As we start to see a shift in education and classroom culture, we begin to see the focus shift to student growth and the importance of student participation using theories such as Competency-Based Education. With this change from traditional education, we see a shift towards differentiated instruction and assessment. What we are starting to see and what matters the most is equipping students with 21st-century skills and future-ready skills to become well-rounded adults ready to tackle their next steps after graduation and into their careers.
What is Competency-Based Education and Why Does it Matter?
Competency-based education focuses on an individual’s competency, promoting a learner-centric approach where students progress after demonstrating mastery of certain skills. Using competency-based education, students can learn at their own pace through multiple opportunities to demonstrate their learning.
Through competency-based education and competency-based assessment, educators can help students build the skills necessary to reach post-secondary and career goals with a greater understanding of self and their own personal learning processes. Removing the stress of “failing” or “passing,” shifts the focus back to learning, while allowing students the confidence to make mistakes. As students build this confidence in the classroom, they start to feel empowered when mastering skills and more engaged in long-term growth and learning.
Tracking Core Competencies Using Curriculum Tags
SpacesEDU enables competency-based education through many of our features. Our most useful feature to support competency-based education is our Curriculum Tags. Teachers or Administrators can upload or create a set of core competencies within their SpacesEDU account. Once core competencies are added to the SpacesEDU account, teachers can correlate the educational content (Posts or Activities) with the competencies using Curriculum Tags.
As students work through their classes and complete their assignments, they will be able to visually see their growth and progress towards a specific core competency. This helps students recognize the competencies that they have acquired and all of the competencies that have contributed to achieving mastery in a certain subject.
Provide built-in formative assessments and feedback
As students work their way through assignments and activities within SpacesEDU, they’ll receive immediate feedback along the way. Students can receive feedback from teachers as well as families. This consistent feedback students receive from these formative assessments will help students improve their knowledge base so that they can continue to grow and apply that knowledge to future assignments and projects.
Students curate learning inside and outside the classroom
Competency-based education is flexible with students being able to demonstrate their knowledge and mastery, whenever and wherever it takes place. This enables students to take ownership of their learning and showcase the growth and work they feel most proud of. As students become curators, they are empowered to make their own learning decisions, applying and demonstrating their learning in their own personalized way.
Conclusion: Put competency-based education into action
Competency-based education helps students to develop and demonstrate mastery of a topic and prepares students for life beyond the classroom. The competency-based education model is one that holds a lot of promise for helping both educators and students create pathways for continual learning.
To better understand how to implement competency-based practices into your SpacesEDU classroom, learn from one of our Portfolio Experts by registering for an upcoming webinar, below.
Please select a valid form.As the world continues to change at a rapid pace so do the skills required for new students entering the workforce.
In the first season of our podcast, Competencies without a Classroom, we interviewed hiring managers, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and experts from a variety of industries to learn the skills they value when building out their 21st-century teams.
We've compiled all of the podcast episodes and turned them into activities for your students, complete with a teacher guide and slideshow presentation.
Whether your students are just beginning their educational journey or are ready to dive into the workforce, the skills and tips shared by the season one podcast guests will help your students learn:
- The 21st-century skills needed in today's (and tomorrow's) workforce
- How to stand out from other candidates when applying for jobs
- Life skills for success beyond high school
Click on the resources below to use them with your students.
Teacher Guide
The teacher guide outlines each of the 21 lessons in the package and includes:
- Timestamps that when clicked, automatically start and stop the video
- Discussion questions linked to each section of the video
- Vocabulary for students
- Answers to the discussion questions
Slideshow Presentation
We’ve created Google Slides for each lesson plan in the package. Use the slides together as a class, or share them with students and have them complete the lessons independently.
Access the Slideshow Presentation
Student Handouts
Prefer docs to slides? This Google Docs package includes handouts for each lesson plan below. Just hand out/share the Google Doc associated with a particular lesson plan, or upload the full package to your online learning platform to have students work at their own pace.
Those first few days of a new school year or semester can be filled with mixed emotions for educators and students alike. However, these first few days are also arguably the most important. They help set the tone for what’s to come and are vital in building relationships and creating a classroom atmosphere that invites learning.
Here are five activities that your students are sure to love, which will:
- Help you get to know your students
- Help your students get to know each other
- Set the groundwork for creating a safe and inviting learning environment
Read on for five copy and paste activities that you can use with your students.
Activity #1: Creating a Classroom Community
Creating an inclusive and inviting classroom environment is the first step in setting students up for success in a new school year/semester.
This activity has students take part in co-creating classroom community pillars to guide and shape the learning environment, by sharing what they believe makes a safe learning space.
Just copy and paste the instructions below and assign the activity to your students! (Note: we recommend adding both audio and written instructions)
Once students have completed the activity, review student submissions and make note of the common themes that emerge.
Post the top themes that emerge in your Class Space, and have students vote on the three they feel are the most important. These three items then become your classroom community pillars and act as a learning contract for all class members!
Activity instructions to copy and paste
Title: Creating a Classroom Community
Space: 1:1
Instructions:
As a class, we will co-create our classroom community pillars. These are the things that will guide us throughout our time together and ensure we are all contributing to a positive, safe, and inclusive learning environment.
Choose the format of your choice (video recording, audio recording, or written text).
Please share:
1. What a positive and safe learning environment means to you
2. Three things that need to happen for you to feel part of a classroom community
3. How you can contribute to creating a positive and safe class community
Activity #2: Name Game
Has your name ever been pronounced incorrectly? Or maybe you’ve mispronounced someone else’s name in the past?
Sometimes it can be uncomfortable to correct people when they get our name wrong. The Name Game helps avoid this while helping your students feel valued and respected.
This quick activity has students record themselves saying their own name and then share any other relevant information related to their name, such as a preferred name or nickname.
Review the submissions and leave audio feedback, saying their name and sharing something about your own.
This activity can be assigned to either a student’s 1:1 Space (private to you and that student) or the Class Space. By assigning it to the Class Space, once you release the completed activity, all students will be able to hear how others pronounce their own names. However, if more sensitive information will be shared, you may wish to assign it to the 1:1 Space.
Activity instructions to copy and paste
Title: Name Game
Space: Class
Instructions:
Let's kick off the school year on the right foot.
1. Use the audio recording tool to share how your name is pronounced
2. Add anything else I should be aware of (ex. if you have a nickname or a shortened version of your name that you prefer I use)
3. Is there a unique or interesting story behind your name? Feel free to share it!
Activity #3: Breaking the Ice
For some students, it can be daunting when faced with a class full of new faces. Ease the anxiety and help create a class community with this activity.
Break the ice has students get to know a classmate better by interviewing them and reflecting on what they found out.
Copy and paste the instructions below and assign the activity to your class. After assigning it, split the class into pairs and have them interview each other using the format of their choice. After students have submitted their interview and reflection, review and release the submissions so that all students in the class can get to know one another better!
Activity instructions to copy and paste
Title: Breaking the Ice
Space: Class
Instructions:
You've been assigned a classmate to get to know better!
1. Interview your classmate using the prompts provided below (you can record the interview in written or audio form)
- Favorite subject
- Hobbies
- Something not many people may know about them
- Where they would visit if they could go anywhere in the world and why
- Favorite TV show/movie
- What food they would choose to eat for the rest of their life if they had to eat the same thing every day
- Something they could teach someone else how to do
2. Upload your interview as part of this activity.
3. Explain what you learned about your classmate
- Did anything surprise you?
- Do you have any common interests/similarities?
- What would you like to learn more about?
Activity #4: A Letter to Your Teacher
Looking to get to know your students better and begin laying the foundation for a successful school year?
This activity, designed for the 1:1 Space, has students write you a letter outlining their hopes and fears for the school year, how they prefer to learn, and what they value in a teacher and in a learning environment.
Copy and paste the instructions below and assign the activity to your students. After students have submitted their letters, respond with a letter of your own!
Activity instructions to copy and paste
Title: A Letter to Your Teacher
Space: 1:1
Instructions:
To help me get to know you a bit better, please write a brief letter (or record a video) sharing the following:
- what you enjoyed the most about last school year
- what you're looking forward to this school year
- what qualities a great teacher has
- what you're nervous about
- one thing you'd like me to know about you
- what inspires you
- whether you are introverted or extroverted
- how you learn best (a quiet environment, hands-on activities, collaborative groups, etc.)
Activity #5: Ready, Set, Goal!
Help set your students up for success right from the start of the new school year/semester by having them set a SMART goal with an action plan to achieve it.
If your students are not familiar with setting SMART goals, you may wish to have a discussion about them prior to assigning this activity.
Simply, copy and paste the instructions below and assign the activity to your students.
Optional: include the URL below to give your students examples of SMART goals
Activity instructions to copy and paste
Title: Ready, Set, Goal!
Space: 1:1
Instructions:
Set yourself up for success this school year by creating a SMART goal for yourself, along with an action plan (3-5 steps you will take to meet your goal).
Consider: what do you want to achieve in this course or, more broadly, this school year?
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-based. See below and the link provided for examples of SMART goals.
Not a SMART Goal: I want to participate more.
SMART GOAL: By November 1, 2021, I will have raised my hand in class at least three times a week to answer questions and improve my overall participation.
Media Attachments: https://www.developgoodhabits.com/smart-goals-students/
Do you have a fun activity that you use with students at the start of a new school year or semester? Tweet us @spaces_edu to share!
