Glossary of Terms

Action Plan – a tool to identify and prioritize the things that need to be done to run a program, to assign specific people to carry out those items, and to set a due date for completion

Collaborative Learning – an educational approach where all stakeholders (educators, youth, parents, community members, online experts, etc.) participate in both teaching and learning

Community Building Techniques – short activities to develop and reinforce collaboration and group morale

Community Asset Mapping – a strategy for identifying resources within your surrounding community to strengthen programs and program activities, also referred to as a Landscape Survey

Constructivism – an approach to education which posits that there are many ways of constructing meaning and that imparting the skills of "how to learn" is more important than any particular information being presented

Critical Thinking – the ability to apply research and reasoning skills in a variety of activities, such as formulating good questions, analyzing data, interpreting bias, and positing independent opinions, strategies or solutions

Digital Literacy – a collection of skills necessary to participate in 21st century society that encompasses technological capacity, information management skills, communication skills, and media analysis

Domains of Growth – unique stages of youth development that are best addressed collectively through student-centered learning, including the cognitive domain (intellectual and academic skills, such as math, language and science) the physical domain (such as dexterity and being comfortable with one's body as it changes and matures) and the socio-emotional domain (emotions, psychology and social skills)

Inquiry-Based Learning – a student centered educational approach driven by a learner's questions that supports both self expression and the exploration of academic content

Journaling – group and individual activity where participants write journal entries to develop ideas, sketch concepts, formulate questions, collect data, record discovers, reflect on strategies, etc.

Lesson Plan – a working document that describes a set of activities that are implemented over the course of a single session, and includes goals and objectives, required materials, instructional steps, variations, reflection, etc.

Mapping – a graphic organizing technique useful for brainstorming to visually represent ideas and strategies, using words, pictures, and diagrams

Modeling – demonstrating an activity for a learner to show process and appropriate behavior, including values and attitudes, collaboration and inquiry, and technique

Oral History – a form of interviewing where individuals recount memories of recent or distant events as participants in those events, where learners interpret both facts and perspectives through their questions and the resulting responses

Outcome Measurement – an evaluation strategy that analyzes the resulting change in behavior or acquisition of knowledge from a particular activity or learning strategy, and informs the further their further refinement to promote greater effectiveness

Pair-Share – an instructional strategy to reinforce peer-to-peer collaboration and sharing.

Pattern Writing – creative activities that involve combining words into structured ideas, useful for teaching writing, sentence structure and parts of speech

Positive Climate – establishing a learning environment, physically and methodologically, where inquiry, collaboration and creativity are reinforced

Program Audits – a participatory approach to assessing the skills, interests, limitations, expectations, etc. of program participants, both youth and staff

Read Aloud – reinforcing basic literacy skills through daily activities that involve all participants in the practice of speaking and reading

Technology Integration – the process of augmenting afterschool programs with hardware and software resources to expand and extend learning objectives

Webbing – a graphic organizing activity, also sometimes referred to as clustering, that builds connections between similar words or ideas through interconnecting web structures