C24: Embedding the Learner Profile into the Learning and Teaching

by Lu Gerlach

Now that we’ve established the learner profile in our school community, we can take the next step of explicitly teaching it in our units of inquiry.  Let’s take a look at how we can wrap the attributes around the content areas to make it more meaningful. ​

Attributes in Literacy

Learning about language structures can come alive by using the learner profile attributes as a lens of viewing and applying them. 

• Open-Minded:  when developing reading skills, many teachers share topics in an isolated manner (character traits, plot elements, cause and effect, etc.).  Imagine teaching all of them within a unit through the lens of the learner profile.  
• For example:  As an open-minded person, we are trying to appreciate our own culture and values as well as others. To do this, we are going to examine some of the character traits we see in ourselves and well as others in the books we are reading.  By attaching it to the attribute, you are making relevant and significant connections to isolated ideas. 

 

• Risk-Taker:  one of the hardest things for many students to do is write.  This is because many of their teachers are insecure with writing and grammar, so it’s often done in isolation.  How do we gain more confidence in teaching writing?  The learner profile can provide us the anchor to bridge these isolated ideas together.  
• For example:  As risk-takers, we are able to complete hard tasks, because we don’t give up and keep trying until we get it right.  Write about a time when you had something hard to do and what you did to overcome it?

 

• Open-minded reading/writing:  to help us see the similarities and differences between our culture and others, compare and contrast the traditional Cinderella story with The Rough-Face Girl.  Have students reflect on their own cultural beliefs and values and write their own version to share with the school community. 

In this picture, one of my teachers is connecting the attribute (Principled) with the book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.  The usual connection might be perspective, since the story is told from the Wolf's point of view.  Instead, she used principled to examine the Wolf's actions in the story and their effects. to edit.

Attributes in Science and Social Studies

To support the conceptual thinking in science, we can use the learner profile attributes to help us make meaningful connections to the ideas.  It’s the stories and experiences that help us to remember the bigger theories. 

• Principled:  as scientists, we vow to act with integrity, because our actions can have consequences beyond ourselves.  
• For example:  when we are working in the science lab, we promise to act correctly, so  we can remain safe.  At times, we will make mistakes, but we need to take ownership of our actions.

 

• Reflective:  when looking at scientists, it’s important to have a balance of representation from around the world and gender.  This allows students to make connections to themselves and how other scientists solved their problems. 
• For example:  In Austria, Ignaz Semmelweis noticed that many people were dying at a fast rate.  He suggested that surgeons wash their hands in between procedures and many were offended, because they thought he was calling them dirty.  Twenty years after his death in an insane asylum, his theory was proved by Louis Pasteur’s germ theory.  Imagine how you’d feel if this was you? 

​To support deeper thinking in social studies, we can use the learner profile attributes to make historical events and geography come to life. 

• Balanced:  when connecting to past experiences, we need to highlight a broad range of people to avoid misconceptions.  This can be applied to science and math as well. 
• For example:  when we discuss the explorers, we often think of men who lived in Europe.  In the 14th century, the Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta spent nearly 30 years traveling some 75,000 miles across Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia to see all of the lands of Islam. 

 

• Reflective:  as historians, our goal is to humanize the past, so we can apply its lessons to the present.  One way to show caring behavior is to examine the lives, challenges, and successes of people who we are studying.  This allows us to make an emotional connection, which allows for transfer.  
• For example:  when we are learning about the events that impacted the lives of indigeous peoples around the world, we need to walk in the shoes of their experiences.  Use the Project Zero visible thinking routine, Truth for Who, to better understand events from multiple perspectives.  ​

Attributes in Math

To support conceptual thinking in math, we use the learner profile attributes to collaborate with others.  We listen to each other and express our ideas confidently and creatively.  

• Communicator:  when connecting to math, we often use word problems to make real-life connections.  How can we do this in an authentic way, so students remember the process in the future? 
• For example:  After learning a word problem strategy, allow students to create their own word problem situations from their own life.  Have them solve their own problem using visuals and words, so they can explain it to someone else who is struggling. This will get them emotionally involved in the process of creating and solving math problems and allow for reciprocal teaching. 

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• Reflective:  thinking about math can be difficult for some children. Setting up a problem with a misconception may be easier for them to self-assess their understanding.