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Tag: daily 5
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Student Centred Learning
We’re all about the buzz words here, and this one is getting quite a bit of attention of late.
What is Student Centred Learning?
EdGlossary states that Student Centred Learning is a broad definition of a variety of teaching strategies, but is commonly narrowed down to “Teaching and learning is ‘personalised’, meaning that it addresses the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students.” It also means that students are able to make choices about their own learning, including what, how, and when they learn.
What does it look like in the classroom?
There are a wide range of models out there; but there are some more common trends that are finding their ways into the classrooms around the country. Firstly is the initiative of “Inquiry Learning” which has pushed aside the curriculum collective “Topic”, and encouraged students to be a part of the initiation of learning. In a true inquiry model, students investigate or inquire into areas of interest and construct their own learning based on questioning and research. Allowing the students to be part of the planning encourages student centred learning, and engagement and motivation follow suit shortly after. Students inquire into things they are interested in and learning is given real world context.
Another way in which I have seen student centred learning take off is using Daily 5; a literacy rotation type model in which students are given a structure in which to choose their own learning. While it is also important to have structure and limitations in Daily 5 (otherwise it becomes Daily 55!), allowing the students to choose their writing topic, their reading book, their spelling work, or even how they read, is all part of student centred learning. Individual conferencing with students allows the teacher to focus in on the student as an individual, meeting their specific needs based on observation of their reading or writing.
Students also get the choice of when they carry out different tasks, so if they don’t feel like writing straight away, they can do some reading instead, and focus on writing later on in the literacy block.
This is so much different than the ‘Guided Reading‘ approach that fills many New Zealand classrooms these days. Guided Reading requires small groups of students, all who read the same book, which is chosen by the teacher. The teacher directs the learning, based on the needs of the group.Why is it becoming standard teaching practise?
The rise of student centred learning in pedagogical circles stems largely from one word. Relevance. We are told time and time again, that for students to fully engage, fully motivate themselves, and fully be a part of their learning, the learning has to be a real life context, and needs to be relevant for the student. It simply makes sense.
However, in practise, it requires a lot of change. Teachers need to relinquish control of the teaching, and allow students to be in charge of the learning. Its a different mindset, and requires a different approach from the teacher. The ability for the teacher to predict where the learning will go, get the students thinking through prompting and questioning, and encouraging students to push themselves, is all very different to how we were taught as children.
Your thoughts?
How else do you encourage student centred learning in the classroom?
Please leave your ideas in the comments below. -
The Choice Classroom
Choice. Urban slang; originally spoken in New Zealand, is used as a pun at the way New Zealanders speak. Used as description of something you think is good. Synonyms: radical, wicked, awesome, brilliant, best-thing-ever.
It describes a classroom that I want to be a part of. But more than the above description, choice also means the enabling of being able to choose between two or more options. This is my classroom.
What choice means in the classroom
Choice is valuing students as individuals.
Choice is students working independently at their own level, at their own pace.
Choice is students working on what they want to work on.
Choice is motivating. Choice is engaging. Choice is inspiring.
Students who can choose their activity, the way they present their work, the time or place that they do their work, and even their consequence or behaviour management, become much more learning oriented purely because they have control over it. Powerlessness is the leading cause of burn-out, and not having control is key to this feeling of powerlessness. In regards to being able to choose their learning, what they do when, and how they present it, means that students have an investment to the learning ahead of them and are automatically motivated because the choice has been theirs. Even with choosing consequences or behaviour management, students become more self-disciplined as they have been able to have an active part of the process.
A very interesting article looks into the issues surrounding choice in the classroom. ‘Choices for Children: Why and how to let students decide‘ says “At least one recent study has found that children given more “opportunity to participate in decisions about schoolwork” score higher on standardized tests; other research shows that they are more likely than those deprived of autonomy to continue working even on relatively uninteresting tasks. There is no question about it: even if our only criterion is academic performance, choice works.”
How choice works in the classroom
Firstly, this is an almost inexhaustible list of ways you can use choice in your classroom. This certainly isn’t anything major, but there are some examples that follow that I use in my classroom. They work, and I can vouch for them with my given experience.
The first hurdle is doing it. You have to make a conscious decision, or choice, to include it in your classroom.
Then begin introducing choice in the following ways:
Presentation
Presentation is one of the easiest ways to allow students to have choice in the classroom. Instead of saying “Make a poster” for the latest bit of topical research, say “Make a poster, or a power point presentation”. Students will make the choice based on their strengths, though many will choose the slideshow option because of the allure of technology. Additional choices could include a class speech, a short video, a diorama, a 3D model, a hanging mobile, a book, a pamphlet, or a webpage.
Tic-Tac-Toe
No, not naughts and crosses. Tic-Tac-Toe are nine related activities that require the use of different skills or intelligences. Students choose three activities in a row in order to complete the task. I used these to good effect as a reading follow up task, where students would choose activities as a follow up to the text that they read with me. A good Tic-Tac-Toe will have three different activities in each three-in-a-row possibility. One might include an aspect of drawing, one an aspect of writing, and a third might include a worksheet.
Daily 5
The game changer for me when it came to choice was initiating Daily 5 in my classroom. Daily 5 allows students to choose the activity they work on, selecting from the five options of read to self, read to someone, listen to reading, work on writing, and word work. These each have rules and guidelines decided on by the class, and so rather than students being put in a group, read a set book, do a follow-up worksheet as a daily rotation, students have these five literacy activities that they get to choose from. Essentially, rather than have a group rotation of activities, students choose from the activities based on what they want to do at the time. Rather than students doing a worksheet they don’t want to do, they might choose to do some word work where they practise their spelling words. Or rather than being forced to read with the teacher, they might choose to read to someone instead. What this means is individualised learning, where the teacher can conference with students during the time, and students are motivated because they are choosing their learning.
Inquiry Learning
One of the big pushes in education over the last 3 years has been the idea of ‘Inquiry’, where students learn what they want to learn about. Inquiry essentially replaces what used to be called ‘Topic’. Topic was teacher decided, with learning activities and experiences made up and put into the unit plan to scaffold students to a set destination. Using Inquiry changes all that to the students. While curriculum areas still need to be covered, a ‘big idea’ is come up with by the teacher, syndicate, or school, sometimes with student input, and then the rest is left up to the students, especially in regards to what they want to find out about the big idea, and how they want to go about finding it out, and what they’re going to do with their new found knowledge. Completely student focussed. Completely student motivated.
So that’s how you start. The options are limitless. The choices endless.
What a choice classroom!