In Sun West, we encourage the opportunity for students to be able to make their own decisions about their learning and to be able to engage in actions to help them increase their skills, their potential, and their academic achievement.
The PeBL (Personalized Electronic Blended Learning) philosophy in Sun West provides a framework for students to take a lead in their learning by understanding how they learn, what they need to learn, and how they can have voice and choice in showing their learning. To be able to do this, we believe that students can do this by taking ownership of their learning. In Sun West, students are taught skills and strategies to support these opportunities. Some of these include:
- Self-regulation strategies
- Learner Profiles (Who I am & How I Learn)
- GRIT (ability to persevere)
- Seek feedback
- Executive Functioning Skills (ex. Organization, Time Management, Task Initiation)
- Set Goals and Action Plans
- Ability to “redo” assessments based on feedback
- Flexible Learning Spaces
- Application of learning in real-life experiences
To support all students with their learning goals and achievements, it is essential that students, parents/caregivers, and teachers are partners. This essential partnership allows everyone to be informed and engaged in their child’s success at school. This partnership is most successful when there is continuous feedback and two-way conversation between the students, teachers and parents/caregivers.
Communication Assessment with Parents/Caregivers
In Kindergarten to Grade 9, outcomes for each subject area are assessed using a four-point academic achievement scale:
In Grades 10-12 assessment philosophy is similar; however, assessment of the outcomes transition from a Four Point Rubric scores are transformed to percentage scores. The reason for this difference is to ease reporting academic achievement to the Ministry of Education for high school course credits and for high school graduation requirements.
During the school year, there are regular reporting periods where schools share formal report cards with students and families.
In addition to the formal report card reporting, families are encouraged to have regular conversations in their homes about the learning that is happening at school. To support these conversations, we encourage students and families to regularly engage with their teachers by phone calls, classroom visits, emails, MSS Parent Portal, Seesaw communications, etc. The continuous engagement parents/caregivers, students and teacher have will help students’ achievement their goals. These conversations can also be enriched during conference nights that are held twice per year, once in the fall and once in the spring.
For any questions or comments regarding your child’s assessment and achievement, reach out to your child’s teacher.
To find out more about assessment practices visit: https://resourcebank.ca/hubs/Assessment