Eighth-grade literacy teachers are integrating a Cardinal’s Journey framework – a guide for student success that outlines the skills, competencies and attributes students should develop by graduation – into their academic and career planning (ACP) curriculum.
Molly Tormey at Glacier Creek Middle School and Jean Holman at Kromrey Middle School are working with their Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) – groups of educators who collaborate to improve student learning and meet the needs of all learners – to pioneer efforts to connect a Cardinal’s Journey to the ACP curriculum via milestones life maps.
The milestones life maps align with the three components of ACP curriculum – career-readiness standards, life-readiness standards and learn-readiness standards – as well as a Cardinal’s Journey, said Joanna Cree, associate principal and ACP coordinator at Kromrey Middle School.
“Over the summer, they were working on their first unit – rights of passage – for an assignment to tie nicely with the former life map assignment,” Cree said. “They started thinking about a Cardinal’s Journey and what it could tie into.”
Two Cardinal’s Journey mindsets in particular – curious and self-aware – were a solid fit.
“Joanna helped us envision how a milestones life map project could also align with the Cardinal’s Journey mindsets of being self-aware and curious, providing the framework to upgrade our literacy project to a reflective ACP artifact to be uploaded in Wayfinder that could follow students to high school,” Holmen said.
Holmen said last year’s eighth graders’ enthusiasm and engagement over the former life map project guided their work with the new milestones version of the assignment.
“It occurred to us that the goals of the life map project could easily align with our eighth-grade Savvas My Perspectives Unit #1 theme, which centers around milestones and rights of passage,” Holmen said. “When we asked last year’s eighth graders if they thought future eighth graders might like to continue a variation of the life map project connected to our milestones unit, they responded, ‘Definitely!’”
Holmen said it’s been rewarding to help students realize that planning for their future isn’t a separate subject intended to be studied for only one semester.
“The milestones life map project requires students to reflect upon their past experiences along with their short and long-term goals,” Holmen said. “It allows them an opportunity to reflect on how past milestones, including both challenges and accomplishments, have shaped them and helped them build resilience. The project also encourages them to be curious as they imagine dreams and future possibilities.”
The milestones life maps are a natural tie-in for both a Cardinal’s Journey and ACP curriculum.
“We talk to our students about how their goals and dreams might change significantly by the time they finish high school,” Holmen said. “It will be interesting for them to revisit their milestone life maps three or four years from now when they are making post-high school decisions. Maybe their ideas for future careers will remain the same, or they might change drastically.”
Holmen said the milestones life maps emphasize how ACP connects with everything students are learning.
“By embedding some of the most engaging and valuable projects from the previous eighth grade ACP course, like the life map into the literacy curriculum, we’ve moved away from treating career planning as an isolated skillset,” Holmen said.
A Cardinal’s Journey framework has also helped provide a common language for teachers across grade levels to use with students.
“We can show our students how, for example, being curious and self-aware contributes to learning, goal setting, and planning for the future,” Holmen said.
As last year’s eighth graders predicted, this year’s eighth graders had fun creating their milestone life maps.
“The kids enjoyed the meaningful way to bring closure to our milestone unit,” Tormey said.
Cree said other PLCs are starting to incorporate Cardinal’s Journey tie-ins with their ACP curriculum, including the climate careers inquiry in eighth grade science at Kromrey Middle School.
“We’ve had a lot of great reflection and learning opportunities as we’re trying this out this school year,” Cree said. “We lived mainly in a Cardinal’s Journey mindsets this year, and our goal is to map to more Cardinal’s Journey foundations – communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, and adaptability – next year.”
Learn more about a Cardinal’s Journey on MCPASD’s website.