the information from today with your staff.  Things to consider include: Who will be responsible of presenting what? What does our staff need? How and when will the information be shared?

Please remember to pick up posters for your school on your way out! There are sets of posters available to for all enrolling classrooms in French and English.