REALMS Magnet School
An EL Education Credentialing Portfolio
Character - Claim 1:
HOW's In Action
Putting HOW's Into Action: The Student Experience
The concept of "academic mindsets" and "performance character" only make sense in a school if they come to life for students each day in ways that build lasting change. The goal after all, is to become effective, lifelong learners.
This section of evidence emphasizes ways in which students interact, use, and reflect on Habits of Work at REALMS. We begin with the voices of students by sharing video of alumni and current students reflecting on, engaging with, or using habits of work and then move towards student work that shows evidence of the development of strong HOW's.
REALMS Alumni Speak About HOWS in High School
Students Reflect On, Self-Assess and Even Appreciate HOW's
It is important to make sure that Habits of Work live at many levels in the school. In this video you will see a few examples:
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Katie reflects on her growth in determination over her 3 years at REALMS during her Passages Presentation
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Scout appreciates a classmate for specific habits of work
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Madi, as she notices how the "real world task" she and her classmates were involved in helped her take greater responsibility for her work and effort
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Jaelle, as she leads an analysis of her habits of work in the math classroom
Other Ways Students Make Daily Use of HOW's
Connecting HOW's to Academic Tasks
Students self assess during and at the end of specific classroom tasks using rubrics that include not just the academic criteria for the task, but also the relevant HOW criteria.
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Almost all significant or longer term tasks include self assessment opportunities and these typically include one or more HOW targets.
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Connecting HOW's to Discipline & Problem Solving
At REALMS, when a student is struggling to make positive choices in the classroom or with peers, the problem solving process is framed in terms of helping the student explore how he/she can develop or use specific elements of our Habits of Work to make a change and grow from the situation towards becoming a more independent and effective learner.
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Our "problem solving form" includes prompts for the student to reflect on and write about that are directly connected to our HOW's.
The full form itself can be found here or by clicking on the image to the left.
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Reflecting on Past Performance and Setting Short Term Goals:
Below are excerpts from students' midterm Habit of Work written reflections. At REALMS we often ask students to self-assess before (or as a part of) their midterm progress report.
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What Habit of Work helped you be successful on this Learning Target? How?
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"Participation: Participation has helped me the most because I listen well in class and because I read books to improve my understanding of difficult words. Also I am able to apply interesting words to my writing without sounding choppy."
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"Participation: I think participation helped me because I really focused on using descriptive words after I participated in the activities. The activities helped me because it made me want to have better words that shows doesn't tell."
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"Determination: I didn't fully understand this learning target and how to use the math at first, so I stayed determined and eventually figured it out and was able to get a mastery on a quiz we did by using the harder problem."
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What Habit of Work do you need to work on, and how will this help you?
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"Responsibility: Sometimes I don't ask for help and that seems like a HOW I need work on."
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"Responsibility: If I get all my homework in and I am prepared for learning, eventually I will get the math."
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"Determination: If I was more determined to do the work that was hard, I would have had a better understanding of it. In the future I'll ask for help if I don't understand, or I'll look back at my work and try again."