Middle School Update
March 11, 2016
Soft Skills: Preparing Kids for Life After School
Standards writers, curriculum designers, and classroom teachers have spent the past several years clamoring to find ways to revitalize curriculum and instruction and increase rigor in ways that prepare students for life after school.
We all agree that students need an education that prepares them for college and career. We know the statistics about students who go to college unprepared for the rigors of college coursework, relegated to taking courses for no credit, decreasing the likelihood that they will graduate.
But preparation for college and career success requires much more than exposure to a robust curriculum. While a solid knowledge base in classic literature or advanced levels of math certainly won't hurt a young person on the precipice of adulthood, the voices of workforce leaders describe a skills gap of a different nature, a gap in competencies rather than content.
Today's employers perceive a lack of soft skills among recent graduates. Soft skills, sometimes called key skills, core skills, key competencies, or employability skills, are those desirable qualities that apply across a variety of jobs and life situations—traits such as integrity, communication, courtesy, responsibility, professionalism, flexibility, and teamwork.
While these soft skills are cited as integral to workplace success—according to CareerBuilder, 77% of employers say that soft skills are just as important as hard skills—college professors identify the same characteristics as important to college success. Young people who transition successfully from high school to college show an ability to manage their time, meet deadlines, get along with classmates and roommates, and deal with setbacks.
People develop soft skills through socialization, learning the values, attitudes, and actions through interactions with others. Because socialization and relationship-building are a critical part of young adolescents' lives, middle school is a perfect place to incorporate soft skill development into the school day. By adding this important element to instructional plans and classroom expectations, educators help prepare students for success after graduation.
Where to Begin
Many free soft skills instructional programs offer high-interest, middle grades-appropriate activities that allow students to reflect on and think about their own development of soft skills. However, the most effective way to develop students' soft skills is to incorporate development into various aspects of the curriculum. Here are some strategies.
Integrity. Foster integrity by incorporating group work into classroom activities. Each member of the group should be responsible for a specific job or outcome. At the end of the group work assignment, ask students to reflect on how they contributed to the work and why they deserve a share of the final grade.
Communication. Develop students' communication skills in writing for authentic audiences, participating in group discussions, and presenting to the group. They should be able to demonstrate academically productive speech as they move through a class discussion (http://wordgen.serpmedia.org/academic_vocabulary-and-apt.html).
Courtesy. Require students to be respectful and courteous to each other in class and when collaborating with others online. Accountable talk is one strategy that promotes respectful and courteous communication.
Responsibility. Don't rely on giving zeros for late or missing work as a means to promote responsibility. Students who fail to turn in work should be required to explain why the work was not completed and what they will do to remedy the situation in the future. Don't propose an extension—if they want to turn the work in late, they must request the extension.
Professionalism. Promote professionalism through class expectations, such as being on time and coming prepared, being respectful of others, completing assignments, and adapting writing to the needs of others.
Flexibility. Give students long-term, problem-based projects that must be completed within parameters and interim deadlines as they see fit. These activities will encourage them to be organized and focused, to problem-solve and self-monitor.
Teamwork. Encourage teamwork and collaboration through group work and by assigning diverse students to work together. Emphasize communication, trust, integrity, responsibility, and collaboration.
Outside the classroom, teachers can promote soft skills development by providing opportunities for students to visit job sites or participate in job shadowing activities. However, the easiest and most authentic way to instill soft skills is to model them. When students regularly see adults who demonstrate these skills—by teaming, being respectful toward students and other teachers, communicating clearly, and being on time and prepared, they not only understand the value of soft skills, they know how they apply to real-life situations.
A Brighter Future
President Obama has clearly stated the important link between education and the economy. If educators are to play their part in strengthening that link, they must focus on helping students develop the soft skills that contribute to both college and workplace success.
Teaching Soft Skills
Here are some online resources to help educators integrate soft skills instruction.
Pinterest Soft Skills Education Boardwww.pinterest.com/aes4cte/soft-skills-education
Helping Youth with Disabilities Develop Soft Skillswww.ncwd-youth.info/information-brief-28
Career Exploration and Employment Skills with Mr. B.http://breitlinks.com/careers/career_activities.htm
Social Skills Lesson Plans for Middle School Studentshttp://www.cccoe.net/social/skillslist.htm
Important Dates
March 14: MS Concert, Supervision Needed
March 16: End of Q3
March 18: PTO International Food Fair and Jr. for Hire
March 21: Grades due by 8 AM
March 21-25: No X Blocks for MS
March 22: Divisional Meeting, 4 PM
March 23: 1/2 day for students; parent-teacher conferences from 2-6; BBQ lunch for MS Teachers!
March 25: No Uniform Day
March 26-April 2: Mid-Semester Break
March 27: Easter Sunrise Service, 7 AM
April 6-8: 8th grade trip
April 15: Service Learning Day.1/2 Day/Organize Dalat Depot/JSB
April 18: No School
Top 10 Active Learning Structures: Journal Reflection/Exit Ticket
Sometimes the things that work best are the ones that have been around the longest! The idea of the exit ticket has been around for years; providing a formative evaluation after each big topic is an excellent strategy. As I go along, though, I find that my formative evaluations don’t always fit best at the end of the class period. If I’ve got two big ideas to discuss, I might want to get through the first idea and take a moment in the middle of the class period to pause and evaluate where my students are at before I begin the next idea. Additionally, if I don’t finish the second big idea that day, and I might want to wait to evaluate it until I’ve finished. That’s why this active learning strategy is labeled as both a journal reflection and an exit ticket. The essential idea is that students are given time to process after a “chunk” of learning, and equally essential is that we as teachers get direct feedback on how well they have grasped what we’ve taught.
This strategy is quite adaptable. In the exit ticket form, it can mean giving students a small number of problems to solve, key words to define, or ideas to explain at the end of the class. In the journal entry form, it means that you’re stopping to ask students to write, tell, or email you a summary of what you’ve just discussed, feedback on what stood out to them, or a question they still have about what you’re learning. Either way, the point of this strategy is for you to receive evidence of student learning which will help to inform your focus in class. I find that even though I’ve taught the same content for many years, I have to continue to adapt and change based on each individual class I teach, which is why formative evaluation is so vital to excellent teaching.
Susan Allen