21st Century Instruction for Student Success

“21st Century Instruction for Student Success”

by Ed Zurita, Instructional Technology Facilitator - Grant Elementary School
 

To celebrate Computer Science week, Local District West’s Grant Elementary School hosted its Fall STEAM FEST on Friday, December 8, 2017.  The STEAM FEST was designed to showcase the school’s focus on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics to students, parents, and community members. Participants also had the opportunity to write computer codes through 9Dot’s get Coding curriculum. This year Grant Elementary is also participating as an LAUSD Practitioner 2.0 school through a partnership opportunity with the Division of Instruction’s Instructional Technology Initiative.
 
As a Practitioner 2.0 school, Grant is implementing Computational Thinking practices to help teach all students 21st century competencies that will empower them to succeed in the modern age.  The school is currently implementing the four Computational Thinking Competencies of Decomposition, Pattern Recognition, Abstraction and Algorithms through its Professional Development/Lesson Design Cycle. This is in alignment to LAUSD Task Force Recommendation 5, which advocates for learner-driven professional development opportunities. Teachers participate in the PD Cycle by utilizing their own students’ work and together engage in grade levels observations and analysis. According to Principal, Dr. Christopher Ikeanyi, “The teacher led PD Cycle allows classroom-embedded gathering of evidence that will help our school improve learning for all students.” To support teachers in their analysis of student work, Grant has developed a Student Progress Monitoring Data and Support system through the district’s LMS.
 
 
STUDENT PROGRESS MONITORING DATA AND SUPPORT:
The Grant  Student Progress Monitoring Data & Support system allows teachers and school personnel to organize student performance and assessment
data in one platform. This allows school staff to access student data more efficiently and view instant personalized reports for all students. As a result, the school is better able to understand student needs and teachers and administrators are able to view classroom trends based on learning objectives and standards that inform classroom instruction and personalize the learning experience for each student. As a Practitioner 2.0 school, Grant is also progress monitoring students’ understanding of the ISTE Standards. In addition, parents will also be able to access their son or daughter’s personalized achievement data when they register with the LAUSD Parent PASSport. The Student Progress Monitoring Data & Support system will help Grant measure student progress,  improve test scores and promote student achievement through 21st Century instruction.