Preparing students to succeed in college and careers starts long before high school and doesn’t only involve occupation-specific training, according to an article in Education Week. The abilities to collaborate, solve problems, and communicate effectively – useful in almost in any job — are skills employers seek in new hires, according to numerous surveys.
A group of 1st grade teachers in a Kentucky district are working with young students on those skills as well as on reading, writing, and math. The Bullitt County district, south of Louisville, emphasizes universal skills that will be expected of students as they enter college, the workforce, or military service, on top of academic content.
The Bullitt County district started universal skill building first by holding focus groups and community meetings with students, educators, parents, local employers, and other community members. Ideas were collected on the skills and characteristics students should have once they graduate from any of the 13,000-student district’s three high schools.
Out of this came Bullitt County’s graduate profile, with the focus on being effective communicators, innovative problem-solvers, productive collaborators, self-directed navigators, community contributors, and mastery learners.
Educators in the district have worked on breaking down each characteristic, or competency to define what it means at different grade levels. Teachers of the district’s youngest students can incorporate those competencies into projects.
“We have teachers that are willing to embrace that idea and think, ‘OK, you’re not graduating, but what would that look like to a 1st grader?’” says Ashley Byerley, an instructional coach in the district.
Byerley says skill-building is a matter of providing the foundations.
Last January, the four 1st grade teachers at Old Mill Elementary School approached several reading and writing standards through a project involving cats, dogs, and horses that were up for adoption at the nearby Kentucky Humane Society.
They started by looking up photos from the annual World’s Ugliest Dog contest, says Trisha Smith, one of the 1st grade teachers. The teachers asked students to think of nice things to say about each animal, as if it were up for adoption and looking for a home.
Students learned about the shelter’s operations through a video from shelter staff, says teacher Jenna Bray. They searched the shelter’s website to familiarize themselves with the dogs, cats, and horses up for adoption. Students chose their favorite animal and explained why the pet should be adopted. They recorded what they had written, incorporated the audio into an animated class presentation, and presented their work to the shelter.
The project addressed opinion-writing skills and reading standards, and teachers discussed two related competencies from the district’s graduate profile: “community contributor” and “effective communicator.”
They often asked students to think about how they had been effective communicators and community contributors, Smith says. For a 1st grader, being an effective communicator could involve speaking at a respectful volume or using the right body language, she says.
When the 1st grade teachers started working the competencies into their instruction, Smith was skeptical.
“I was one of the ones that was like, ‘Oh my gosh, these grad profile competencies. My kids are not going to understand these,’” she says. “I’ve been surprised by how well they do understand and can apply the grad profile competencies.”
First graders this fall have worked on producing a puppet show for a story of their choosing to perform at a storytelling café for invited guests. The project addresses the “productive collaborator” competency, with students working in groups to produce their shows.
The teachers have had to adjust to teach content and standards through projects, rather than using direct instruction for most of a unit and concluding it with a project, Smith says. Authentic learning experiences take time to coordinate—and require original thinking. The district has received some outside help from organizations including PBL Works and Next Generation Learning Challenges. Teachers are being trained in designing the learning experiences.
“We learned in such a traditional environment, and to stop what we know and what we learned ourselves to embrace these new pedagogical ideas of building students to become these workforce-ready students, it’s just a different mindset,” says Byerley. “The competencies focus on not just the content, but how to use what you know in a real-world setting.”
Helping 1st graders build up workforce competencies through project-based learning also makes learning fun, Smith says.
“If they’re having fun, I’m having fun, too,” she says. “Our kids are more engaged. It’s just a better learning environment.”
Education Week
