Do you have programs that focus on 21st Century skills in your school? If not, how do you incorporate those skills?
Our Story
In 2018, my colleague and I had the idea to create an entire program centering around the skills outlined in the book. As experienced educators, we knew what methods were effective in the classroom, and we wanted to design a program unlike any our school had ever created.
My colleague, Denise, and I had been collaborators for decades before having this idea. We worked together in the same school for most of our careers. Denise, as the art teacher, was always searching for ways to connect her curriculum in other courses. I, as a social studies teacher, was desperate for collaboration and innovation. We collaborated in many innovative projects including multidisciplinary units and small assignments. Our experiences left us wanting more and bigger and more innovative every time.
By 2018, we had an idea of creating an entire program focused on problem-based learning and collaboration. Our dream was to have our entire middle school stop “regular school” for several weeks and participate in a “mini school” midterm program. We constructed our basic idea and sold it to our principal. Generally a risk-taker, he was interested in the potential of our idea and allowed us to move forward in its creation. He had one requirement. Whatever we designed had to be rigorous.
With his blessing, Denise and I moved forward to create our Academy Program with a small group of dedicated and creative colleagues.
21st Century Skills
What do I mean when I reference 21st Century skills? I am referring to those outlined in Bernie Trilling and Charles Fadel’s 21st Century Skills: Learning for Life in Our Times published in 2009.
In their book, the authors outline their vision for skills that schools need to develop in students for a new world of work. They outline three categories. First, they emphasize skills that encourage and instruct on innovation: critical-thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, communication, creativity, and innovation. Second, they list the need for digital literacy skills: information literacy, media literacy, use of new technologies. Lastly, they outline the need to build life and career skills such as, flexibility, adaptability, self-directed, social, cross-cultural, leadership, accountability, and responsibility.
Here we are, well into the 21st Century, and for the most part, schools are struggling to design programs that center around these skills. Denise and I recognized the need for a new approach to teaching and learning in order to incorporate these skills. We used our teaching experience and lessons from our previous collaborations to design one.
Our Creation
With rigor in mind, we set out to create a framework focusing on these specific skills: critical-thinking, collaboration, communication, commitment, and character. Perhaps you have heard the term, 5 C’s, in your reading and research. We redesigned the typical terms and molded them to fit what we felt matched our school’s vision. Every aspect of the program focuses on building these skill sets in our students.
Using the phrase 5 Cs was helpful in many ways. First, it helped us to focus our course design. We were constantly asking each other-how does this course address the need for this particular “C”? Next, it was instrumental in communicating our vision to leaders in the school, including our Head of School and Board of Trustees. As well, it clearly demonstrated the skills we are assessing and expecting in a way that both parents and students can understand.
Through extensive conversation and collaboration with our design committee, we created a three week program consisting of 15 team-taught multidisciplinary courses. Each course would be taught to multiple grade levels. We left behind the notion that we must have only fifth graders in a class together. Most courses are offered to students in grades 5-8.
All courses revolved around building the 5 Cs, and each course incorporated a capstone project. In addition, our program design includes a Showcase event in which students are expected to communicate their learning experience to an authentic audience. Our best feature, students believe, is student-choice. We designed a system in which students are able to rate the courses so that they are placed in one that most matches their personal interests.
We designed a unique daily schedule for these three weeks. Our schedule included two class periods of 2+ hours each. Our advisory, lunch, and recess remained in place, but we also added two additional components, Squads and Exploratory. Squads was a period of forty-five minutes dedicated to daily physical activity and teamwork Exploratory was a time when students would be introduced to new experiences for one hour. We held classes on Italy, hiking, badminton, and theater make-up just to name a few.
Our courses were integrated and multi-disciplinary. Teachers collaborated around shared passions and ideas. We did not limit ourselves by sticking to STEM teachers pairing and Humanities teachers pairing to team teach. Instead, we started with ideas that we thought would excite, inspire, and engage students.
Our world language teacher paired up with a librarian to teach a course entitled, Cooking Around the Globe. Our learning specialist paired with another world language teacher to teach Ommm…with Us. This course introduces students to the history, religion, and practice of yoga. I taught the course, Fake News, with a librarian. We teach media literacy and create a school newspaper. We even had two teachers create a course called Spy School. In addition to learning the history, techniques, and need for espionage, we had parents who previously held careers in the government come to speak. One of the most popular courses we currently offer is entitled, Hatchet. Students read the book, Hatchet, and learn survival and wilderness skills. Their capstone project is spending a night in a tent on our campus.
Designing the program was an entirely collaborative process. My colleague and I had an idea, but we were quite aware that we would need input and expertise from our colleagues. We created a committee to design the basic framework of the program. These committee members created the schedule, designed Exploratory courses, created the assessment design, and gathered input from other teachers. One of the committee members' most important roles was to train and mentor teachers in the creation of their courses.
Over a six month period, we held workshops on course design and the program framework. All teachers were required to attend and, honestly, enjoyed the process. In order to commit to the rigor our principal required, we determined all teachers must submit an application for their course idea to be approved by the committee. We created an application which required the idea, explanation of 5 Cs in the course, and their capstone. The committee members review each course together and assigned mentors to help further develop the teachers’ ideas.
In addition, we had to ensure each course would be a viable option in our student selection process. If we were allowing students to select, we had to know enough students were interested in each class to select it as a choice. We asked teachers to create an elevator pitch directed at students, and we sent a Google Form to all students. Any course that received 20% of the student population responding in a positive manner was approved to move forward. After this step, we did have to eliminate some ideas.
From idea to roll-out, our design took 18 months. My timeline gives you a perspective on our process.
What did we learn?
We learned that in designing a large-scale program like this, several building blocks are necessary. You need administrative support and faculty buy-in to make anything happen. The committee spent hours upon hours in conversation with both groups to advocate for the program. In addition, you must have the space or creative solutions to lack of space. We really wanted to have the cooking course but had no kitchen in our building. Our world language teacher arranged for a grill from the cafeteria to be placed outside of our building, and he used that for some of his lessons. A required building block is some sort of budget. Again, creativity and resourcefulness here are helpful.
Each year, our committee evaluates what can be improved or adjusted. Our process, however, remains a stable component of our quality program.
As we continue to iterate our program, we hope our journey inspires you to start your own.