Our work continues here to implement our new expanded student reporting project, the essential goals for Gregorians, or the “egg.”   The report card piece has been prepared and distributed to parents and teachers and students; the new poster appears on every classroom wall now.    This week we are working to provide more information by offering some color to the framework by offering short descriptions of what each “essential goal” might look like in the classroom when performed by our students.    Note: We will not be evaluating students on each of the descriptions (in italics); the italicized descriptions will not appear on the report card format itself, which is only the much simplified framework.  But the italicized pieces are intended to offer some greater illumination of what we mean for each criterium.

1. Effort

Work ethic and perseverance

Works hard

Persists in the face of difficulty

Takes responsibility for his/her own learning

Accepts challenges as growth opportunities

Dedicated and determined to succeed

Resiliency

Responds positively to setback

Overcomes or circumvents obstacles

Learns from feedback and constructive criticism, and avoids defensiveness

Asks for, seeks, and accepts assistance when necessary or appropriate

Understands that mistakes are part of the learning process

2. Integrity and ethical minded-ness

Demonstrating compassion and empathy

Shows respect for others’ viewpoints

Shows genuine concern for the feelings of others, and seeks to act on that concern

Works hard to understand issues and concerns from the perspective of others, particularly others particularly different in position or point of view

Acting responsibly, with the interests of the larger community in mind

Seeks to improve one’s community and environment, and be a good steward

Recognizes when his/her own needs must be put aside for the sake of a larger group

Can control impulsivity

Understanding complex ethical issues and making reasoned decisions accordingly

Demonstrates intellectual acuity and empathy in exploring ethical issues

Goes beyond understanding and acts appropriately to fulfill ethical responsibility

3. Leadership Skills, including influencing others and facilitating collaboration

Models appropriate behavior
Builds trust through encouragement and full participation; leads from the middle
Facilitates and participates in collaboration

Has a clear vision and communicates it

Is comfortable with, and can learn from, making mistakes

Empowers others, and encourages constructive dissent

4. Communication Skills – seeking clarity and producing quality in

Writing and Speaking

Strives for clarity, substance, accuracy, precision

Adjusts language to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences for different purposes

Skillfully employs conventions of grammar and usage

Develops style and voice

Listening

Respects and is attentive to teachers and classmates, and actively seeks to understand before being understood.

Can demonstrate understanding of nuance and significance behind or beneath the literal

Communicating digitally

Makes appropriate use of communication technology

Contributes to class blogs and collaborative sites

Keeps up with material provided on websites

Is a producer, not just a consumer or commentator, of quality on-line creative content in multiple media

5. Thinking Skills

Inquisitiveness and curiosity

Asks questions for deeper meaning

Presses for break-through ideas

Conducts research on issues by generating ideas and questions and posing problems

Reads widely to acquire information and knowledge and build understanding of the human experience

Analytic thinking

Breaks problems into parts

Devises solution methods

Determines reliability of sources

Synthetic Thinking

Makes connections

Applies past knowledge to new situations

Gathers, evaluates, and synthesizes data from a variety of sources

Critical Thinking and Independent-Mindedness

Seriously interrogates received information and conventional wisdom for source evidence and logical construction

Trusts nothing at face value; seeks to understand potential bias

Offers original interpretations and insights in class discussion and written work

Seeks evidence and data to support hypotheses

6. Innovation Skills

Creativity and ingenuity

Develops independent ideas for projects, themes for writing, approaches to problems

Seeks to solve problems in multiple ways, not just the easiest or swiftest

Able to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches and solutions

Dissatisfied with the status quo; seeks to offer new or alternative approaches and solutions

Adaptability

Can make adjustments to changes in daily procedure and due dates

Works well with a variety of people

Processes material presented in various ways

Is willing to examine personal strengths and challenges

Initiative

Begins and proceeds with tasks without needing additional prompting or reminding

Experimentation and risk-taking

Asks questions, tries new approaches, tries more than one approach to compare, develops hypotheses

7. Complex, Real-World, Problem Solving Skills

Can successfully tackle a problem using existent skills and by identifying and acquiring new

knowledge and skills pertinent to the problem at hand

Skillful at solving problems of a type not previously encountered

Interested in real-world applications of classroom learning, and effective at drawing upon classroom learning for real-world situations and challenges.