WHAT ARE YOU, the student, DOING ABOUT YOUR LEARNING?
Sutherland Teachers incorporate student reflection on the unit's  targeted Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills & strategies to promote student ownership over their own learning.   
Approaches to learning skills are the life long skills students need to be successful in life. The ATL skills are broken into 10 clusters that are apart of one of the 5 ATL skill categories:


CATEGORY                CLUSTER
Communication            Communication skills

• Exchanging thoughts, messages and information effectively through interaction
• Reading, writing and using language to gather and communicate informatio                            

Social                    Collaboration skills

• Working effectively with others

Self-management            Organization skills, affective skills, & reflection skills

• Managing time and tasks effectively

• Managing state of mind

• (Re)considering the process of learning; choosing and using ATL skills

Research                    Information literacy skills, & media literacy skills

• Finding, interpreting, judging and creating information
• Interacting with media to use and create ideas and information

Thinking                    Critical-thinking skills, creative-thinking skills, & 
                        transfer skills

• Analyzing and evaluating issues and ideas
• Generating novel ideas and considering new perspectives
• Using skills and knowledge in multiple contexts

Sutherland teachers develop learning experiences centered on specific ATL skills as a means for allowing students multiple opportunities to use and develop these life long skills.  When specific ATL skills become the center of teaching and learning students are able to take full responsibility of their own learning.  A concept-driven curriculum is united around the development of the approaches to learning skills in all students.  These skills are at the forefront of units and the teachers use the content of the activity to build the skill.  


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