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The academic program at Tapestry Charter High School is based on the ten design principles and five core practices of Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound. The ten principles focus attention on why school is important, while the five core practices describe how school can be structured for student success.
Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound (www.elob.org) is a nonprofit school improvement and teacher development organization with a growing national network of 136 schools with almost 50,000 students. The Expeditionary Learning model, a New American Schools design, emphasizes high achievement through active learning, character growth, and teamwork. The Expeditionary Learning program uses research-based best practices in literacy, inquiry-based mathematics, and original research and data collection. Learning is accomplished through academic expeditions, other active forms of teaching and learning, and a challenging and supportive school culture. Expeditionary Learning has a highly-praised program of professional development and a strong staff to support its implementation in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools.
Expeditionary Learning uses “expeditions” as a vehicle for engaging students in learning. Each year, students will participate in two major expeditions. These expeditions will integrate two or more subjects; for example, English, Social Studies, and Science, in an in-depth examination of a compelling topic. Expeditions often use topics of local interest that relate to larger areas of study. When a topic such as the Industrial Revolution is examined from the perspective of Buffalo's own history, it can be more deeply understood and recalled. Abstract concepts take on life when students gain background knowledge from local sources (for example, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society), visit relevant sites (such as the Lackawanna steel mills and our old rail station), and have the chance to meet residents of Buffalo who lived through our area's former prosperity. Phrases like “industrial growth,” “global economics,” and “socioeconomic status” move out of the textbook and into reality. History becomes personal, understandable, and easier to remember. An expedition can inspire the reading, writing, and math necessary to make sense of the topic. Expeditions promote the self-discovery and knowledge needed for reaching New York State learning standards. When the Regents exam asks for an essay on the topic, students are ready with their ideas, which are based on real understanding of facts.
An important part of an expedition is the final “product” that has meaning for a real audience. In the example of the Industrial Revolution, students could be asked to write a proposal for the economic revitalization of Buffalo and then to give a comprehensive presentation to the Common Council or the Control Board.
Given fundamental levels of health, safety, and love, all people can and want to learn. Expeditionary Learning harnesses this natural passion to allow students to develop the curiosity, skills, knowledge, and courage needed to imagine a better world and work toward realizing it. As Kurt Hahn, the founder of Outward Bound, stated, “There is more in us than we know. Perhaps if we are made to see it, for the rest of our lives we will not settle for less.” Click here for more information.
The Ten Principles of Expeditionary Learning
1. THE PRIMACY OF SELF-DISCOVERY
Learning happens best with emotion, challenge , and the requisite support. People discover their abilities, values, passions, and responsibilities in situations that offer adventure and the unexpected. In Expeditionary Learning schools, students undertake tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement. A teacher's primary task is to help students overcome their fears and discover they can do more than they think they can.
2. THE HAVING OF WONDERFUL IDEAS
Teaching in Expeditionary Learning schools fosters curiosity about the world by creating learning situations that provide something important to think about, time to experiment, and time to make sense of what is observed.
3. THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR LEARNING
Learning is both a personal process of discovery and a social activity. Everyone learns both individually and as part of a group. Every aspect of an Expeditionary Learning school encourages both children and adults to become increasingly responsible for directing their own personal and collective learning.
4. EMPATHY AND CARING
Learning is fostered best in communities where students' and teachers' ideas are respected and where there is mutual trust. Learning groups are small in Expeditionary Learning schools, with a caring adult looking after the progress and acting as an advocate for each child. Older students mentor younger ones, and students feel physically and emotionally safe.
5. SUCCESS AND FAILURE
All students need to be successful if they are to build the confidence and capacity to take risks and meet increasingly difficult challenges. But it is also important for students to learn from their failures, to persevere when things are hard, and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities.
6. COLLABORATION AND COMPETITION
Individual development and group development are integrated so that the value of friendship, trust, and group action is clear. Students are encouraged to compete not against each other, but with their own personal best and with rigorous standards of excellence.
7. DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Both diversity and inclusion increase the richness of ideas, creative power, problem-solving ability, and respect for others. In Expeditionary Learning schools, students investigate and value their different histories and talents as well as those of other communities and cultures. Schools and learning groups are heterogeneous.
8. THE NATURAL WORLD
A direct and respectful relationship with the natural world refreshes the human spirit and teaches the important ideas of recurring cycles and cause and effect. Students learn to become stewards of the earth and of future generations.
9. SOLITUDE AND REFLECTION
Students and teachers need time alone to explore their own thoughts, make their own connections, and create their own ideas. They also need time to exchange their reflections with other students and with adults.
10. SERVICE AND COMPASSION
We are crew, not passengers. Students and teachers are strengthened by acts of consequential service to others, and one of an Expeditionary Learning school's primary functions is to prepare students with the attitudes and skills to learn from and be of service.
The Five Core Practices of Expeditionary Learning
The Core Practice Benchmarks describe Expeditionary Learning in practice: what teachers, students, school leaders, families, and other partners do in fully implemented Expeditionary Learning schools. The five core practices work in concert and support one another to promote high achievement through active learning, character growth, and teamwork.
I. LEARNING EXPEDITIONS
• Implementing learning expeditions across the curriculum
• Designing compelling topics and guiding questions
• Designing products and linked projects
• Incorporating fieldwork, local expertise, and service learning
• Producing and presenting high quality student work
II. ACTIVE PEDAGOGY
• Using effective instructional practices school wide
• Teaching reading K-12 across the disciplines
• Teaching writing K-12 across the disciplines
• Teaching inquiry-based math
• Teaching inquiry-based science and social studies
• Learning in and through the arts
• Using effective assessment practices
III. CULTURE AND CHARACTER
• Building school culture and fostering character
• Ensuring equity and high expectations
• Fostering a safe, respectful, and orderly community
• Promoting adventure and fitness
• Developing a professional community
• Engaging families in the life of the school
IV. LEADERSHIP AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
• Providing leadership in curriculum, instruction, and school culture
• Sharing leadership and building partnerships
• Using multiple sources of data to improve student achievement
• Linking Expeditionary Learning and school improvement plans
V. STRUCTURES
• Designing time for student and adult learning
• Creating structures for knowing students well