Visitors to Cutter Morning Star see Summit program in action
Cutter Morning Star Elementary hosted visiting teachers and administrators from Lead Hill Elementary last week to demonstrate the recently adopted Summit Learning Program.
“Summit Platform is a method for delivering instruction that was developed by teachers to facilitate personalized learning for students so students can begin the school year working on their individualized levels — where they are currently ready to learn,” Terry Lawler, Cutter Morning Star Elementary School principal, said Thursday.
“Summit Platform then organizes the content and the resources students need to pace their learning so that students finish the year at least on grade level. For our highest achieving students the platform extends their learning so that they also have the content and resourc-
es needed to challenge them academically.”
Lead Hill Principal Mark Ditmanson said his school is considering transitioning to Summit and is in the process of completing the application; however, he said to get a better idea of how the program works, he and four teachers ranging from fourth to eighth grade visited Cutter and North Little Rock Middle School and talked to students and teachers to get a better idea of how the program works.
“Everything we’ve seen so far is getting people really excited,” Ditmanson said. “Especially having the personalized learning time and having a common curriculum among teachers. Our teachers are excited about getting to collaborate with each other.”
The Summit Learning Program utilizes personal learning time, or PLT, and projects to allow students to set goals and learn at their own pace while celebrating learning successes with their peers.
“Our students are learning to better manage their time so they are more productive, are more engaged with the content and practicing skills at a deeper level,” she said. “And just as importantly most of our students report that they like school more than they have in their past learning experiences.”
The group of visitors was led by sixth-grade students Cline Hooten and Dianna Cook, something Lawler said was important to show the student ownership involved in the program.
“With Summit our students truly ‘own’ their own learning,” she said. “And, we want our students to be able to articulate their experiences with their own words and voice.”
This is the first year Cutter has implemented the Summit program and the goal, Lawler said, is to continue to learn from the work with Summit to make some of the adjustments needed to ensure each student experiences high levels of academic success “while learning to enjoy school and learning to develop positive relationships with each of their teachers and with their classmates.”
“I certainly hope (Lead Hill officials) pick up on the above-average academic gains our students are making but also how our students are taking a more active role in their learning and maturing as responsible learners,” she said. “I also hope our visitors take away how the Summit Platform has energized our teachers. It has allowed them to work more closely as a collaborative team to plan and deliver instruction that works, as well as provide a learning climate that builds mentoring relationships between students and teachers.
“Our fifth- and sixth-grade teachers have put so much time and effort into making Summit work for our students. It’s great to see their hard work pay off even more than we anticipated this first year. Beyond academic gains, we hope that our visitors take away how Summit provides a strategic way for making mastery learning for each student possible.”