For Parents:
With Summit Learning, students have the flexibility and the support to move ahead when they have mastered content. This could look like taking Challenge Focus Areas (available for some courses), working on an independent study, supporting other students as a mentor, joining a club, or taking on a new extracurricular activity.
Encourage your student to seek opportunities to extend their learning:
- Review the Cognitive Skills Rubric with them and have them set a goal to earn a cognitive skill score that is above grade level.
- Have them pass Additional Focus Areas
- If applicable to the course, have them pass Challenge Focus Areas.
- Have them set a goal to pass Power Focus Areas with a score no less than a 9/10
You can also talk to your child’s teacher or mentor about additional opportunities for peer tutoring or leadership in the classroom.
For Teachers:
If you have a student who has mastered content and Cognitive Skills, they may be ready to move ahead in their learning. There are many ways you can use the platform to support students who are ahead and need extensions during the year. These extensions will not affect the student's current grade and are simply ways that students can further their learning or explore new content in different courses and/or grade level.
1. Students can work on Challenge Focus Areas.
Challenge Focus Freas are Focus Areas that are ungraded and meant to be assigned as extensions in the student's current course to further their understanding of the content. Teachers can assign Challenge Focus Areas by adding or moving Focus Areas to the Challenge Focus Area. Challenge Focus Areas will not affect a student's grade.
2. Students can explore new content from other courses or grade levels.
All students can view courses available on the platform for all grades using the Year page. From the Year page, students can scroll down and click Explore More Courses to view other courses within their grade level. If students are ready for a higher grade level, they can click into the next year at the top of the Year page, to view courses in other grade levels. Students can look into resources, take diagnostics, and can request assessments by clicking Request just as they would in their regular courses. Teachers approve requests for assessments in Student Progress Views.
3. Students can set a goal for earning cog skills that are above grade level on an upcoming project
The Cognitive Skill Rubric goes all the way up to college level readiness. If a student is meeting grade level expectations, they can look at the next step on the cognitive skill rubric, talk through the differences between their high score and the score above, then make a plan for how their work will show mastery of the cognitive skill at the next score on the rubric.
For Students:
One way students can independently move ahead in their learning is by becoming a tutor for other students in focus areas.
Students who master a Focus Area with 9/10 or higher within three attempts can help others. In each Focus Areas, there is a Students Able to Help box. If students have 9/10 within three attempts, they can elect to help others by clicking I'd like to help! This allows struggling students to see the names of students who can help and can find tutors for extra support.