The Nature of CAS

Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) ...

is intended to be a collection of 

enjoyable and challenging experiences determined by you to extend your abilities.

Creativity is exploring and extending ideas, leading to an original or interpretive product or performance. Music, theatre, film, design technology, visual arts, dance, fashion and other experiences that involve creative thinking fall under creativity.

Activity is physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle. Taking on a new sport or extending your ability, counts as activity.

Service is collaborative and reciprocal community engagement in response to an authentic need. By investigating and identifying a community need, then determining a plan of action that respects the rights, dignity and autonomy of all, you are performing service. 

CAS complements a challenging academic programme in a holistic way, providing opportunities for self-determination, collaboration, accomplishment and enjoyment.

Completion of CAS is based on student achievement of the seven Learning Outcomes:
• Identify your own strengths and develop areas for personal growth
• Demonstrate that you have undertaken challenges and developed new skills in the process
• Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
• Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS experiences
• Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
• Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
• Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Students engage in CAS experiences involving one or more of the three CAS stands. A CAS experience can be a single event or may be an extended series of events.

Students undertake a CAS project which challenges students to show initiative, demonstrate perseverance, and develop skills such as collaboration, problem solving, and decision making.

Students use the CAS stages (investigation, preparation, action, reflection and demonstration) as a framework for CAS experiences and the CAS project.

All students are expected to maintain and complete a CAS portfolio as evidence of their engagement with CAS. 
The CAS portfolio is meant to be a collection of evidence that showcase the overall experience and be a source of pride for the student.

Students should include reflections in their CAS portfolio that give evidence that they achieved each of the seven CAS Learning Outcomes. The CAS portfolio will be in the form of a blog. To know more check: www.howtocas.blogspot.pt. Students need to ensure that the CAS portfolio is up to date, relevant, reflective and comprehensive.

The aim is for students to engage in reflection, with a sense of purpose and a frequency that allows them to better understand and recognise personal development and accomplishment. Reflection is used to demonstrate achievement of the learner profile. 

CAS emphasizes reflection which is central to building a deep and rich experience in CAS.

Student responsibilities towards the completion of the CAS programme: 
• Approach CAS with a proactive attitude.
• Thoroughly familiarize yourself with your school’s CAS rules and timelines.
• Meet with your CAS coordinators at least three times over the duration of your 18 month CAS programme. Be sure to come prepared.
• Base your choices on your interests, skills, talents and areas for growth to stay motivated. Challenge yourself!
• Balance your experiences between creativity, activity and service.
• Initiate or engage in at least one CAS project in collaboration with others that extends over time.
• Use the CAS stages when considering, planning and undertaking your CAS experiences. Be sure to apply these to service and to the CAS project.
• Ask questions along the way when you need assistance or clarification.
• Participate in meaningful reflection as a way to capture your experiences and summarize your evidence linked to the learning outcomes.
• Enjoy CAS! That is most important—to participate in experiences that assists your personal growth and offers you a world of possibilities.
Note: Experiences completed as part of the requirements of the DP subjects, including theory of knowledge and the extended essay, cannot be counted as part of your CAS portfolio.

For further information please do not hesitate to contact CAS coordinators: 
Maxine Small: msmall@stjulians.com and Maria Pinto: mpinto@stjulians.com . 

Create a CAS BLOG!

      or       Watch on Youtube.....

Click on the image to go to the blogger website.         

Sign in with stjulians account. 

Use the School Email: __________@stjulians.com

...

Choose the Blogger profile and just write your name!

Choose New Blog!

The title you will be able to change later!

The address you can't change!!!!!

Click on Create Blog at the bottom and start to edit your BLOG.

Have fun, create and be creative!

Welcome to the new Blogger

Your CAS teachers...

CAS Coordinators: Miss Small and Miss Pinto

Your CAS Advisors:

Creativity

• Mr Harle _ kharle@stjulians.com

• Mr Savill _ bsavill@stjulians.com

• Miss Burridge _ rburridge@stjulians.com 

Action

• Mr Gonçalves _ pgoncalves@stjulians.com

• Mr Taufer _ ptaufer@stjulians.com

Service

• Miss Pinto _ mpinto@stjulians.com

• Miss Small _ msmall@stjulians.com

Reflection

Introduction
Being reflective is one attribute of the IB learner profile: “We thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and experience. We work to understand our strengths and weaknesses in order to support our learning and personal development.”
Reflection is central to building a deep and rich experience in CAS. Developing a culture of reflection helps students recognize and understand how to be reflective as well as deciding the best methods and appropriate timing. Student learning is enhanced by reflection on choices and actions. This enables students to grow in their ability to explore skills, strengths, limitations and areas for further development. Through reflection students examine ideas and consider how they might use prior learning in new contexts. Reflection leads to improved problem-solving, higher cognitive processes and greater depth of understanding in addition to exploring how CAS experiences may influence future possibilities.
The thinking skills category of the approaches to learning in the Diploma Programme highlights the need to explicitly teach students to reflect in different situations. For reflection in CAS to be meaningful, schools must plan how to engage students in reflection as a learned process. The development of reflective skills is best when explicitly taught across the curriculum, leading students to reflect independently as a valued process.
The overarching intention of reflection in CAS includes the opportunity for students to:

• deepen learning
  
• consider relevance of experience
  
• explore personal and group values
  
• recognize the application of knowledge, skills, and attributes
  
• identify strengths and areas for development
  
• gain a greater understanding of self and others
  
• place experience in a larger context
  
• generate relevant ideas and questions
  
• consider improvements in individual and collective choices and actions
  
• transfer prior learning to new situations
  
• generate and receive constructive feedback
• develop the ongoing habit of thoughtful, reflective practice.
  
  
• Describing what happened: Students retell their memorable moments, identifying what was important or influential, what went well or was difficult, obstacles and successes.
• Reflection is a dynamic means for self-knowing, learning and decision-making. Four elements assist in the CAS reflective process. The first two elements form the foundation of reflection.

Elements of reflection

• Expressing feelings: Students articulate emotional responses to their experiences. The following two elements add greater depth and expand perspectives.
• Generating ideas: Rethinking or re-examining choices and actions increases awareness about self and situations.
• Asking questions: Questions about people, processes or issues prompt further thinking and ongoing inquiry.

Extending reflection

• Having established an effective understanding of the four elements of reflection, students develop higher- order thinking skills by critically examining thoughts, feelings and actions, thereby synthesizing their learning. The theory of knowledge (TOK) course provides students with critical thinking skills to develop and extend their reflections. For example, during TOK (ways of knowing) they consider their emotions, ability to reason and how to use language.
  Students can be encouraged to move forward through deeper questions. For example: What did I do? could become:
  

• Why did I make this particular choice?
  
• How did this experience reflect my personal ideas and values?
  
• In what ways am I being challenged to think differently about myself and others? How did I feel? could become:
  

• How did I feel about the challenges?
  
• What happened that prompted particular feelings?
  
• What choices might have resulted in different feelings and outcomes?
  Following reflection, feedback from the CAS coordinator and/or adviser is beneficial and necessary as is peer feedback. Feedback provides acknowledgment, confirmation or clarification of students’ understanding and insight, and opportunities for further development. Feedback can take many forms such as part of an informal or formal discussion, as a written response to a blog posting, during group discussion or paired peer conversation. Students may also advise on their preferred method for feedback.
  Time for reflection
  Purposeful reflection is about quality rather than quantity. The appropriate occasion, amount and method is the student’s decision. Students are not expected to reflect on every CAS experience; they should identify moments worthy of reflection. Reflection is most meaningful when recognized as a personal choice. If the emphasis is on quantity with a required number of reflections or with a requirement such as “students must complete a reflection for every CAS experience”, reflection becomes an obligation, which is contrary to the purpose of reflection in CAS.
  The preferred emphasis is for the student to determine key moments during CAS experiences that inspire reflection. The following approaches may be helpful.
  

• Students choose significant moments as the basis for reflection, for example when:

• - a moment of discovery is happening
• - a skill is mastered
• - a challenge is confronted
• - emotions are provoked
• - achievement deserves celebration.

• Students reflect during or at the end of a CAS experience or series of CAS experiences, to identify important moments, discuss a possible learning outcome, recognize personal growth and achievements, and plan for their next CAS experience.
  
• Students engage in group reflection with their peers to discover shared insights.
• Students reflect at the beginning, during, and at the end of a series of CAS experiences. This enables students to deliberate on such elements as planning, opportunities, expectations, challenges, progress, and personal growth.
  Reflection offers students opportunities to understand the concept, process and value of CAS experiences. With experiences that add meaning and self-knowledge, students can adapt, adopt and integrate reflection into a lifelong practice.
  During CAS, the form of reflection must take into account student choice. When overly prescribed, students may perceive the act of reflection as a requirement to fulfill another’s expectations. Students may then aim to complete “a reflection” quickly since the value is unrealized. By contrast, the student who understands the purpose and process of reflection would choose the appropriate moment, select the method and decide on the amount of time needed. With this greater sense of autonomy and responsibility, the student may be encouraged to be more honest, forthcoming and expressive, and develop insights including those related to the learning outcomes. The ultimate intention is for students to be independently reflective.
  Reflection can appear in countless forms. CAS students should be able to identify forms of expression that have personal meaning and best enable them to explore their experiences. For example:

Forms of reflection

• A student might take photographs while hiking and use these to reflect in writing.
  
• Two students could compose a song describing how they helped children.
  
• A student might dramatize a poem to capture a feeling of creative endeavour.
  
• A student could produce a short video summarizing a CAS experience.
  
• A group of students create a poster highlighting aspects of a shared experience.
  By encouraging students to choose forms of reflection that are personal and enjoyable, reflection becomes a means for self-discovery. Students make connections, develop awareness of choices and consequences, and acquire sensitivity to the experiences of self and others.
  Student reflection may be expressed through a paragraph, a dialogue, a poem, a comic strip, a dramatic performance, a letter, a photograph, a dance, or other forms of expression. Students find greater value and purpose when they apply their own interests, skills and talents when reflecting. They discover that reflection can be internal and private or external and shared.
  It is possible students may wish to keep private certain reflections. As such, it is recommended that students decide which reflections will be placed in their CAS portfolio. Students should include reflections in their CAS portfolio that give evidence to achieving each of the seven CAS learning outcomes.
  

Understanding reflection
One way to explain reflection is to clarify what reflection is and what it is not. A helpful way to initiate discussion of the reflective process is for students to collaborate with their peers and draw up their own comparison table. This chart shows examples of what students may list and discuss.

Reflection is:	Reflection is not:
honest personal done in many different ways sometimes difficult sometimes easy sometimes creative building self-awareness necessary for learning what I did, combined with how I felt surprising helpful for planning done alone or with others about thoughts, feelings, and ideas adding perspective.	forced right or wrong good or bad marked or graded difficult copying what someone else said predictable to be judged by others only a summary of what happened done to please someone else a waste of time only written only discussion only led by teachers.

Reflection and the CAS learning outcomes

• structured and guided opportunities for students to reflect on their CAS experiences
  
• diverse informal ways for students to reflect on their CAS experiences.
  The Creativity, activity, service teacher support material offers an assortment of resources and strategies to assist with student understanding of the reflection process. 

LINKS that can make a difference!

http://www.good.is

http://www.storyofstuff.org

CAS Learning Outcomes OLD

CAS 8 Learning Outcomes for Year 13

Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
Students are able to see themselves as individuals with various skills and abilities, some more developed than others, and understand that they can make choices about how they wish to move forward.
Undertaking new challenges
A new challenge may be an unfamiliar activity, or an extension to an existing one.
Planned and initiated activities
Planning and initiation will often be in collaboration with others. It can be
shown in activities that are part of larger projects, for example, ongoing school activities in the local community, as well as in small student‐led activities.
Working collaboratively with others
Collaboration can be shown in many different activities, such as team sports, playing music in a band, or helping in a kindergarten. At least one project, involving collaboration and the integration of at least two of creativity, action and service, is required.
Showing perseverance and commitment
At a minimum, this implies attending regularly and accepting a share of the responsibility for dealing with problems that arise in the course of activities.
Engaged with issues of global importance
Students may be involved in international projects but there are many global issues that can be acted upon locally or nationally (for example, environmental concerns, caring for the elderly).
Consideration of ethical implications
Ethical decisions arise in almost any CAS activity (for example, on the sports field, in musical composition, in relationships with others involved in service activities). Evidence of thinking about ethical issues can be shown in various ways, including journal entries and conversations with CAS advisers.
Developing new skills
As with new challenges, new skills may be shown in activities that the student has not previously undertaken, or in increased expertise in an established area.
Note: All eight outcomes must be present for a student to complete the CAS requirement. Some outcomes may be demonstrated many times, in a variety of activities, but completion requires only that there is some evidence for every outcome. (Data taken from IBO CAS Guide.)