Norris learners spend the first 30-60 days in the orientation phase. For K-8 learners this happens within the Discovery or Exploration communities. For 9-12 learners, orientation begins in the Connections community as they explore who they are and who they want to become and later transition to the interest/career based learning community of their choice. 

Orientation includes two integrated components; Becoming a Learner and Who am I?  Together these components focus on developing the skills and dispositions to be successful learners and building a deep understanding of self and others. When these two elements come together they offer a dynamic understanding of the learner all while building trusting relationships between peers, staff and learners, and our school community. 

During the orientation phase each learner is provided with the Opportunity to Learn (OTL) the practices of successful learners. This provides opportunities to learn routines and platforms used to navigate the Norris environment but also opportunity to explicitly teach learning practices that will transfer into navigating future learning opportunities. This includes building a network of support to develop into the person they aspire to become and prepare for the successful integration into the learning community.

Learners complete self exploration and learn about the routines in the community that lead them to reflecting and gaining a deeper understanding of themselves and across the four dimensions of wellness, employability, citizenship and academics.

The second focus of orientation is for each learner to develop a deep understanding of self. This involves providing learners with the Opportunity to Reflect (OTR) on who they are and who they might become through self exploration and a series of assessments, inventories, surveys and learning experiences across the four dimensions. Learners interact and discuss results of assessments and reflections with members of the Norris learning team resulting in learners and staff gaining a deeper understanding of themselves and the path they wish to take. Collectively these experiences and reflections lead to the learner building a robust Learner Profile that is a dynamic picture of who they are and who they want to become.

As members of the Learning Network interact with the learners throughout orientation, they too develop an understanding of each learner including their interests and hobbies, learning styles and preferences, competency attainment across learning progressions, and dimension of urgency.  This knowledge is used in conjunction with the learner profile to confer with learners to develop Plans and Pathways that support the needs of aspirations of each learner.

As learners complete the orientation process they will have completed their initial Learner Profile, successfully demonstrated strategies for self-regulation and management of their own learning, established initial plans and pathways reflecting their dimension(s) of urgency, and developed a network of support for successful learning engagement.  At this point learners participate in a Who am I? Interview and transition to being an active member of a learning community.

The Who Am I Interview is a culminating practice of the orientation phase.  During this interview learners invite specialists, coaches, peers, parents and other significant persons who support their learning to celebrate who they are and who they want to become. Learners present their profile and answer a series of questions to dig deep into each learner's self understanding and offer opportunity to advocate for their needs. This process helps transition learners to their new learning community by building a shared understanding of the learner.

Urgency Stories are a tool to identify each learner’s dimension of urgency and align supports to areas of highest need. By engaging learners in “urgency conversations” we are able to monitor progress and develop conferring points to engage learners and develop agency in adjusting plans, pathways and levels of support.

Each learner’s individual stories begin well before they enroll at Norris and continually develop.  Therefore, we believe that the best way to serve our learners is to learn each individual’s personal story so we can capitalize on personal strengths and align supports to help learners set and reach their personal goals.  

A pre-enrollment urgency interview and conversations with learners during the first weeks in orientation combine to form each learner's initial “Urgency Story." Urgency story evolve with the learner and are used to align supports and identify relevant plans and pathways across the dimensions.