Skills Builder Global

This content was written by

Olive Public School

Context

Olive Public School is a community where parents, faculty and staff join to provide a nurturing environment that allows children to grow and discover their place in the world. Our mission is to encourage independent, self-directed learning for life in a child-centered community valuing peace, respect for others, and pride in individual differences. The most important “things” in a child’s environment are stable, loving, attentive adults. Our stimulating environment and a scientifically based curriculum nurture the roots to lay the foundation to help every child excel in all phases of life.

Overall impact

The Universal Framework gave our English teachers a clear guide to develop the Listening and Speaking skills of our students. The Handbook gave us ideas for teaching and practising skills in lessons and saved us time in preparation. It is encouraging to see the improvement in class as a result of these activities.

Keep it simple

Skill Challenges have been given to students to encourage essential skill development and develop a common language for reflection and discussion. Verbal praise and discussion support positive reinforcement in English classes.

Start early, keep going

Throughout this academic cycle we focused on learners in middle years.

Measure it

Educators identified students' specific needs to select appropriate skill steps from the Listening or Speaking sections of the Handbook. They were then able to informally assess student advancement through the activities and reflection questions integrated into each lesson.

Focus tightly

The Skills Builder Educators Handbook was used by teachers to support teaching of Listening and Speaking skills via a 20 minute per week lesson within English lessons. This handbook provided a guide on the underlying knowledge, key definitions, ideas, and tools required for learners to build these essential skills. The weekly sessions allowed teachers to directly teach specific skill steps through short lessons, which were further supported by resources such as learner skill challenges to reinforce understanding.

Keep practising

English lessons allowed students in the middle school to apply their Listening and Speaking skills. These skills are also used in other school subjects and therefore benefited learning in all areas.

Bring it to life

This will be a focus for next year as we consider how to bring the essential skills into other areas of our school life.

What's next

We want to train more teachers in essential skills using a training session and consider how we can involve more students in this program within academic subjects and enrichment activities.

India