![]() ![]() “We have seen that when children feel that they have a voice in how they learn. The process imbues kids with “a sense of autonomy and responsibility,” she says, which serves them well as they advance into upper grade levels. The process starts small-which book to pick for read-aloud, for example-before Hu moves on to bigger topics like which activities to do at the park or which route to take to walk there. “At my school, we work to give students choices that hold some responsibility within the classroom,” writes preschool teacher Oi Ling Hu, who introduces classroom voting early in the school year. Give a say via voting: Even at the preschool level, choice can be a powerful motivator. Here are eight ways to provide children with choices across the grade levels. In a system that can be a flood of top down, let your classroom be one that allows voices to trickle up.” In a society that barely listens to each other, listen to your students. #Igrade students how to#“Want to know how to engage students, enthuse them, and bring out their best effort?” asks middle school teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron in MindShift. It can be a relatively small but consequential mindset shift-rather than assigning students partners, for example, you might let them choose whether to work alone or with a partner-that, ultimately, acknowledges and respects their humanity and recognizes the fundamental importance of agency. But by centering choice, educators signal openness to negotiating the middle ground and offer students scaffolded opportunities to practice decision-making, explore their academic identity, and connect their learning to interests and passions. It goes almost without saying: Rules and boundaries are a necessary element in schools and classrooms, essential in many ways for keeping kids and adults safe and productive throughout the school day. Offering students choices-making it a regular dynamic in the school day-isn’t a recipe for chaos. And another study, this time of eighth graders, revealed that when students shifted from assigned reading to choice reading, there was “increased reading volume, a reduction in students failing the state test, and changes in peer relationships, self-regulation, and conceptions of self.” But purpose and motivation go hand-in-hand with volition, and when there’s too much emphasis on control and compliance, notes a report by the Education Trust, it puts students in a position where they must “relinquish all power and decision making” and compels teachers to rely on power “to control bodies and minds instead of using their autonomy to invite learning.” Within the realm of literacy alone, the research on choice provides a powerful illustration: According to a 2012 study, young kids who completed mandatory reading logs turned into desultory readers compared with students who logged their progress voluntarily. To some extent, the system itself-with its bell schedules, prescribed curriculum, and testing regimens-creates the habits that are hard to break. ![]()
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