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Personal Project: Applying ATL skills: Scaffolding Approach

Personal Project information and support for teachers and students

ATL in the Personal Project

ATL Skills: General and Topic-Specific

In the MYP, ATL skills encompass both general and discipline-specific skills. In the personal project, students may be applying general or subject or topic-specific skills (usually both). ATL skills are often referred to as "tools for learning" that support independence in learning. Different students will have different needs and be at different skill levels as well, so the application of ATL skills to the personal project goals (learning and project) is highly personal. Students should work with supervisors to identify relevant and important skills that authentically contributed to the achievement of goals in the project. Reflection on skills should begin early in the project, often research and creative and critical thinking skills are some of the first skills students will apply toward projects. In the sections below, specific strategies are found that may help students identify, use, and reflect on application of skills. Students should consider the full range of ATL skill cluster areas and the tool below can be helpful in guiding:

 

Choosing ATL Skills Applied to Goals

Choose the ATLs to inform the report wisely. Using an assessment scale from 1 to 10 (10 being the most important and 1 the least important), rank each of the ATL clusterss in terms of importance as applied to learning goal and product goal. Craft a brief justification for the choice

ATL Skill Cluster

Importance to furthering

Learning Goal

Importance to achieving 

Product Goal

Communication

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification: 

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Collaboration

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Organization

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Affective Skills

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Reflection

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Research -

Information Literacy

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Research-

Media Literacy

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Critical Thinking

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Creative Thinking

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Transfer Thinking

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

 

1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

justification:

Adapted from, ATL toolkit—Approaches to learning in practice, MYP personal project—Teacher support materials (IBO)

 

Tools for each ATL area

Self-management: Organization

Managing time & tasks effectively

Skills-related objective

    • Set goals that are challenging and realistic

Students present what their project is about.

Choose a research topic that you want to explore.

What will your learning goal be? (To inform, to raise awareness, to develop a skill, etc)

Describe how your learning goal is linked to your personal interests.

What will your product be?

What impact will your project have on you or on your learning?

Rationale:

Adapted from, ATL toolkit—Approaches to learning in practice, MYP personal project—Teacher support materials (IBO)

Self-management: Organization

Managing time and tasks effectively

Skills-related objectives

    • Plan short- and long-term assignments
    • Keep and use a weekly planner for assignments
    • Create plans to prepare for summative assessments

ACTION PLAN

Expected

date

Task

New date

Rationale

Adapted from, ATL toolkit—Approaches to learning in practice, MYP personal project—Teacher support materials (IBO)

 

 

Self-management: Affective

Managing state of mind

Mindfulness

Sources of distraction

Means put in place to avoid this distraction and concentrate on

the task

Perseverance

What means did you use to …

Examples of means used

persevere and persist?

reward yourself?

 

Emotional management

What means did you use to …

Examples of means used

overcome your anger?

reduce your level of anxiety and stress?

Self-motivation

Sources of demotivation

Examples of means to motivate yourself

Resilience

Difficulties encountered (adversity, failures, mistakes,

disappointments, changes)

Examples of means used to manage these difficulties

Adapted from, ATL toolkit—Approaches to learning in practice, MYP personal project—Teacher support materials (IBO)

Self-management: Reflection

(Re)considering the learning process

Choosing and using ATL skills

Skills-related objectives

  • Identify strengths and weaknesses of personal learning strategies (self-assessment)
  • Demonstrate flexibility in the selection and use of learning strategies
  • Consider personal learning strategies

Have you reflected on how you learn? Have you reflected on what you used to do and what you do now?

I used to think …

Now I think …

 

Use the ATL chart to answer these questions.

Have I developed new skills, techniques and strategies for effective learning? If so, please give examples.

During my project, have I identified strengths and weaknesses in my personal learning strategies? If so, please give examples.

How can I make my learning more effective and efficient?

What has helped me to learn effectively?

During my project, did I use new learning strategies? If so, please give examples.

During my project, have I tried other ways or methods of working? Were they effective?

Which skills did I already have?

Which skill(s) will I work on in the future?

Have my strengths and ways of doing things benefited my peers? Give an example.

 

Answer these questions.

What did I learn about my learning goal?

What would I like to explore in relation to my learning goal or product?

What questions do I have after my project?

Have existing products inspired me to create my own? Give examples.

Am I aware of the ethical, cultural and environmental implications of my project? Give

examples.

Adapted from, ATL toolkit—Approaches to learning in practice, MYP personal project—Teacher support materials (IBO)

Self-management: Organization

Managing time and tasks

effectively

Research: Information literacy

Finding, interpreting, judging

and creating information

Research: Media literacy

Interacting with media to use and create ideas

and information

Skills-related objectives

  • Keep an organized and logical system of information files/notebooks
  • Use appropriate strategies for organizing complex information

Skills-related objectives

  • Present information in a variety of formats and platforms
  • Collect, record and verify data

Skills-related objectives

  • Locate, organize, analyse, evaluate, synthesize and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media (including digital social media and online networks)
  • Seek a range of perspectives from multiple and varied sources
  • Compare, contrast and draw connections among (multi)media resources

 

RESEARCH PLAN:

Learning goal:

Product:

1. LEARNING GOAL:

Strand

Sources used

Methods and

techniques

Links to success criteria

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

2. PRODUCT:

Strand

Sources used

Methods and

techniques

Links to success criteria

2.1

2.2

2.3

 

Self-management: Organization

Managing time & tasks effectively

Skills-related objectives as applied to the Research Process

    • Keep an organized and logical system of information files/notebooks
    • Select and use technology effectively and productively
    • Organize evidence collected (memory stick, Drive, portfolio, binder, etc)

 

How can I apply research to Criterion A: Planning?

    • Learning goal and related personal interest
    • Product and related success criteria
    • Evidence of a plan for achieving the product and its associated success criteria

How can I apply research to Criterion B: Applying skills?

    • Evidence of applying ATL skills to achieve the learning goal
    • Evidence of applying ATL skills to achieve the product

How can I apply research to Criterion C: Reflecting?

    • Explanation of the impact of the project on themselves or their learning
    • Evaluation of the product based on the success criteria

**Note that research can be carried out at any point in the process!

 

Adapted from, ATL toolkit—Approaches to learning in practice, MYP personal project—Teacher support materials (IBO)

 

 

 

Thinking: Creative thinking

Generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives

 

Skills-related objective

  • Use brainstorming and visual diagrams to generate new ideas and inquiries

ME

My interests and hobbies

My skills

My project ideas

My academic preferences

My academic shortcomings

What I don't want

Taking these findings into account, what learning goals (what I want to learn) could I develop?

Adapted from, ATL toolkit—Approaches to learning in practice, MYP personal project—Teacher support materials (IBO)