I recently guest blogged over on Education to the Core about creating Learning Tribes for our students. If you've read that article and are looking for more information, you've found the right place. If you haven't, you might like to go check it out.
A Little More Background on Learning Tribes:
Let’s not get this tribe confused with the
official movement of Tribes Learning Communities pioneered by Jeanne Gibbs.
However, I’d like to quote from a TLC trainer because the fundamentals are the
same. “Indigenous people consider the word “tribe” a formal word with
special relational meaning often defining similarities and uniqueness. …the
word came into use as the name for the developmental learning process developed
by Jeanne Gibbs. This process is a way of being together helping each
other teach our children to live a life based on time honored values in
caring, safe and supportive environments. … The informal definition (also from
the Cambridge Dictionary) defines the meaning as “a large family or
other group that someone belongs to.” The process known as “Tribes” helps
us to create “belonging” for children in schools and other organizations.”
(Ron Patrick, http://tribes.com/about/)
Taking the points from that explanation, a
learning tribe is a collaborative community surrounding the student. Teachers,
parents, tutors, coaches, and even therapists, all united in an effort to teach
the child, and create safe environments for learning. I love the Cambridge
definition, and it fits well with the purpose of this effort. Imagine students
who once struggled with the very basic concepts, belonging to a large family of
trusted adults who want the best for them and who work together to provide the
needed supports and encouragement.
What does an effective learning tribe look like?
A learning tribe
requires all members of the child’s tribe to be on the same page, to know what
is needed to bring him to the next level, to understand why she is struggling
the way she does.
If a student has a
tutor, it’s helpful to know what skills are being worked on in the class, where
the student struggles the most, and what is coming up next. Many tutors are
capable and willing to front load difficult vocabulary and concepts, thus
creating background experiences for the classroom teacher to draw on during
content lessons. It’s also helpful for the tutor know about behavioral
incentive programs and how they work, we can encourage our student to reach his
goals, and help her discover areas of the day where she could apply her focusing
strategies.
Likewise, counselors
and therapists can use some information from the classroom during their
sessions. Again, the behavioral programs and issues. They also benefit from
hearing the positives from the day/week/month. If they have some positive
feedback to work with, the counselors and therapists can help struggling
students focus on what they are doing right and set goals to keep it up, or
even apply that to other areas of their life.
I’m always struggling to find the answer to what
benefits the classroom teacher. I’ve had teachers ask me if our student is
capable of doing certain things on their own, what scaffolding I’ve been using,
and what coping strategies we’ve developed (mostly for my special needs
kiddos). Since it’s usually difficult for me to open this line of
communication, I thought it’d be fun to write a little parody. I'm still working on it, the lyrics are done, and most of the recording complete. We are just waiting for a little warmer weather (it was 17 degrees this morning) to shoot the video. I will post it as soon as it's complete!
In the meantime, if you have a minute, pop over to fill out a super quick survey that will
help me, and other tutors, know exactly what information to communicate to our
students’ classroom teachers. I will compile the responses and post them as soon as there are enough to make a post.
