There are three categories of skills we focus on at Opportunity Education and in our network of schools: Learning Skills, Work Skills, and Essential Habits. All of these skills are necessary for doing well in school, but more importantly, they help students thrive in their careers and throughout their lives.

1. Learning Skills help students become lifelong learners that think critically and take initiative. 
2. Work Skills help students become productive and efficient.
3. Essential Habits are skills and attitudes that help students discover who they are and how they can best contribute to the world and their community. 

You’ll see these skills referenced in many places on our website – other blog posts, and in our teacher resources and lesson plans. They are core to our mission, method, and everything we create and do at Opportunity Education. 

Learning Skills

We identified 4 important groups of Learning Skills.

Explore	Analyze	Reason	Communicate
Establish Meaning Use prior and new knowledge and tools to understand.	Interpret Use sources, data, or computations to extract meaning.	Assess Arguments Evaluate arguments, points of view, and positions.	Collaborate Participate in group work, and give and receive feedback.
Ask Questions Compose questions based on observations, readings, or problems.	Identify Patterns Find similarities and draw connections.	Take a Position Develop and support your own position with appropriate evidence.	Compose Produce work that connects ideas and demonstrates knowledge.
Investigate Inquire, gather information, and establish context.	Be Creative Create solutions, new ideas, and new methods.	Reflect Reflect upon actions and experiences and identify ways to improve.	Share Connect with the audience and communicate work clearly.

These might sound familiar to you if you’re well-versed with national and state standards. They closely align with many of them. Regardless of the specific curriculum you use or subject you teach, these skills are likely already identified as part of the learning objectives and outcomes for the courses you teach.

Work Skills

These four Work Skills focus on how a person works and accomplishes goals effectively. They include:

Focus	Focus on relevant information and tasks without getting easily distracted, shift tasks effectively, and take mental and physical breaks when needed.
Plan	Plan to complete activities and projects, identifying actions, steps, and sequences of events. Identify realistic deadlines and prioritize tasks. Manage time effectively in order to meet deadlines. Keep track of tasks and deadlines.
Make an Effort	Put effort into the work you do. Take initiative, make your work your own, and work hard to achieve goals. Create something you’re proud of, but also identify when it is time to move on, even if work products do not feel perfect.
Document	Effectively take notes to keep track of ideas and information and use tools to organize and remember ideas.

It doesn’t matter who’s the smartest person in the room. People who have these Work Skills thrive in school and in their careers, because they work hard, are organized, and self-regulate. As a result, they’re able to accomplish their goals.

Essential Habits

Essential Habits are skills and attitudes that focus on discovering who you are and how you can best contribute to the world and your community. The Essential Habits are:

Practice Curiosity	Step out of your comfort zone, try new things, and explore interests, careers, and opportunities.
Define Yourself	Get to know who you are by identifying interests, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses and reflecting on these regularly as you grow. Commit to becoming your best self.
Communicate Openly	Learn to communicate with others by listening actively, considering others’ perspectives, sharing ideas, advocating for yourself, and calmly expressing concerns to solve problems.
Leverage Resources	Identify resources available to you (people, support, opportunities, tools, money, etc.) and leverage those resources to achieve your goals.
Learn from Setbacks	Demonstrate flexibility, try different approaches when something is not going the way you want or expect it to, and determine when and how to adapt (or move on when appropriate).

Learn more about these Essential Habits and how they help students thrive in school, career, and life.

A Lifelong Process

Learning Skills, Work Skills, and Essential Habits are applicable and relevant in every grade, subject, course, and career, which make them great skills to use in your classes and at your school. This is especially true if you don’t already have a set of skills defined.

These are skills that we should always be learning, practicing, and trying to improve. And not just during formal schooling, but throughout our lives.  We may never perfect any of these skills, but with regular, reflective practice, we can consistently improve.