EL Education Habits of Character Focus
Habits of Effective Learners: Work to become effective learners: develop the mindsets and skills for success in college, career, and life.
- Habit: Initiative
Crew Curriculum Month Page Test
Month XX: Taking Initiative as Learners
Month Summary
Month 2 focuses on taking initiative within and beyond Crew, both as individuals and as a Crew community. Students make Identity Maps, consider their strengths and challenges, set a group goal related to initiative, learn about the middle school brain and how it impacts their ability to take initiative, learn strategies, and reflect on their goals. Throughout this month, they consider how practice leads to habit and determine ways to support one another as a Crew. Many of these explorations are the same in Grades 6-8 to allow students to reflect on how they have changed and grown from previous years; however, each grade explores these topics through different activities. The focus of the Identity Maps in Grade 6 is kept general, while Grade 7 students focus on themselves as learners, and Grade 8 students focus on their growth and what they will carry into the future.
Guiding Questions and Big Ideas
What is initiative?
- I take initiative. This means I notice what needs to be done and do it.
- I complete my classwork and homework on time.
- I complete my work with quality.
- I stay engaged during class.
- I employ tools and strategies to help me with my academic work (e.g., underlining text, using a planner).
- I challenge myself as a leader and a learner.
- I ask questions when I am grappling or confused.
How can I come to know myself, including my areas of strength and my areas of needed growth?
- My identity is built upon all the skills, strengths, talents, and resources provided by my culture, background, experience, and communities.
From whom can I seek support and what tools in my toolbox can I draw upon when I face challenges?
- My academic identity is dynamic and changeable, and I can make choices and take action to develop it.
- I can take initiative for myself as a learner and build a learning community that can offer me support and resources when I need them and be a support and resource for others.
Planning Notes
- In Week 1, students create Identity Maps that they revisit throughout the month. Note that the lessons do not include enough time for students to craft their maps into a high-quality product. Consider partnering with an art teacher to extend the Identity Maps into a more robust project.
- In Week 2, students form Support Squares as a collaborative structure to use throughout the month. Consider whether a different structure would be more familiar or appropriate for certain grade levels or the entire school.
- In Weeks 2 and 3, students learn about the adolescent brain. Consider partnering with a science teacher to go into more depth on this topic.
- Consider collecting and redistributing students' Identity Maps each year so they can track their growth throughout middle school.
Lessons
Week 1, Lesson 1Representing What Matters to Me Students create visual representations of who they are and share what’s most important to them as learners in Crew. DOWNLOAD LESSON | Week 1, Lesson 2Taking Initiative Students take initiative while participating in the Hula Hoop Pass challenge. | Week 1, Lesson 3Setting Group Goals Related to the Habit of Initiative Students unpack ways to take initiative in Crew and set a group goal to develop this Habit. |
Week 2, Lesson 1Learning about the Middle School Brain Students participate in a What Are You Doing? team-building challenge to learn about how their brains respond to stress and make connections to academic challenges. | Week 2, Lesson 1Academic Identity and Mindsets Students annotate their Identity Maps from Week 1 to represent the relationships and tensions among their academic identities, their personal identities, and their unique brains. | Week 2, Lesson3Noticing and Preparing to Support Each Other as Learners Students get to know each other’s learner identities in small Support Square groups to form ongoing peer support networks in Crew. |
Week 3, Lesson 1Strategies for Self-Support: Attending to the Limbic System Students try out various strategies to center themselves—bringing calm to their emotions when they feel stressed or anxious. | Week 3, Lesson 2Growth Mindset Students complete a challenge to help them differentiate growth and fixed mindsets and reflect on the role a growth mindset can play in their lives. | Week 3, Lesson 3Strategies for Self-Support: Attending to the Prefrontal Cortex Students sample various strategies for time management, task initiation, and planning and prioritizing. |
Week 4, Lesson 1Getting Yourself Organized Students experience a team-building activity that helps them think about the importance of organizing their materials. | Week 4, Lesson 2Reflecting on My Growth in Initiative To appreciate their growth and initiative, students reflect on and make additions to their Identity Maps. | Week 4, Lesson 3Habit of Initiative Group Goal Reflection Students collectively reflect on how they have developed the Habit of initiative this month, including referring to the group goal they set in Week 1 and considering how they have supported one another as a Crew. |
Flex Lessons
Flex lessons are additional lessons that can be used if Crews meet more than three times per week, need extra discussion and practice on certain skills, or to help Crew leaders address specific needs (e.g. welcoming a new student to the Crew). Not every month includes flex lessons.
Flex Lesson 1Focused Work Time on Academic Needs Students work on a self-identified academic need. DOWNLOAD LESSON | Flex Lesson 2Organizing Our STUFF Students manage their materials using the Organize My STUFF protocol. | Flex Lesson 3Being a Leader in Crew: Student Leadership of Greetings Students use a set of criteria to analyze and practice leading greetings to prepare to take on this routine as leaders in Crew. |