EL Education’s Attributes of High-Quality Student Work (complexity, craftsmanship, and authenticity) are used to provide clarity and direction during the assignment and project/product processes. All major assignments/projects are developed with the three attributes in mind: complexity and authenticity first and then expectations and support for craftsmanship.

SELS staff work diligently to facilitate high-quality student work (HQW). Throughout the program, staff develops the culture and skills needed to foster student excellence. In addition to building a strong personal and cultural foundation through the school’s character education program, teachers use collaborative activities, staff and peer feedback, multiple revisions, student creativity, and student presentations to support students’ high-quality work efforts. SELS project-based focus also lends itself to HQW, especially with the extensive inclusion of art. Most projects are directly connected to the expeditions/curriclum, allowing for deeper learning and the building of stronger buy-in to the assignments and material studied. The motivation that drives students to produce HQW derives from SELS culture of excellence (see more in our Character section).

High-quality work is expected of students in all subject areas. In Mathematics, students must work individually and collaboratively to both answer and explain problems, and to develop projects related to the concepts. Their work must be neat and presentable. Much of the remaining high-quality work expectations are based throughout expeditions, including writing, solo and group projects, presentations, and culminating product development. Examples of student HQW can be found on Models of Excellence, a open-source site highlighting student work.

The projects highlighted throughout exemplify the complexity we strive for in the design process: higher-order thinking; transferability; complex text/writing; and multiple perspectives. They also exemplify authentic formats: connected to real-world places/events; use of experts and fieldwork; and modeled after job-based work, like lab reports, op-eds, instructional manuals, interpretive signs, and field guides. Craftsmanship is a more involved process; while the teachers can initiate complexity and authenticity in assignments, students are solely responsible (though with staff support) for quality.

Expeditions are generally the framework for much of students’ work; they are semester-long, in-depth, inter-disciplinary units where students investigate deeply into specific and (ideally) locally-based topics. Expeditions are framed using Science and Social Studies standards, are infused throughout with English Language Arts standards, and when relevant and possible Mathematics standards. Important components of expeditions include:

1. Guiding questions: the essential questions which guide the learning topics
2. Case studies: units of study within each expedition
3. Learning targets: specific goals for students, used at all levels: entire expedition, each case study, more specific topics throughout
4. Authentic experiences: connecting students with opportunities to use, participate in, and/or see how their learning is embedded in the human and natural communities in which they live (fieldwork); additionally, providing students opportunities to put their learning to use, such as in presentations and hands-on projects
5. Experts: using community members, both near and far, to enhance the learning experience and further connect the learning to their communities
6. Culminating products: end of expedition assignments or events which demonstrate learning and are ideally service-based and presented to public audiences

To help facilitate expedition development, staff use templates for both the overall expedition (SELS – Expedition Development Template) and for each case study (SELS – Case Study Planning Template). Below are examples of expeditions and their resulting HQW.

The full implementation of expeditions immerses students in the theme-based study, grounding them with fieldwork and experts, and motivating them with connections to their lives and communities. Inspired and connected students lead to higher quality work, as evidenced by the sampling above. 

SELS character program provides foundational aspects to the development of engaged and kind individuals. Combined with the rigor and expectations around high-quality work, the school (and thus the students) have a demonstrated culture of excellence. This culture, what we call the culture of excellence, helps frame who students will be and what sort of work they will produce. This culture of excellence is important in facilitating craftsmanship, for both staff and students. As part of our “not yet” philosophy, staff continue to work on all three HQW attributes. While most student work/products address complexity, craftsmanship, and authenticity, there is sometimes variability in the consistency of attribute depth within a crew and/or across grade levels. Student work is tracked by each classroom and those needing support are provided scaffolding and intervention. To help students with this process of improving quality, they are provided examples/exemplars, tasks and rubrics, and ample time for feedback/revision. For more on this, visit our Student Character page.