Getting FLUENT with the 5 FLUENCIES…
From Literacy to Fluency – 21st Century Fluencies, that is… …and I promised that the forth would outline the “spirit” of the 5 Fluencies. Unable to edit down 6 chapters on my own, I got a “help me” message to Ian this morning…
In less than an hour he had done this – Ian, you are “the man”! At the very heart of the 21st Century Fluency Project are the Five Fluencies. We call them fluencies and not skills because we believe this level of proficiency—not just literacy, but fluency—should be the goal when we are teaching students the basic skills that are essential for functioning in life. It's important to note that these are not optional skills for our students, or for us. Everyone living in the 21st century and beyond will need these abilities. They must be cultivated by every teacher in every subject, and at every grade level. And they will mean the difference between success and struggle for the students of our current Information Age. Solution Fluency
Define the problem, because you need to know exactly what you’re doing before you start.
Discover a solution, because planning prevents wasted effort.
Dream up a process, one that is suitable and efficient.
Design the process in an accurate and detailed action plan.
Deliver by putting the plan into action by both producing and publishing the solution.
Debrief and foster ownership by evaluating the problem solving process. Information Fluency
Ask good questions, in order to get good answers.
Access and acquire the raw material from the appropriate digital information sources, which today are mostly graphical and audiovisual in nature.
Analyze and authenticate and arrange these materials, and distinguish between good and bad, fact and opinion. Understand bias and determine what is incomplete to turn the raw data into usable knowledge.
Apply the knowledge within a real world problem or simulation using a VIP action (vision into practice).
Assess both the product and the process, which is both a teacher and a student practice. Creativity Fluency
Identify the desired outcome and criteria.
Inspire your creativity with rich sensory information.
Interpolate and connect the dots by searching for patterns within the inspiration that align with your desired outcome and criteria from Identify.
Imagine is the synthesis of Inspire and Interpolate, uniting in the birth of an idea.
Inspect the idea against the original criteria and for feasibility. Media Fluency
Listen actively and decode the communication by separating the media from the message, concisely and clearly verbalizing the message and verifying its authenticity, and then critically analyzing the medium for form, flow, and alignment with the intended audience and purpose.
Leverage the most appropriate media for your message considering your content or message and what the desired outcome is. Then consider the audience, your abilities, and any pre-determined criteria. From here, the application of the other fluencies is used to produce and publish your message. Collaboration Fluency
