For Educators

Essential Skills

Watkinson School has identified a set of essential skills in which students are expected to demonstrate mastery during their time with us. In this class, opportunities are available to demonstrate mastery in the following areas:

  • Communication
    • Expressing themselves effectively through visual media
    • Demonstrating an awareness of audience and adjusting style and tone accordingly
    • Intentionally selecting tools, materials, and structures to express ideas
    • Determining and addressing relevance
  • Critical Thinking
    • Accurately assessing what they’re supposed to do
    • Accurately analyzing text or data on multiple levels and in multiple contexts
    • Forming opinions, original thought and ideas
    • Using evidence to support original thought and ideas
    • Determining relevance
  • Literacy
    • Identifying key concepts
    • Comprehending, analyzing, interpreting, and making meaning of material
    • Managing, analyzing, and synthesizing multiple and varied streams of information
    • Selecting and discerning appropriate media in response to assignments and/or to generate self-directed inquiry
    • Developing proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology
    • Designing and sharing information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
    • Creating, critiquing, connecting, analyzing, and evaluating multimedia texts
    • Citing, attributing, and respecting intellectual property
  • Problem Solving
    • Accurately assessing requirements of the task
    • Brainstorming
    • Collecting data/evidence
    • Reasoning
    • Selecting the best/most useful tools and materials available
    • Choosing the best processes for the task
    • Learning from success and failure
    • Revising based on feedback and reflection
    • Working with contradictions and different ideas
  • Expression
    • Composing and/or designing with clarity and focus
    • Identifying and employing optimal organization/structure/progression of ideas
    • Communicating identifiable theses, ideas, and themes
    • Revising based on feedback and reflection
    • Choosing and applying discipline-specific tools and processes thoughtfully, precisely and accurately
    • Promoting credibility or believability
    • Maintaining focus throughout the process
    • Demonstrating an awareness of audience and adjusting style and tone accordingly

Framework

This course uses the Framework for 21st Century Learning provided by the P21 Consortium as a curriculum guide. It includes the following themes and skills, as detailed in the framework:

  • 21st Century Themes
    • Global Awareness
    • Civic Literacy
  • Learning and Innovation Skills
    • Creativity and Innovation
    • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
    • Communication and Collaboration
  • Information, Media, and Technology Skills
    • Information Literacy
    • Media Literacy
    • ICT (Information, Communications, and Technology) Literacy
  • Life and Career Skills
    • Flexibility and Adaptability
    • Initiative and Self-Direction
    • Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
    • Productivity and Accountability
    • Leadership and Responsibility

Standards

The State of Connecticut uses the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for technology education. This course includes the following standards:

  • Creativity and innovation
  • Communication and collaboration
  • Research and information fluency
  • Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making
  • Digital citizenship
  • Technology operations and concepts