Learning Goals
30 September, 2020
In the Computer Studies program at Lakefield College School students are creators.
A premium is placed on the process of authoring products that have a public audience and solve problems for our local or broader communities.
Completed products are a nice end result of a course at any grade level in this program.
However, it is entirely possible to learn a lot from so-called "failure" – products that aren't complete or don't work the way you'd hoped in the first, second, or third major iterations.
Consider two hypothetical students.
The first student selects a trivial goal for a product in this course. They know exactly how to create that product. They proceed to promptly complete their product making scant use of feedback provided by others to improve their work. They document work in their portfolio, once a day, but posts are short, with little to say about what was learned and what the student may have struggled with along the way.
The second student selects an ambitious goal for a product in this course. They might not know at the outset how to finish that product. They work hard, however, to make several iterations of that product, taking care to incorporate feedback from others. They consult with their teacher and with third-party sources to learn what they need to make their product. In the end, the ambitious product isn't quite complete and doesn't work entirely as intended, but there was plenty of evidence of outstanding learning that occured along the way – all documented in the student's portfolio.
To be clear – it's the second student that is the highest achiever.
The key to high achievement in this course is to carefully maintain a portfolio where – every day – you document:
- What did I learn or make progress upon today?
- What do I have questions about / what am I struggling with?
Your daily post(s) are to be tagged with a course learning goal.
For example, "LG1", if what you believe that what you did that day is suitable evidence for the first learning goal in a course.
Every two weeks you will have a private conversation with your teacher, where you propose a grade, and aim to justify that grade by pointing to evidence in your portfolio.
By regularly posting and tagging evidence in your portfolio – you will have a broad array information available to support the level of achievement you have proposed.
Learning goals for each course in the Computer Studies program at Lakefield College School are as follows: