Dr. Jeanette Westfall, Assistant Superintendent- Instructional Design, Liberty Public Schools, explains how she established a two-way channel between herself at the district leadership level and with coaches and teachers at the school level so that the perspective of school-based practitioners could inform district-level decisions.
Sample schedules for Kindergarten – 8th grade that include walking time for ELA and math.
Liberty Public School students in learning cafe classrooms work along pathways based on their mastery level. This artifact includes an example of a pre-assessment students take. Teachers use the data from these pre-assessments to provide students with a pathway that includes activities like creating videos and practicing skills. The artifact includes samples of various pathways students in the same group may be working on based on their needs.
Student-facing Common Core-aligned ELA and math mastery trackers.
Liberty Public School students in learning cafe classrooms use personalized plans to self-direct and pace their learning of math skills. Plans are organized against a continuum of math competency areas, and students work through a personalized plan for developing target skills associated with the intention. The plan asks students to:
Define in their own words what the skill is and means
Choose from a set of activities from a learning and practice playlists, including options to explore the skill through different modalities (videos, tutorials), try practice problems, self-assess again, play a “red card” to get immediate support from a teacher, or ask a friend
Apply the skill by making a video to explain it to others and then uploading it to SeeSaw (a learning management system)
Complete a mastery assessment online
Reflect on their learning, including identifying when and how they felt off track, strategies they used to get back on track, moments of engagement, and identifying means of engagement
A folder containing a variety of Common Core-aligned, mastery-based math assessments for 4th grade.
Mt. Vernon Elementary School’s mastery-based grading policy, which outlines its grading weights, how to translate mastery into letter grades, gradebook expectations, and an example report card.
Social emotional lesson pacing guide for prekindergarten through eighth grade, which includes lesson objectives and targeted calming strategies.
This website shows the vision of the By Design program and its key outcomes and components.
Savannah Bell, Personalized Learning Leader at Chicago Public Schools, describes how teachers and leaders at Tanner Elementary School adapted their social-emotional learning scope and sequence to focus on self-management skills.
