License to Learn: Putting Students in the Driver's Seat of Their Own Learning Journey
What's the purpose of educating our students? As the teacher, it is imperative that we keep our students at the center of all choices.
Starting Line
Students must have a firm foundation on which all further learning firmly rests.
Starting Line
Students must have a firm foundation on which all further learning firmly rests.
- For students to have ownership over their learning, they need to be the ones to set classroom procedures, norms, and online expectations. Here are examples of the ones my students created: Classroom Procedures, Class Norms, Blogging and Online Expectations.
- Learners need to learn the language of the standards and how to articulate their needs as a learner. We need to be transparent in the “why” of the choices that we make. Our students must become their own learning advocates. Example student-created rubric...specific and measurable. How Transparent Are You? Creating Student Advocates
- Put data collection into the students’ hands. Make the entire learning process theirs. With Confer, students can add data and set goals. Confer is an app was developed by a classroom teacher from a Reading & Writing Workshop context.
Student Drivers
- Students need guidance and support in their path toward becoming independent learners. Kid Blog is a great place for students to reflect and teachers can read posts and comments before they are published. Before we ever begin blogging online, we use this great lesson on teaching students how to blog can be found at Notes From McTeach. Here's how we began our year with blogging and the expectations that my students created for themselves.
- Chalk Talk: To turn any flat surface into a usable collaborative space, use Idea Paint. Here is a piece that I wrote about the impact that our Idea wall had upon student learning:The Right Tool at the Right Time. Here is an example of one way my learners used our idea wall: Chalk Talk: Night Comes.
- Students need to build a strong support system within and without the classroom walls. Through Twitter learners can connect with global peers and their writing mentors. It makes their learning authentic. Here's a blog where I explained the basics of Twitter. Interested in connecting your class with other classes from around the world through Twitter? Join The GlobalClassTwitter wiki. Uncomfortable using Twitter? Try Twiducate.
- Google Drive easily facilitates collaborative writing with the ability to collaboratively write, edit and provide feedback upon one another's work. My students use it as their working document where all brainstorming, outlines, curation of resources, and drafts are created. Publishing usually takes place with another tool or medium. Here are some examples of how my students have used Google Drive: The Power of Choice and Igniting the Learning Fire. On ILA's Reading Today, other ways we use Google Drive with Students: How Do We Know What They Know and Where Do We Go from Here?
- Using Confer, students continuously return to their goals to reassess and make next step plans. This teaches them that learning is a fluid journey that continues to spiral and build.
- Want to know what interests students? Ask them. Because the expectations have been set that everything should support learning, students will learn how to design learning opportunities for themselves and their peers.
- Example 1: Once Upon a Time: Student Run Book Clubs- Some publishing options to demonstrate mastery are ComicBook!, Readers' Theatre, plays, Puppet Pals, Toontastic, Songify, Minecraft.
- Example 2: Student Motivation: It's No Mystery and Saying Yes: Making Their Ideas a Reality. Fact-Opinion Tabloids were published on Smore. Mystery Skype is an exciting way for students to connect, use their problem solving skills, locate, analyze and synthesize data, draw conclusions, and perfect their communication skills. You can learn more, get started here and find connections at the Skype in Our Classroom Mystery Skype page. By using "yes" and "no" questions, students try to find the location of the other class while also use multiple resources such a Google Maps. Here are some tips from Pernille Ripp on How to Do a Mystery Skype and Mystery Skype Jobs for Students and Great Mystery Skype Questions to Get You Started.
Please stay in touch. I would love to continue these conversations. You can follow me on my blog at [email protected], on Twitter and Instagram @juliedramsay or on my Facebook author/educator page, Julie D. Ramsay.