Post the following to your blog by Wednesday:
- Your reaction to the website: The Partnership for 21st Century Skills
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website offers some informative, eye-opening material. I found some information startling, while still having doubts about the actual impact the partnership holds. Let me explain.
First off, I was surprised particularly by the twenty-first century skills that the Partnership (2004) highlights: global awareness, financial, economic, and business literacy, and civic literacy. While I know that global awareness is becoming a more common expectation in classrooms, I had not thought of the other literacy components as being deemed twenty-first century skills. Being a third grade teacher, I am not sure how to incorporate business, economic, and financial literacy into my curriculum, short of learning how to count money correctly. Reading about these skills made me reflect on how to incorporate these skills at an appropriate level that will be meaningful to students.
Although the Partnership (2004) is a website that has over eight thousand members, and provides some great videos that may help a teacher prepare to teach in the twenty-first century, many of the resources listed are dated back to a few years ago! In trying to find one resource available in the state of Wisconsin, the most recent one occurred in 2009! I found it ironic that the site claims to be a leader in advocating for twenty-first century student readiness, yet the resources themselves are dated. How can teachers attend workshops to learn more about this program when the workshops no longer exist?
Overall, the site does imply that teaching a student twenty-first century skills requires more than just putting him/her on a computer. To really prepare students for the adult workforce, I need to include skills like problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration into all aspects of my curriculum: instruction and assessment.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2004). Retrieved from: http://www.p21.org/index.php .
Washington, D.C.
I agree with what you said about incorporating some of the 21st century skills into curriculum. I can't imagine trying to teach my 4th graders about finince and economics. It just seems too intense for children that young. I also was surprised to see how little updating there was on the site. You would think that based on their vision, they would update their materials and resources. I think the vision that this partnership has is a great one, but it is going to take more work on their part. Especially since there are only 15 out of 50 states involved.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I believe students should be learning innovating skills. It is going to take time and effort for faculty and staff to implement the 21st century partnership vision at schools. I like their ideas of reaching out for improvement and helping students improve career skills for the future. Also, focusing in teaching core subjects and including technology skills in lessons is excellent.
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate how you captured that 21st Century Skills incorporates so much more than working on the computer or being able to use a host of office programs. It really is about thinking and collaborating. Skills that have always been important, but that now take on new meaning and necessity. These skills are important so that students can take their place in the future and contribute fully.
ReplyDeleteI agree these skills must be incorporated into our curriculum. However, we need to share how it will look in classrooms. We must better prepare our students for the world and how to survive after school. We need to students teaching backwards. Students must see the end first, so they will have something to work toward.
ReplyDeleteI have classroom full of fourth graders and I teach economics, finance, and global awareness. For example, I teach adding and subtracting of decimals. I give each group of four students 45 dollars to spend at the movie theater. Next, I direct each group to the theater's website to find pricing for tickets. Then I pass out concession prices. The group must add or multiply the price of four tickets and with the remaining money they can buy concessions. In regards to global awareness, I taught my students the effects that the earthquake had on Japan. Since I teach about earth processes, I incorporated plate tech-tonics into the lesson. I teach a classroom with 10 inclusion students, 2 gifted, and 8 who are have low to average intelligence. Economics, finance, and global awareness is just real-world application.
ReplyDeleteYou have some great ideas for applying some of these twenty-first century skills we are expected to teach! I guess it is a matter of taking what we need to teach and incorporating it into the the curriculum. Thanks for the ideas!
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