The flexibility resulting from the shift to a proficiency-based system provides opportunities to personalize learning and support engagement in authentic learning. The power of such learning is even greater when this learning extends to the community and results in place-based learning.
In this session, participants will hear the story of a teacher and his students who redesigned a traditional unit in science. Presenters will share how Windham High School staff and students collaborated with community partners to create a published book called Discovering Water. They will discuss how students who engaged in this project considered the learning expectations, chose to create a scientific text, and had a voice in the product and design of the publication currently being used in all grade six classrooms located in the Sebago Watershed in Maine.
Participants in the session will see from start to finish the process of collaboratively creating this scientific text and hear about the next phase of the publication in iBook form. Presenters will also share their ideas about how to extend authentic opportunities and how to provide evidence of learning in a system that graduates students with proficiency-based diplomas.
http://www.discoveringwater.org/ View Session Recording
