The whole point of school, I believe, is to wake up students to the treasures and passions they have within themselves.
If this is true, then these “21st Century Learning Skills” are not merely to ensure that our future students find amazing
The whole point of school, I believe, is to wake up students to the treasures and passions they have within themselves.
If this is true, then these “21st Century Learning Skills” are not merely to ensure that our future students find amazing jobs, or make our nation more impressive, or ensure that our children don’t fall behind some international standard, but these progressive learning skills should be in service of our young people becoming more human. We are moving beyond a factory model of education, churning out obedient little widgets, to a student centred, innovative, and connected model that nurtures the inherent potential in young people.
So with this in mind, I want to share with you some thoughts about one way I am trying to cultivate this within my students. This is my attempt at a personalized / progressive Grade 7 reading program:
- I started the year giving my students a personal reading log, where they can track and record the books that they read.
- My students choose their own books and the only requirements is that they have read at least 5 different genres and 30 books through the whole year.
- While many students had mini-cardiac attacks when they heard the benchmark, my stance on this is firm: you have to constantly be reading. Big books (over 300 pages) count as 2 books and shorter books are valid.