MEETING THE NEEDS OF 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS
Collaborative Conference on Student Achievement
Opening Activity: Awareness
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Think of the most difficult task you would ask your
students to complete this year.
On the activity sheet, write down five students you
believe would easily succeed in the task and five
students you believe would struggle.
Today’s Agenda
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Introduction
High Expectations
Awareness
Student Needs
Reflection
Today’s Objectives
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Understand the core beliefs of high expectations for
all students
Gain an awareness of possible disparities and
biases
Learn about student needs for the 21st Century
Participant Expectations
Be Responsible
Return promptly from breaks
Be an active participant
Use electronic devices appropriately
Be Respectful
Maintain cell phone etiquette
Listen attentively to others
Limit sidebars and stay on topic
Be Kind
Enter discussions with an open mind
Respond appropriately to others’ ideas
Honor confidentiality
Attention Signal
Please make note of time limits and watch your clocks!
 Trainer will raise his/her hand.
 Finish your thought/comment.
 Participants will raise a hand and wait quietly.
Safety Assumptions
You are all high-quality educators.
 We want all students to succeed.
 All ideas will be heard without judgment.
 Confidentiality will be honored.
 We are not here to fix you.
 Others?
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MEETING THE NEEDS OF 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS
High Expectations for All Students
Basketball Activity
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Break into pairs and choose one person to be the
“teacher” and the other will be the “student.”
Teachers instruct students on throwing the ball into a
basket. All of the students will stand behind the
same line to throw.
Follow the instructions on the activity sheet when
modifying the task.
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Collaborate with fellow teachers as needed.
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If time allows, switch roles.
High Expectations
Definition
The belief that any student, regardless of
characteristics or circumstances, can and will
succeed in a rigorous learning environment.
MEETING THE NEEDS OF 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS
Core Beliefs Poll
Core Beliefs Poll
Walk around the room, reading the core belief
statements on the chart paper around the
room.
 Select an answer that best describes your
opinion.
 Put a dot next to that answer.
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Core Belief:
We have the tools to close the achievement gap.
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Standard Course Of Study
Collaboration
Formative Assessments
High-yield teaching strategies
Remediation
Enrichment
Student/Teacher Interactions
Core Belief:
Quality teachers outweigh student barriers
“…the fundamental finding from the Education Trust
studies is that however important demographic
variables may appear in their association with
student achievement, teaching quality is the most
dominant factor in determining student success.”
(Reeves, 2000)
Core Belief: District and school leadership create
the climate that supports high expectations
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Research has consistently shown that principals are
the key to an effective school (Seyfarth, 1999;
Sergiovanni, 2001)
Principals who focus on developing a culture of
adult learning, positive relationships among
teachers, and a relentless focus on instruction were
shown to play a key role in increasing achievement
in difficult circumstances (Newmann, 2000)
Core Belief: It is the responsibility of everyone
in our school to remove barriers to learning.
“It is important to make the necessary adjustments in the
school environment to neutralize predictable problems for
these young people. To do that, educators have to be
cognizant of how they arrived at the school door and do
whatever is necessary to minimize the obstacles that their
worlds or the school places in their path”
Dr. Mary Montle Bacon,
Working with Students from a Culture of Poverty
Core Belief: It is the responsibility of everyone in
our school to remove barriers to learning.
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Achievement is influenced by
four factors.
Educators have the ability to
influence three of the four
factors.
We spend the most time
trying to change the one on
which we have the least
influence.
-Dave Tilly, Keynote Address NC
Leadership Forum, November
2008
Environment
Instruction
Curriculum
Learner
Core Belief: We can move beyond personal
biases towards groups or individuals
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The most effective teachers are those who know
themselves, are willing to reflect inward to
determine causes of problems in classroom, and
ultimately change behavior/practice/lessons after
reflection. (Farr, 2010)
It is entirely possible to change behavior towards
students so that students-regardless of the
teacher’s level of expectation for them-receive
the same behavior in terms of affective tone and
quality of interactions. (Marzano, 2007)
Core Belief: High Expectations are conveyed
not only through words but through actions
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Student performance is linked to teacher/student
interactions.
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We all have biases that result in subtle differences in the
way we behave towards certain students.
Expectations are conveyed through body language and
voice tone without self-awareness.
These behaviors influence student performance, and
result in our beliefs being realized.
Core Belief:
Student success is the responsibility of the teacher
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The quality of a teacher in the classroom is the single
most important factor in determining how well a child
learns. (Vandervoot, et al., 2004)
Quantitative analysis indicate that measures of
teacher preparation and certification are by far the
strongest correlates of student achievement in reading
and mathematics before and after controlling for
student poverty and language studies. (Hammond,
2000)
Core Belief: A student’s life circumstances
and/or characteristics do not predict his/her
ability to learn
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“…schools that are highly effective produce results
that almost entirely overcome the effects of student
backgrounds.” (Marzano What Works in Schools,
2003, page 7)
“While environmental factors can alter rate of
learning they do not affect the ability to learn.”
(Susan Levine, Professor of Psychology at the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Core Beliefs Reflection Activity
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Using the activity sheet, take a moment to consider
your feelings and thoughts about each of the core
beliefs.
After you’ve completed the reflection sheet, if you
are comfortable doing so, talk with the person next
to you and share some of your thoughts.
MEETING THE NEEDS OF 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS
Awareness
Awareness Activity
On your own:
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Refer to the list of students you created at the beginning of this
session.
Identify characteristic of each student (e.g. race, sex, socioeconomic, etc.).
In small groups:
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Discuss common characteristics of the perceived high achievers and
perceived low achievers.
Do you have similar groupings to others or different ones?
Awareness: Honesty
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People may not always say what is on their
minds when it comes to sensitive topics.
Some people are either unwilling
or unable to honestly express
their thoughts.
Unwilling people deceive others,
while unable people deceive
themselves.
This deception is attributed to the
types of associations sensitive
topics have.
Awareness: Honesty
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Our experiences either indirectly or directly
impact how we think about certain groups.
We are unaware of how indirect or implicit
associations can impact our behavior toward
certain groups.
The Implicit Association Test (IAT) helps us
recognize how indirect associations have
impacted our thinking.
Awareness:
How do expectations affect learning?
Communication consists of:
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Text: 7%
Tone: 38%
Body Language:
55%
Which of these do you think is the largest
component of communication?
Expectations/Performance Cycle
Expectations are confirmed
Beliefs about an individual
shape expectations
Individual responds to cues
and modifies actions
(Output/Feedback)
Expectations expressed through
words and actions
(Input/Feedback)
Awareness: Breaking the Cycle
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Identify your expectation levels for students.
Accept that you are interacting differently with students
who you perceive as low performing.
Focus on changing your behaviors through specific
instructional strategies.
Collect data to ensure that your interactions are
changing.
Does my differential treatment suggest that I am a terrible teacher? The answer is ‘no’
if, once I recognize my differential treatment, I take corrective measures.”
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Robert T. Tauber
MEETING THE NEEDS OF 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS
What do modern students need for the future?
Thoughts about 21st Century Learning
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“Oh, sure, I’d love for my kids to have a class set of
Ipod Touches.”
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“Our students may not have computers at home.”
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“I’m not comfortable letting them handle the
equipment.”
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My school doesn’t have the money to buy paper, let
alone computers.”
What do students really need?
The Five Cs
Collaboration: What is it and why is it important?
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Think of all the times during the day that your job
requires you to work with other adults.
Think about other jobs that require the workers to
collaborate.
Can you think of any job that does not require
collaboration?
Find a partner and discuss how people collaborate
in a social network.
Collaboration: What does it look like in a 21st Century Classroom?
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Reciprocal teaching (teachers enabling students to
learn and use self-learning)
Feedback accepted from all (specific response to
student work)
Student self-verbalization or self-questioning
Use of meta-cognition strategies
Problem-based learning
Activity:
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What are we already doing to encourage
collaboration?
What could we do better?
School Example
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Brentwood Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Lake Myra Elementary School, Wendell, NC
Fred A. Smith Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Wilburn Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Communication: What is it and why is it important?
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In order to collaborate, students need to be able to
communicate ideas coherently and diplomatically.
At the very least, a person needs to be able to
communicate with a boss or superior in order to be
successful.
Communication is through oral, written, drawn, and
can be conveyed through tone and body language.
Find a new partner and talk about what helps you
present your ideas to others effectively.
Communication: What does it look
like in a 21st Century Classroom?
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Using video production to assess learning
Translating material into text messages
Creating graphic novels about lessons
Hand-draw story boards about concepts learned
Climate that encourages everyone to give and
receive feedback
Learning to address a global audience
“There’s a fallacy that kids aren’t reading and writing anymore,” says Bruce. “They are,
but they just are reading and writing differently than what we’ve traditionally done
in schools. . . . A 21st-century approach [doesn’t] say that print writing is bad. It’s
not competing literacies; it’s complementary literacy.”
Activity:
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What are we already doing ?
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What could we do better?
School Example
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Brentwood Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Lake Myra Elementary School, Wendell, NC “Book
Club”
Old Providence Elementary School, Charlotte, NC
Critical Thinking: What is it and why is it important?
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This is also called “problem solving.”
While we can’t predict what type of job the
students of today will have, we can prepare them
by teaching critical thinking and problem solving.
A boss gives a work team a new machine or
software or program or project and tells the team
to figure out how to use it or complete it. Is this a
realistic scenario?
Turn to the person next to you and talk about how
you use critical thinking in your job.
Critical Thinking: What does it look
like in a 21st Century Classroom?
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Problem-solving in conventional and innovative ways
Identifying and asking significant questions which lead to better
solutions
Use of various types of reasoning (inductive, deductive, etc.)
Analysis of the interaction of parts of a whole to produce overall
outcomes in complex systems
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Effective evaluation of evidence, arguments, claims and beliefs
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Synthesized connections between information and arguments
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Solid interpretation of information and conclusions drawn on the best
analysis
Critical reflection on learning experiences and processes
Activity:
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What are we already doing ?
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What could we do better?
School Example
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Brentwood Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Centennial Campus Middle School, Raleigh, NC
Lake Myra Elementary School, Wendell, NC
Old Providence Elementary School, Charlotte, NC
Creativity: What is it and why is it important?
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Most people assume that creativity has something to
do with the fine arts.
In order to build new systems or programs or
products, thinking must be done outside the box.
Think of a teacher you had who encouraged this
type of creativity.
Find a partner and tell what that teacher did to
encourage creativity.
Creativity: What does it look like
in a 21st Century Classroom?
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Originality and inventiveness in work
Developing, implementing and communicating new
ideas to others
Openness and responsiveness to new and diverse
perspectives
Acting on creative ideas to make a tangible and
useful contribution
Understanding and application of Gardner’s
Learning Styles
Activity:
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What are we already doing ?
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What could we do better?
School Example
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Brentwood Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Lake Myra Elementary, Wendell, NC
Old Providence Elementary, Charlotte, NC
Wilburn Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Caring: What is it and why is it important?
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People work best in environments in which they feel
safe.
Safety ensures that risks can be taken.
Classrooms should have a climate of democracy, in
which all people feel valued.
Most students do not necessarily remember every
lesson taught, but they will remember the
relationships between the people at the school.
Take a minute to write about a teacher that you
had who you felt truly cared about the students.
What did that teacher do to convey regard?
Caring: What does it look like in a
21st Century Classroom?
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Equitable
Organized
Nurturing
Cultural responsiveness
Clearly defined expectations that are taught
directly
System in place to recognize positive behavior
Instructive, not punitive, classroom management
Student-driven and teacher facilitated
Activity:
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What are we already doing ?
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What could we do better?
School Example
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Brentwood Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Lake Myra Elementary School, Wendell, NC
Old Providence Elementary School, Charlotte, NC
Vance Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
Video
Reflection
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What needs to happen to encourage a 21st Century
learning environment at your school?
Resources
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http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2012/01/collabor
ation-1-collaboration-is-the-key-influence-in-thequality-of-teaching.html
http://lornacollier.com/The+Shift+to+21st+Centur
y+Literacies.pdf
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/creativity-inclassroom-trisha-riche
http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?page_id=2
www.p21.org
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/
Special Thanks:
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Kathy Bauer, Third Grade Teacher, Old Providence Elementary School, Charlotte, NC
Candace Buchanan, Second Grade Teacher, Fred A. Smith Elementary School,
Raleigh, NC
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Katie Bush, Second Grade Teacher, Fred A. Smith Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
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Matthew Carlyle, Kindergarten teacher, Brentwood Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
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Amy Dressel, Dance Specialist, Centennial Campus Middle School, Raleigh, NC
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Rachel Fruend, Fifth Grade Teacher, Vance Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
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Christina Palmer, Fourth Grade Teacher, Lake Myra Elementary School, Wendell, NC
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Melissa Purtee, Art Specialist, Wilburn Elementary School, Raleigh, NC
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Sandylee Singletary, Seventh Grade Language Arts Teacher, Centennial Campus
Middle School, Raleigh, NC
Contact Information
laura.winter@dpi.nc.gov
919-302-9334