DRAFT

Student Guide to

Personalized Learning Plans

at CSSU

7/10/2015

page 2

Table of Contents

Introduction to Personalized Learning ……………………………….

About this Guide ……………………………………………………………...…

About Naviance …………………………………………………….…….………

Roles ………………………………………………………………………………..…

Options for Personalizing Education……………………………………...

PLP 9th Grade Program of Activities …………………………………….

Getting Started/Logging On/Changing Your Password……

Check Out Your Naviance Home Page………………………………

Complete MAPS 9 – Q1 – Core Values and Career Values….

Write Academic Goals………………………………………………………...

Recording time/participants in PLP discussions……………….

Complete Learning Styles Inventory…………………………………..

Making Course Requests…………………………………………………….

Complete MAPS 9 – Q3 – Interests and Abilities………………..

Complete Career Cluster Finder…………………………………………

Advisor and Parent review check off…………………………………

Complete Post-9th grade survey………………………………………..

7/10/2015

page 3

Introduction to Personalized Learning We, at CSSU, recognize that we all learn in many different ways. And even if students take the same class, they don’t necessarily learn the same things. While we list common knowledge and competencies that all students must master, we recognize that each of us decides what we want to learn, what type of work we want to do, what direction to go in. In order to do this effectively, we must learn something of ourselves: what are our interests, strengths, and capabilities? From this we can form our goals, both long-range and short-range. What do we want to learn this semester, this year, and in our years of secondary school? What direction do we want to go in, for work, college, and career? Personalizing an education plan means to make the plan relevant to you, the student. Some students may personalize their education plan by taking the traditional route and saying, yes, that works for me. Others may wish to take different routes to develop competencies, earn credit, and learn about something beyond the CVU classroom. Students currently participate in many opportunities to find and develop their interests. Some experiences inspire students to learn more about a topic while other experiences teach a student that they are either not interested in that topic or need additional skill development to continue. By the time you graduate from CVU, you will have some direction on you they like, what type of work they you want to do, and what you want to continue to learn. This self-knowledge leads to job internships, college, or work after high school. PLPs do not guarantee that students will know what they want to be when they grow up. And realistically, most people have career paths that have been “personalized” along the way. (What other type of path is there?) Many people throughout adulthood hold several different types of jobs and learn in multiple ways. PLPs will give you opportunities to learn about yourself, form goals and connect that intention with a plan of action, and reflect on your accomplishments and challenges,. This cycle of reflect, plan, act, assess, reflect, revise… is our life-long process for learning and contributing.

Vermont Agency of Education 2015, retrieved from: http://education.vermont.gov/plp-working-group/main

7/10/2015

page 4

Purpose of Personalized Learning Plans The purpose of personalized learning plans is to:

• guide students in learning about their own interests, strengths, and abilities • identify academic and career goals • equitably present options to all students (although cost, schedule, transportation, and

availability may present obstacles) • capture relevant information in an accessible place so that students can connect their own

interests and strengths with their academic, career, and post-secondary goals, create steps to achieve those goals, and track their progress towards proficiency

• prepare and plan for post-secondary college and/or work

A Personalized Learning Plan includes: • student goals and aspirations (academic, career, and personal) • strengths, abilities, and interest inventories • career exploration information • academic record • college planning and application information • evidence of student work (optional)

We, at CSSU, have been personalizing education for a long time. Students are presented with options for courses, options for earning credit, and options within a course for choosing projects that are of interest. Students can volunteer, hold part-time jobs, participate in conferences, workshops, and internships, take courses on-line or at other educational institutions, or design their own independent study. We have flexible pathways to master competencies required for graduation. The vast majority of our students follow a traditional path of selecting courses from our course listing and managing a full schedule here at school, combined with club participation, sports, music and the arts, and other activities. Increasingly, there are opportunities for student to take courses of interest at colleges (DUAL Enrollment), on-line (Virtual High School), or elsewhere. Student may also earn credit for independent learning with a teacher certified in a particular subject area (GOAL). A lot of students also have jobs, participate in programs, conferences, and organizations outside of CVU. For some of those activities, students choose to earn credit. For example, a student may earn credit to meet the requirement of personal fitness by documenting participation in dance, gymnastics, or equestrian outside of CVU. As the opportunities increase and the process for assessing evidence of proficiency improves, we want to present these options so that all students are aware of choices and can take advantage of them from grades 7-12. A Word about Cost Many educational activities outside of CVU have an additional cost. While CVU works hard to create equal access to opportunities, financial responsibility for outside activities is the student’s. Whenever possible, we provide direction and support for finding scholarships and/or transportation.

7/10/2015

page 5

Interested students may discuss cost and transportation with their Advisor, school counselors and the hosting institution. About this Guide This guide was designed to help students:

• understand the purpose of personalizing one’s education • know and do activities to learn more about one’s own strengths, abilities, and interests • know the options for developing and demonstrating competency and earning credit • use Naviance as a tool to help plan, explore, and record one’s education from 7-12th grade.

This guide is not: • a self-guided tour of all PLP activities (some are facilitated in class or Advisory by

Advisors, school counselors or teachers) • a reference for all capabilities in Naviance such as college exploration and college

application process • for grades 10 – 12; this will being continuously added over time

About Naviance CVU has been using Naviance since 2002 for career interest inventories, college exploration and application tools. For PLPs, students will record goals, review academic progress, and keep notes on MAPS conversations with Advisors (Making Academic Plans). Students may upload documents as they see fit (e-portfolio). Who is involved? PLPs are developed by students with guidance from their Advisors, teachers, school counselors, and parents.

7/10/2015

page 6

Options for Personalizing Education CVU respects the multiple ways for students to learn. Often students participate in educational endeavors outside of CVU, either to follow an interest, take a course or course level not offered here at school, or to better fit into a schedule. While every educational endeavor is encouraged, students must look at the criteria for earning credit and decide what is best for them. While students may earn credit for anything, (Grad Challenge and GOAL provide extensive latitude), it is not always necessary or reasonable. For example, a student may be volunteering regularly on a political campaign and learning about politics and law. To earn credit in an academic area such as Social Studies, the student must work with someone certified in that subject area and document their learning. If a student already has met credit requirement for CVU, the student may choose not to pursue the credit. Paths for learning and earning credit include:

• CVU Course Selection – choosing courses and creating a multi-year plan • G.O.A.L . – independent study option. Required Vermont certified teacher in area of

academic credit, application approval ahead of time, and documentation review • DUAL Enrollment – all Vermont juniors and seniors may take two college courses at

Vermont colleges, free, and earn credit at both college and high school • Virtual High School (VHS) – provides on-line courses. Must have pre-approval to use

course for CVU credit requirement. • Grad Challenge – opportunity to design and undertake a project that holds personal interest

for the student. Must have prior approval of project design; documentation required. Required research paper and presentation component to project.

Other opportunities to learn:

• Conferences • Workshops • Internships – if a student chooses to earn credit for an internship, the student would be

referred to the G.O.A.L. program. Earning elective credit would not require a Vermont certified teacher.

• Shadow Program – short opportunity to see a job/career first-hand. Offered several times during the year

• Community service/volunteering – student may earn elective credit for consistent volunteer work at one organization (see G.O.A.L.). For one-time volunteer participation, students often join Key Club

• Participation in programs or organizations outside CVU – if earning credit, student would see school counselor or refer to G.O.A. L.

7/10/2015

page 7

The remainder of this guide provides specific direction, including screen shots, on where and how to use Naviance for grade level PLP activities.

7/10/2015

page 8

9th Grade PLP Program

Tasks:

Logging in/changing password – getting to know Naviance

Complete MAPS 9 – Q1 – Core Values and Career Values

Write Academic Goals

Recording time/participants in PLP discussions

Complete Learning Styles Inventory

Making Course Requests

Complete MAPS 9 – Q3 – Interests and Abilities

Complete Career Cluster Finder

Advisor and Parent review check off

Complete Post-9th grade survey

When Task/Activity Format Who Facilitates

Early September Log in and change

password

Orientation to PLPs/Naviance

Classroom presentations in Core

time (4 sessions/House)

School Counselor

August/Early

September

Have Advisor review

academic progress and

read Who Am I?

Advisors review grade reports;

check task box on Naviance page

(where is this check box? Journal

entry?)

Advisor

September Complete MAPS9 – Q1 –

Core Values and Career

Values

Write Student Academic

Goal

Naviance Task completed in

Extended Advisory; reviewed in

conversation with Advisor

Advisor

September/

October

Complete Learning Styles

Inventory

Under About Me tab

Students complete on own during

Core time

Core teachers

during Core time

January/

February

Make Course Requests Students meet with Advisors in

Extended Advisory and individual

meetings with House Counselors

Advisor and

School Counselor

February MAPS 9 – Q3 – Interests

and Abilities

Create a Post-Secondary

Goal

Naviance Task – Extended Advisory Advisor

(currently not on

the calendar, will

need to add)

March Complete Career Cluster

Finder

Add career clusters to my

list

Add careers to my list

Is College Worth it? Guidance

curriculum presented in classes

during Intervention (4

sessions/House) and Naviance

Career Cluster Finder

School Counselor

May Complete– Post 9th-grade

Summary

Classroom presentation in Core

Time (4 sessions/House) and

Naviance Post-9th Summary

School Counselor

June Have parent review

academic progress and

plan

Students have parents review PLP

and check box on Naviance student

page

Student

7/10/2015

page 9

Getting Started/Logging On/Changing Your Password

To access Naviance – Family Connection:

1. Go to the CVU High School website (http://www.cvuhs.org) and log-in as you do daily.

2. On your home page, click on the Naviance icon on the left-hand column.

Welcome to Family Connection. Enter CVU email address as your log-in name

(firstnamelastname@cvuhs.org). Note: some students had email in middle school that ended in

@cssu.org. Please make sure to use @cvuhs.org.

Logging in/changing password

If having a Naviance account is new to you, log in the first time following directions above.

If you have a Naviance account from a CSSU middle school, follow directions above to learn

your new log-in (email ending with @cvuhs.org) and change your password.

If you have a Naviance account but cannot remember your password, click on forgot your

password? and go to this screen:

7/10/2015

page 10

Resent your password to something memorable. You will use this log-in and password

throughout high school so finding an easy way to log in is helpful.

3. Enter your password. This is the same as your CVU email address until you change it.

4. Click Log-in.

You are now on your Naviance home page.

5. Go to Manage My Account in upper right-hand corner and click on that. Change your

password to something you will remember. As with all passwords, do not share it with anyone.

(Please don’t stress too much over the password or get too creative. We can reset it, if need be.)

7/10/2015

page 11

Now you can explore Naviance. This will be your resource page for the duration of middle

and high school for academic planning, career exploration, and the college exploration

and application process.

7/10/2015

page 12

Check Out Your Naviance Home Page

On the Welcome page you will find updates and announcements regarding upcoming events,

tasks, college visits, and reminders. You may receive emails from Naviance that often include

important reminders about events sponsored by the Direction Center such as Sophomore

Information Evening, College Fair, Gap Year Fair, to name a few. We try to only send relevant

emails so please take the time to check them.

There are five tabs on your Naviance Home page: Course, Colleges, Careers, About Me, and My

Planner.

Courses

7/10/2015

page 13

Your academic course record is located here. You will also be directed to this page to record your

course requests for the following year. Student requests guide us in building our course

schedule.

For our purposes at CVU, we do not use the two tabs Interests and Ideas and My Course Plans.

You may use those on your own if you find them useful.

Colleges

You will frequently use this tab as you explore college options and plan your application to

college. You can search through these links and resources at your leisure. The college search

engine is very helpful in finding colleges that match criteria you deem important. You can also

list colleges you are thinking about and change that list as you learn more about your own

interests, abilities and about the college. For example, you may be interested in a particular

college because you know someone who went there and was quite happy but upon visiting and

speaking with people in admissions office, you realized it is not a good match for you and your

career interests.

These pages are visited more extensively in junior and senior years, although some students find

it interesting to begin planning earlier.

Careers

While it may seem early to start talking about careers, many students want to explore options

beginning in freshman year. The reason to explore career options is to be better prepared for

meaningful work or a job in the future. This gives you information that may guide you in

checking out a job (shadow experience) or going to a conference to learn more. It is wise given

the investment of money and time to have a better idea of directions you are interested in so

when you map out your post-secondary plan, you can find opportunities to lead you where you

want to go. Many professionals change their jobs or careers in their lifetime, so while having

7/10/2015

page 14

direction can be helpful, it is also not set in stone. You will complete the Career Cluster Finder in

freshman year and revisit your career goals throughout high school.

About Me

This tab lists all of your assessments, journal entries, goals, and any documents you want to

upload.

NOTE: Naviance has created more than one way to access a particular tool. Think of it as two

doors to the same room.

For example, a student can get to the Career Interest profiler from the About Me tab and also

from the Careers tab.

Another example, a student can get to Goals from About Me tab and also from My Planner tab.

7/10/2015

page 15

You will use tools such as inventories (or surveys) to learn more about your own interests and

abilities. Naviance has also created places for you to record your own thoughts, ideas, and goals.

You are not expected to use all of Naviance features, although you may if you wish to. Activities

for CVU Personalized Learning Plans are facilitated by Advisors and House Counselors using

components of Naviance. We use this tool to record information but we do feel it is necessary to

use every feature.

My Planner

This tab can be confusing; the tabs may seem repetitious. Under My Planner are an additional

four tabs: Overview, Goals, To-Do List, and Tasks Assigned to Me.

Your To-Do List may include tasks assigned to you. And once your write your goals, they could

include actions and timelines which would then appear on your to-do list.

For example, if you write an academic goal to “improve your grade in social studies” and write a

next step, such as, “reading more this weekend would help”, you would then see “reading more

this weekend about social studies” on your To-Do List.

Some students will find this very helpful. This is up to you.

7/10/2015

page 16

Goals is a list of goals you have created over the course of your high school career. You can

create as many as you care to and as you create new goals, they are added to this list. At the end

of high school, you will be able to look back and see what you have accomplished and what has

changed for you.

The To-Do List is a summary of actions you want to take in order to achieve your goals.

Tasks Assigned to Me includes tasks assigned by your House Counselor or Advisor to complete.

These tasks create your Personalized Learning Plan and lead you to post-secondary planning for

college, work, military, or gap year activities.

7/10/2015

page 17

Complete MAPS 9 – Q1 – Core Values and Career Values

Making Academic Plans (MAPS) is a series of questionnaires used by Advisors and students to

promote their conversations between students and Advisors. MAPS questions focus on your

interests, abilities, experiences, concerns, and goals. MAPS is used twice per year for freshman,

sophomore, and junior year. During senior year, the focus of advising is on post-secondary

planning (college, gap year, work) and Grad Challenge.

1. On your Naviance home page, under What’s New there is a list of tasks assigned to you.

2. Click on CVU MAPS9 – Q1 and it will bring you to a My Planner and Tasks Assigned to You.

7/10/2015

page 18

3. You can now click on complete a survey and complete the survey.

4. Once you have completed this survey, you cannot retake it unless it is re-administered to

your account by your house counselor. The purpose of this survey is to promote your discussion

with your Advisor and house counselor about your interests, abilities, concerns, and goals.

There are no right answers.

7/10/2015

page 19

Write Academic Goals

Having goals helps us project where we want to be and plan for how to get there. Goals establish a target, a direction for us.

By writing goals in PLPs, students think about what they want to learn, what skills to develop, and what they wish to accomplish. Sharing this with Advisors, school counselors and parents enables them to help you plan activities to accomplish your goal. For example, if your academic goal is to learn more about computer programming and the course offered at CVU does not match your style or schedule, your counselor or Advisor may be able to suggest another option such as an on-line course, an independent study project, an internship, or a course at a local college. For another example, if your goal is to figure out what type of work or career you might be interested in (you have no idea), your counselor or Advisor may suggest interviewing people in different jobs, taking a career interest inventory, enrolling in the Pathfinder course, or participating in the Shadow Program.

1. Go to About Me tab, and click on goals under Personalized Learning Plan

2. Select which goal you wish to focus on by viewing the drop-down list under Add a New Goal: academic, career, co-curricular, community service, other goals, personal/social well-being, post-secondary, and volunteering.

7/10/2015

page 20

(Note: Requested VSAC to edit list to include communityservice/volunteering as one category, 7/10/15)

For this example, I selected a Career goal.

Goals follow a S.M.A.R.T. format. This stands for: Specific – the goal is focused and not broad.

7/10/2015

page 21

“I want to help people” is not as specific as “I want to help people by direct service.” Measurable – what you do can be counted “My goal is to take science courses” is not as measurable as “My goal is to take six science

courses in high school.” Acheivable – this is something you can realistically do “My goal is to be the best student in the state” is not as much in your control as “My goal is

to have two job recommendations by senior year.” Relevant – this goal matters to you and your ambitions

“My goal is to become a doctor” (parent’s goal). More relevant may be “My goal is to find the right position in health care or work in a lab.”

Timely – related to the present and doable within a reasonable timeframe. “I want to invent a new water purifier by May” is not as timely as “I want to learn the basics

of how water purification works by the end of the course on Natural Resources.”

3. After you write your goal, it will appear as a summary on this page, under the Goals tab under My Planner (this is the same page you get to when you go to Goals under About Me):

4. You have the option then to define Next Steps. This is optional for the student. By defining Next Steps, you are able to use Naviance as a guide to accomplishing tasks you feel are necessary to reach your goals. Many students put these reminders on their phone or in their planner. Students should choose whichever option works best for them. In this career goal example, the student knew after talking with her Advisor or school counselor about her goal that she should find out when the MedQuest application is due if she wants to apply (and meet her goal of attending a conference on health care careers). She then wrote a Next Step as “Find out when MedQuest application is due.” Once she finds out, she can add another Next Step such as “submit MedQuest application by March 4th.”

7/10/2015

page 22

See the bottom of the screen shot below. The little green To-Do tab indicates that this information is also under the larger green TO-do List tab. This is one way to keep track of planning your activities to help you achieve your goals.

7/10/2015

page 23

Record time/participants in PLP discussions

(instructions to be written)

Complete Learning Styles Inventory (instructions to be written)

Making Course Requests (instructions to be written)

Complete MAPS 9 – Q3 – Interests and Abilities (instructions to be written)

Complete Career Cluster Finder (instructions to be written)

Advisor and Parent review check off (instructions to be written)

Complete Post-9th grade survey (instructions to be written)

7/10/2015

page 24

10th Complete Learning Styles Inventory

MAPS10 – Q1

Academic Scheduling

MAPS10 – Q3

Strengths Explorer

Post 10th grade survey

11th

12th