As a parent/guardian, you may be interested in exploring the different parts of the Summit Learning platform your child works with daily.
Projects tend to mimic the work of people in the field or workplace. Through Projects, students develop a higher level thinking and life skills, such as critical thinking, communication and problem-solving. On some days, students may collaborate in groups or participate in whole-class discussions; on other days, students may work independently to write essays, develop lab reports or create presentations. As students work on Projects, they build towards completing Final Products that demonstrate mastery of Cognitive Skills.
You can always see more information about a Project by clicking on the Project name from the Week, Year, or the Progress sections. Each Project page provides the following information:
- Essential Question: Key questions students are answering or exploring within the Project
- Enduring Understanding: Key insights from the Project, which generally apply to multiple topics and situations
- Description: Background on the Project and a general overview of what the student will be learning throughout the Project
- Cognitive Skills: Deeper learning, critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills students will need to apply throughout the Project
- Final Products: Real world, authentic work products that allow students to demonstrate their understanding of specific Cognitive Skills.
- Checkpoints: Learning experiences within a project that focus on one - two cognitive skills students will need to master as they work towards the Final Product of the project they are working on. Checkpoints provide students an opportunity to receive teacher feedback on their development of the targeted cognitive skills before being assessed on the Final Product.
- Focus Areas: Multimedia resources curated specifically to build course-specific content knowledge required for a student to fully engage in the class’s current project. Focus areas also consist of Content Assessments which assess a student’s understanding of the required content knowledge.
Students engage with Projects that connect the classroom to the real world. When students work in teams to apply what they're learning Projects that mimic and solve real-world problems, they develop strong collaboration, communication, and critical thinking skills.
Teachers facilitate these Projects while providing students with ongoing coaching and feedback.
In this video, students and teachers discuss a Project called "E-Waste". They talk about how it is relevant to the real world, how it solves a problem, and how students practice specific skills in this Project.