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Character & Leadership (Beta)

CL2.1.f. Concentrate

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Students understand the importance of attentiveness and demonstrate the ability to concentrate (i.e., give focused, undivided attention) in class and while studying by avoiding distractions and focusing on the task of learning.

CL2.1.e. Create and innovate

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Students demonstrate creative thinking, innovativeness, originality, and an openness to challenge assumptions, traditions, and preconceptions by re-classifying, recategorizing, re-organizing, or rearranging information; assembling, combining, integrating, and reconciling divergent theories and approaches; and by supplementing existing theories and explanations with new perspectives or approaches. Using these high-level cognitive skills students are able to: 1) Devise original, fresh, and unique ideas (i.e., “thinking outside the box”) to solve problems, to improve current practices or develop wholly new approaches. 2) Produce original and inventive creative works (e.g., literature, art, or technology).

CL2.1.d. Analyze, evaluate (critical thinking)

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Students demonstrate increasingly sophisticated analytical and evaluative skills and a disposition toward critical thinking, including the ability to: 1) Organize, classify, and categorize information. 2) Identify the organizational structure, component parts and essential elements of written and oral communications and creative works. 3) Identify and take into account factors that might affect the accuracy and validity of their own personal beliefs and conclusions. 4) Challenge, question, and test the accuracy and validity of recommendations, claims, and assertions by identifying and taking into account: a) internal inconsistencies, b) logical flaws, c) unproven or unstated assumptions, d) the existence of contradictory evidence and opinions, e) the currency and pertinence of data, and f) factors that bear on the objectivity and reliability of the sources of information (e.g., credentials, prejudice, bias, attitudes, motivations, and conflicts of interest). 5) Evaluate the relevance and weight assigned to specific evidence or arguments by: a) distinguishing between facts, opinions, speculations, and feelings and b) considering the expertise, personal knowledge, character, and credibility of the source. 6) Identify and describe strengths and weaknesses, and constructively express informed evaluative judgments (i.e., criticism), concerning the merit of oral communications (e.g., speeches, debates), writings (e.g., news reports, editorials, and research studies), performances (e.g., acting, singing) and artistic works (e.g., sculptures, paintings, symphonies).

CL2.1.c. Apply knowledge

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Ability to Apply Knowledge (Working Memory) Students demonstrate the ability to apply their knowledge in new situations and in useful ways (e.g., using a currency conversion formula to determine the price of an object), including retrieving and applying separate strands of retained knowledge as needed to successfully perform tasks. (This is working memory, a critical executive function skill.).

CL2.1.b. Understand knowledge

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Students demonstrate the ability to understand (i.e., comprehend) the meaning and significance of facts, assertions, ideas, concepts, and theories acquired by listening, through experiential learning or by reading expository (e.g., essays, editorials, science textbooks) or literary (novels, plays poems) writings. They demonstrate understanding by: 1) Restating, paraphrasing, explaining, and summarizing facts, definitions, methods, rules, theories, and concepts. 2) Preparing and delivering explanatory and persuasive arguments and presentations. 3) Drawing distinctions and perceiving differences and similarities (i.e., comparing and contrasting). 4) Understanding the literal meaning and the implications of information conveyed in all forms of nonfiction writings (e.g., textbooks, diagrams, graphs, bus schedules, instruction manuals, schematics, and blueprints). 5) Interpreting the literal and symbolic meaning of various forms of literary writing. 6) Illustrating or simplifying information with pictures, diagrams, charts, and graphs. 7) Translating quantitative written statements verbal material to mathematical equations or visual representations (and vice versa).