Student Guide
How to work, make progress, and get support in AQR.
One page for the routines, supports, and expectations students actually need. The goal is not more rules. The goal is a class that is clear, usable, and hard to get lost in.
01
Be ready and follow the room
AQR should feel predictable. Students should know where to look, what to do first, and how to get moving without waiting for a private explanation.
- Bring the materials and charged device needed for the day.
- Use the First Five to get seated, get set up, and get ready. The First Five is setup time, not the day’s lesson.
- Use the day’s Slides, Daily Brief, and Google Classroom materials as the lesson path.
- Open the posted examples, files, forms, and submission links when the Slides or Daily Brief direct you there.
- Follow school policy for phones and tardies.
- Close class by saving work, submitting visible evidence, and completing the exit routine.
02
Do real work and show progress
AQR rewards evidence of thinking and movement through a project. Waiting for a perfect final product is not the safest way to pass.
- Complete the small checkpoints that keep the project moving.
- Submit partial but real work instead of disappearing when the full task is not finished.
- Use screenshots, drafts, tables, notes, prototypes, and short explanations as proof of progress.
- Use the Weekly Catcher to show honest evidence of your work and progress.
- Revise after feedback, testing, or a conference.
- Use Gemini and other tools for help, not as a replacement for your decisions or explanations.
- Keep responsibility for the sources, numbers, claims, and final work you submit.
03
Use AI to learn — not to avoid thinking
AI is allowed in AQR because learning how to use powerful tools responsibly is part of the course. The student must still understand, check, explain, and defend the work.
- Use AI to get another explanation, organize information, brainstorm approaches, recall a method, test an idea, revise, or get unstuck.
- Do not submit AI-produced work that you cannot explain, check, defend, or use again.
- Stay responsible for every source, number, claim, assumption, choice, and conclusion in the work you submit.
- Be ready to explain why you chose an approach, where a number came from, what changed, and what the result means.
- Helping you gain understanding is allowed. Doing the thinking for you is failing.
04
Think, talk, and get support
Students are expected to contribute ideas, listen closely, ask questions, and use the supports that make rigorous work accessible.
- Restate or summarize another person’s thinking before adding your own.
- Agree, disagree, question, or extend an idea with a reason.
- Use the vocabulary, sentence starters, visuals, models, translations, and organizers provided.
- Respond through writing, speaking, visuals, tables, screenshots, or digital artifacts when the task allows it.
- When you get stuck, use the dedicated AQR Help — D## Gem for that lesson and document what you tried.
- If you are still stuck, ask for a conference, model, chunked next step, or clarification before giving up.
- Use extension choices to deepen the reasoning, not just add decoration.
Schoolwide consistency