21st-century competencies are skills to prepare our students for our current society. There are 4 C’s that are most commonly used. They are:
-Critical Thinking
-Communication
-Collaboration
-Creativity
How to incorporate these into your everyday learning:
Critical thinking means for students to analyze a situation, come up with ways to solve a problem, dissect and piece out an idea or object. Researching and parsing out the most information, then applying it into an essay is a form of critical thinking. Students can build something, create, and apply it to a real-world idea or problem. Asking students, “How can we fix this problem in our society?” Of course, the younger the child is, the more basic the problem is. For instance, we always have a mess in the family room. What can we do to fix it?
Communication includes students verbally speaking their ideas and knowledge with those around them. Some activities for communication include: role-playing skits, giving presentations, reteaching content, and encouraging children to speak for themselves. Often times, children are shy and don’t want to speak up for what they would like. For instance, when they’re at a restaurant and don’t want to tell a waiter their order or ask someone else for something so they make you do it. Encourage them, little by little, to speak for themselves. All this builds up to gaining better communication skills.
Collaboration means for students to work on an assignment or project with others. For homeschool students, students could collaborate with siblings. If that’s not an option, perhaps they can collaborate on a project with peers or if they take classes in which they are to collaborate with peers. You can also become a partner to your student! Collaborate with your child on building something or fixing a problem.
Creativity: Creativity is a broad definition. It is not just creating artsy, aesthetically pleasing items. It’s also being creative in the way you think. For instance, coming up with different solutions, paths to solve or complete a problem. Students can include art in what they’re learning by drawing what they’ve learned, creating an art piece symbolizing the content they’re learning, or doing a craft about it. Aligning with critical thinking, encourage students to think of different ways and paths to fix a problem or create something for what they are learning.
All of these competencies are integrated in all of my projects. Students are required to think critically about what they are doing by solving problems, coming up with answers to important questions, and researching. Some of the projects encourage students to give presentations or reteach content. There are opportunities for collaboration in all the projects. And the entire premise of the project encourages creativity in various ways!
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