Advisory periods, which are also called compass periods and other names, are often used to work through social and emotional learning lessons. They may also provide dedicated time and space for students to do the work associated with college and career planning. It’s time set aside in the student day for planning and reviewing work-based learning hours, exploring career interests, taking surveys and assessments, planning for high school experiences, combing through information about colleges and universities, and much more. 

The problem with these periods is twofold. 1. Without the proper training and resources, teachers are frustrated by the fact that this new period of instruction requires an additional plan for them. 2. Without the proper training and resources, the student experience can be vastly different from one teacher to the next, creating a gap in what students are supposed to do with the time versus what actually happens. Unfortunately, this means that there’s potential for this well-meaning period to be wasted. 

To ensure success, pre-planning is important. Schools should have a philosophy to guide the advisory program. The length and frequency of the period should be well thought out. Roles and responsibilities for lesson distribution and implementation should be clearly defined. To develop and sustain an effective advisory period requires a strategic approach, including the following recommendations for the tools, the tasks, and the scope of the work to be completed as scheduled. 

Adopt an Online Tool

A web-based product is a must when developing and sustaining an advisory period. To track and reach the goals of the school or district in the use of an advisory period, students and teachers need resources. Some schools have attempted to create their own systems with spreadsheets and shared access while others have even designed their own lessons. These methods are time consuming and frankly unrealistic. It means having to create social and emotional learning lessons and then train all the teachers in their use. It means tracking work-based learning hours by hand. Every component of the advisory period requires a separate and equally cumbersome documentation process. 

It’s a much better idea to adopt an online platform that does it all. There are a few really important considerations for the kind of platform you want. First, you want to make sure that you have access to training. With new staff and new initiatives each year, training can come at an additional cost at every juncture. It’s better to be prepared to do as much training as you need. Second, you want to make sure that the platform has the capacity to do as many, if not all, of the aspects of your advisory work so that students and educators don’t have to access multiple platforms to complete their tasks. Needless to say, the more platforms you have, the harder it is to track progress toward your goals. 

Third, the platform should be both a tool for students to complete lessons and a data management system for the school and/or district. Lastly, it’s important that the platform is customizable to your needs. Lots of platforms brag about all their features and then can’t deliver when you need something more unique. After reading the next two sections, you’ll also realize that the platform should be time-based so that assignments unfold in a sequence. 

Create a Scope and Sequences for Specific Tasks

The second consideration when developing and sustaining an effective advisory period is to build a roadmap for the use of the time. Most schools and districts have a comprehensive checklist of the things that students need to complete by grade level or grade band. For example, every student might need to complete a career plan by the end of 7th grade. Another example is that every student logs a certain number of work-based learning hours as a graduation requirement. These checklists are a nice starting point, but should be broken down into smaller chunks for teachers and students. 

Advisory periods are often scheduled once a week, twice a month, or monthly within the student day, altering every other period of instruction when they occur. This is a thoughtful way of building in time to complete certain tasks without taking away time from their English period for example. But, the time should have dedicated tasks rather than a giant checklist. Using the 9th grade year as an example, students might start the year with surveys and assessments, have a block later in the year dedicated to college exploration, another block dedicated to career planning, and yet another that is specific to resume writing and portfolio development. You’re basically building a scope and sequence document like you would for an Algebra I class so that all of your units unfold in the selected order. 

Schedule Each Assignment, Survey, and Assessment

Now that you have an online platform to support the functions of your Advisory period and your roadmap for how your larger checklist can be broken down into chunks of time for teachers and students, we can get even more granular with a schedule for when new assignments, surveys, assessments, and tasks are due. In some cases, you may want each student to be working at their own pace–exploring colleges, for example–with a due date at the end of a particular month or quarter. In other cases, you may want each student to actually complete a specific assignment, survey, or assessment by a certain date.

In either case, counselors and administrators can track that students are making progress and message them when their assignments are overdue. You’re basically taking your scope and sequence document and fleshing it out further so that you can ensure that all students are completing their designated tasks. Without scheduling and setting due dates, lots of tasks remain incomplete, and we don’t know whether or not our dedicated advisory time is doing its job. 

Conclusion

Advisory periods are important but only if they’re designed in a way that supports the teachers who run them and the students who attend them. Adopting an online tool, creating a scope and sequence, and scheduling assignments will help to affirm that advisory periods are truly useful and sustainable in the long term. Just building the block of time in the student schedule isn’t enough. Schools need resources and a plan. 

If you want a thought leader in the creation or reimagination of your advisory period, contact us. And, if you want to see an online platform that covers everything in this blog, schedule a demo.