{"id":2992,"date":"2014-04-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/blog\/cw_post\/igniting-learning-at-the-making-community-connections-charter-school-2\/"},"modified":"2020-02-05T12:52:01","modified_gmt":"2020-02-05T17:52:01","slug":"igniting-learning-at-the-making-community-connections-charter-school-2","status":"publish","type":"cw_post","link":"https:\/\/aurora-institute.org\/cw_post\/igniting-learning-at-the-making-community-connections-charter-school-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Igniting Learning at the Making Community Connections Charter School"},"content":{"rendered":"
This is the first of a two-part series about Making Community Connections Charter School. Click here for P<\/a><\/i>art 2<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n \u201cAs a learner, I grew in the way a fire would if you sprayed gasoline on it.\u201d \u2013 From a student\u2019s graduation portfolio<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n That\u2019s what Making Community Connections Charter School<\/a> (MC2<\/sup>) is all about \u2013creating dynamic learners. At MC2<\/sup>, serving grades 7-12 in Manchester, New Hampshire, it feels like they wiped the slate clean of all the traditional ideas of what makes a school and started to design the school from scratch.\u00a0 It\u2019s deeply student-centered in its design and operations.\u00a0 Its theory of change is built upon a deep understanding and appreciation of adolescent development, motivation, and learning sciences. MC2<\/sup> is a model that will work for any student. At its center, it is designed around the kids who are educationally challenged (about 35% of MC2<\/sup> students are classified as having special education needs), have already had a tough time in life by age 14, who have felt betrayed by the adults in their lives, and are drawing from their own reservoirs of stubborn hope that things can get better.<\/p>\n This case study on MC2<\/sup> is broken into two parts. The first is on the design principles and the theory of action driving the school. The second is on how students progress and the implications for teachers.<\/b><\/p>\n Design Principles<\/b><\/p>\n Every conversation with Kim Carter, founder of MC2<\/sup> and director of its non-profit partner organization QED Foundation, has sparkled with powerful insights.\u00a0 She has been incredibly generous in sharing what seems to be her never-ending body of knowledge and insights.\u00a0 Even with my awareness of the depth of her expertise, I was still surprised by the design of MC2<\/sup>.\u00a0 It reminded me that it is not just about what we know, but how we creatively put it all together into learning experiences that are meaningful for students. Or in competency ed speak \u2013 it\u2019s not just what you know, but how you apply it.<\/p>\n The design principles start with what students need in order to learn, firmly based on the 2001 National Research Council\u2019s How People Learn<\/a> report. The four principles are:<\/p>\n Theory of Action: Motivation, Maturity and Metacognition<\/b><\/p>\n MC2<\/sup>\u2019s design is built upon a foundation of adolescent development, motivation science and what we know about how we learn. In a student\u2019s first years at the school, the emphasis is on helping them to mature as people and as learners with a deeper understanding of themselves, how they learn and what it takes to be an effective learner.\u00a0 Whereas discussions about school reform often start with standards, curriculum and instruction, MC2<\/sup> starts with how students learn, focusing on motivation, maturity (demonstrating the habits of mind and being) and metacognition. If you don\u2019t understand and value this, the rest of the school design can be confusing. And if you do value it, does it start to make you wonder how we address motivation, maturation and metacognition in our traditional systems?<\/p>\n MC2<\/sup> starts with the J Curve<\/a>, an understanding that learning requires certain \u201chabits of being, habits of mind<\/a>.\u201d The J Curve assumes that there is a greater investment upfront in helping students build their habits and gain maturity that will at some point lead to a much steeper trajectory of learning, i.e., an acceleration of learning.\u00a0 This raises an enormous question: How should we think about expected rates of learning if we can only measure academic gains and not gains in habits and maturity?<\/p>\n MC2<\/sup>\/QED Foundation has done an extraordinary job of creating rubrics that help teachers and students focus conversations about how students are progressing on each habit.\u00a0 There are three foundational habits<\/i>: Self-Direction<\/a>, Ownership<\/a> and Community<\/a> (described by Carter as \u201cwhere you give and get help\u201d).\u00a0 Habits of being<\/i> include Character<\/a>, Quality Work<\/a>, Global Citizenship<\/a>, Collaboration<\/a> and Curiosity and Wonder<\/a>. Habits of mind<\/i> are Critical Thinking<\/a>, Creative Thinking<\/a>, Decision Making<\/a>, Information<\/a> Technology<\/a>, Management<\/a>, Organization<\/a>, Leadership<\/a>, Problem Solving<\/a> and Communication<\/a>. You\u2019ll notice that there are many more habits than you see in most schools. They are also more specific than I\u2019ve seen in any other school. MC2<\/sup> has made sure that the rubrics are concrete enough that students and teachers can use them to reflect and discuss whether specific behaviors or events are evidence of how students are progressing.<\/p>\n The most important and most difficult issue about habits isn\u2019t which ones, how many or the rubrics. It\u2019s the question about how children and youth-serving institutions like school can actually support maturation and the development of these skills.\u00a0 The habits are core to MC2<\/sup>\u2019s design; thus, there are a number of different ways that students are able to strengthen their habits and be recognized for their growth:<\/p>\n The result is that MC2<\/sup> is helping students develop the intrinsic motivation and ability to self-assess what they need to do to be able to tackle learning challenges.<\/p>\n We often talk about student agency or student voice and choice in competency education, but we don\u2019t talk about what it really means to help students who may not be as mature as their classmates, may have been traumatized and easily triggered by situations, or may find a disconnect with their family culture around the role of children. In order to create a culture that allows students to mature and build agency, MC2<\/sup> is constantly reinforcing the school culture by valuing \u201crelationships first\u201d and making the culture explicit through a number of catch phrases used repeatedly throughout the day, including:<\/p>\n \u201cEverything starts with relationships,\u201d Carter said. \u201cThe kids learn that they have to have agency within relationships. We expect our students to ask \u2018Who says?\u2019 and \u2018What makes you say that?\u2019 so that they build their own understanding and learn how to give productive feedback and advocate for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Metacognition is a constant part of the learning process at MC2<\/sup>. Transparency means that students understand the four steps of the learning cycle<\/a> (concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation) and that it is in the context of the 4MAT<\/a> instructional framework that builds on meaning, concepts, skills and adaptations. They also have plenty of opportunity to reflect, \u201cHow do I learn best?<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n As students build their competency in the different habits of work, demonstrating the knowledge, skills, dispositions and the necessary maturity, they prepare portfolios and a presentation in order to pass through gateways onto the next phase.\u00a0 I\u2019ll write about this in tomorrow\u2019s post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","mapsvg_location":""},"legacy_category":[],"issue":[368,371],"location":[91],"class_list":["post-2992","cw_post","type-cw_post","status-publish","hentry","issue-issues-in-practice","issue-learn-lessons-from-the-field","location-new-hampshire"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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