Student agency gives students voice and choice in activities meaningful and relevant, driven by interests, and self-initiated.
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...
Using Community Challenges Using Community Challenges to Collecting Real-World Problems School Budget Cut Using Community Challenges to promote mind and skill sets is to collect real-world problems that are a challenge or driving question for students. This is PBL’s first step in the learning process, which is a challenge or driving question. It involves a project that matters in the real...
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...
Develop How They Are Learning Introduction Instruction Develop students to own how they are learning requires teachers to look at instruction from the students’ point of view. This is important to remember as you plan your unit of instructions. What students need to do to learn the skills. True student ownership begins when the teacher looks at instruction from the students’ point of...
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...