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Listen to this tip from one of our BetterLesson coaches

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Listen to this tip from one of our BetterLesson coaches

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Hyperdocs are a great way to organize resources for students in a clear, logical way as they self-pace through tasks.

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Creating "must do" and "may do" tasks provides students the opportunity to extend their learning.

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Offering guided choice to students during self-pacing can ensure they have opportunities to engage with tasks aligned to their needs.

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Airpocalypse Choice Board Project Menu.docx

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Listen to this tip from one of our BetterLesson coaches

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Listen to this tip from one of our BetterLesson coaches

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This schedule details how self-paced learning is bookended by whole class / small group time.

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Listen to this tip from one of our BetterLesson coaches

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Listen to this tip from one of our BetterLesson coaches

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In this sample seating chart, the teacher is working to address student misconceptions by strategically pairing students with peers.

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Peer Tutors in Competency-Based Learning

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Peer Tutors in Competency-Based Learning

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Check out this strategy to explore how to organize peer tutors within a CBL classroom.

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Listen to this tip from one of our BetterLesson coaches

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Listen to this tip from one of our BetterLesson coaches

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This article describes how project-based learning can be a great way to provide collaboration within a competency-based learning classroom.

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Research shows that young children are more active and intentional about their knowledge-gathering when they're asking questions like "How?" and "Why?" These simple questions have led my district to discoveries that have transformed our teaching.

When we set out to build a competency-based curriculum from scratch in our small district, we knew it would be a long process, but we believed it was worth it for our students to develop 21 st-century skills. We know inquiry-based learning and project-based learning build a bridge to life after school. Districtwide, we now focus on our expectations, articulated in our competencies, and assist students in achieving the indicators that define them.

Here are three lessons we learned about integrating PBL into competency-based learning.

Take an honest look at your instruction. We are working constantly to improve the way we assess student learning. In the beginning, we looked at improving our competency-based learning model by first asking, "If the student didn't learn it, did we really teach it?" The answer for us was no.

We had to completely rethink what a new model would look like, and once we began making the switch to PBL, our teaching began to change direction. We transitioned to more of a mastery-based model, with a focus on students learning together to make meaning, and teachers acting as facilitators.

Creating cross-curricular, mastery-based projects from scratch is worthwhile but time-consuming, so we use supplemental PBL resources along with math and science programs to enhance our curriculum and empower teachers and students with the resources they need to show what they know.

Create a competency-based curriculum. Teaching real-world skills in relevant and authentic situations is what makes a lasting impact on student learning. We are currently in the process of building a new, districtwide humanities curriculum for K-6. Traditionally, a textbook would be used in a class like Social Studies, but instead, we're developing an inquiry-based approach to how students obtain and work with content, and where a textbook is one of many resources students can access. We use a "centers" approach in which students acquire a great deal of content knowledge more quickly. Then, we use a variety of instructional strategies and techniques to facilitate students' interacting with that content.

Rethink how you measure learning. After nearly three years of working toward a mastery-based model, we have created report cards for K-4 students with zero letter or number grades. Instead, we use progress bars to show individual students' growth toward grade-level appropriate goals, indicating where the student started and how much they have achieved throughout the year. We would love to see this model stretch across each grade.

When we move the spotlight to shine on student growth and how PBL encourages examining that growth, teachers can facilitate learning more effectively. They can offer more timely feedback, deliver more targeted instruction, and assist students as they explore concepts and ideas. Ultimately, we're seeing the transition to competencies and a competency-based report card result in more focused instruction. Teachers and students are gaining a more holistic and coherent understanding of how our competencies and the standards work together to create the big picture. While we are still a work in progress, we've started paving the path to coherence and consistency.

Caroline Messenger is the director of curriculum at Naugatuck Public Schools. The district uses programs and tools like to implement their new PBL teaching model. Follow the district on Twitter: @NaugatuckPS.
Tech Tips is a weekly column in SmartBrief on EdTech. Have a tech tip to share? Contact us at knamahoe@smartbrief.com
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Research shows that young children are more active and intentional about their knowledge-gathering when they're asking questions like "How?" and "Why?" These simple questions have led my district to discoveries that have transformed our teaching.

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Explore how this teacher implements a whole group data dive in his self-paced class.

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When students work at their own pace and on what they need the most, creating a space for data analysis, feedback, and celebration is key

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Check out this strategy to see a few different ways teachers have tracked progress in their self-paced classrooms.

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Special Education Modification

Using a Progress tracker is an excellent way to support students with disabilities to keep track of their own mastery and help them build self-advocacy skills. Successful use of a Mastery Tracker requires teachers planning for the variety of skills required of students: emotional regulation, significant executive functioning skills (task initiation, prioritization, working memory, etc.), written expression skills, reading skills and verbal expression skills. In order to support students with disabilities who have difficulty in these areas, consider the following modifications:

Modifications:

1. Teacher knowledge and acknowledgment of student disabilities is key to use Mastery Trackers effectively. Teachers should consult with special education department administrators or specialized teachers for information on specific disability types and needs present in a classroom. This will help ensure that these students have appropriate accommodations or modifications to assess mastery of skills.

2. Traditional paper-based, written methods of assessment may limit the ability of students with disabilities to demonstrate their learning. In conjunction with traditional assessments, consider giving these students the opportunity to demonstrate their learning through: conferences, take-home reflections, oral presentations or re-tellings, learning logs, graphic organizers, cloze exercises, visual/image representation, etc.

3. Use visual aids, timers, and verbal reminders to help students with task initiation and task completion while they are working using their trackers. Depending upon the number of students with disabilities present in a classroom, teachers should consider increasing the amount of time they spend on explicitly teaching norms of using Mastery Trackers.

4. Students with disabilities could be provided with more scaffolded supports (extra time, reference sheets, graphic organizers, etc) during their independent work time. Students could also be given leveled work based on their accommodations as options on their Progress Trackers. Teachers should think carefully about the approach of quality over quantity when helping students with disabilities track their mastery. Special emphasis for these students could be put on mastery of the highest leverage skills in a unit.

5. If multiple teachers are present in a setting, consider having one teacher work in a small group of students with more intensive disabilities to help provide more targeted guidance on using Progress Trackers.

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Individual Progress and Mastery Tracking

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Special Education Modification Using a Progress tracker is an excellent way to support students with disabilities to keep track of their own mastery and help them build self-advocacy skills. Successful use of a Mastery Tracker requires teachers planning for the variety of skills required of students: emotional regulation, significant executive functioning skills (task initiation, prioritization, working memory, etc.), written expression skills, reading skills and verbal expression skills.

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Leveraging tech can be a fun way to create game-based progress tracking!