First graders are years away from finishing high school and choosing careers. But as a group of 1st grade teachers in a Kentucky district work with their young students on reading, writing, and math, they鈥檙e also imparting a different set of skills that colleges and employers might someday demand.
It鈥檚 part of a push in the Bullitt County district, south of Louisville, to emphasize universal skills that correspond with what will be expected of students as they enter college, the workforce, or military service, on top of academic content.
High schools across the country are slowly retooling to offer their students greater exposure to potential careers and job-specific training. Students, by and large, say they want this assistance. But preparing students to be successful in college and careers starts well before high school鈥攁nd it doesn鈥檛 only involve occupation-specific training. Rather, say they look for hires with a set of skills that are applicable in any job鈥攐ften, the abilities to collaborate, solve problems, and communicate effectively.
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Those are the kinds of skills Bullitt County is focused on teaching through learning experiences that tend to include hands-on projects, driven largely by students, that directly respond to community needs. In addition to addressing required academic standards, each experience also emphasizes at least one of the six universal skills the district has prioritized.
The Bullitt County district started down this path years ago, holding focus groups and community meetings with students, educators, parents, local employers, and other community members, to collect their ideas on the skills and characteristics students should have once they graduate from any of the 13,000-student district鈥檚 three high schools.
The result was Bullitt County鈥檚 , which shows in graphical form that the district wants its graduates to be effective communicators, innovative problem-solvers, productive collaborators, self-directed navigators, community contributors, and mastery learners.
Educators in the district have since worked on breaking down each characteristic, or competency, to , and how it looks at different grade levels. Teachers of even the district鈥檚 youngest students can incorporate those competencies into projects.
鈥淲e have teachers that are willing to embrace that idea and think, 鈥極K, you鈥檙e not graduating, but what would that look like to a 1st grader?鈥欌�� said Ashley Byerley, an instructional coach in the district.
Over time, students鈥� understanding of the competencies will evolve and deepen, she said. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not going to deepen if we don鈥檛 provide the foundations.鈥�
Students become effective communicators and community contributors
Last January, the four 1st grade teachers at Old Mill Elementary School approached a handful of reading and writing standards through a project involving cats, dogs, and horses that were up for adoption at the nearby Kentucky Humane Society.
They kicked it off by looking up photos from the annual said Trisha Smith, one of the 1st grade teachers. The teachers challenged their students to come up with nice things to say about each animal, as if it were up for adoption and looking for a home.
Then, students learned about the shelter鈥檚 operations through a video from shelter staff and got to work, said teacher Jenna Bray. They browsed the shelter鈥檚 website to familiarize themselves with the dogs, cats, and horses up for adoption. Students chose their favorite animal and crafted short plugs explaining why the pet should be adopted. They recorded what they鈥檇 written, incorporated the audio into an animated class presentation, and shared their work with the shelter.
While the project was an applied way to tackle opinion-writing skills and reading standards, the teachers also discussed two related competencies from the district鈥檚 graduate profile throughout the experience: 鈥渃ommunity contributor鈥� and 鈥渆ffective communicator.鈥�
They often talked about the competencies while debriefing at the end of a day working on their project, asking students to reflect on how they had been effective communicators and community contributors, Smith said. For a 1st grader, being an effective communicator could involve speaking at a respectful volume or using the right body language, she said.
When the teachers began working the competencies into their instruction, Smith said, she was skeptical.
鈥淚 was one of the ones that was like, 鈥極h my gosh, these grad profile competencies. My kids are not going to understand these,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淚鈥檝e been surprised by how well they do understand and can apply the grad profile competencies.鈥�
This school year will involve additional projects to develop the competencies.
First graders this fall have worked on producing a puppet show for a story of their choosing to perform at a storytelling caf茅 for invited guests. The project addresses the 鈥減roductive collaborator鈥� competency, as students will work in groups to produce their shows.
In the spring, the children will learn about animals and local wildlife habitat conservation with the help of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, and create videos, dioramas, or infographics. That undertaking will focus on being community contributors and self-directed navigators.
And the teachers expect to do the Kentucky Humane Society project again.
鈥淒oing these experiences helps us build a better relationship with our kids, because they鈥檙e truly having fun while learning,鈥� Bray said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a whole different atmosphere in a way.鈥�
Project-based learning is an adjustment
It鈥檚 been an adjustment for the teachers to teach content and standards through projects, rather than using direct instruction for the bulk of a unit and concluding it with a project, Smith said. The authentic learning experiences take time to coordinate鈥攁nd original thinking. The district has received some outside help from organizations including PBL Works and Next Generation Learning Challenges, and has been training teachers on designing the learning experiences in yearlong cohorts.
鈥淲e learned in such a traditional environment, and to stop what we know and what we learned ourselves to embrace these new pedagogical ideas of building students to become these workforce-ready students, it鈥檚 just a different mindset,鈥� said Byerley, the instructional coach. 鈥淐ontent鈥檚 important, but the competencies focus on not just the content, but how to use what you know in a real-world setting.鈥�
Helping 1st graders build up workforce competencies through project-based learning doesn鈥檛 only have a long-term payoff. The projects also make learning fun, Smith said.
鈥淚f they鈥檙e having fun, I鈥檓 having fun, too,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 love what I do, and I know that a lot of teachers don鈥檛 really say that anymore. But I think this has a big part to play in that because our kids are more engaged. It鈥檚 just a better learning environment.鈥�
