Course Content

Strength Based Practices: Seeing Students Differently

Strength-based practice shifts the educational lens from fixing deficits to recognizing and building on student assets. This course explores how to intentionally notice, name, and nurture strengths in ways that affirm student identity and increase engagement. Educators will learn to reframe challenges, design strength-based supports, and co-create learning environments where every student’s gifts are visible and valued.

This course blends storytelling with practical learning. As you move through the course, you will alternate between reading your chosen story and engaging in Learning Interludes that deepen your understanding of inclusive education.

To view the course content, click on each section header below. This will reveal the readings and materials for that part of the course.

How the Course Flows

The course follows a consistent sequence:
Prologue → Learning Interlude 1 → Chapter 1 → Learning Interlude 2 → Chapter 2 → Learning Interlude 3 → Chapter 3 → Learning Interlude 4 → Chapter 4 → Learning Interlude 5 → Epilogue → Learning Interlude 6

Each chapter of your story highlights key ideas in action. After each chapter, you will complete a Learning Interlude that unpacks those ideas through guided content, tools, and activities.

What’s in a Learning Interlude?

Each Learning Interlude contains three Learning Links. A Learning Link is a short, focused learning unit that includes:

A short video explaining an essential concept.
A follow-up activity to help you apply what you have learned.

After each Learning Link, you will find both individual and group activities. Choose the activities that are most meaningful and relevant to your role, goals, and context. There is no requirement to complete them all.

If you are facilitating this course for a group, Facilitator Notes are included at the beginning of each Learning Interlude. These provide guidance, timing suggestions, and tips for leading group discussions and activities.

You will also find:

Printable tools and templates to support your planning.
Reflection prompts to help connect new ideas to your own practice.

These interludes help you make sense of what you have read and offer practical strategies you can use right away, whether you are learning individually or with a group.

▶ Inside the Story: Prologue

Inside the Story: Prologue

As you move through this course, we encourage you to return to the story you selected during the “Inside the Story” sections. Each chapter aligns with the learning interludes and offers a vivid, contextualized look at inclusive design in action. Feel free to explore additional stories if you're curious how the same principles play out in different contexts. Short overviews of the chapter are included here to help you discern if you want to explore other stories.

Shining a Light: The Story of Jamila

Prologue: More Than a Checklist ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Jamila pores over a stack of IPPs during her prep block. Each plan feels like a series of problems: off-task behavior, emotional regulation issues, executive functioning delays. The system rewards detailed documentation of deficits, but it does not reflect how she experiences these students day to day. She is growing weary of writing about what is wrong. When a colleague casually asks, “Have you ever tried writing plans from a strengths lens?” something shifts. A seed of change is planted.

The Joy Journal: The Story of Damien and Leo

Prologue: More Than a Glance ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

A Culture of Recognition: The Story of Priya

Prologue: Unseen Gifts ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

In yet another student support meeting, Priya watches as the conversation begins with everything the student cannot do: limited vocabulary, poor classroom focus, struggling phonics scores. The student’s mother, seated silently, does not speak until the very end. Afterward, Priya wonders: What if the first thing we named was what this student brings? What if we began with strengths?

From Case to Kid: The Story of Elias

Prologue: A File Full of Deficits ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Elias joins Grade 6 with a file that paints a bleak picture: poor reading fluency, weak organization, inconsistent work completion. But during the first week of school, Ms. Clarke watches him spend 20 minutes explaining moon phases, complete with diagrams and a homemade clay model. None of this brilliance is in the file. She begins to question what is missing in how we document students and whose stories get told.

From Fixing to Flourishing: A Schoolwide Shift

Prologue: Enough About What’s Broken ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

At Saint Clare’s, a Catholic K to 6 school, team meetings have become formulaic and heavy. Conversations start with gaps and often stay there. A group of teachers voices their discomfort: “Our students are more than a list of deficits. Why do not our plans reflect that?” Together, they begin a collaborative inquiry project focused on strength-based conferencing and set out to reimagine how they see and support students.

▶ Learning Interlude 1: Getting Started

Learning Interlude 1: What Is Strength-Based Practice?

Occurs After Prologue → Before Chapter 1
Module Name: Seeing Students Differently

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can define strength-based practice in education.
I can distinguish it from deficit-oriented approaches.

🎬 Learning Link 1: Introduction to Strength-Based Mindsets

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Belief Inventory (📄PDF): Reflect on your current beliefs about student success and what you notice first... challenges or strengths?
Strength Spotting Journal (📄PDF): Think of a student you find challenging and list at least three genuine strengths they bring.
Language Audit (📄PDF): Review recent comments or documentation to notice how language frames students... through strengths or deficits?

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Defining Strength-Based Practice Roundtable (📄PDF): Share and refine a shared definition of strength-based practice as a team.
Identity Anchors Brainstorm (📄PDF): Identify ways your school currently affirms, or could better affirm, student strengths in visible ways.
“What We See, We Grow” Gallery Walk (📄PDF): Create visuals that illustrate a shift from deficit to strength-based perspectives.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Strengths vs. Deficits: Shifting the Lens

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Compare & Contrast Reflection Tool (📄PDF): Examine a common student behavior through both a deficit and strength-based lens.
Student Profile Rewrite (📄PDF): Take a fictional or anonymized student profile and reframe it using only strengths-based language.
“Noticing the Frame” Journal (📄PDF): Reflect on how your first impressions of students may be shaped by labels or past reports.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Lens Shift Practice (📄PDF): Work in pairs to reframe deficit-based comments into strength-based language.
Sticky Note Strength Hunt (📄PDF): Post anonymized student descriptions and have colleagues add visible strengths they see.
Rewriting the Narrative Case Studies (📄PDF): Explore how team-based shifts in perspective can change how students are supported.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Why This Matters for Student Identity and Engagement

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Strength-Based Practice Quick Guide Reflection (📄PDF): Use the guide to identify one strength-based strategy you’re already using and one you want to try.
Student Identity Map (📄PDF): Create a visual map of one student’s strengths, interests, and contributions beyond academics.
Engagement through Strengths Journal (📄PDF): Reflect on how affirming student strengths could shift classroom engagement or relationships.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Engagement Mapping Exercise (📄PDF): Identify students who appear disengaged and brainstorm how strength-based strategies might invite participation.
Team Commitment Charter (📄PDF): Develop a set of shared strength-based commitments for staff or classroom practice.
Identity & Belonging Case Analysis (📄PDF): Analyze how student identity and self-perception shift when adults consistently lead with strengths.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Strength-Based Practice Quick Guide (📄PDF): Definitions, examples, and key principles of strength-based approaches in education.
Compare & Contrast Reflection Tool (📄PDF): A guided organizer to shift thinking from deficit to strength-based interpretations.
Student Identity Mapping Template (📄PDF): A visual planning tool to help identify and use student strengths across learning areas.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes key research articles and frameworks related to strength-based education, identity development, asset-based language, and engagement strategies.

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 1

Inside the Story: Chapter 1

Shining a Light: The Story of Jamila

Chapter 1: Seeing What’s Already There ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Jamila begins watching her students with new eyes. She notices Maya’s dry humor during small group work, Liam’s patience with peers, and Deja’s ability to translate difficult concepts into visuals. None of this is reflected in their plans. She starts jotting notes on sticky pads and pinning them to her clipboard. She realizes her students show strengths every day, just not the kind typically documented. These “unofficial” strengths begin shaping her perception.

The Joy Journal: The Story of Damien and Leo

Chapter 1: Moments That Matter ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Damien begins keeping a Joy Journal—a handwritten record of Leo’s moments of connection, interest, and calm. He documents Leo’s smiles during music, his eye contact when another student shares a book, and his contentment while sitting near the sunny window. What once felt like fleeting glimpses now become daily reminders that Leo is communicating all the time, we just need to notice.

A Culture of Recognition: The Story of Priya

Chapter 1: Listening for Strengths ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Priya begins each new family meeting with a different question: “What do you admire about your child?” Parents speak of courage, responsibility, musical talent, and kindness. One father shares that his son survived a long journey through refugee camps and still wakes up every morning eager to learn. Priya writes these stories down and shares them. First with teachers, then at staff meetings. Gradually, the tone of professional dialogue begins to shift from scarcity to celebration.

From Case to Kid: The Story of Elias

Chapter 1: Curiosity as Compass ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Ms. Clarke begins intentionally observing Elias’s strengths. He uses advanced vocabulary when talking about science and lights up during inquiry-based learning. She documents these strengths using sticky notes, voice memos, and strength-spotting templates. In team meetings, she starts sharing not just what Elias cannot do, but what he does brilliantly.

From Fixing to Flourishing: A Schoolwide Shift

Chapter 1: Observing With a New Lens ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

As part of the inquiry, staff begin shadowing students, not to document struggles, but to capture strengths in action. A student who rarely speaks is seen tenderly helping a younger peer tie a shoe. Another, often described as off-task, is noticed building complex patterns with math tiles. These small but powerful moments are collected and shared, sparking new conversations and shifting staff mindsets.

▶ Learning Interlude 2: Foundations of Universal Design

Learning Interlude 2: Noticing and Naming Strengths

Occurs After Chapter 1 → Before Chapter 2

Module Name: Strength-Based Practice: Seeing Students Differently

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can identify observable strengths across academic, social, emotional, and cultural domains.
I can use practical language to describe student strengths in ways that affirm identity.

🎬 Learning Link 1: Domains of Student Strength

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Student Strength Scanning Sheet (📄PDF): Observe a student during a learning activity and note strengths across multiple domains.
Strength Journal Snapshot (📄PDF): Write a brief portrait of a student that highlights one strength in each domain: academic, social, emotional, cultural.
Everyday Evidence Log (📄PDF): Track small moments in the school day where student strengths are evident—but often unnoticed.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Four-Domain Brainstorm (📄PDF): Collaboratively generate examples of what strengths can look like in each domain using real student stories.
Cross-Role Observation Exchange (📄PDF): Observe in pairs (e.g., EA and teacher) and compare notes on the strengths seen from different lenses.
Strengths in Context Roundtable (📄PDF): Share ways in which students show strengths differently depending on environment or relationship.

🎬 Learning Link 2: The Power of Language: Naming to Build

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Language Shifts Reflection (📄PDF): Review how you’ve recently described students in writing or conversation. Where could a shift better affirm strengths?
From Label to Lift Activity (📄PDF): Choose a commonly used label and reframe it using strength-based alternatives from the Language Shifts Chart.
Voice and Vocabulary Self-Check (📄PDF): Reflect on your default descriptive words and consider how they might shape student identity.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Language Shifts Gallery Walk (📄PDF): Post common deficit-based descriptors and invite colleagues to offer strength-based reframes.
Naming Strengths Protocol (📄PDF): In triads, describe a shared student only using observable strengths and positive language.
Word Audit Workshop (📄PDF): Review student records, report card comments, or intervention plans and rework wording to reflect a strength-based approach.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Strengths That Are Often Overlooked

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Strength-Spotting Observation Template (📄PDF): Use during classroom or recess time to intentionally observe less-visible strengths like persistence, humour, or empathy.
Invisible Strengths Reflection (📄PDF): Write about a student who may not shine in traditional ways but brings powerful strengths to the community.
Alternative Strength Profiles (📄PDF): Create or analyze strength profiles for students who often experience marginalization.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Unseen Strengths Circle (📄PDF): Share stories of students whose strengths emerged only after deeper relationship or shifting perspective.
Strength-Based Peer Recognition (📄PDF): As a team, practice naming overlooked strengths in each other’s students or roles.
Beyond the Obvious Brainstorm (📄PDF): Build a collective list of strengths that often go unacknowledged and how to notice them more.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Strength-Spotting Observation Template (📄PDF): A guided observation tool for recording and analyzing student strengths in real time.
Language Shifts Chart: From Label to Strength (📄PDF): A chart of common deficit terms with strength-based alternatives to reframe thinking and communication.
Student Strengths Recording Grid (📄PDF): A planning tool to track individual student strengths across multiple domains.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes research on asset-based education, strengths-based psychology, culturally responsive pedagogy, and the impact of language on identity formation and engagement.

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 2

Inside the Story: Chapter 2

Shining a Light: The Story of Jamila

Chapter 2: Flipping the Script ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

When a student blurts out constantly, Jamila pauses. Could this be verbal confidence, not defiance? Another student paces at the back of the room. Perhaps they are a kinesthetic thinker. She begins practicing daily reframes, even for her own frustration. Instead of “non-compliant,” she writes “persistent.” Instead of “disorganized,” she notes “spontaneous and creative.” Jamila begins to realize that how she writes about students shapes how she sees them and how others treat them.

The Joy Journal: The Story of Damien and Leo

Chapter 2: Rewriting the Narrative ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

At the next team meeting, Damien hesitantly shares excerpts from Leo’s Joy Journal. The tone in the room shifts. Staff begin to see Leo not only as a student with needs, but as someone with preferences, joy, and personality. The conversation changes: “What if we built from these moments?” they ask. Strength-based language begins to enter the team’s vocabulary.

A Culture of Recognition: The Story of Priya

Chapter 2: Reframing at the Edges ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

During a multi-disciplinary team meeting, Priya gently challenges deficit-based language. Instead of “She’s disruptive during prayer time,” the team reframes it as “She’s passionate and expressive. She needs rituals that invite movement.” Staff begin practicing this reframing in conversations and written reports. What once sounded like problems now sound like potential. The team starts designing interventions rooted in what students are already doing well.

From Case to Kid: The Story of Elias

Chapter 2: Rethinking the Problem ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Rather than zeroing in on Elias’s messy binder and below-level reading scores, Ms. Clarke reframes him as a divergent thinker with strong verbal reasoning and deep content knowledge. She introduces a reading intervention anchored in space-related texts and allows audio-assisted comprehension. Elias starts finishing books and talking about them with pride.

From Fixing to Flourishing: A Schoolwide Shift

Chapter 2: Changing the Meeting ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

In team meetings, a “Strength First” protocol is introduced. Every discussion begins with naming at least two observed strengths per student before moving into planning. This intentional shift in structure and tone begins to change how students are described and how staff feel. What once felt like deficit management now feels like possibility-centered planning.

▶ Learning Interlude 3: Designing for Engagement

Learning Interlude 3: Reframing Challenges Through Strengths

Occurs After Chapter 2 → Before Chapter 3

Module Name: Strength-Based Practice: Seeing Students Differently

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can reframe perceived student “problems” as indicators of unmet strengths or underutilized gifts.
I can use strengths as an entry point for engagement and support.

🎬 Learning Link 1: What Does Reframing Look Like in Practice?

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Reframe Reflection Journal (📄PDF): Choose one student behavior you find challenging and write a reframe focused on possible strengths beneath the surface.
Challenge-to-Strength Reframe Grid (📄PDF): Complete three reframes of common behaviors using the guided grid.
From Deficit to Design (📄PDF): Reflect on how a reframe could shift the design of a task, routine, or interaction.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Reframing Roundtable (📄PDF): Each participant brings a scenario and the group offers three strength-based reframes.
Shared Patterns Analysis (📄PDF): Review patterns of how challenges are discussed in your school and brainstorm systemic shifts toward strengths.
What We Focus On Grows Wall (📄PDF): Create a visual of commonly perceived challenges with strength-based reframes beside them.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Examples of Common Reframes

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Strength Spotting in “Difficult” Behaviors (📄PDF): Match common behavior labels (e.g., defiant, distracted) with possible strength-based interpretations.
Student Story Reframe (📄PDF): Revisit a past student case and rewrite it from a strengths-first perspective.
Rooted in Strength Reflection (📄PDF): Identify how unmet needs may point to strengths being suppressed or unsupported.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Common Challenge Reframe Carousel (📄PDF): Rotate through stations to reframe common “problem” behaviors as hidden strengths.
Scenario Sorting Activity (📄PDF): Sort provided student scenarios into deficit- or strength-oriented descriptions and rewrite as needed.
Staff Language Audit (📄PDF): As a team, review how challenges are described in reports, meetings, or notes—and identify opportunities for reframe.

🎬 Learning Link 3: From Behavior Charts to Strength-Driven Supports

Power Point Slides (📄PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Strength-Based Support Brainstorm Sheet (📄PDF): Choose one student and use the sheet to map out strength-driven strategies to replace compliance-based systems.
My Practice Shift Plan (📄PDF): Identify one support practice you use (e.g., clip charts, token systems) and reimagine it through a strength-based lens.
Strategy Mapping Journal (📄PDF): Journal about what you’ve tried in the past and how strength-based framing could reshape those strategies.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Behavior Support Redesign Studio (📄PDF): In teams, bring a sample behavior support and collaboratively redesign it from a strength-based framework.
Case Consultation Circles (📄PDF): Present a student scenario to a group and explore strength-driven approaches together.
From Charts to Choice Boards (📄PDF): Share and develop alternatives to behavior charts that reflect student strengths and offer authentic engagement.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Challenge-to-Strength Reframe Grid (📄PDF): A chart for transforming perceived challenges into insights about student strengths.
Strength-Based Support Brainstorm Sheet (📄PDF): A structured tool for developing individualized supports that start from what students do well.
Behavior Lens Shift Template (📄PDF): A planning template for shifting from external control to internal motivation and relationship-driven support.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes research on behavior reframing, asset-based intervention planning, neurodiversity, trauma-informed supports, and positive student identity development.

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 3

Inside the Story: Chapter 3

Shining a Light: The Story of Jamila

Chapter 3: Profiles with Purpose ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Jamila invites students and families into a new kind of conversation. Together, they co-create learner profiles that highlight what each student loves, how they learn best, and what motivates them. She discovers that Amari, once labeled “distracted,” is a skilled multitasker at home, helping care for siblings while doing homework. A former “defiant” student is reframed as a “tenacious advocate” who thrives when given choice. Jamila shares these profiles with colleagues. Her classroom narrative is starting to change.

The Joy Journal: The Story of Damien and Leo

Chapter 3: A Plan Rooted in Strength ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Damien works alongside the teacher and occupational therapist to co-design a support plan anchored in Leo’s strengths. They introduce a morning routine with music transitions, build in window-side reading time, and invite peer readers to engage with Leo regularly. Over time, Leo begins to respond more consistently, smiling, leaning forward, and even initiating eye contact. He is still non-speaking, but his presence grows louder.

A Culture of Recognition: The Story of Priya

Chapter 3: Welcoming Through Story ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Priya organizes an evening called Welcome Through Strength: Family Celebration Night. Families bring cultural foods, stories, and talents to share. Some read poetry in their first language, others teach dance steps or display traditional art. Students beam with pride. Educators begin to understand that these families are co-educators, full of insight and gifts. Classrooms begin integrating these stories into units of study, and hallway displays begin to reflect the full range of identities in the school.

From Case to Kid: The Story of Elias

Chapter 3: Voices That Matter ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Ms. Clarke invites Elias and his parents to co-create a learner profile. She asks Elias what excites him, what he is proud of, and how he wants to grow. He shares his dream of becoming an astronaut and suggests they call his profile “Scientist in Progress.” The process is empowering for Elias and his family.

From Fixing to Flourishing: A Schoolwide Shift

Chapter 3: Profiles That Uplift ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

The school pilots a new learner profile format co-developed with students and families. Family interviews and surveys invite stories of what students love, how they thrive at home, and where they shine. The profiles include not only goals but affirmations. One reads, “Elena is a quiet observer who notices what others miss. She thrives when given time to think.” The documents become tools of connection.

▶ Learning Interlude 4: Representation that Connects

Learning Interlude 4: Co-Constructing Positive Narratives

Occurs After Chapter 3 → Before Chapter 4

Module Name: Strength-Based Practice: Seeing Students Differently

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can engage students and families in building strength-based profiles and narratives.
I can center student voice in the storytelling process.

🎬 Learning Link 1: What Is a Positive Learning Narrative?

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Story Audit Reflection (📄PDF): Reflect on how student narratives are currently shaped in your context—what messages are emphasized?
Student Story Rewrite (📄PDF): Choose a past student description or anecdote and reframe it through a strengths-based narrative lens.
Narrative Starter Prompts (📄PDF): Use prompts to begin writing positive, student-centered stories based on real observations.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Narrative Language Workshop (📄PDF): In small teams, review sample student write-ups and rework them using asset-based language.
Celebration Circle (📄PDF): Practice sharing positive stories aloud and reflecting on how it changes perception and relational tone.
Whose Story Is Missing? Brainstorm (📄PDF): Identify students who may not have strong positive narratives and brainstorm next steps.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Co-Authoring Strengths-Based Profiles

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Learner Profile Template (📄PDF): Complete a strengths-based learner profile for one student, using direct quotes and real examples.
Voice Check Reflection (📄PDF): Reflect on whose voice is loudest in student profiles (adult, system, or student) and how to shift the balance.
Profile Planning Journal (📄PDF): Choose one student and plan how you will co-create their profile in partnership with them.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Learner Profile Exchange (📄PDF): Share anonymized profiles and give one another feedback on how student strengths and voice come through.
Profile Building Station Rotation (📄PDF): Rotate through stations for different components of a learner profile (e.g., interests, supports, student voice) and build together.
Profile Launch Planning (📄PDF): Co-develop a plan for integrating learner profiles into team processes, classroom routines, or reporting.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Shifting Team and Family Meetings Toward Celebration

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Family and Student Strength Conference Planner (📄PDF): Plan an upcoming meeting or conversation using strengths-first language, structure, and tone.
Meeting Reflection Log (📄PDF): Reflect on past team or family meetings—what was the emotional tone, and how were student strengths included?
Positive Language Practice Sheet (📄PDF): Write out ways to reframe common concerns as entry points for building up rather than breaking down.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Strength-First Meeting Role Play (📄PDF): Practice leading a mock student support meeting using strength-based language and structure.
Celebration Protocol Development (📄PDF): Co-create a protocol or routine for including student celebration in every meeting.
Parent Partnership Exchange (📄PDF): Share effective ways you’ve engaged families in co-authoring strength-based plans—and compile them into a shared resource.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Learner Profile Template (📄PDF): A flexible form for capturing strengths, supports, voice, and contributions from both student and adult perspectives.
Family and Student Strength Conference Planner (📄PDF): A meeting planning guide that centers celebration, student voice, and collaborative next steps.
Positive Language Prompts Deck (📄PDF): Sentence starters for writing or speaking about students in a strength-based way.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes research on student voice, family engagement, collaborative narrative practices, and the impact of strengths-first communication in educational settings.

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 4

Inside the Story: Chapter 4

Shining a Light: The Story of Jamila

Chapter 4: Teaching From Strength ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Jamila’s lesson planning shifts. She creates flexible grouping based on interests and peer mentorship strengths. She redesigns learning tasks so students can showcase knowledge through movement, visuals, or leadership roles. Her feedback becomes more affirming, focusing on confidence and growth. “You’re a strong visual thinker,” she writes. “Your creativity made this task shine.” Her students begin taking more risks and more pride.

The Joy Journal: The Story of Damien and Leo

Chapter 4: The Ripple Effect ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Inspired by Leo’s progress, Damien begins mentoring a new educational assistant on strength-spotting. He shares his simple method: “Look for what lights them up.” Soon, others across the school start informally adopting this approach. The language around Leo evolves. His updated IPP no longer begins with deficits but with: “Leo is a lover of music and light. He builds relationships through stillness, gesture, and presence.” A quiet transformation is taking root.

A Culture of Recognition: The Story of Priya

Chapter 4: Rewriting the System ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Determined to move beyond one-off events, Priya initiates a division-wide review of report card language and student profiles. She advocates for strength domains to be embedded in all IPPs and Learner Support Plans. At Sacred Heart, she integrates strength-spotting prompts into staff supervision meetings and planning templates. One teacher remarks, “I used to think of this as soft stuff but now I see it’s the foundation of everything we do.”

From Case to Kid: The Story of Elias

Chapter 4: Designing Around Strength ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Building on his passion, Elias co-plans a space exploration unit with Ms. Clarke. He takes on leadership roles, guiding peers in model-building, researching mission designs, and presenting using visual aids. What began as accommodation becomes aspiration. He is now scaffolding his own writing and learning through his strengths.

From Fixing to Flourishing: A Schoolwide Shift

Chapter 4: Design in Action ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

In classrooms, strength-based goal setting takes root. Students build portfolios aligned with their interests and celebrate growth in areas they choose. One student tracks how many kind acts he does each week; another charts improvements in her poetry writing. The school feels lighter, more relational, and more authentically human. Teaching is still rigorous but now rooted in hope.

▶ Learning Interlude 5: Flexible Expression and Student Agency

Learning Interlude 5: Designing for Strengths

Occurs After Chapter 4 → Before Epilogue
Module Name: Strength-Based Practice: Seeing Students Differently

📎 Facilitator Notes (📄PDF)

🌟 Success Criteria

I can design supports and strategies that build from student strengths.
I can give feedback that builds competence and confidence.

🎬 Learning Link 1: Teaching Through Strengths

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Learning Design Audit (📄PDF): Reflect on a recent lesson—where did students have opportunities to use their strengths? Where didn’t they?
Student Strength Snapshot Plan (📄PDF): Choose a student and design one learning task that aligns with their known strengths.
Teaching Energy Tracker (📄PDF): Track when you feel most energized in your teaching. How does this connect to student strengths being engaged?

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Design Share Circle (📄PDF): Share lesson ideas or projects that allow students to learn through strengths like collaboration, movement, or creativity.
Learning Style Stations (📄PDF): Rotate through stations featuring real student profiles to brainstorm strength-based strategies.
Reimagine the Routine Workshop (📄PDF): Choose a common classroom routine and redesign it to include more opportunities for strength expression.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Planning Supports That Energize

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Planning Tool: Instructional Design Through Strengths (📄PDF): Use this template to build an upcoming unit or support plan around student strengths.
Support Reboot Journal (📄PDF): Reflect on a support strategy that hasn’t worked. How could you revise it using a strength-based lens?
Energizing the Environment Reflection (📄PDF): Consider how the physical, relational, or instructional environment supports or drains student strengths.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Design Jam: Energizing Supports (📄PDF): In groups, select a student scenario and brainstorm supports that build energy rather than compliance.
What Helps, What Hinders Analysis (📄PDF): Review common strategies and evaluate them through the lens of strengths and engagement.
Barrier Breakthroughs Brainstorm (📄PDF): Collaboratively address a persistent student struggle by rethinking the entry point through strengths.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Strength-Centered Feedback

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Strength-Based Feedback Sentence Starters (📄PDF): Practice writing feedback that affirms progress and builds confidence.
Feedback Reframe Sheet (📄PDF): Take a piece of corrective feedback and reframe it using strength-based principles.
One Student, One Message Journal (📄PDF): Choose one student and write a short note of feedback focused entirely on strengths.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Feedback Rewrite Protocol (📄PDF): Exchange samples of written or verbal feedback and collaboratively revise them to reflect strength-based language.
Celebration Language Practice (📄PDF): Role-play giving feedback that focuses on progress, effort, and growth.
Feedback Flow Wall (📄PDF): Build a visual of helpful phrases and ideas to use across classrooms for strength-affirming feedback.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Planning Tool: Instructional Design Through Strengths (📄PDF): A step-by-step guide for designing lessons, tasks, or supports that align with individual or group strengths.
Strength-Based Feedback Sentence Starters (📄PDF): A bank of practical sentence stems for affirming effort, progress, and potential.
Lesson Redesign Template (📄PDF): A planning form for modifying an existing lesson plan to include more opportunities for student strengths.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes literature on strength-based pedagogy, differentiated instruction, motivation theory, feedback and student confidence, and inclusive instructional design.

▶ Inside the Story: Epilogue

Inside the Story: Epilogue

Shining a Light: The Story of Jamila

Epilogue: Shining a Light ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

At spring parent night, Jamila sets up a strength wall where students present their profiles and self-selected work. The room buzzes with celebration. Parents beam. Teachers mingle. A colleague remarks, “This is the most alive I’ve ever seen these kids.” Jamila looks around and sees it too. She no longer sees herself as a writer of plans. She’s a revealer of potential. Her strength-based lens didn’t just change her documentation. It transformed her classroom.

The Joy Journal: The Story of Damien and Leo

Epilogue: A Different Kind of Expertise ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Damien is invited to co-facilitate a professional development session on strength-based support practices. At first unsure, he stands before a room of educators and shares Leo’s story. How seeing and documenting moments of joy changed everything. “I’m not just here to assist,” he says. “I’m here to help us all see what’s already good.” The room is silent and then it erupts in applause. What began as a quiet notebook became a catalyst for cultural change.

A Culture of Recognition: The Story of Priya

Epilogue: A Culture of Recognition ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Walking the halls of Emmaus School, Priya pauses beside a student mural titled “What We Carry.” Each panel tells a story of identity. Of languages, histories, hopes, and dreams. Strength spotlights are posted on classroom doors, and new students are greeted with curiosity, not caution. A parent, tears in her eyes, tells Priya, “I used to be afraid to come to school. Now, I feel like it’s ours too.” Priya smiles. This is the kind of transformation she had quietly prayed for. A school where everyone is seen not for what they lack, but for what they bring.

From Case to Kid: The Story of Elias

Epilogue: From Case to Kid ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

At the end-of-year celebration, Elias’s learner profile is shared as part of a showcase on strength-based learning. Teachers describe him as a “scientific thinker” and “natural leader.” Ms. Clarke reflects: the most powerful shift wasn’t in Elias’s data. It was in how they saw him. His identity is no longer defined by deficits. He is Elias and he is thriving.

From Fixing to Flourishing: A Schoolwide Shift

Epilogue: From Pilot to Practice ( 📖 Read | 🎧 Listen | 🎬 Watch )

Inspired by the project’s impact, the school staff publishes a short guidebook: Strength-Based Planning in Catholic Education. It includes tools, student profiles, meeting templates, and real examples. Other schools begin reaching out. The guide is downloaded across the division. But more importantly, the staff knows they’ve changed more than paperwork. They’ve changed posture. They’ve become a school that sees.

▶ Learning Interlude 6: Writing Your Own Story

Learning Interlude 6: Taking It Forward

Occurs After Epilogue

Module Name: Strength-Based Practice: Seeing Students Differently

🌟 Success Criteria

I can apply strength-based practice within my role and context.
I can identify next steps for personal and collaborative growth.

🎬 Learning Link 1: Recap and Key Takeaways

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Personal Reflection and Action Planner (📄PDF): Identify three key learnings and map out how you will apply them in your day-to-day practice.
Strength-Based Growth Self-Assessment (📄PDF): Reflect on how your mindset and language have shifted during this module.
3-2-1 Reflection Sheet (📄PDF): Name 3 things you learned, 2 ways you’ll apply them, and 1 person you want to collaborate with.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 1 (Choose 1 or More)

Collaborative Takeaway Mapping (📄PDF): As a team, chart key insights from the course and identify shared priorities going forward.
"What Stuck With Me" Circle (📄PDF): Share personal takeaways and moments that changed your thinking.
Practice Commitments Poster (📄PDF): Co-create a visual display of team commitments to strength-based practice.

🎬 Learning Link 2: Shifting School Culture Through Strengths

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Culture Scan Journal (📄PDF): Reflect on how your school currently communicates about students—what is celebrated, and what is overlooked?
Barriers and Bridges Chart (📄PDF): Identify current obstacles to strength-based culture and opportunities to lead change.
Strengths-in-Action Story Sheet (📄PDF): Write a brief narrative of a moment where strength-based practice made a visible difference.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 2 (Choose 1 or More)

Team Conversation Starters: Building a Strength-Based Culture (📄PDF): Use the prompt set to spark honest dialogue about shifting culture.
School Culture Brainstorm Wall (📄PDF): Create a shared visual space where team members post current realities and ideal future states.
From Principles to Practice Workshop (📄PDF): Translate strength-based ideas into concrete actions for classrooms, staff meetings, and policies.

🎬 Learning Link 3: Building This into Teams, Planning, and Documentation

Power Point Slides (PDF)

📝 Individual Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Strength-Based Practice Planner (📄PDF): Map out how you’ll incorporate strength-based practices into upcoming plans, meetings, or assessments.
Documentation Reflection Sheet (📄PDF): Review how students are described in IEPs, anecdotal notes, or report cards—how can this shift?
Voice and Visibility Tracker (📄PDF): Identify whose strengths are well-documented and whose are still missing or underrepresented.

🤝 Group Learning Activity 3 (Choose 1 or More)

Planning Through Strengths Studio (📄PDF): Bring real planning documents and redesign them using strength-based strategies.
Team Documentation Audit (📄PDF): As a team, review anonymized documentation and look for patterns in language and focus.
Strength-Based Planning Protocol (📄PDF): Use a structured process to embed strength-based language and focus into team planning sessions.

🧰 Tools & Templates:

Personal Reflection and Action Planner (📄PDF): A tool to support reflection, planning, and goal-setting for applying strength-based practice.
Team Conversation Starters: Building a Strength-Based Culture (📄PDF): A set of dialogue prompts to guide collaborative conversations and planning.
Strength-Based Planning Protocol (📄PDF): Step-by-step guide for embedding strengths into classroom and team planning structures.

📚 Reference List (📄PDF)

Includes resources on systems change, inclusive leadership, collaborative planning, and long-term implementation of strength-based approaches in schools.

Course Content

How the Course Flows

What’s in a Learning Interlude?

▶ Inside the Story: Prologue

▶ Learning Interlude 1: Getting Started

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 1

▶ Learning Interlude 2: Foundations of Universal Design

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 2

▶ Learning Interlude 3: Designing for Engagement

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 3

▶ Learning Interlude 4: Representation that Connects

▶ Inside the Story: Chapter 4

▶ Learning Interlude 5: Flexible Expression and Student Agency

▶ Inside the Story: Epilogue

▶ Learning Interlude 6: Writing Your Own Story

▶ Reflection and Recognition