Guiding Principles

A ConVal student's education . . .

  • balances traditional knowledge and skills with innovative, real-world applications;
  • fosters critical thinking and problem solving, both individual and collaborative;
  • draws the school, family and community together to instill student responsibility, respect and citizenship
  • inspires the development of strong, internal standards of quality.
Student Expectations
  • Students, in their daily interactions, will accept diversity by respecting themselves and others.
  • Students will actively engage themselves in the learning process.
  • Students will personally challenge themselves.
  • Students will plan and pursue school experiences based on future goals.
  • Students will develop skills to become lifelong learners in order to prepare themselves for a world of rapid change and unforeseeable demands.
  • Students will value the school environment and contribute to the school community.
  • Students will write and speak in a clear, organized manner.
  • Students will access, process and apply information effectively.
  • Students will solve problems by utilizing and analyzing information from a variety of sources.
  • Students will demonstrate critical and creative thinking.
  • >Students will use technology in management of information.
  • Students will work effectively with others.
NHEIAP Standard:
  • Students will read fluently, with understanding and appreciation.
  • Students will write effectively for a variety of purposes and audiences.
  • Students will speak purposefully and articulately.
  • Students will listen and view attentively and critically.
  • Students will understand, appreciate, interpret, and critically analyze classical and contemporary American and British literature as well as literary works translated into English.
  • Students will use reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing to gather and organize information, to communicate effectively; and to succeed in educational, occupational, civic, social, and everyday settings.

 

Documentations of Learning

Documentations of Learning (DLP's) are portfolios which contains documentation of what the student has learned and completed during a week.

DLP's should include:
  • All home work and class work for the week. Be sure to include notes you took on class activities, handouts you marked up, and returned quizzes, tests, papers and other assigned and evaluated work, excluding earlier DLP's.
  • A narrative on what you gained in thought, skills, experience or ideas from the assigned work and class activities.
The narrative should pinpoint where, when and why your learning took place. For instance, don't just write "I learned that authors can use symbols to increase meaning." Add to that what symbol you learned that from, where you thought about it, and why you made the connection at this point in time. The narrative should also include praise for efforts or accomplishments by individuals in the class suitable for anonymous sharing by the teacher. the narrative should also contain a discussion of what went well during the week, and a discussion of what could have gone better.

The final section of the narrative should list and evaluate movement toward personal goals for the class. If a student has identified improving writing skills, learning vocabulary and improving collaborative skills as personal goals, he should then list and comment on progress made them, citing activities or assignments completed in which the goals were addressed.The intent of this process is to encourage students to actively reflect on their learning and to identify its sources and instances. DLP's also allow students to use critical thinking and communication skills, and students will be evaluated on the quality of their DLP's content and form—both what they learned and how well they express that learning.