Mastery Over Memorization Foxcroft’s Portrait of a Graduate

By Steven McCarty, English Department Chair

The world has changed significantly in the time since teachers were on the other side of the educator-student relationship, so we need to be careful about teaching in the same manner that we were taught. I grew up in Generation X — the generation of “Star Wars” and Nintendo — so computers and the internet did not factor much into my high school education. I remember that my first experience with a computer — other than a Nintendo — was playing “Oregon Trail” in middle school. School seemed more spartan then — no phones to distract and no doom scrolling or shopping while the teacher was talking. The school of the 20th century centered on the transference of knowledge: Who was the eighth president? (Martin van Buren) What is the capital of Illinois? (Chicago! No, wait, Springfield!) A student had to know these facts unless they wanted to trudge into the library and flip the gilded pages of the Encyclopedia Britannica to look them up. Learning was simpler then. It was also slower. And to be honest, it was kind of a hassle, as any person who has searched through a newspaper on microfiche instead of Google will tell you. Now enter today’s learners. I currently have students who were born after the first iPhone and have the capacity to research in minutes what used to take days to find. The set-up almost seems like a movie plot: What if you could obtain any information in the world with the swipe of a finger? What could a person do with such power? For today’s students, that question is not rhetorical. Today’s students are not neat little vats to be topped off with information, sealed, and shipped out the door. So what does a teacher do with such a student? Nothing. You make the student "do".

This isn’t Yoda wisdom. Give them a skill that they need to demonstrate. For modern education, it is simultaneously revolutionary and old-fashioned.

It was in this spirit that the Foxcroft adult community created the Portrait of a Graduate and the Portrait of an Educator. The process for each document began in December 2018, right at the same time that many faculty members were exploring standards-based learning and after several had attended Mastery Transcript Consortium conferences. The Portrait of a Graduate sets out what we hope that a Foxcroft graduate will be, or more to the point, what they will be able to “do” at the end of their Foxcroft career. I like to think of it as the value proposition that the Foxcroft faculty pledges to students and parents.

The Portrait of a Graduate is organized into the “pillars” of intellect, voice, and character, and under each are the attributes and skills that we want every graduate to have. The “Intellect” pillar requires students to actively participate in their learning journey, to employ scientific and quantitative reasoning, and to express themselves persuasively and creatively. The “Voice” pillar recognizes the need to leave graduates with a self-care “toolbox,” such as accessing resources for their lifelong health and wellness and using their voices to affect positive change in the world. The portrait’s final pillar commits graduates to the School values of kindness, respect, integrity, and service.

Creating such a dynamic graduate requires equally dynamic teaching faculty, which is where the Portrait of an Educator comes in. Its purpose is two-fold: to state who the Foxcroft faculty aspire to be as educators and to explain our values to potential and new

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(Above) Seniors Catherine Jin, Honor Council Chair; Lilly Robinson, Head Prefect; Marlow Buckner, Student Vice Head of School; and Natalie Chiao, Student Head of School embody the School's Portrait of a Graduate pillars of intellect, voice, and character as they administer their student Executive Council duties.

Lindsay Anderson

STEM Teacher, Chemistry and Environmental Science

Meet some new faces

Hometown: Westerly, RI Education: B.S. in Biology, The University of Tampa; M.S. and Ph.D. in Oceanography, University of Rhode Island Greatest hope for my students: That they will find joy in science.

What excites me about the future of Foxcroft: The new capital campaign, which includes the addition of a STEM/STEAM wing to Schoolhouse. Special skill I share with students: Having taught biology, physics, and chemistry, I think I provide a global view of chemistry by building connections to previous content. Free-Time Fun: Spend time with my family, preferably in nature. Secret Talents: Amature sailor, potter, and tennis player.

college On To

After Foxcroft, students have great options for college — and the skills and confidence to succeed there!

The Class of 2021

43

students in the class

95%

accepted at a "Five First-Choice College"

218

acceptances received

137

colleges & universities offered acceptances

2021 Merit Scholars

41

individual scholarships offered

$3.1M

total dollars offered to the Class

30%

of the Class of 2021 offered merit money

28

colleges & universities offered scholarships

hires. The Portrait of an Educator asks that a faculty member responds to the diverse needs of students, models growth mindset through reflection and adaptation, and implements innovative teaching strategies to engage all learners.

Each department at Foxcroft is now in the process of finishing “portraits” for each academic discipline, which will then inform the way that our departments and teachers shape their curriculum. For example: What does an “English graduate” look like from Foxcroft? In broad strokes, students will be able to compose a compelling narrative in stylish prose and perform in-depth research in the process of persuading a particular audience. That sounds simple, but there are many layers involved. The Portrait of an English Graduate lays out the road map to get there. The departmental portraits will also help faculty to find synergy points where we can create robust interdisciplinary learning opportunities.

The end-game for this process is to have a tightly aligned curriculum with skill sets deliberately introduced within a department and between departments. This is not to say that these skills were not being taught before, but now we have a clearly stated goal of what a student should accomplish in their time at Foxcroft. This new curriculum performs double duty in that it satisfies a requirement for the School’s accreditation with VAIS.

The collecting of facts and formulas occupies a low-rent place in the brain; that is why “remember” and “understand” form the broad base of Benjamin Bloom’s “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives”. The tasks of evaluation and creation — the end goals of a skills-based curriculum — sit atop Bloom’s pyramid. Yes, remembering literary terms such as “anaphora” and “synecdoche” can be challenging for students, but creating their own poems that use the tools of a poet is a much more complex cognitive task. A skills-based curriculum can be exhausting at times for a student, but the payoff is worth it. To return to my Yoda allusion, Luke Skywalker had to invest a lot of sweat equity into becoming a Jedi knight. Our students will have to work to become masters of their skill areas. And masters they will be. •

A Foxcroft graduate is ready to LEARN AND LEAD

IN COLLEGE AND BEYOND

To help every girl explore her unique voice and to develop the skills, confidence, and courage to share it with the world.

PORTRAIT OF A GRADUATE

VOICE

·Recognizes her role and responsibility as a global citizen and works to effect positive change in her community and the world. · Stewards the environment for a sustainable future. ·Effectively collaborates to achieve shared goals. · Advocates for her needs academically, professionally, and personally. ·Develops life-long practices that support

a healthy mind in a healthy body.

INTELLECT

· Engages in and is curious about the world around her. ·Seeks out academic challenges and creates

her own learning opportunities.

· Pursues knowledge and skills to better herself and her community. ·Thinks critically, tackles complex problems with empathy, and uses logic and evidence to support her claims. ·Utilizes scientific and quantitative reasoning skills. · Adopts ethical academic practices, evaluates sources, and properly credits information. ·Expresses herself persuasively and creatively for a variety of purposes, using various modes: written, spoken, and visual.

CHARACTER

·Acts with integrity and responsibility and values these traits in others. ·Treats all with respect, kindness and an understanding heart. · Acts with courage to do what is right. ·Desires to learn from differences. ·Dedicates herself to serving others. ·Exhibits persistence and resilience and adapts to changes and new situations.