Student Ownership of Learning:
Student Led Conferences
When Laura and Bob Jones met with their daughter's teacher in October to discuss her progress at Renaissance, a fourth person was in the room: their daughter Grace. In fact, Grace did most of the talking. She read her parents the photo essay she'd written, and explained the steps she'd taken to complete it. She demonstrated addition and subtraction, and early multiplication skills demonstrated with graph paper. Grace talked about herself as a reader and showed her parents the books she'd been reading.
For Grace and her parents, this was their first student-led conference, a school-wide practice that starts in kindergarten at Renaissance. Student-led conferences are a natural outgrowth of the school's commitment to giving students "choices and ownership for their learning".
"Student-led parent conferences may be the biggest breakthrough in communicating about student achievement in the last four decades," say Dr. Richard Stiggens, head of the Assessment Training Institute based in Portland. "The level of responsibility it brings to the student and the pride in accomplishment that can be engender when they succeed is unprecedented."
Many parents are discovering the advantages that student-led conferences have over the traditional parent-teacher model. It's a time to find out what and how their child is learning. For students, it's an opportunity to reflect on and speak about their learning and to practice presentation skills.
Traditionally conferences are 'parent-teacher conferences' where conferences can emphasize the deficits instead of accomplishments. At Renaissance, the conferences are individualized, solution oriented and informative.
Students at Renaissance participate in Portofolio Showcase Presentations in third and sixth grade. Portfolio Showcases are an opportunity for students to present their portfolio of work to a panel of adults. Student-led conferences prepare students, over time, for this experience. Learning to talk about yourself as a learner and your learning experiences are key in being prepared to present a portfolio.
At all grade levels, students are learning to set and meet goals, identify resources, reflect on their learning, create criteria, use criteria for looking at their work and that of others, and communicate about their work. This is real learning and the real world.
So what is the role of the parent at a student-led conference? To celebrate and support your student through the learning process.
The ability to reflect about yourself as a learner takes time. Younger students, or students new to Renaissance, will need some prompts and assistance during their conference. You can support the process by asking questions like:
* What about this was a challenge?
* What would you do next?
* Why was it important to learn this?
* What did you do when you were stuck?
* What resources did you use?
* How did you figure this out?
* How do you view yourself as a learner?
* What did you do well?
What is critical to understand, is that at Renaissance, student-led conferences are about the student. Student-led conferences -
* are students taking ownership and are responsible for their learning.
* are students discovering relevancy in their learning.
* are students making personal decisions about their work.
* are students developing important leadership skills.
* promote accountability.
* positively impact student motivation.
* are a celebration!
Now...if only I had pictures! Perhaps you'll send me some from the conference you attend?
Bootcamp Success
Renaissance raised $34,000. during Bootcamp!
Wow!!!!!
Not only did we raise money, we also raised our awareness of those in our community in need of support.
Bootcamp's community service project supported the efforts of Douglas/Elbert Task Force's food bank. Crews showed their empathy for local folks in need and collected 4,225 non-perishable healthy items
in our food drive.
Crew are shown here in our food "chain gang",
passing items to the Army Humvee.
We loaded four vehicles in all!
With the funds raised, we are able to set aside -
$6,000 for scholarships for the 2012-2013 school year
$6,000 for supporting digital tools we have purchased
$20,000 for an enhanced sound system for every classroom
and we are on our way to having funds
to support staff development opportunities!
Thank you!!!
What a great day it was for our kids!
Thank you to all of you who volunteered
to make this special day such a success!
Bravo to our community!
Ms. Deborah
