Habits of Work reporting begins this fall!

Habits of Work reporting begins this fall!!!

Whenever I go to a parent teacher conference or have had any kind of conversation with any of my children's teachers my wife always asks - Are they doing what they are supposed to in your class? Are they respectful? Are they doing their best? It seems to me that most of the teacher conversations with other parents sound very similar, or at the very least these types of questions come up as part of the discussion.

As part of our move to Proficiency Based Education we have made the decision to separate academic learning from the very questions myself and others ask about children.  We feel an academic score should reflect learning and Habits of Work scores should reflect citizenship, accountability, and pursuing personal best.  (These were chosen as our over-arching standards!)

I have included here the matrix for Community High School and Valley Rivers Middle School.

High School Habits of Work Indicators
	Citizenship I am respectful towards self, others and environment. I am respectful of norms, rules and policies.	Accountability I am accountable for myself, my learning and my actions.	Pursue Personal Best I persevere and strive for personal best.  I can demonstrate quality work ethic, use feedback and self-advocate.
3 I routinely… 2 I sometimes… 1 I need assistance to...	Follow school and classroom rules Use safe/respectful words and actions Take care of belongings and classroom materials Respect the diversity of individuals Respect school property Collaborate and cooperate with others	Take responsibility for actions and choices that I make Learn from my mistakes  and seek help when needed Engage in classroom discussions / activities Meet deadlines Am prepared and on time for class with all necessary materials Demonstrate academic honesty Set goals and monitor my progress	Persevere when met with challenging tasks Demonstrate commitment to academic growth Use feedback appropriately to extend my learning Participate in learning experiences Engage in new learning experiences

Valley Rivers Middle School Habits of Work Indicators
	Citizenship I am respectful towards self, others and environment. I am respectful of norms, rules and policies.	Accountability I am accountable for myself, my learning and my actions.	Pursue Personal Best I persevere and strive for personal best.  I can demonstrate quality work ethic, use feedback and self-advocate.
3 I routinely… 2 I sometimes… 1 I need assistance to...	Follow school and classroom rules Use safe/respectful words and actions Take care of belongings and classroom materials Respect the diversity of individuals Respect school property Collaborate and cooperate with others	Take responsibility for actions and choices that I make Learn from my mistakes and seek help when needed Engage in classroom discussions / activities Complete all assignments in a timely fashion Am prepared and on time for class with all necessary materials Demonstrate academic honesty Set goals and monitor my progress	Persevere when met with challenging tasks Demonstrate commitment to academic growth Demonstrate positive attitude Use feedback appropriately to extend my learning Engage in new learning experiences

As you can see the highest score you can achieve is a 3 and the lowest is a 1.  Our teachers report on the habits of work weekly and if a students scores a 1 or 2 the teacher will be required to put in a comment as to what the specific weakness might be.  At the mid-term and semester reporting times, grade level teams work through a protocol and decide as a team what the individual student will receive as a score.

We also aim to grade the child holistically - the indicators are not a checklist but rather a guide to whether or not they are routinely, sometimes, or always needing assistance to meet these standards.   You will be able to check on Habits of Work on a weekly basis through Empower (more on that at another time). You will see individual teacher scores for each class/course and then you will see a team score at the mid trimester and the final trimester checkpoints.

The high school and middle school teachers did this as a pilot during the 3rd trimester of the last school year. This school year every student in grades 7 thru 12 will receive a Habits of Work score for each of the 3 standards.  This is a key piece to honor roll status and co- and extra curricular eligibility. FKCHS and VRMS will offer students interventions to help with these Habits of Work on an as needed basis. 

Please review the documents and start having a discussion with your child about the difference between academics (what you learn) and habits of work (the effort you put into learning)!