Student Choice and Voice

This is something that I am very passionate about and a fundamental part of my pedagogy!



The notion of 'choice' and the idea that responsibility comes with any choice we make was going to be key in empowering and instilling the Elearning principles to my students.

This is something I am very passionate about. I believe that if students no matter if they are 6, 16 or 36 a given a choice and a voice in the way they learn then they will automatically be motivated. One because it was their choice and two because they want to show you that they made the right choice.

In my own schooling experiences it was those teachers who let me explore and learn through discovery rather than belt the information into me that made the biggest impact.

I believe that if students have choice in how they learn then you are teaching them about risk and responsibility as well as giving them ownership over the task. If the child chooses to write a letter or essay, draw a picture or compose a song in response to a topic is anyone way worth more than the other if the child has talent in that area?

Yes there is a definant time to write, time to draw and a time to dance. However their is also areas in our curriculum that we can trust our students and push them to lift the bar and produce work in a format of their choosing.

One thing I have discovered this year is that if my students choose to do a task a particular way and take the 'easy' road I am able to challenge them and push them. When given a choice task now they will often sit and think about what and how they learn best and think about what task Will challenge them. Pretty impressive for Year 1!! Already critical thinkers.


Here are a few things we have done in Year 1

We began with a few choices and then blossomed into choices that impact the way in which we learn and interact with each other.

Choice as to where to sit and who to sit with.... Are the people we play best with the people we learn best with??

- went from teacher choosing where everyone sat to
- teacher making certain selections for certain children but others being able to place their name tag on any desk.
- to optional name tags for members of the class to have a piece of property that was theirs.
- to no name tags and students arranging furniture and desk selection based on the learning task for that session.

Little reminder.... They are 6 and 7 years old.

At times.... Yes I have needed to place all the name tags back on the desk and reminded the class about taking responsibility for choices in their learning. They are only human and we all need reminding of that from time to time.

Choice as to how they complete learning task and the order they do them in
- especially in areas of RE, literacy and maths.

To the point now that one of my students came to me the second day back this term and told me "I think we worker better and harder when it's choice Mrs Irwin" I asked him why and he replied "because its our responsibility to"

Choice and voice in how the classroom runs
- class meetings "lets have a chat" and expert afternoons.
Class Meetings
- In Term 1 and Term 2 we would have weekly class meetings in which the students would run and I would be the minute taker :)
- now we only see a need to have a class meeting about two or three times a term. This came from the students as they thought we should only have meetings when there are big issue that effect everyone in the classroom and how it is run.

Expert Afternoon
- In term 3 we decided to take on a concept that our year 3 classes had been doing all year. The idea is that student nominate to run a small group workshop teaching the other students something. Paper folding, drawing, chess, card games, craft, computers, iPads etc...
- this was a major success and something that will be continued this term.

All food for thought....

Xoxo
A