How might we equip students with the leadership skills to be lifelong learners/influencers in their schools and communities?
If I’ve learned anything these past couple of years, it would have to be the importance of preparing students for the real world. Don’t get me wrong, content is important. Mathematics, Science, English, P.E, Art, History, Music, Technology and French (of course) is necessary subject matter to learn. However, equally important would be teaching conversational skills, problem-solving, presentational skills, healthy debating, online etiquette and leadership. These are skills every student is going to need for what comes next.
This year, being a part of Cohort 21 has helped me formalize this practice/research of teaching leadership skills in my FSL classroom. Let’s take a second and break that down. What are leadership skills? What are some examples of leadership skills?
In a 2016 article by Sunnie Giles in the Harvard Business Review, there is an excellent graphic that shows results from a survey conducted. The study included 195 leaders in 15 countries over 30 global organizations. The leaders were asked to rate 74 leadership different qualities, and here are the findings.
These incredible findings triggered so many questions. How do I prioritize these incredibly important skills without sacrificing too much content? Are all of these skills applicable to a classroom? Is there a way for me to merge these skills with the content I’m currently teaching? How do I ensure my students have learned these skills? How can they be measured? How do I know that I have taught these skills which are so important for their next step(s) (workforce, university, college, apprenticeships)?
I decided to take my Grade 12 class as my guinea pigs – after all I’m sending them out into the real world in 5 short months. I took a look at my curriculum and how I was currently delivering it. I took a look at my assessments and evaluations of student learning. I ranked each unit by my excitement of student product. My film unit won by leaps and bounds. My French film unit is quite simple. I select 5 iconic (and appropriate) French films. We spent 1.5 classes watching the film, .5 classes preparing notes using a viewing guide, and 1 class in discussion. The amount of engagement from my students in these discussions was incredibly motivating. They were reflective, they dove into deep/relative topics, shared personal opinions, connected material, and engaged in healthy debate. So many of the above skills being practiced in one setting (in another language no less). I knew I had to replicate this success in different ways throughout my other units. After all, the more you practice a skill, the more likely it is to stick!
I took the bottom of my list which was my history unit. I decided to sacrifice some content so that I could re-format the layout of the unit. I went from almost 15 lectures and narrowed it down to 6. Now, I bet you’re thinking, “Whoa friend that’s a lot of content to be sacrificing!” But hear me out.
I chose to narrow down to really important historical topics from the perspective of the French. I am still keeping my lectures, but the other classes are dedicated to preparing for and conducting a debate on the lectured topic. The structure would follow a pattern of lecture/prep/debate with a class for each step. This idea to make the unit debate-based was actually at the request of the students. It seems as though their confidence from what came out of the film unit was propelling them forward to learn in new and applicable ways. The plan made me excited. The plan made the students excited. The students were going to learn and practice so many skills throughout this unit that would carry over into other areas of their life. Have I mentioned yet that they are doing all of this in another language?!
Fast forward to the online classes of January 5-14. In the 4 classes that I saw my grade 12’s, we co-created a rubric for evaluation/participation in the debate, established a debate format (online and in-person), had our first lecture on the great (or not-so-great) Napoléon Bonaparte, conducted our first team consultation and preparation meetings, and had our very first debate. To say that it went well is an understatement. . The students were so excited and so into it, they actually stayed 20 minutes after the class call was supposed to end! As we look forward to transitioning back to in-person learning, I am so excited to see what is in store for these students in this unit. When you look at the graphic again I shared above, you can get a sense of all of the different leadership skills that were being practiced during this debate.
Now this is by no-means perfect, and I am still absorbing feedback both from my Cohort colleagues and the students. There are still pieces that can be added or dropped, refined, researched, and created. For now, I will celebrate the student successes as they practice flexibility to change opinions, communicating often and openly, being open to new ideas and approaches, providing goals and objectives, committing to their training/preparation, and creating a feeling of succeeding and failing together.
More to come…
This sounds exciting, Samantha! It is so motivating that the idea to debate came from your students. I’m sure they appreciate your openness and flexibility and will use it as a model for their own.
Hi Samantha,
I love how you have dived right in and found practical ways to test out your new ideas in you French classes, online no less! Your students are lucky to have you thinking about how you can best serve them with their learning. It is very inspiring to read about your ideas. I am curious about your process. How did you come up with the new learning activities to match the real-world skills you wanted to target? What’s your next step? Have the students made connections between what they practised in class and what they may encounter next year?
Félicitations!