What is the opportunity?
Vermont has recently passed some of the most progressive education legislation in the country, calling for personalized and prociency- based learning. This will require students to assume increased responsibility for their education, sitting side-by-side with teachers as they design their own pathways to graduation.
To best prepare our schools for this change, a youth adult team from Two Rivers schools will explore, pilot and assess means for each
school community, and the supervisory union as a whole, to:
- challenge teachers to have high expectations for ALL students,
- challenge students to believe in themselves, create an understanding of metacognition and how to apply this knowledge to learning situations,
- and link the 4 Rs (rigor, relevance, relationships and shared responsi- bility) of motivation to the personalization of learning,
- creating a common benchmark for Personalized Learning Plan choices.
This initiative is an extension of UP for Learning’s M3: Mindset, Metacognition and Motivation program development (M3), now in its fourth year. M3 invites youth and adults to work together as partners to become messengers to their school communities of the latest research about the relationship between learning and the brain, the role of self-expectations and others‚ expectations on academic performance, and a critical examination of both youth and adults‚ ingrained beliefs about ability (mindsets). Changing beliefs and assumptions about these topics are key to improving student engagement within school and establishing a readiness to fully implement and optimize personalized learning plans and the shift to pro ciency-based learning.
The goal is to establish a K-12 model for developing a schoolwide language of learning‚ and foster a vital and empowered learning community across the grades, in both school-day and out-of-school time contexts.
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