The Partnership for 21^st Century Skills

http://www.p21.org

Let me first say that although the website is full of information, I think a website about 21^st Century Skills should be more appealing.  Being someone who is committed to 21^st Century Skills, and interested in the topic, the aesthetics of this site are not very appealing.  If I do not find it appealing, I find it hard to believe someone who is being introduced to the idea of 21^st Century Skills would give much thought into digging into this website.   I find the website hard to read.  Some of the links needed updated.  For example, the Assess 21 link is broken on the Assessment Landscape Report (http://www.p21.org/overview/skills-framework/131).

One of the most useful tools I found on the website was the Resources for Educators located at http://www.p21.org/tools-and-resources/educators.  It focuses on the implementation of 21^st Century Skills in the classroom through such tools as the

MILE Guide and the Common Core Toolkit. 

The MILE Guide includes a Self-Assessment Tool.  I chose to fill out this tool, and I am realizing that while I thought I was doing a fantastic job of implementing 21^st Century Skills, I am barely scratching the surface.  According to the Self-Assessment results, I am in the early stages in every category.  I need to work toward implementing the skills in at least 75% of my lessons instead of hovering around 25-50% of the time.  This means taking a serious look at the standards I am teaching and evaluating what aspects of 21^st Century skills I could implement with each standard.

Where I am teaching, the state is moving toward Common Core Standards.  Anytime the standards are changed slightly, it makes teachers nervous.  The toolkit provides explanations of 21^st Century Skills and examples of how to implement them with connections to Common Core Standards in the classroom.  This would make implementing both Common Core and 21^st Century Skills easier on any teacher who is nervous about juggling both “new” concepts in the classroom.

Overall, the implications for me as the teacher involve not only implementing the skills in lessons, but also knowing how to assess the skills.  Yes, it takes time and energy, but I need to take a serious look at creating more project-based learning assignments and authentic assessments.  The students can then build a portfolio of their work to use in the assessment process.  The difficult part will be to develop a rubric to be able to assess the portfolio and individual assignments.  What suggestions do you have for developing a rubric?  Is there anything you would include as being standard for every project?  Do you think it is even possible to create a generic rubric to assess 21^st Century Skills?