Student agency gives students voice and choice in learning through meaningful and relevant activities, driven interests and self-initiation.
Self-Efficacy with Student Agency Agency is a composite set of essential skills researchers refer to, as self-efficacy, planning, and acting, reflecting on learning, and having a growth mindset are important to long-term student success. This is explained in the book, Teaching Kids to Thrive, by Dr. Debbie Thomas Silver and Debra Stafford. Dr. Silver and Stafford cite educators and researchers at...
Student Agency in the Classroom Giving students the power to be involved in their own learning, or “student agency,” in the classroom means giving them ownership of their learning. When students are given choice, they show the following traits: Choice and Decision-Making: Students talk about how interested they are in something, what they like, and how they can make their learning...
Reimagining Classrooms: Teachers as Learners and Students as Leaders Collaborative Relationships for Learning Improving Students’ Relationships with Teachers to Provide Essential Supports for Learning In their book, Partnering with Students, authors Mary O’Connell and Kara Vandas provide strategies for better collaborative relationships of learning. Collaborative relationships for...
I am sure many educators have heard this before: Many students who disrupt learning are actually struggling academically, and would rather be seen as “the bad kid” than as “the stupid kid.” Educators know how important engagement is for student learning, but how do you meet the goal of education “prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives”? Authors Laura Greenstein...
Empower Student Learning Why Empower Student Learning So Important 6 Truths came about when I read Spencer and Juliani use the Louis Braille story to focus on giving kids the knowledge and skills to pursue their passions, interests, and future. Louis Braille as a young kid was trying to make some holes in the leather using a sharp-pointed tool called an awl. According to John Spencer and A.J...
Mind and Skill Sets Practice Mind and Skill Sets Shape Classroom Culture Classroom Culture What is a Learner-Centered Classroom Culture? Practice mind and skill sets shape classroom culture by teachers involving students in what it means to belong to the group, how they act as a group, and how they adjust their behaviors when they are not meeting their goals as a group. A goal for learners is...
Framework for Student Agency Build Framework for Student Agency What is an Agency? Bill Zima, author of Mindsets and Skillsets for Learning: A Framework for Building Student Agency, defines agency as the perceived ability of the individual, based on his or her capacity, to shape his or her life. You might wonder what does this look like in a classroom? Zima gives these scenarios: A kindergartner...
Using Student Choice to Support Motivation Chase Nordengren, author of Step into Student Goal Setting book, writes ‘no matter how your classroom is designed or how much authority you exercise over students, they always retain the most important decision: the choice to engage in learning.’ It got my attention. Many educators face this dilemma of how to engage students in learning. My question is...
Voice and Choice Voice and Choice are the two core tenets of Student-Center-Learning, according to Christa Green and Christopher Harrington, authors of the “How Implementing Voice and Choice Can Improve Student Engagement” article. Green and Harrington explore voice and choice in depth “to understand why implementing Student-Centered principles into the learning environment can...
Plan Instruction using SLP Guiding Questions Instruction Defined Instruction is defined as the strategies students will use to learn the skills determined in the curriculum. The goal of instruction is for every student to clearly articulate answers to the following questions: How will I learn this? How will this strategy help me learn this? How can I use this strategy in the future and in...
Student Ownership Student ownership is defined as a mindset, according to Robert Crowe and Jane Kennedy, authors of Developing Student Ownership Supporting Students to Own Their Learning through the use of Strategic Learning Practices. Authors describe students with an ownership mindset who know they have the authority, capacity, and responsibility to own their learning. The Look and Sound of...