Learning Goals & Products

Learning Goals

1

Students will be able to investigate Charlottesville community assets, perspectives, and local issues through student-led neighborhood tours and stakeholder conversations to identify authentic opportunities for project-based learning.

2

Students will be able to synthesize evidence from youth activists, industry partners, youth-serving organizations, and community members to define a user-centered problem statement for a classroom project.

3

Students will be able to analyze required content standards and relevant computer science standards to align project plans with rigorous academic outcomes and authentic community contexts.

4

Students will be able to prototype two standards-aligned project plans that embed student belonging, meaningful engagement, and community connection into next year's instruction.

5

Students will be able to justify revisions to project plans using critique notes, feedback records, and asset-mapping patterns from the Charlottesville Connection Crawl.

Products

individual

Individual Community Interview Brief and Project Concept Prototype

Each teacher creates a concise research brief grounded in firsthand community interviews or tour observations, then translates that evidence into one individual prototype for a future student project experience. The prototype must show how the teacher’s emerging project idea responds to a specific user need or community opportunity.

team

Two Community-Connected Project Plans with Interactive Artifact and Rationale Pitch

Each teacher team develops two polished project plans for the coming school year, each paired with at least one interactive artifact that could be used for launch, critique, or feedback. The team also delivers a short rationale pitch explaining how community evidence, standards alignment, and iteration shaped the final designs.

Rubric
Competency Progression Rubric Competency-first rubric
Category
Learning Goal
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Deeper Learning Competencies
Collaboration
  • I can work with my peers to plan shared tasks by using group norms (turn-taking, listening, and respectful roles) and I can contribute my ideas to a common project plan
  • I can complete my assigned part on time and check in with my group so we stay aligned.
  • I can collaborate with my peers to make joint decisions by proposing options, asking clarifying questions, and using evidence from our community project goals
  • I can negotiate differences constructively (e.g., explaining my reasoning, finding compromise) and adjust my work based on group agreements.
  • I can lead and support group collaboration by facilitating shared-decision processes, distributing responsibilities, and helping others stay engaged and on track
  • I can resolve conflicts by naming the issue, considering multiple viewpoints, and reaching consensus while maintaining positive relationships.
  • I can co-design the project with my peers by taking meaningful leadership for shared outcomes—driving planning, refining ideas, and connecting our work to community voices and assets
  • I can sustain relational agency by strategically using feedback and peer strengths to revise our design, delegate, and ensure the final product reflects our collective thinking.
Deeper Learning Competencies
Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
  • I can identify the community problem/need I’m exploring from local observations, interviews, and assets from Charlottesville, and I can explain why it matters to people and places I studied.
  • I can analyze multiple perspectives on the community question (e.g., from youth activists, youth-serving organizations, and industry partners) and use evidence from my fieldwork to propose a solution path or approach for my project.
  • I can generate and compare innovative approaches to the community challenge, justify my choice with clear reasoning and data, and adjust my plan when new information or feedback challenges my assumptions.
  • I can independently refine complex solutions by testing ideas (through prototypes, feedback cycles, or pilot activities), evaluating trade-offs and impacts on belonging and future readiness, and articulating how my final approach is responsive to the community’s changing needs.
Deeper Learning Competencies
Content Expertise
  • I can identify and explain key content concepts and skills from my standards and connect them to local Charlottesville community assets and issues gathered from student-led stops and community voices.
  • I can apply content knowledge to make decisions in my project design by selecting evidence-based standards connections and using community observations to justify what students will learn and why it matters locally.
  • I can design project activities that consistently develop required content and dispositions through meaningful, community-connected tasks, showing clear opportunities for students to practice, refine, and demonstrate understanding for authentic audiences.
  • I can create and iterate a cohesive, standards-driven project system where students transfer and deepen content expertise through complex, real-world problems tied to Charlottesville assets, with clear evidence of learning growth, differentiation, and alignment to computer science expectations when relevant.
Deeper Learning Competencies
Effective Communication
  • I can listen to community voices and peers during tours and circles to summarize key ideas and questions in my fieldwork journal (e.g., who said what, why it matters).
  • I can communicate with empathy and clarity by sharing my understanding of community issues through structured audio reflections and artifact descriptions that use evidence from local observations.
  • I can present my learning by facilitating or contributing to a project launch/exhibit that invites meaningful participation, using feedback protocols to incorporate specific community and peer suggestions.
  • I can communicate purposefully and responsively across audiences by co-creating an interactive artifact or student-facing experience that clearly explains connections to local people, places, and issues, and I can justify changes I made based on feedback and evidence.
Deeper Learning Competencies
Self Directed Learning
  • I can use feedback from teachers, peers, and community sources to identify one specific area to revise in my project work, and I can make a simple update that connects the feedback to my next step
  • I can explain what I changed and why it helps my project better reflect community needs and standards.
  • I can use feedback and reflection to set short, clear goals for my learning during project work, then monitor my progress toward those goals using evidence from my drafts, journal notes, and critique notes
  • I can adjust my plan and interactive artifact with increasingly specific revisions (e.g., improving relevance, belonging, or alignment) and justify the changes using feedback language.
  • I can independently analyze feedback from multiple perspectives (peers and community voices) to determine patterns, causes, and next actions that improve both quality and feasibility of my project
  • I can revise my project plan and artifact iteratively, showing clear decision-making in my revision tracker and using self-reflection to explain how my understanding and approach evolved.
  • I can autonomously drive my learning by asking strategic questions, selecting which feedback to prioritize, and applying criteria from rubrics/standards to guide my revisions and learning plan
  • I can demonstrate transfer by making well-reasoned improvements across both community-connected projects, reflecting on how my thinking about public education and student belonging has shifted based on evidence from my work.