Student Development Features
Individual Learning Plans
“To better know our students, so they can better know themselves.”
One of the most important innovations at Carolina International School is the use of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs).
Individual Learning Plans identify:
- students’ learning styles
- strengths of multiple types of intelligence
- specific interests, talents, and needs
- aptitudes: computers, art, music, athletics, dance, etc.
- family occupations and special interests
- short- and long-term goals
Interviews and Inventories
The ILP information will be collected in interviews and with inventories. Even before school starts, teachers will contact the families and hopefully be hosted for a home visit. Teachers and parents must work together for the best interests of the child. This requires regular and open communication. The home visit can be an effective foundation for those essential connections.
In addition to interviews with the parents and students, teachers will administer short, age-appropriate inventories to identify learning styles and strengths of types of intelligence.
The Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model (below). Each of these 21 elements describes an aspect of learning in which individual differences can affect learning. These are described in more detail at: http://www.learningstyles.net/ (click on “D & D Model”).
Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Model (below). Human beings have all of the multiple intelligences to be nurtured and strengthened, but each person has a unique combination, or profile. See: http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/month1/
This information will be used with discretion by the teachers to better serve the specific needs, interests, and skills of each child. The ILP will include age-appropriate goals, objectives, and strategies for the first term and for the year in the following areas: core academic subjects, exploratory classes, community service projects, and personal interests.
Parents as Partners in Education
The ILP will include the parents’ occupations for our Parents as Partners in Education program. In this program, parents volunteer to team-teach a lesson that shows how the students’ curriculum is applied in the parent’s workplace. Students see the practical value of their lessons and they get to explore an occupation. These sharing experiences also help weave together a school community in which everyone values life-long learning.
Deepening Relationships
Education is about making connections. Students need to feel that their teachers know and care about them. In preparing the ILPs, teachers will connect with their students in ways that can last a lifetime.
