Personalize It!Advisories &

Individual Learning Plans—Keys to UnlockingStudent Potential

Belinda Wilkerson& Patricia Nailor

Rhode Island School Counselor AssociationASCA 2005 Annual Conference

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What We WillDiscuss Today

Student Learning Needs to be More Personal

School Counselors as the Infrastructure for Personalization

Reaching Students through Advisories

Helping Students Plan for Their Futures (Individual Learning Plans)

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What Is Personalization?

Personalization is a learning process in which schools help students assess their own talents and aspirations, plan a pathway toward their own purposes, work cooperatively with others on challenging tasks, maintain a record of their explorations, and demonstrate learning against clear standards in a wide variety of media, all with the close support of adult mentors and guides (Clarke, 2003)

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RI Policy & Regulations

The Regents’ (High School) Regulations require strategies for responding to, recording, and planning for each individual student’s social/emotional, academic, and career needs beginning no later than grade five. The Regents sought a minimum starting point at grade five to support student success in middle and high schools. Ideally, all districts will have a comprehensive K-12 school-counseling program. In addition, social/emotional needs referenced by the Regents encompass the personal/social domain of the National Model for School Counseling Programs.

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What Is an Advisory? Student advisories foster meaningful,

sustainable student-adult and student-student relationships that support student achievement, improve student behavior, build community, and enrich the lives of all involved. Advisors meet with student on a regular basis for the purpose of academic, career, and personal-social advising.

Advisory activities:― help students with self-assessment in the

academic, personal/social, and career domains

― help students set goals and monitor their progress toward those goals in each of the domains

― give students a chance to develop a meaningful relationship with a caring adult

Source: RI Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, Guidelines on Regents’ High School Regulations (2004)

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Advisories Comein Many Forms

Various Forms of Organization Varying Amounts of Time

Spent with Students Different Levels of

Involvement by School Counselors in Advisories

Different Results Expected for Student Participation

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Examples of Advisories

East Providence High School

Narragansett High School

Cranston West High School

Davies Career & Technical Center

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The Future of Advisories in Rhode Island Public

Schools Issue: Attempts to use

advisories to replace counselors

Need data to show the impact of counseling via the advisory system

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What Is anIndividual Learning Plan?

The Individual Learning Plan (ILP) program provides middle and high school students with guided and self-reflective opportunities to plan for their academic, career and personal/social development annually

Students use the ILP process to demonstrate their progress toward ASCA counseling standards

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Student Planningin the ASCA National

Model Individual student planning consists

of school counselors coordinating ongoing systemic activities designed to help individual students establish personal goals and develop future plans. School counselors coordinate activities that help all students plan, monitor and manage their own learning as well as meet competencies in the areas of academic, career and personal/social development. (page 41)

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Individual Learning Plans in Providence Public

Schools Some Critical Aspects of ILP’s

― Based on ASCA Model Standards

― Clearly-defined Student Outcomes

― Essential Counseling Curriculum Focused on ILP’s

― Established Protocols for Delivery of the ILP Program

― Indicators of Success

― Meaningful Opportunities for Students to Demonstrate Knowledge and Skills and Document Evidence of Their Progress toward Counseling Standards

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Sample ILP Tools

Planning for Success

Course Audit

Portfolio Checklists

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The Future of ILP’s inRhode Island Public

Schools A RI State Department of

Education Requirement

Increasing Focus on Students’ Need to Plan for Their Academic, Career and Personal/Social Futures

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Planning Toolkit

Tool#1—Getting Started

Tool #2—Planning for Results― 2A—Results Statement Planning

Tool

― 2B—Action Step Planning Tool

― 2C—Plan Summary Tool

Tool #3—Personal Action Plan

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Tool #1

Getting Started

This tool helps you identify: ― Who Needs to Be Involved

― What They Can Contribute to the Success of Your Initiative

― What Results You Expect to Achieve

― Contact Information

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Tool #2

Develop a Plan

A results statement (goal) specifies an observable and measurable outcome

An action plan is developed for each results statement

Three data gathering templates:

― 2A—Results Statement Planning Tool

― 2B—Action Step Planning Tool

― 2C—Plan Summary Tool

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Tool #2A

Results Statements Tool

This tool organizes information about results statements:― Results Statement

― Action Step

― Begin & End Dates

― Owner

― Cost

― Funding Source

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Tool #2B

Action Step Planning Tool

This tool offers the opportunity to take one action step from Tool #2A and write the steps needed to achieve the result

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Tool #2C

Plan Summary Tool This tool organizes your results

statements into a plan summary :― Results Statement

― Action Steps

― Begin & End Dates

― Indicators

― Owner

― Cost

― Funding Source

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Next Steps

Continue promotion of counseling role in advisories as important to student success

Gather data on the impact of counselors involved in advisories

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Contact Information Belinda Wilkerson, East Providence

(RI) Public Schools, Counselor-in-Residence at Providence College

― bwilkers@providence.edu

Patricia Nailor, Director, Department of Counseling & Social Services, Providence (RI) Public Schools

― pat.nailor@ppsd.org

RISCA Website

― www.rischoolcounselor.org