Client Best Practices: Driving Higher Student Engagement with Xello Portfolios
How a Linked Learning Classroom is Using Xello to Support their CCR Framework
Understanding Linked Learning
Linked Learning is a holistic approach to teaching that has four important components–rigorous academics, career technical education, work-based learning, and comprehensive support services. The program utilizes project-based learning to connect students and their studies to the real world.
The approach is adaptable, and each Linked Learning school integrates it in a way that makes sense for their students and their local context. “It’s giving students an opportunity to explore educational options, internships, straight to work, two-year colleges, and four-year colleges,” explained Alicia Reyes, a middle school science teacher who teaches in a Linked Learning school in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) . “Linked learning focuses on preparing students for the workforce and for life.”
Setting the Stage
Reyes has been teaching middle school science for over 10 years. “I got into teaching with the purpose of providing opportunities for students to pursue STEM education and explore this work of career and technical education (CTE),” she said. This is the third year Reyes is using Xello in her classroom to help her with this work.
As a National Board Certified teacher, Reyes has always valued CTE project-based classes. She focuses on providing opportunities in her classroom that promote student learning and self advocacy in STEM. She also looks for ways to help her middle school students make meaningful connections in their projects to high school, college, and beyond. “I want to make sure my students exit high school with choices from the skills they learned from me in middle school,” Reyes shared. “If we’re going to do this, we’ve got to see it through and provide this vision for students to the end.”
“Xello makes my life easier. As an elective teacher, I have to create my own curriculum, which I’ve always done, but when I’m presented with resources that directly align to my purpose, it just makes life easier.”
Doing the Work
Reyes teaches a variety of elective classes for 7th and 8th grade students. In her cohorted CTE science and technology classes for 7th graders, the students work on long term projects that explore engineering and different technologies. In her CTE Energy and Environment class, she connects environmental issues and career exploration.
The class focuses specifically on watershed and habitat conservation, and students have to answer open-ended questions that help them better understand impact and possible solutions. When the students brainstorm solutions, they also consider the careers involved in the work. Throughout the course, students take three field trips and listen to presentations by invited guest speakers. At the end of the year, they present their projects to a public audience to receive feedback, which they use to revise their work.
When Reyes began using Xello, she transitioned from using Google Slides as a presentation tool to Xello Portfolios. She likes the quality of the presentations on Xello Portfolios and how students choose to share information. She has found that her students are more invested when they can personalize their Portfolios with pictures and videos. She also uses Xello Portfolios to help facilitate targeted discussions and reflection opportunities.
Watch Alicia describe the Exploring the Ports of LA project here
Examples of Success
Reyes finds that students are more engaged and excited about their learning when it is self-directed. Even when Reyes was concerned about a student’s level of engagement, she was surprised to find that students are doing the work. She recalls asking a student who she thought was disengaged about his work, and he responded with specific information about careers and salaries.
“There are some students who are not as interested. It’s where they’re at, and that’s okay. I sit with them, we do the lessons together, and then we reflect. We look at each lesson, and they share what they’ve learned so far. I think this is just as powerful because everybody’s at a different level, and we can still find ways to connect with their interests,” she said.
She’s also found that the use of portfolios and having continual discussions has helped develop her students’ reflection skills. At the beginning of the year, she said that students struggled reflecting on their work, but as the year progressed, so did the students’ ability to meaningfully reflect.
Xello Eases the Work
“Xello makes my life easier,” Reyes said. “As an elective teacher, I have to create my own curriculum, which I’ve always done, but when I’m presented with resources that directly align to my purpose, it just makes life easier.”
Reyes’ students take the Xello MatchMaker quizzes, which provide them with valuable information about their personalities, learning styles, and career exploration interests. Reyes then uses this information to hone in on individual student’s needs and interests. “Xello gets students to think about time management, decision making, and their own biases,” she shared. She encourages her students to “not let things hinder them because they believe they can’t or it might not be something they’re normally interested in. I want them to allow themselves the opportunity to explore it, so they can make an informed judgment.”
Reyes values autonomy in her classroom, so Xello seamlessly fits within that independent, project-based model. As a self-directed platform, students can work at their own pace and can dig deeper on topics that interest them, and Reyes can easily monitor their progress.
Xello not only makes life in the classroom easier for Reyes, but it also aligns with her Linked Learning goals, her work based learning goals, and her personal goals. “It’s all there, all the way up. I can have everything online, which again makes my life easier,” she said.
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