Supporting Early Learners: Demonstrating Learning and Growth

Empowering students to demonstrate their own learning and growth helps them take an active role in their education. One of the main benefits of using digital tools and technology in the classroom is that it enables learners at an early age to easily show what they’ve learned and to store, share and reflect on their favorite projects.

In this blog—the first in a two-part series—we’ll go over some of the tools in D2L Brightspace that help young learners demonstrate their learning and growth. You can also read part two, Personalizing a Digital Classroom.

Leveraging Portfolio to Showcase Growth

Students of any age can keep track of their progress and moments of pride using the Portfolio tool.

This digital showcase gives students the ability to capture evidence of the projects and assessments that make them proudest. By using the tool from an early age, they can reflect on years of education, seeing their learning growth over time at the touch of a button.

The Portfolio tool can also support evaluation and reporting with evidence of students’ learning. When a student wants to reflect on previous work, they can easily access the feedback associated with it. This helps encourage growth from year to year, making actionable suggestions available to them no matter what new challenge comes their way.

Using Funster Mode to Support Early Learners

Collecting digital evidence is useful for all students. Funster Mode is a version of the Portfolio tool that caters to the youngest learners. Funster has an intuitive, simple login process that makes it easy for kids to get started without needing a password. It also employs icon-based navigation so that nonreaders can use the tool too, while the simple point-and-click capture function makes storing evidence a breeze.

Funster also asks students to describe their learning, encouraging them to reflect on new concepts. That reflection helps young learners retain and recall new concepts, allowing them to further analyze and evaluate. By keeping these pieces in a central location, parents can gain insight into what their children are learning, allowing even more opportunities to engage them. Rather than asking open-ended questions like “How was school?” parents can start conversations specifically related to classroom material.

Funster can give even the youngest learners a sense of ownership in their learning.

Harnessing Parent & Guardian Tool for a Window Into the Classroom

Many parents want to know more about what their children are learning. The Brightspace Parent & Guardian tool can save significant back-and-forth between teachers and parents. With this tool, parents and guardians can log in to their child’s Brightspace Learning Environment to see what the class is working on, what’s coming up and the latest news. This helps parents and guardians engage with their young learners and stay on top of their upcoming work.

Rather than responding to issues or waiting for parent-teacher conferences, parents can also see their child’s progress with just a few clicks. This window into the classroom and into their child’s learning journey ensures that parents can play an active role in their child’s education.

Unlock the Power of Brightspace

Sign up for our upcoming webinar, Having Fun With Portfolio.

Written by

Chase Banger

Chase Banger is a Content Marketing Specialist at D2L. An award-winning journalist and former communications specialist, he has a passion for helping people through education.