Visualizing Jagged Student Profiles

Do your students require more support in some areas than others? Are you looking for digital solution that can reflect the complexity of programming needs of individual learners as well as groups of students?

WeCollab can help with the display of student information that demonstrates diverse needs in different focus areas.

The Notion of the Jagged Profile

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In his Tedx Talk, Todd Rose speaks about the myth of average.  He would suggest that it is inappropriate to tier a student as no learner fits succinctly into a single category, nor do they remain in that category each and every day. 

Tedx Talk - Todd Rose - The Myth of Average

Every learner has a jagged profile: we have areas of strength and areas of challenge that dictate who we are as human beings. When we acknowledge this, we are compelled to move away from the idea of tiering and labelling learners because one tier or one label does not neatly fit any one individual's profile!

from Collaborative Response Symposium 2022 Opening Address - May 4, 2022

For example, Francine has incredible reasoning skills but struggles with reading. In the same class, Sharif has an excellent memory yet is challenged by language skills.

A different response is required to support each of these students, intentionally leveraging their strengths while attending to their needs.  One size does not fit all!

In the context of Collaborative Response, one tier does not fit a single learner. This is the reason that supports are tiered, not students.

from Collaborative Response Symposium 2022 Opening Address - May 4, 2022

The Jagged Student Profile in WeCollab

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Please visit the User Support Site and search "Student Profile - Student Entry Levels and Tiers of Support" for details on how use this feature.

While there are many areas within the student profile to record information that reflects the uniqueness of the learner, let us focus specifically on the on the Entry Levels, Tiers of Support, and Student Card Icons organizational bar.

The configurations of WeCollab allow for the specification of different focus areas - in this case we see the separation of Academic and Behaviour.

In each of these focus areas, the following can be identified as a demonstration of the student's jagged profile:

• Student Card Icons
• What visual indicators apply to the programming needs of the student in that focus area?
• Student Entry Level
• What does the data and evidence indicate with respect to the student meeting expectations in that focus area?
• Tier of Support
• What is the highest level of support the student is currently receiving in addressing their learning needs in that focus area?

As you can see above, the Academic needs (and thus, the degree of support) for this student are very different than those for Behaviour.

Jagged Student Profile on Team Boards

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Please visit the User Support Site and search "Create a Team Board" for details on how use this feature.

Team Boards can be used to visually display the jagged profiles of a group of students (e.g. a homeroom, a grade level, a division, a school population, etc.).

The focus area at the top of the Team Board can be changed (as the above two screenshots demonstrate - the top is Behaviour and the bottom is Academic). The student cards on the Board then reorganize based on the information in their profiles, thus reflecting the changing complexity of the group's needs in that focus area.

Jagged Learner Profiles

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Learning is not one-dimensional and cannot be limited to a box, a tier, a label, etc. Each learner brings with them their own combination of strengths and challenges.  While there may be similarities in some learning needs, no two students are identical. WeCollab, as it aligns with the philosophical principles of Collaborative Response, has visual displays in the Student Profile and on the Team Boards that reflect the idea that it is not the students who are tiered, but rather the supports they are receiving in having their individual learning needs addressed.