At this time of year I often get asked “What is an SLP, and what happens at an SLP Meeting?”
SLP is short for Student Learning Plan. The SLP template outlines the skills the BC Min of Ed expects each child will be able to demonstrate by the end of the school year. They are specific to each grade level.
Parents come to the SLP meeting with a plan for what activities and resources they plan to use at home to support literacy, numeracy, and the other content areas. The SLP can certainly evolve throughout the year. Please mention any major changes to the SLP at one of the three Portfolio meetings.
Essentially, almost ANYTHING can be a vehicle for learning if you pause frequently to make observations along the way and regularly reflect on and document your learning. Be Creative! Have fun with it!
Some families choose to use ‘store bought’ resources and kits, some families use online resources and programs. All these choices can be used as a jumping off point to supplement your own nature walks, field trips to various venues, attendance at events, etc.
I highly recommend an interdisciplinary approach to the work and learning activities you are doing at home.
For example, if your child is interested in ostriches, they might do some research online (tech), go to the library to find books about ostriches (career ed) draw pictures of ostriches (art) make a diorama showing the ostrich in its environment (social studies/applied design) dictate/write a story about ostriches (literacy) create a song and dance about an ostrich (fine arts/ health/physical ed), watch a show about ostrich and talk about what they think about how the characters behaved (critical thinking and social emotional learning) So much learning around one simple theme!
In addition to daily or nearly daily reading from a wide variety of genres, I highly recommend setting aside several regular times per week to focus on academics in a quiet setting. (Perhaps a little bit of ‘seat work’ as well as updating a reflection journal or activity log book.) (These can be written and/or drawn, and/or scribed for someone else to write etc.)
Try to have two or three ideas for each area in the SLP. It is understood that any specific learning activity or resource will likely “check boxes” in other areas as well.
The teacher may likely have specific requirements for some subject areas as well.
I recommend parents revisit the SLP often to “check off” the various outcomes as they are met. Many outcomes will likely be met many times over the year. In this way you can be confident that you are covering the outcomes, or notice gaps where you may want to focus for a while. NOTE: If you keep notes and take photos about how the outcome was met, (ie “performed an ostrich dance for grandparents over Zoom”) the three Portfolio submissions will practically write itself when the time comes!
The SLP Meeting
At the SLP meeting the teacher and parent, and the students will go over the SLP in detail to fine to ensure sure it meets Min or Ed criteria. The use of Allotment Funds might also be discussed at the SLP Meeting.
The meeting may take up to one hour. Please help your child to remain focused during the meeting.
If you must bring your child’s siblings to the meeting, please bring a activity to keep them quietly occupied.