CICS West Belden’s goal has always been to improve student outcomes. This year, our middle school math team is taking this commitment to the next level by joining the LEAP Innovations Pilot Network Cohort 8, where they’ll aim to enhance their student-teacher systems of communication.
For this school year, the 6th–8th grade math team is joining nine other schools from across Chicago to design and refine their approach to personalized learning. During this professional development, they aim to discover the right tools and methods for adapting to the needs, interests and strengths of each of their learners. At their first Pilot Network meeting, cohorts developed “How Might We” questions to work toward solving throughout the year; CICS West Belden teachers asked the question, how might we empower students with communication skills to boost their engagement and academic performance in 6th–8th grade math?
Answering this “How Might We” question will lead our team to explore the different ways in which students can provide teachers with feedback and vice versa through new systems of communication woven into lessons. The idea is that more intentional opportunities for student-teacher feedback loops will make students more aware of their own learning and progress. By having an understanding of their own learning, students will feel more ownership over their academic journey while building new communication skills they can use now and into the future.
Before new strategies and tools can be established, our team is doing deep listening, holding empathy interviews with our middle school students, to investigate whether the assumptions being made by our cohort are actually resonating with our students’ experience. The team asked learners about times they felt successful in math, what they did, how others reacted, or times when they struggled in math, why it was difficult, and how they dealt with it. The goal is to discover root causes of successes and struggles alike. It’s a chance for students to share their feelings and experiences with their teachers so that creating new systems of communications can be intentionally done during the cohort experience. We will continue to provide updates on the innovation taking place across our campus throughout the year – stay tuned for more from our WB trailblazers!
Spotlight on Innovation: CICS West Belden
October 28, 2024