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Excerpts from the book "Why Are School Buses Yellow? Teaching for Inquiry K-8

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Excerpts from the book "Why Are School Buses Yellow? Teaching for Inquiry K-8

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Choice excerpts from Why Are School Buses Always Yellow

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Giving Students Choice in the Classroom Increases Engagement

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Giving Students Choice in the Classroom Increases Engagement

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When her students asked about tornadoes during a unit on weather, this teacher saw clearly how student engagement enhances learning.

EVGENY LASHCHENOV / Alamy Stock Photo

When I asked my third-grade students what they wanted to learn about weather, the overwhelming response was tornadoes. So I pivoted from my plan and designed a unit about tornadoes in order to capture my students' interests.

Paired with differentiating instruction, building on student interests in the classroom can be a successful technique for boosting engagement. Engagement can be thought of as the curiosity that students utilize to engage in learning. Choice, differentiation, and pivoting to meet student interest work to increase motivation and create a classroom of highly engaged learners.

Step 1: Choice

Choice is a powerful and effective strategy that can increase student engagement. At the beginning of our weather unit, I engaged the class in creating a know/want-to-know chart, where they wrote or drew what they knew and wanted to learn. Their responses guided the lessons over the coming weeks, kept them engaged, and helped shape future lessons to their interests. As the unit progressed, students were provided with options to further build curiosity.

Making choices can be overwhelming for some students. Providing clear, direct language about options helps to clarify instruction. For example, when my students were focusing on learning vocabulary related to weather, I gave them this choice: "You can write a weather report or create vocabulary flash cards." Both assignments would accomplish the goal of mastering unfamiliar vocabulary while allowing students to choose a task that suited their learning interests.

Another strategy is to provide students with choice boards that have an array of activities-I called the activities "weather stations" for this unit. The choice board included tasks to complete that connected to a learning outcome for the unit. Examples included creating their own vocabulary cards with definitions and pictures, writing a paragraph that predicted the weather and explaining why the prediction was correct, and writing a story or poem about a destructive force of nature and its impact on themselves or their community.

By the end of the unit, students needed to have completed three activities. Each activity had specific components that needed to be met to be considered complete. For example, paragraphs needed to include three vocabulary words related to weather, and weather reports had to make a prediction and explain the outcome.

The choice board served as a checklist for students to ensure that they had completed every step of the project. This was particularly useful for students used to rushing through assignments. Learners were deciding for themselves how to connect with classroom content through choosing their own activities. This added a layer of accountability as students were being asked to review their work.

When engaging in final products, students could choose an assignment that best matched their interests. Some composed stories or poems about destructive weather, while others acted out a scenario in front of the class.

Step 2: Differentiation

Students learn differently and arrive at school with varied skill sets. One method to create an accessible curriculum is through differentiation. In this strategy, teachers develop flexibility in classroom content, process (engagement), and demonstration of learning. When my students were learning about weather, I provided content in multiple formats to increase their understanding. This included short news clips about "wild weather" so that students could see the destructive forces of tornadoes in real time, as well as various print sources that used tornadoes as a hook.

I also gave them access to books, nonfiction texts, and leveled articles that included first-person accounts of surviving destructive weather. After they had cultivated an understanding of tornadoes, we moved into discussing hurricanes, floods, and wildfires as forces of nature.

The main idea of the text is that drought increases fire danger.

After I read the article "Drought and Fire," the main idea is that drought increases fire danger.

Based on the evidence that less rain causes timber to become dry, the main idea of the article "Drought and Fire" is that drought increases fire danger.

During classroom instruction, I created leveled sentence stems as an option for students to engage in academic discourse after reading an academic text. For example, when searching for the main idea of an article on drought and fire danger, students could choose which prompt to answer. These were some potential responses:

Using sentence stems widens the scope of who students interact with and increases rigor by building academic language. While using content-specific vocabulary and sentence structure supports all students, it is even more critical for the development of English language learners, who often have stronger interpersonal communication skills (everyday language) but struggle with higher-level academic language.

Step 3: Pivoting to Meet Student Interest

Throughout the unit, students gravitated toward wanting to learn more about extreme weather. As I was teaching this unit, wildfires were racing through the next town and recess was canceled because of smoke. My class wanted to know more about wildfires, and I made a quick pivot at this point to take advantage of what was on their minds. Learning became tangible as students were making real-world connections between what they were reading and the extreme weather patterns in their backyard.

This pivot worked because it fit within the scope of the unit. Admittedly, it was tricky to find instructional materials so quickly. I began with local news sources and then looked to Scholastic News and Cal Fire for resources such as videos and news articles. Newsela was also helpful in finding leveled nonfiction texts about wildfire. We also read about hotshots-the firefighters who tackle the trickiest part of the blaze. The buzz of excited chatter filled the room, letting me know I had captured student interest by following their lead.

As educators, it is easy to get wrapped up in carefully prepared lesson plans. Yet being flexible can have positive outcomes. When students see their lived experience represented in the classroom, they are more likely to become engaged, as content carries more meaning and relevance. Changes can occur on a small scale, like incorporating new vocabulary in a do-now activity or using an article for a close read. Teachers can then save these activities and utilize them the next time a lesson takes an unexpected but riveting turn.

As students dove into learning about tornadoes and wildfires, their engagement was displayed in the high quality of work they were producing. Because they had chosen to learn about these topics, their inquiry went deeper, and it showed in the final product.

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Giving Students Choice in the Classroom Increases Engagement

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When her students asked about tornadoes during a unit on weather, this teacher saw clearly how student engagement enhances learning. EVGENY LASHCHENOV / Alamy Stock Photo When I asked my third-grade students what they wanted to learn about weather, the overwhelming response was tornadoes.

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How Do You Assess Project-Based Learning?

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How Do You Assess Project-Based Learning?

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My first full year of teaching was as an 8th grade Language Arts teacher. It was my dream job at the time. I love the energy of middle school students and I was still taller than most of them.

My situation was even better than expected because our MS teams had two language arts teachers and I taught three 85 minute blocks, instead of five 40 minute blocks. Although this was more "time" teaching, it was fewer students per class and fewer students for my entire course load. It helped in grading especially (think of how long it takes to grade 130 paper versus 65 papers)

An added benefit that I did not see coming into the school year was how much extra time it would allow for me to understand and get to know my students. When you spend 80 minutes a day for 180 days you really get to know someone. I think of the connections elementary teachers can make with their students and know this bond is even stronger.

Mid-way through the school year, one of my students asked me if I'd share some of my own writing with them. I actually couldn't believe I had not done this yet. I had shared "examples" of papers that I crafted, but although these were original, they weren't authentic to the type of learning that I often did.

I told them I'd read something I wrote the next day, and it seemed like my students were more excited than they ever had been before, which is odd because we did a lot of fun activities throughout the school year.

That night I took out a memoir-type piece I had recently written about a friend passing away and how it changed my outlook on life. I wondered if this was "too heavy" for my 8th-grade students and then remembered that we all deal with loss and hopefully this could show how I grew since this tough time.

As I read aloud the memoir, "Three Bands on My Wrist", to my students they sat and listened quietly. There was no technology involved. There was no particular instructional strategy being employed. It was just me, my words, and their attention.

After I finished they wanted to write their own memoirs and we began that same class period.
I can honestly say that some of their writing that week was the most inspired I have seen in all my years teaching. And it was their choice.
The next year I moved up to the HS English department, and two years later I was teaching 10th grade English to many of the exact same students I had in 8th grade.

When they came into class I knew each student extremely well. I knew their background, family situations, interests, and learning tendencies. I was a bit more challenging as a 10th-grade teacher and that ruffled some feathers early on, but after that, we were able to get into some high-level types of activities because relationships were already built.

However, I did have one problem. Although I knew them personally, I was unable to see how much they had grown as learners over the past year. I had kept a few papers from that 8th-grade year, but not enough for every student. When I inquired with the 9th-grade teachers the problem was not resolved. There was no student work to look at.

This was another lightbulb moment in my young teaching career. Because we often start "fresh" with students we have never taught before, we tend to want to make our own judgments on their abilities from the first few assignments and assessments. It's from those first glances that we base our opinion and pedagogical strategies on.

Yet, with this group, I had taught them a year and a half ago. I knew them and what they could do, but wasn't able to see growth in the past year.

That is when we made the decision to start digital portfolios in all of my classes. I haven't stopped this practice since then, and highly recommend it not only for teachers but for entire departments and schools. It adds true choice to the assessment process.

Here's why.

WHAT CAN STUDENTS DO? THE PORTFOLIO JOURNEY

We always want to know what our students understand and are able to do/apply. The problem is a multiple choice assessment rarely ever provides that information. Yet, these types of assessments are easy to grade, easy to distribute, and easy to re-use year after year with various tweaks. It is why many standardized assessments are multiple-choice and why the SAT and ACT use this model for most of their questions.

What's worse, is that the idea of "data-driven" instruction is based on these various multiple-choice assessments and what they say about our students' abilities.

What kind of learning do these assessments promote?

1. Regurgitation and memorizing facts from study guides or stories

2. Only one right answer mentality

3. Rewards smart guessing and "playing the game"

4. Answers have to be "in your head"

The list could go on. As a former teacher who gave multiple-choice tests, and an SAT Tutor for years who taught students how to take these tests, I'm embarrassed to say I once tied rigor and tough multiple-choice questions to deep learning.

I saw firsthand when I had that group of 8th-grade students again in 10th grade, what kind of information I can get from different forms of assessments. I was able to see how they did on standardized and district level assessments, but unless their scores were off the charts (high or low) it didn't give me much info on what kind of learner they were or what kind of work they could produce.
What I can see by looking at student work is much different. A student portfolio shows me the following:

1. What the assignment/activity/assessment was and how the student approached it.

2. What kinds of personal experiences and biases they brought towards the assignment.

3. How well they demonstrated an understanding of the content.

4. How well they demonstrated their skill ability.

5. Usually some kind of reflection or metacognitive piece on what they did.

6. If they improved or not with the next piece in the portfolio...

In fact, it's not only what every teacher wants to see from their former students, but it also makes it much easier to assess the growth of a student over the course of a semester or full year class versus how much a final test or culminating project would show.

Portfolios helped me visually see where my students were struggling and where they were exceeding my expectations. Portfolios also allowed for student choice in the assessment process, which as we know lead to student engagement and ownership of their learning.

CHOICE IN DEMONSTRATING ABILITY AND UNDERSTANDING

Because we love multiple-choice so much, let's take a quick quiz:
A student is trying to demonstrate their understanding of the rise and fall of Napoleon. In order to show what they know about this historic time period and the reasons behind Napoleon's rise and fall, they can be assessed through which activity:

1. Writing a five-paragraph essay on the rise and fall of Napoleon

2. Creating an infographic on the rise and fall of Napoleon

3. Creating a political cartoon and rationale on the rise and fall of Napoleon

4. Creating a five-minute mini-documentary on the rise and fall of Napoleon

5. Creating a fictional Serial-like podcast of interviews with key players in Napoleon's life

Don't you just love the "all of the above" option!

In any one of the above options, you could assess a student's understanding of the topic/situation and their ability to demonstrate the appropriate skill.

What's different about this scenario, is the choice provided to students allows them to "engage" in the material and claim some ownership over the assessment activity.

A STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS TO CREATING CHOICE BASED ASSESSMENTS

If you are not familiar with the "Understanding by Design" framework, I highly recommend checking out this book by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe. In UbD (as it is commonly referred) you use the backwards design process to create units.

For our purposes, this is extremely important. We want to create the assessment first, and then backwards design the Unit so that the content and activities students are doing matches the skills and standards covered on the assessment(s).

The first step is choosing your Unit (this is most likely decided by your current curriculum).

The second step is choosing the skills you want your students to master and the applicable standards for the content and skills you are covering (hopefully this is also somewhat covered by your current curriculum).

For example, let's say the unit is all about "historical figures" in your state/area. You have a set curriculum and text to read (often an informational text such as a textbook). This current example can be for 5th grade. Jump onto the standards website and search for applicable standards for 5th grade "Reading: Informational Text" to find this:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.1
Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.2
Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported by key details; summarize the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.3
Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

Step Three is now putting the pieces together for various assessments. The assessment must focus on similar content (historical figures), similar skills and standards (see the above three we will hit on), and have a similar rubric for grading.

Let's talk about the rubric for a moment. Here's where many teachers get stuck...and it takes a long time to create. And who has that much time!?

Lucky for all of us there are some very easy and efficient ways to create standards-based rubrics online. My favorite tool is essaytagger.com/commoncore.

It took me less than five minutes to create this sample rubric based on our example standards:

What's nice about EssayTagger is the ability to personalize and change all of the categories above in the top row. The categories down the side are straight from the standards and skills we pulled for this unit.

Ask yourself after creating the rubric, "Can this work for various types of assessments for this unit?"

If the answer is "Yes", then you've got a rubric to work with. If the answer is still "No" you'll either have to create a new rubric or revisit Step #2 for some clarity.

Step four is allowing your students to choose their preferred assessment or create their own assessment. As we discussed in my last article, choice empowers students and engages them in the material.

I used to have a bank of various assessment types that my students could look through and choose the assessment that best fit their personality, interests, and learning styles. However, over time more and more students started to use the first option on that list: Make your own assessment.

Some of the assessment ideas that came from students include:

"I want to make a Saturday Night Live parody skit around this topic, and poke fun at the way it was handled in a historical sense"

"I want to conduct an in-depth interview with the author, where my friend will play the role of the author, and we'll get into a heated argument"

"I want to create a flip-book style comic to show the character's story arc"

This list could go on. Students are much more creative in their assessment ideas than I ever could be!

Step five is conferencing with students on their plan. You'll want to make sure students understand the following:

What the end-goal is for this assessment

How they are being assessed (look at the rubric together)

What the expectations are for their work

What a time-line looks like for their assessment

An action plan of how they are going to get it finished

This is one of the most important pieces of allowing choice in assessment. A traditional assessment dictates all of the terms listed above. You know when the test date is, what type of content is going to be on the test, how much each question is worth, when the study guide needs to be completed etc...

Here, the short conference serves as a guiding plan for completing the choice-based assessment, and demonstrating a high-level of understanding.

My students always felt better after this mini-conference because the goals, outcomes, and steps were clearly laid out in front of them, as well as how they would be ultimately assessed on their project.

Step six is digitizing the project and sharing it with the class and in their portfolio. Regardless of what assessment type students choose, they need to create a digital record of this assessment to put in their online portfolio. This is easy to do if the work was done on a digital device, but if it was not, you'll need to take pictures (or video recordings) to upload to the portfolio.

Teachers ask me all the time what they should use for student digital portfolios. I'd first recommend using a platform that your school is already using (Google Apps for Education, Microsoft 365, or Apple options).

By starting out with a simple Google Drive (or SkyDrive) folder, you can eventually give the students a choice down the road of what platform they want to create their digital portfolio so they can share it with the world. Here is where students will make their own websites using WordPress.com, Weebly.com, Wix.com, Squarespace.com, and many more options.

Step seven is grading the assessment (teacher grade and student grade). A big piece of this type of assessment is to have students grade themselves using the rubric. They were fully aware (from the earlier conference) what was expected and how their work demonstrates understanding. The act of reflecting and grading themselves makes this all the more transparent.

After students grade themselves, I would look at the rubric and their assessment to see if I had different thoughts on what was demonstrated. Interestingly, most of my students were incredibly honest throughout this process and were harder on themselves than I might have been when grading them.

If the student's grade and my grade were completely off base, then I would have another short conference to talk about expectations and outcomes for this assessment so we could get on the same page.

Step eight is actually assessing the portfolio itself. At the end of the unit, marking period, semester, or year, it's important to assess the overall work of the student in their portfolio. Art teachers have been doing this for years, and more and more colleges are requesting to see real student work as part of the admission process.

To make a real word connection (and I sometimes hate that phrase), think of your students' digital portfolios as the first steps in their academic resume, but also in crafting their personal brand.

The choices they make in what the create/make/do for assessments, will directly impact the choices they make in their career and life path. If they do not document this journey, then it will be hard to reflect on why they made choices and what they have learned along the way.
How do you assess project-based learning and choice-based assessments? Would love to hear in the comments!

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How Do You Assess Project-Based Learning? - A.J. Juliani

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My first full year of teaching was as an 8th grade Language Arts teacher. It was my dream job at the time. I love the energy of middle school students and I was still taller than most of them.

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5 Ways to Build Student Ownership in the First (or after) Month of School

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5 Ways to Build Student Ownership in the First (or after) Month of School

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The first month of school sets the tone for the entire year. The problem for me, is that I often struggled on scaffolding that first month.

When I taught middle school, I spent too much time playing games that first month, trying to build relationships but ultimately missing out on a opportunity for real learning to take place.

When I taught high school, I went the opposite route and spent too much time with rigorous learning activities, setting myself up for disaster later on when we tried project-based learning and genius hour.

When I worked with my elementary teachers as an instructional coach, we spent way too much time going over all the compliance that needed to happen in a classroom, wishing I had spent more time building a classroom community first.

My first month outlook completely changed when I became an instructional coach. The best part about being an instructional coach (and eventually administrator) is getting in to work with so many amazing teachers. I got to spend time planning, developing, and observing all kinds of lessons and activities over the years.

What I saw in the first month, changed my outlook, because I witnessed how master teachers were setting up their students for the rest of the year. They were actively scaffolding student ownership, building classroom community, and cultivating a learning environment where the students were not only engaged, but also empowered.
Here are FIVE ways anyone can build student ownership in the first month of school!
1: The Discussion Game

My students rolled into class like any other day, and not much was changed. The tables were still set up in small groups, the projector was on with their "Do Now" activity on the board. And, the Homework for the week was written for each day.

The only difference was that each seat had a white envelope on it, filled with five cards of all different colors.

This was the opening of our first discussion game. I got the idea from our colleague Melisa Perlman and have seen variations of this game all over the place online. The best part about it is that it is simple to create, simple to explain, and completely modifiable depending on your subject, grade level, or classroom setting. You can do this in-person or online - both work!

Here's the basics. Each student gets a number of different colored cards to use throughout the discussion. They must play each card once, but can play the question card multiple times after using all other cards.

Red Card = Question Blue/Yellow Card = I know (because) Pink Card = I feel Green Card = I think Orange Card = Connect (to yourself, to the world, to another text/idea/subject)
*Can add orange as needed.

Each card is worth a point (if you want to grade this activity, completely up to you and your classroom/school) and the goal is to replace assessing only the final product (quiz) and instead the process of learning (having an active discussion).

This scaffolds the student-centered classroom in two ways.

First, the game is centered on your subject, concept, content, text for the lesson. Students have to be engaged with that content in order to respond with the above answers and questions (I think, I know because, I feel, Connect, etc).

Second, it models the many ways you can contribute to an active learning discussion. This helps the students who may be shy or want to hide during the discussion.

2: Assessing the Process (not the product)

I distinctly remember when I stumbled across the "GRIT Rubric" created by the College Track program in San Francisco. "College Track is an afterschool, college preparatory program that works to increase high school graduation, college eligibility and enrollment, and college graduation rates in under-resourced communities." The program is awesome, but what blew me away was the GRIT acronym and student rubric. College Track has broken the word Grit down into four factors: Guts, Resilience, Integrity, and Tenacity. From their site:

It takes a lot beyond academic readiness to succeed in college. Tackling challenges like dealing with a difficult roommate, finding the financial aid office and registering for classes requires resiliency and tenacity, and these are two character traits that College Track San Francisco is targeting. The site is working to make habits of mind and GRIT visible to all students by recognizing positive character traits that are linked to college success.

They went a step further and created a rubric for students that assesses the PROCESS of learning, not the final PRODUCT. Our team has since adapted this rubric to work with all kinds of K-12 grades and subject areas ( here is an editable Google Doc for you to check out).

It doesn't matter what age students may be, when we assess the learning process, they start to own their own work, and understand what matters. Try it a few times and see what happens! You can assess them or they can self-assess, both work great.

3: Playlist and Conferencing

To keep it short: A playlist is a planned-out list of learning activities (with resources/material) that both the student and the teacher have access to at all times.

This is similar to what many of us do with learning management systems such as Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology, or even Seesaw.

Here's how Catlin Tucker, author of Power Up Blended Learning (and the Getting Started with Blending Learning Course) describes what makes a Playlist stand out from other blended learning strategies:

The playlist concept stems from the Individual Rotation Model in which each student works from an individual playlist of activities. I've used playlists for formal writing, grammar, and projects. The goal of the playlist model is to allow students some control over the pace and path of their learning.

When I design a playlist, I always start with a template. I include all of the activities that I believe MOST students will benefit from then I customize individual playlists to ensure that students who need additional scaffolding receive it and those who are ready for next challenge get it.

Playlists pull together a mix of activities designed to build specific skills. Students control the pace of their learning and teachers can customize individual learning paths with the playlist model.

In her blog post on Building a Playlist, Catlin shares one of her templates and examples of how this might work. One of the ADDED bonuses to a playlist being used in the first month of school, is that it allows you to conference with your students.

I've learned so much about student conferencing from my Empower and Launch co-author John Spencer. He shares his simple methods that you can use with any grade level in this blog post (and an excerpt below):

The following are the three types of conferences I use with students:

Advice Conference: This conference is all about learning specific skills that students are missing. Each student must ask the teacher a series of questions based on an area where he or she is struggling. This is a chance for targeted one-on-one attention and explicit help with a strategy. Students guide the process, tapping into the teacher's expertise. This has the added bonus of encouraging students to embrace the idea that mistakes as a part of the learning process. It sets up a classroom culture where every student must be humble enough to admit that they are still struggling in some area of reading.

Reflection Conferences: Instead of telling students what to do, the goal is to draw out student reflection. The teacher uses a series of reflective questions to lead students through the process of meta-cognition and into the setting and monitoring of goals. As the year progresses, the teacher asks fewer follow-up questions and the students begin sharing how they are doing without the aid of pre-chosen questions.

Mastery Conference: Unlike the reflection conference, the focus here is less about reflecting on the process and more about students judging their own mastery of the content. We use the Standards-Based Assessment Grid as a way to figure out the level of mastery on particular standards.

4: Choice Boards and Learning Menus

The "Choice Board" activity provides this information in a variety of formats and experiences. As students choose their activities, you'll get a better grasp of what types of activities work for them, and which ones they find engaging.

Throughout the activities, students should be recording what they are learning, and what they understand through a guided set of notes.

The end result is that all students should be prepared to successfully complete the photosynthesis lab activity.

Previously, in a traditional classroom setting, students may have not been engaged through a presentation or did not connect to the instructional delivery method. Here, they have the choice to go with what works best for them as a learner.

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR YOUR CLASSROOM: CHOICE BOARDS

1. Identify a unit/concept or skill and what you want students to know/do/make in order to demonstrate their understanding/proficiency.

2. Create or choose an assessment/performance task that allows students to demonstrate mastery.

3. List various instructional methods, resources, and strategies to prepare students for the assessment/performance task.

4. Choose four-six instructional methods to turn into choice-board activities. Each activity should be a similar length in time and cover common material. Here is where you can add different types of technology or hands-on experiences to the learning process.

5. Create a workflow for the students to follow. Have notes and formative checks as part of the choice-board design process. Allow for reflection during each activity when planning how long students will complete the activity.

6. Introduce the different choices to students and describe what the goals of the activity are (as well as the assessment this is leading up to).

7. Let students pick activities based on their interests/needs.

8. As the teacher, a few of the activities/options might need more guidance than others. Make sure you aren't just "managing" this activity, but instead truly acting as a guide and expert learner when the opportunity is available.

9. Once the choice-board activities are complete, put students into small groups to "jigsaw" their reflections. Bring students from different activities together to reflect on their learning experience and share (this can be written, audio, or video reflections - think Flipgrid).

10. Listen to reflections and check the formative pieces for each activity to see if students are prepared for the assessment. If not, feel free to go through one more activity together as a class or talk about any topics/concepts they did not understand during the activity.

11. Give the assessment/performance task.

12. BONUS OPTION: Make your assessment into a choice board with multiple performance tasks that allow students to demonstrate an understanding of the content and skills.

As you can see, the process takes more time on the front end from the teacher, but you'll know that students are prepared for a performance task by going through this activity.

When I began using this strategy in the classroom, these activities also turned into online experiences that could be done at any time. My ultimate goal as a teacher was to see my students succeeding and demonstrating their understanding of concepts and skills at a high level. The simple act of "giving students choice" changed how my students viewed our assessments, and how they prepared for assessments.
LEARNING MENU CHOICE BOARDS
Learning menu choice boards are different because they provide options in a specific order (like you would have when ordering a few courses from a menu).

The teacher directs the menu process, but the student is given control over his/her choice of options, order of completion, etc.

Here is an amazing example from Tom Spall, with a rubric, and the ability to modify the menu.

Spalls Digital Cafe Learning Menu
Tom and his team take this menu idea a step by developing five different choice boards that could work in any classroom once edited and used with your content/skills/activities. Check out these three examples and Tom's article on his blog for all the links to resources and templates!

5: Design Sprint

Before jumping into full-fledged Design Challenges, Project-Based Learning, and Genius Hour, I would always do an activity that followed the simple process shared below. This Design Sprint PSA can be done in any subject and in any grade level (with modifications of course).

I'll break down the example PSA Design Sprint that I use all of the time in workshops to show how this is possible. The key elements are that you choose content that you want the students to learn, but give them a choice in which content they choose.

After that, the project is simple.
Research what the world needs to know about ____, and what they can do about _____.
Then create a PSA to demonstrate that information and understanding.

For my example, I want my students to learn about the United Nations 2030 Goals. So it would look like this:
Research what the world needs to know about one of the UN 2030 GOALS, and what they can do about _____.
Here is the step-by-step process for scaffolding PBL with a Design Sprint:

STEP #1: PRESENT THE CONTENT THAT STUDENTS ARE GOING TO LEARN (THEN GIVE CHOICE ON WHICH AREA THEY LEARN MORE ABOUT)
Note: Some students will have background knowledge, others may not have much background knowledge and that is ok.
For this example, I give learners the topic of the UN 2030 Goals. The content they are going to learn is about these UN 2030 Goals (which works well because most folks don't have a deep understanding or much knowledge about the goals).

Second, I ask them to get into small groups (2-3 people) and choose a goal that resonates with them personally. This is key because the more meaningful and relevant the activity becomes, the more effort and commitment the team will have towards the project.

It's also important to note that I do not give a lot of time for this activity. Thirty minutes max amount of time. It should be a one-class activity in school where time and resources may be limited.

STEP #2: HAVE STUDENTS RESEARCH THE CONTENT (WHAT DOES THE WORLD NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT AND WHAT CAN THEY DO ABOUT IT)

Once the goal (content) has been chosen it's time to research! The key here is to research quickly and efficiently.

If you have younger kids, provide stations that have bits and pieces of the research ready to consume. Things like videos, articles, pictures, graphs are key to giving young students a head-start on the research.

If you have older students (or adult learners) feel free to point them towards a couple websites or directions to research online. For the UN 2030 Goals I always choose GlobalGoals.org as a starting place.

The other important piece to remember during this research step is that you must give a specific time of how long (or else they'll get stuck in more and more research). You have to also give very specific things they are looking for (such as what the world needs to know about the 2030 goal and what they can do about it to help out).

STEP #3: CREATE A PSA

Here is where we climb up Bloom's taxonomy and get students making and creating. When you use this activity with a specific piece of content (2030 Goals, Periodic Table of Elements, historical figures, scenes from a play, author study etc) the project becomes about demonstrating your understanding of this content through creating the PSA.

You can give the option of creating a PSA much like the examples or learners can create it with video, with a slideshow, a skit, or any other type of way to spread their knowledge and understanding.

We are scaffolding PBL here so a key point to remember during the creation stage is that many times students will want to mimic or copy what they saw as the example (or exemplar) given to the whole class.

This is something to keep an eye on, but also a teaching moment.

Once students are finished creating, the project is not yet done! Two key pieces remain. First, they have to share this with a bigger audience than just themselves and their classmates.

Sharing it with the world gives the students an authentic audience. As a teacher, I'd try to find various audiences for my students to share their work with, but sometimes throwing it up on Youtube and social media is enough to get the positive peer pressure working!

Finally, you'll want to have the students reflect on what they learned, what they created, and what they would do differently.

This reflection continues the learning well after the "project" has been completed.

Final Thoughts

Each of these activities promotes student ownership and agency in different ways. I made the mistake of throwing my students into 20% Time and Genius Hour projects without scaffolding throughout the year, and many struggled because they were not ready for such an abrupt change to the game of school.

If you want to learn more about how I went beyond the first month of school into student ownership - you can download my free 52-page guide here: The Epic Guide to Student Ownership (includes 5 more ways to empower your students)!

The first month of school sets the tone for the entire year. The problem for me, is that I often struggled on scaffolding that first month.

When I taught middle school, I spent too much time playing games that first month, trying to build relationships but ultimately missing out on a opportunity for real learning to take place.

When I taught high school, I went the opposite route and spent too much time with rigorous learning activities, setting myself up for disaster later on when we tried project-based learning and genius hour.

When I worked with my elementary teachers as an instructional coach, we spent way too much time going over all the compliance that needed to happen in a classroom, wishing I had spent more time building a classroom community first.

My first month outlook completely changed when I became an instructional coach. The best part about being an instructional coach (and eventually administrator) is getting in to work with so many amazing teachers. I got to spend time planning, developing, and observing all kinds of lessons and activities over the years.

What I saw in the first month, changed my outlook, because I witnessed how master teachers were setting up their students for the rest of the year. They were actively scaffolding student ownership, building classroom community, and cultivating a learning environment where the students were not only engaged, but also empowered.
Here are FIVE ways anyone can build student ownership in the first month of school!
1: The Discussion Game

My students rolled into class like any other day, and not much was changed. The tables were still set up in small groups, the projector was on with their "Do Now" activity on the board. And, the Homework for the week was written for each day.

The only difference was that each seat had a white envelope on it, filled with five cards of all different colors.

This was the opening of our first discussion game. I got the idea from our colleague Melisa Perlman and have seen variations of this game all over the place online. The best part about it is that it is simple to create, simple to explain, and completely modifiable depending on your subject, grade level, or classroom setting. You can do this in-person or online - both work!

Here's the basics. Each student gets a number of different colored cards to use throughout the discussion. They must play each card once, but can play the question card multiple times after using all other cards.

Red Card = Question Blue/Yellow Card = I know (because) Pink Card = I feel Green Card = I think Orange Card = Connect (to yourself, to the world, to another text/idea/subject)
*Can add orange as needed.

Each card is worth a point (if you want to grade this activity, completely up to you and your classroom/school) and the goal is to replace assessing only the final product (quiz) and instead the process of learning (having an active discussion).

This scaffolds the student-centered classroom in two ways.

First, the game is centered on your subject, concept, content, text for the lesson. Students have to be engaged with that content in order to respond with the above answers and questions (I think, I know because, I feel, Connect, etc).

Second, it models the many ways you can contribute to an active learning discussion. This helps the students who may be shy or want to hide during the discussion.

2: Assessing the Process (not the product)

I distinctly remember when I stumbled across the "GRIT Rubric" created by the College Track program in San Francisco. "College Track is an afterschool, college preparatory program that works to increase high school graduation, college eligibility and enrollment, and college graduation rates in under-resourced communities." The program is awesome, but what blew me away was the GRIT acronym and student rubric. College Track has broken the word Grit down into four factors: Guts, Resilience, Integrity, and Tenacity. From their site:

It takes a lot beyond academic readiness to succeed in college. Tackling challenges like dealing with a difficult roommate, finding the financial aid office and registering for classes requires resiliency and tenacity, and these are two character traits that College Track San Francisco is targeting. The site is working to make habits of mind and GRIT visible to all students by recognizing positive character traits that are linked to college success.

They went a step further and created a rubric for students that assesses the PROCESS of learning, not the final PRODUCT. Our team has since adapted this rubric to work with all kinds of K-12 grades and subject areas ( here is an editable Google Doc for you to check out).

It doesn't matter what age students may be, when we assess the learning process, they start to own their own work, and understand what matters. Try it a few times and see what happens! You can assess them or they can self-assess, both work great.

3: Playlist and Conferencing

To keep it short: A playlist is a planned-out list of learning activities (with resources/material) that both the student and the teacher have access to at all times.

This is similar to what many of us do with learning management systems such as Google Classroom, Canvas, Schoology, or even Seesaw.

Here's how Catlin Tucker, author of Power Up Blended Learning (and the Getting Started with Blending Learning Course) describes what makes a Playlist stand out from other blended learning strategies:

The playlist concept stems from the Individual Rotation Model in which each student works from an individual playlist of activities. I've used playlists for formal writing, grammar, and projects. The goal of the playlist model is to allow students some control over the pace and path of their learning.

When I design a playlist, I always start with a template. I include all of the activities that I believe MOST students will benefit from then I customize individual playlists to ensure that students who need additional scaffolding receive it and those who are ready for next challenge get it.

Playlists pull together a mix of activities designed to build specific skills. Students control the pace of their learning and teachers can customize individual learning paths with the playlist model.

In her blog post on Building a Playlist, Catlin shares one of her templates and examples of how this might work. One of the ADDED bonuses to a playlist being used in the first month of school, is that it allows you to conference with your students.

I've learned so much about student conferencing from my Empower and Launch co-author John Spencer. He shares his simple methods that you can use with any grade level in this blog post (and an excerpt below):

The following are the three types of conferences I use with students:

Advice Conference: This conference is all about learning specific skills that students are missing. Each student must ask the teacher a series of questions based on an area where he or she is struggling. This is a chance for targeted one-on-one attention and explicit help with a strategy. Students guide the process, tapping into the teacher's expertise. This has the added bonus of encouraging students to embrace the idea that mistakes as a part of the learning process. It sets up a classroom culture where every student must be humble enough to admit that they are still struggling in some area of reading.

Reflection Conferences: Instead of telling students what to do, the goal is to draw out student reflection. The teacher uses a series of reflective questions to lead students through the process of meta-cognition and into the setting and monitoring of goals. As the year progresses, the teacher asks fewer follow-up questions and the students begin sharing how they are doing without the aid of pre-chosen questions.

Mastery Conference: Unlike the reflection conference, the focus here is less about reflecting on the process and more about students judging their own mastery of the content. We use the Standards-Based Assessment Grid as a way to figure out the level of mastery on particular standards.

4: Choice Boards and Learning Menus

The "Choice Board" activity provides this information in a variety of formats and experiences. As students choose their activities, you'll get a better grasp of what types of activities work for them, and which ones they find engaging.

Throughout the activities, students should be recording what they are learning, and what they understand through a guided set of notes.

The end result is that all students should be prepared to successfully complete the photosynthesis lab activity.

Previously, in a traditional classroom setting, students may have not been engaged through a presentation or did not connect to the instructional delivery method. Here, they have the choice to go with what works best for them as a learner.

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE FOR YOUR CLASSROOM: CHOICE BOARDS

1. Identify a unit/concept or skill and what you want students to know/do/make in order to demonstrate their understanding/proficiency.

2. Create or choose an assessment/performance task that allows students to demonstrate mastery.

3. List various instructional methods, resources, and strategies to prepare students for the assessment/performance task.

4. Choose four-six instructional methods to turn into choice-board activities. Each activity should be a similar length in time and cover common material. Here is where you can add different types of technology or hands-on experiences to the learning process.

5. Create a workflow for the students to follow. Have notes and formative checks as part of the choice-board design process. Allow for reflection during each activity when planning how long students will complete the activity.

6. Introduce the different choices to students and describe what the goals of the activity are (as well as the assessment this is leading up to).

7. Let students pick activities based on their interests/needs.

8. As the teacher, a few of the activities/options might need more guidance than others. Make sure you aren't just "managing" this activity, but instead truly acting as a guide and expert learner when the opportunity is available.

9. Once the choice-board activities are complete, put students into small groups to "jigsaw" their reflections. Bring students from different activities together to reflect on their learning experience and share (this can be written, audio, or video reflections - think Flipgrid).

10. Listen to reflections and check the formative pieces for each activity to see if students are prepared for the assessment. If not, feel free to go through one more activity together as a class or talk about any topics/concepts they did not understand during the activity.

11. Give the assessment/performance task.

12. BONUS OPTION: Make your assessment into a choice board with multiple performance tasks that allow students to demonstrate an understanding of the content and skills.

As you can see, the process takes more time on the front end from the teacher, but you'll know that students are prepared for a performance task by going through this activity.

When I began using this strategy in the classroom, these activities also turned into online experiences that could be done at any time. My ultimate goal as a teacher was to see my students succeeding and demonstrating their understanding of concepts and skills at a high level. The simple act of "giving students choice" changed how my students viewed our assessments, and how they prepared for assessments.
LEARNING MENU CHOICE BOARDS
Learning menu choice boards are different because they provide options in a specific order (like you would have when ordering a few courses from a menu).

The teacher directs the menu process, but the student is given control over his/her choice of options, order of completion, etc.

Here is an amazing example from Tom Spall, with a rubric, and the ability to modify the menu.

Spalls Digital Cafe Learning Menu
Tom and his team take this menu idea a step by developing five different choice boards that could work in any classroom once edited and used with your content/skills/activities. Check out these three examples and Tom's article on his blog for all the links to resources and templates!

5: Design Sprint

Before jumping into full-fledged Design Challenges, Project-Based Learning, and Genius Hour, I would always do an activity that followed the simple process shared below. This Design Sprint PSA can be done in any subject and in any grade level (with modifications of course).

I'll break down the example PSA Design Sprint that I use all of the time in workshops to show how this is possible. The key elements are that you choose content that you want the students to learn, but give them a choice in which content they choose.

After that, the project is simple.
Research what the world needs to know about ____, and what they can do about _____.
Then create a PSA to demonstrate that information and understanding.

For my example, I want my students to learn about the United Nations 2030 Goals. So it would look like this:
Research what the world needs to know about one of the UN 2030 GOALS, and what they can do about _____.
Here is the step-by-step process for scaffolding PBL with a Design Sprint:

STEP #1: PRESENT THE CONTENT THAT STUDENTS ARE GOING TO LEARN (THEN GIVE CHOICE ON WHICH AREA THEY LEARN MORE ABOUT)
Note: Some students will have background knowledge, others may not have much background knowledge and that is ok.
For this example, I give learners the topic of the UN 2030 Goals. The content they are going to learn is about these UN 2030 Goals (which works well because most folks don't have a deep understanding or much knowledge about the goals).

Second, I ask them to get into small groups (2-3 people) and choose a goal that resonates with them personally. This is key because the more meaningful and relevant the activity becomes, the more effort and commitment the team will have towards the project.

It's also important to note that I do not give a lot of time for this activity. Thirty minutes max amount of time. It should be a one-class activity in school where time and resources may be limited.

STEP #2: HAVE STUDENTS RESEARCH THE CONTENT (WHAT DOES THE WORLD NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT AND WHAT CAN THEY DO ABOUT IT)

Once the goal (content) has been chosen it's time to research! The key here is to research quickly and efficiently.

If you have younger kids, provide stations that have bits and pieces of the research ready to consume. Things like videos, articles, pictures, graphs are key to giving young students a head-start on the research.

If you have older students (or adult learners) feel free to point them towards a couple websites or directions to research online. For the UN 2030 Goals I always choose GlobalGoals.org as a starting place.

The other important piece to remember during this research step is that you must give a specific time of how long (or else they'll get stuck in more and more research). You have to also give very specific things they are looking for (such as what the world needs to know about the 2030 goal and what they can do about it to help out).

STEP #3: CREATE A PSA

Here is where we climb up Bloom's taxonomy and get students making and creating. When you use this activity with a specific piece of content (2030 Goals, Periodic Table of Elements, historical figures, scenes from a play, author study etc) the project becomes about demonstrating your understanding of this content through creating the PSA.

You can give the option of creating a PSA much like the examples or learners can create it with video, with a slideshow, a skit, or any other type of way to spread their knowledge and understanding.

We are scaffolding PBL here so a key point to remember during the creation stage is that many times students will want to mimic or copy what they saw as the example (or exemplar) given to the whole class.

This is something to keep an eye on, but also a teaching moment.

Once students are finished creating, the project is not yet done! Two key pieces remain. First, they have to share this with a bigger audience than just themselves and their classmates.

Sharing it with the world gives the students an authentic audience. As a teacher, I'd try to find various audiences for my students to share their work with, but sometimes throwing it up on Youtube and social media is enough to get the positive peer pressure working!

Finally, you'll want to have the students reflect on what they learned, what they created, and what they would do differently.

This reflection continues the learning well after the "project" has been completed.

Final Thoughts

Each of these activities promotes student ownership and agency in different ways. I made the mistake of throwing my students into 20% Time and Genius Hour projects without scaffolding throughout the year, and many struggled because they were not ready for such an abrupt change to the game of school.

If you want to learn more about how I went beyond the first month of school into student ownership - you can download my free 52-page guide here: The Epic Guide to Student Ownership (includes 5 more ways to empower your students)!

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5 Ways To Build Student Ownership in the First Month of School - A.J. Juliani

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The first month of school sets the tone for the entire year. The problem for me, is that I often struggled on scaffolding that first month.

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7 Things That Happen When Students Own Their Learning

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Student Choice and Voice: Stratgeies Download

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Student Choice and Voice: Stratgeies Download

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Student Choice and Voice: Strategies Download.pdf

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Project-Based Learning (PBL)

Nothing inspires the need to read like banned books! Here's how to incorporate literacy, voice and choice, and social studies into one engaging PBL project.

Current events, real-life scenarios, relevant texts -- all of these things are opportunities to engage in a PBL project. An English teacher by training, I always wanted to find ways to engage students by creating the excitement and need to read. Texts are ripe with provocative characters, real-world themes and lessons, and just overall amazing writing. I love literature, reading, and all that comes with it. I know that my excitement might engage my students, but I also know that I need to find more authentic reasons for students to read.

That's why I thought it would be a great to try out a PBL project and kick it off with Banned Books Week. I knew this might create a real-life, authentic reason to read. I knew that in order for the project to be effective, it would need to create a real need to read. I also knew that I wanted to provide my students with more voice and choice in texts, as well as products that they could produce. Here's what happened -- and what you can consider as you try out this project.

Overall Project Design

I have implemented this project in several secondary grade levels. When a PBL project heavily involves reading, the key thing is to read the text inside of the project, not before. That's one major benefit to using PBL with texts -- you create the need to read. In this case, I launched with an activity where I handed out provocative song lyrics (with some of the text blacked out) from a variety of decades. I used lyrics by Elvis Presley, Billie Holiday, the Beatles, Lady Gaga, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and more, all banned for various reasons. I asked students to read the lyrics out loud, pausing silently over the blacked-out words. After this, I asked students how they felt. Many were angry and some thought it was ridiculous, but all were curious as to why. This created the launching point and driving question that we co-constructed: "Should we ban books and other literature in schools?" Over the next few weeks, we would read sample banned books and literature, and research a variety of news stories and related policies to come up with our answers.

Voice and Choice in Texts

While I knew that we could focus the project on one book, I wanted to allow students some voice and choice in what they read. I selected a list of five books, all of them challenged in the past and banned in various places -- although first of all, I made sure that none of them were banned in my state or district. In addition, I sent a letter home to parents letting them know that students would have choice in their reading to ensure that that parents and guardians felt comfortable. I also made sure that the texts were within the grade and reading level for which they'd been banned. Students formed teams based on common readings and created reading schedules. We also used literature circles as a scaffolding structure for reading.

Voice and Choice in Products

I knew that I wanted this project to engage students in writing persuasively as well, so I asked that they all write a letter to an audience of their choice where they thought their ideas could make a difference. Some chose the principal, others a local newspaper, and still others the District Curriculum Committee. They also created team presentations using media of their choice, and made these presentations to a panel of parents, district leaders, and other teachers. I was able to assess students on all areas of literacy, including writing, speaking, and reading.

Overall Benefits

Students were highly engaged in the project and really wanted to know more by asking deeper questions. By offering more voice and choice, not only was I able to assess them on multiple standards, but also to honor their interests. Students felt safe expressing their opinions and confident from their reading of the text and their research. They were able to show critical thinking skills through citing evidence, attacking counter-arguments, and finding middle ground. The project was moderate in length, about three or four weeks, but it yielded great learning and engagement.

Try It Yourself

As you try out this project for yourself, consider the scope of voice and choice. Your version of the project could focus on one text or many, depending on the driving question. You can also limit the products that students create. Make sure to use formative assessments to give students the instruction they need. This will allow for more small-group, targeted instruction in reading and writing. You might also integrate other subject areas as they fit, such as art or social studies. After all, PBL projects are meant to be shared and modified for the larger community.

I encourage you to explore Banned Book Week or the topic of censorship with you students -- in safe yet engaging ways.

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Project-Based Learning (PBL) Nothing inspires the need to read like banned books! Here's how to incorporate literacy, voice and choice, and social studies into one engaging PBL project. Current events, real-life scenarios, relevant texts -- all of these things are opportunities to engage in a PBL project.

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My First PBL Unit: Learning From My Students

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My First PBL Unit: Learning From My Students

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As an "Instructional Innovator" in my district, I was asked to implement project-based learning in my classroom. As a new teacher, currently in my second year of teaching fifth grade, I was nervous and excited at this prospect.

The Project

Thinking about the purpose of PBL, which is to have students gain deep knowledge through exploration of real-world problems, I developed a project for my class that focused on a problem I had observed the previous year: waste in my classroom. Our trashcan and recycling bin overflowed daily, with no distinction between the two. Students routinely threw away half-used pieces of paper, perfectly good pencils, and food they didn't want. This was a problem that affected my students -- and me -- and I hoped it was also a problem that would interest them as much as it interested me.

So with this idea in mind, I developed a PBL unit that explored waste, the effect of waste on our community and planet, and the different ways that we, as a class, could reduce waste in our classroom. After an introduction event during which students classified the waste from our room, we read articles, watched videos, and participated in a Skype Education lesson to learn about waste.

I next posed our inquiry question to my class: "How can we reduce waste in our classroom?" From this inquiry, groups of students refined their focus by discussing specific problems relating to the question. The problems they chose included students throwing away uneaten food, using plastic water bottles instead of reusable bottles, and discarding paper instead of erasing mistakes. My goal was to have my students think more critically about the causes of waste in our classroom, and to target the causes in their projects. The student groups then took their focus problems and conducted research to develop a plan for waste reduction. Through collaboration with the San Francisco Film Society, they were able to create films to educate our school and community about the plans they had developed.

The Process

I can truthfully say that much of my first PBL unit went as planned. This, however, was due to the restrictions I placed on students' "voice and choice." My students were allowed to choose the type of waste their project would focus on, and whether they would make a narrative or documentary film for their final project. I imposed these restrictions because I envisioned losing control of a large class project, and I didn't have the resources, time, or patience to support individual projects that were allowed to grow and become something beyond the scope that I had planned. I chose to focus on collaboration as the skill that I would help them develop and build their proficiency, and I have definitely seen some students struggling with group management. Even with a very independent and responsible group of students, decision making, job sharing, and planning can challenge them.

Throughout the project, from planning through the completion of our films, I've relied strongly on my colleagues to reflect and bounce ideas. I created a graphic organizer to guide student research, and realized part of the way through the project that the organizer did not focus enough on my students' individual projects, but on waste in general. It was through a discussion with a colleague that I decided to scrap the graphic organizer and let student groups guide their own research, both in books and on the internet. I needed to let go a little and trust that they would be productive without that support.

The Outcome

Was my first PBL experience perfect? Of course not. Would I try again? Absolutely.

Even though my fear of losing control limited the project, my students still stayed engaged and were able to work on the big skill that I hoped they would learn to practice: collaboration. For my next PBL unit, I will likely have my students guide our focus a bit more and find a problem (or have them find a problem) that matters to them. I will need to trust myself a bit more by trusting my students with more "voice and choice" in the direction their project takes.

When I've talked and reflected with my students, I can see that each has been able to find something he or she liked about the project. Some students loved doing research on our Chromebooks. Others enjoyed physically digging through our trash. One student focused her energy on writing a song to include in her group's film. The best part about my first attempt at PBL was seeing my students excel in the areas they most enjoy, and giving them a chance to share these talents with their peers. My personal challenge will be to help them harness these skills in our next project, to dig deeper, and find meaningful ways to understand our content.

What did you learn from your first experience with PBL? Please share your reflections below in the comments.

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My First PBL Unit: Learning From My Students

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As an "Instructional Innovator" in my district, I was asked to implement project-based learning in my classroom. As a new teacher, currently in my second year of teaching fifth grade, I was nervous and excited at this prospect.

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Reflections on Shifting to a Flexible Classroom

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Reflections on Shifting to a Flexible Classroom

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A middle school teacher shares the benefits of giving students voice and choice in their learning environment.

Courtesy of Brooke Markle

The author's classroom, ready to go for the new year.

Changes to a learning environment are often driven by the teacher's philosophy regarding how students learn best. When I decided to remove the student desks from my grade 7 English classroom for the last school year, I was motivated to do so after observing the way my students learned and analyzing how I could best support them in that learning.

According to the NEA article " Understanding Universal Design in the Classroom," the learning space is an important aspect of the whole educational experience: "One cannot have a community of learners without having a positive instructional climate. Instructors help to create this climate by everything that they do, from the way they respond to student questions to the arrangement of the classroom chairs." For my students, traditional seating hindered their ability to use the classroom in the ways they needed to accomplish the learning goals I set for them as modern learners.

The classroom environment should mirror what students will encounter in their future careers, and collaboration, problem solving, and meaning making are at the forefront of most job descriptions. Standard desks situated in rows do not foster open communication and collaboration. Before I moved the desks out of my classroom, I had typically arranged them in partners or small groups to try to facilitate conversation, but traditional desks in groups didn't foster the personalized, collaborative learning environment my students craved.

My Journey With Flexible Seating

Once I started researching options to shift the classroom environment, I was careful not to attempt a "Pinterest perfect" classroom and instead maintained focus on the purpose of flexible seating: allowing students a voice and a choice within their classroom. I incorporated various types of seating at different levels throughout the room, and students were able to find workspaces where comfort met capability.

Since I wrote about changing my room a year ago, educators from across the country have reached out with questions regarding how to manage flexible seating in a middle school classroom. Middle school students offer a unique challenge since they are in the midst of adolescence, which brings with it a great deal of change for them. I've answered questions on everything from student feedback, funding, parental concerns, and planning for substitutes to basic logistics and materials. There are many ways to address these questions-in the end, a classroom environment is all about the needs of the students within the room.

Although I started last school year with no traditional desks in my classroom, I did have traditional options available, such as standard tables with ergonomic plastic chairs. I tried to be sensitive to the needs of all the learners-many students enjoy nontraditional seating options, yet an equal number prefer a standard learning space.

Last year I used student feedback surveys in each marking period to determine "home base" seats for my students-where they sit each day for attendance and initial instruction. Having home base seats helped with the distractions and confusion that come with transitions between classes.

I also asked whether they wanted any traditional desks-the answer was no-and if they had opinions about the placement of furniture. This feedback was really helpful, especially with multiple classes using the room every day.

I made changes to the classroom several times throughout the school year based on what my students suggested, which I strongly believe was a key component to the success of the pilot program. My classroom was in fact their classroom, and being responsive to their changing needs was critical.

As summer ends and I think about the furniture I have in my classroom and the new items I acquired through various local grant opportunities, I'm planning multiple placement options for each piece.

The Benefits I Saw

One benefit of flexible seating that I didn't anticipate was that when I incorporated station work and students moved to new seats to work with a new group, they seemed more open to collaborating with an assortment of peers in a variety of locations than had been the case with traditional seating.

I admired the way my students took an active role in their educational journey when provided with a choice as small as where they preferred to complete an assignment. As the NEA article notes, "Students know how they learn best. Give them credit for the knowledge they bring to the classroom, and make them partners in the creation of a positive instructional climate."

Students are completely capable of doing their best work while stretched out on the classroom floor, sitting in an Adirondack chair, or even curled into a tire seat. I've been amazed at the discussions that occurred among my students and the ease with which they shared writing samples and ideas about literary questions with an array of peers.

Flexible seating is about more than simply having a variety of different, fun seats in the classroom. It's about utilizing student voice, creating buy-in, heightening collaborative learning, and prioritizing students' needs concerning the environment in which they learn.

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Reflections on Shifting to a Flexible Classroom

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A middle school teacher shares the benefits of giving students voice and choice in their learning environment.

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Designing Projects with Students, Not for Them

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Designing Projects with Students, Not for Them

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Middle school students are highly underrated when it comes to addressing global and community challenges.

When given a voice and a support system, they surprise me time and again with the innovative ways they approach today's issues. How could we not involve young people in the critical work that will impact them well into adulthood?

Not only are students capable of impacting our communities, but evidence has shown that student voice and choice can make a huge impact on a student's learning experience and willingness to engage with a project. In Maine, we recently received a grant to see just how far we could push this particular Essential Project Design Element. We wanted to see what it would take to push the traditional definition of student involvement and capture student voice right from the start of the project design process-identifying a community challenge and a pathway to solve it.

As part of the initiative, groups of teachers and students from six different middle and high schools came to a three-day summer institute where they would team up to identify a community issue and plan a project around it to implement in the fall.

To capture all voices authentically, we had to be really intentional about how we planned the institute so that the usual hierarchy of teachers-over-students wouldn't be a barrier.

As a planning team, we took measures that would remove responsibility from teachers and give them space to be learners along with students. For example, we had college interns look after students during down time, so that teachers wouldn't feel responsible for them. We also set norms on day one to ensure that everyone felt valued and could trust that others would push their thinking regardless of their usual role as a student or teacher.

When each person walked in on the first day of the institute, they were no longer treated as teacher and student, but rather as individuals who had ideas to contribute and concepts to learn.

We started with a photo elicitation process to help everyone visualize the issues in our communities and give them some ideas about which ones they could tackle. Before the institute, teachers and students had snapped photos of something they thought represented an issue in their community.

When they walked into the room they were met with a gallery of photos exposing their concerns. This was a HEAVY moment. There were photos representing opioid addiction, hunger and poverty, environmental issues, and more. There were issues that directly impacted people in the room, and issues that some people had never even considered.

Leading up to the institute, I had worried about this moment.

I worried the photos might elicit strong emotions, or expose students to things they weren't ready for. And while the outcome wasn't as extreme as I feared it would be, the emotion that did fill the room was transformative and truly set the tone for the institute.

Thankfully, we had the foresight to build in a community asset game following the photo elicitation to balance the challenges with strengths; but it took on-the-fly thinking to give participants some time in pairs to reflect on and nurture the emotions they were experiencing. Allowing students and teachers time and space to work through the depth of the issues they face in their community while also highlighting the numerous, diverse, and often hidden assets of their community was a critical outcome of our summer institute.

Since this collaboration was focused on STEM learning, we transitioned to talk about how STEM was involved in the issue, using the photo as a reference point.

Teams mapped out community assets and identified the people, places, and things that make their communities special. This would later assist them in identifying who in their community could help them in their project and who they could help by doing it.

After identifying an issue and community partners, it was time to determine what an end product would look like and what they would need to learn to be successful in the project.
Here is the full process the students and teachers followed:
A final note on the value of an outside facilitator:

The dynamic that allowed students and teachers to work as teammates may not have worked as well without an outside facilitator. The facilitators were able to help set norms that put teachers and students on an equal playing field. In our case, the facilitators were education specialists who don't work at any of the schools, but you could do this in your context by finding an instructional coach or leader, another faculty member, or even a community member to lead the process. We did this with multiple schools, but it could also be done at one school across multiple grades.

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Designing Projects with Students, Not for Them

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When given a voice and a support system, they surprise me time and again with the innovative ways they approach today's issues. How could we not involve young people in the critical work that will impact them well into adulthood?

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Five Ways to Give your Students More Voice and Choice

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Five Ways to Give your Students More Voice and Choice

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5 Ways to Give Your Students More Voice and Choice

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Learners Ask Four Deep Questions, PBL Provides Opportunities to Answers Them

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Learners Ask Four Deep Questions, PBL Provides Opportunities to Answers Them

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Because we recognize the value of Simon Sinek's idea of starting with why, the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS, Kentucky) Deeper Learning Department is developing teachers' capacity to plan for their classrooms with an end-in-view approach. We put the why and the who before the what and the how.

For example, we support the design of learning experiences and environments to reflect several long-held and time-tested values. Two of these are student inquiry and student voice, and they have guided teaching and learning for more than 2000 years. Their roots reach back to the Greeks, and they are represented in the questioning, dialogical styles of Socrates, and the "light-the-wood, not fill-the-vessel" attitudes of Plutarch.

Psychology and educational research presently confirm what educators of old recognized, that when students are asking and investigating the answers to their own questions, learning is deeper. When students are engaged in ways that shift their role from recipients of knowledge into active participants and constructors of their learning, learning is deeper still. Student inquiry and student voice are manifest in modern classrooms most directly through the practices of designing inquiry-based learning experiences, and creating learning environments that value, support and incorporate student voice and agency.

At the intersection between these two values lie four questions. Addressing these questions, implicitly and explicitly, are necessary for the skill and capacity development and well-being of both the learner and of the learning community as a whole.

Gold Standard Project Based Learning is being used as a primary strategy or approach in many deeper learning classrooms. This is in part because PBL provides learners, through experience, opportunities answers to these questions for themselves.

A question of Identity - Who am I or who am I becoming?

The design elements of authenticity, student voice and choice, and a public product give students opportunity to identify with their learning and personalize their academic and social growth. Feelings of ownership, pride, and a sense of purpose accompany the authentic usefulness of the work.

Students who create are producers. Students who apply academic skills and discipline in context are professionals. Students who use their voice are advocates. Students leave our classrooms telling themselves that, "School is important, I make a difference, and as I work, I improve." Clarifying the meaning of "Who I am", "What I can do", and "What I am learning" grows the agency, confidence, and purpose that learners use throughout a lifetime to guide academic, career, and life choices.

A question of Capacity - What can I do?

When students address a challenging problem or question using processes of sustained inquiry in a collaborative setting, they do a lot. They research, create, share, and explain. They correct, revise, and refine. They apply key knowledge, understanding, and success skills in ways that mirror professionals in the field. They begin to create an imagination for the career paths they may one day follow or create.

As they do all these things, they exercise their powers of creative and critical thinking, of communication and negotiation, and of empathy and grit. They test their abilities against the world. They show themselves what they are capable of, and they see that their capacities grow as their powers are used. As these dynamics become evident to students, they show themselves answers to the question, "What can I do?"

A question of Agency - How do I make a difference?

When students solve a challenging problem, they make a difference. When they exercise their voice and make choices, they see change occur. When they present a public product, they contributed something to the world that wasn't there before. As they use key knowledge, understanding, and success skills, they change and improve themselves.

When processes for working are authentic and collaborative, students see themselves affecting the world, themselves, and their peers in real and obvious ways. As processes are designed to incorporate student voice and choice, and as students use these powers, their eyes are opened to their own agency. They are answering, both in terms of their learning and their relationships with others, "How do I make a difference?"

A question of Well-Being - How am I doing?

When the process of sustained inquiry is well-designed and expectations are high, then struggle, challenge, and difficulty are inevitable. Collaborating with a team to grapple with authentic, challenging problems, apply key knowledge at ever-higher levels, and create high-quality, public products is difficult work.

During critique and revision processes, students use these challenges and struggles as opportunities to reflect, connect, and build community. They exercise their powers of compassion, critical thinking, and caring to monitor and support the well-being of their peers and of themselves. They answer, both in the academic and the social-emotional sense, "How am I doing?"

Finally, a question of Belonging - Shifting from I to We

One further effect of use Gold Standard Project-Based Learning is that much of what we might call "behavior management" becomes intertwined with the management of the project itself. As motivation grows and momentum builds, the health of the classroom community and the quality of the projects they undertake become inter-dependent. The morale of the team affects their work. As this occurs, the four questions that were initially asked as "I" questions become "We" questions. What can we do? How do we make a difference? How are we doing? Who are we becoming? These questions take on new dimensions of meaning when they address students' sense of and need for belonging.

Teachers using Project-Based Learning fulfill education's truest and deepest ends when their classrooms are wrestling with these questions of capacity, agency, well-being, identity, and belonging. When we use PBL in this ends-in-view approach, we are developing people for the ultimate collaborative projects: their careers, their lives, and the critique and revision of the social, economic, and political institutions of our world.

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Learners Ask 4 Deep Questions, PBL Provides Opportunities to Answer Them

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Because we recognize the value of Simon Sinek's idea of starting with why, the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS, Kentucky) Deeper Learning Department is developing teachers' capacity to plan for their classrooms with an end-in-view approach. We put the why and the who before the what and the how.

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Driving Engagement Through Voice and Choice

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Driving Engagement Through Voice and Choice

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What began as a classwide math project to learn about the profit function equation and quadratic functions culminated into a grade-level presentation to imitate the show Shark Tank.

Each student was tasked with joining a group to create a fictitious business, which included developing a product and marketing plan, choosing a location and work space, and identifying how much money they would need for startup costs and what the return would be for investors.

"One of the things you hear all the time as a math teacher is, 'When am I ever going to use this?'" says Derick Richardson, a Nashville Big Picture math teacher. "I try to bridge that. And so through this project, the kids were able to see, 'Oh, man, we're talking about stuff that I hear on the news and that I see on this TV show that I like, and it actually makes sense.' Everybody got involved, even the kids that are not good at math. I've never seen these kids get this excited about a math project."

"When you're able make learning relevant to a student," adds Chaerea Snorten, Nashville Big Picture's principal, "it helps them want to do it and not just because that's what's expected. The whole focus of personalized learning is that students see the relevance of what it is that they're doing. The outcome is students are engaged, and they're enjoying the learning process."

If you want to engage your students in personalized learning projects, here are six tips from Nashville Big Picture High School for how you can get started.

How It's Done

1. Make Your Projects Simple

Not every project has to be a grade-level collaboration like the Shark Tank project. Instead of the traditional paper or PowerPoint presentation, give your students choices in how they show their learning. They may choose to make a video, act out a skit, or create a painting.

Kristin, a Nashville Big Picture junior, was asked to depict slavery in any way that she wanted for her history class. She chose art. Her painting depicted Harriet Tubman and a slave girl against a backdrop of words.

These words -- ranging from "kidnapping" to "hope" -- depicted a slave's journey from slavery to emancipation. She appreciated not only being able to choose how she would express her learning, but also the public display of her art -- alongside other students' work -- in the school hallways. "My art is a part of me," shared Kristin, "and so for people to walk by and see a part of me, it feels great."

When Harley, an alumnus, entered Nashville Big Picture in ninth grade, he was given the choice in how he could approach his first project. "I made a video documentary about myself," Harley recalls, "and from that assignment, I realized that I loved making movies." From that moment forward -- from his exhibitions to his senior capstone project -- Harley expressed his learning through video. "I wouldn't have put in as much time and effort if I had to write a lot of papers, but by making a bunch of videos, I was able to do awesome work because it was something I cared about," he says.

Watch Harley's short video for Edutopia about student voice and choice (and read his four tips on how teachers can engage students).

2. Let Your Students Choose What They Learn (It's Not as Scary as it Sounds)

In place of a quarterly test, Big Picture history teacher Gary Hook assigned his students a mini-project to research, investigate, and present on a topic within modern U.S. history. He gave them a list of topics from the '80s to the present -- ranging from movements (like gay rights and Black Lives Matter) to the impact of social media on modern-day society. If there wasn't a topic on the list that his students wanted to research, he let them choose their own topic as long as it fit within modern U.S. history.

Give your students a list of options from which they can choose, whether it's a book to read in language arts, a topic to research in history, or a business to create in math. "With project work, I try to give them a menu of options that they can choose from to show their learning," explains Hook, "as well as a menu of options that they can choose to research. This allows them to operate in a space where they are comfortable."

3. Give Your Students a Project Framework

Giving your students choice in what they learn and in how they express their learning doesn't mean that content or standards get thrown out the window. Hook was able to give his students choice while still meeting his content objectives. Nor does giving your students choice mean that your assignments lack structure or planning. "When it comes to personalizing our learning, we have to look at what our content and standards are. We start there," says Snorten.

"The essence of personalized learning is understanding where the student is and where they want to go, as well as where you need them to go," adds Hook. Give your students a project brief to make sure that they cover the content and skills you need them to learn. Hook gave his students a project brief outlining the objective, topic options for research, guidance on how they'll carry out their project (such as working in groups and presenting their topic), and details on what needed to be included in their process.

4. Use Temperature Checks to Assess Your Students' Work

When assessing personalized learning projects, do one-on-one or group temperature checks with your students. Are they hot or cold? Are they way off or close to grasping what they need to understand? When Richardson's students were working on the Shark Tank project, he would go from group to group, checking in on their profit functions.

Richardson also checked in on their progress with their product, their marketing campaign, and the elements of their project that were less tied to math. "Sometimes you have a project, but you don't follow up," he explains. "You hand out a sheet of paper, they go do it, and that's it. I really wanted them to get excited about this, be passionate about it, and create something that they really might be able to use outside of the classroom." Student choice about their project brings relevance to their learning. By showing interest in the whole project, you show interest in their passions and in your students themselves. They'll become more engaged in their work if they believe that you're excited and engaged in what they're doing and in who they are.

5. Get to Know Your Students

"We need to understand who our students are and how they learn," stresses Richardson. Once you understand your students' needs, you won't waste time delivering content in a way that they won't comprehend. "It saves you a lot of time and effort," he says.

"Like adults," adds Courtney Ivy Davis, Big Picture's school counselor and internship coordinator, "their passion is what drives them. It's what gives them excitement, and we want them to be excited about their passion and tie that to their education so that they can be successful lifelong learners." Students don't walk into your classroom with their passions and interests written on their forehead. You have to uncover these things while giving your students the opportunity to explore and discover their interests for themselves. By offering them choice in what and how they learn, you allow them to figure out how they learn best. Building intentional relationships with your students will allow you to guide them in this discovery. Here are 22 ways that Nashville Big Picture builds intentional relationships with their students. (Note that these strategies are applicable even if you're at a bigger school.)

6. Ask Your Students What They Want and Need

"Student voice is number one," emphasizes Snorten. "Hear it, learn it, ask for it. 'What is it that will help you do better? How can we help you improve? What do you need from us?'" Building personal relationships with each of your students is important, but it also takes time.

If you have a class of 40 students, and want to know their needs and interests now, ask them.

See Related Resources: When We Listen to Students and Student Surveys: Using Student Voice to Improve Teaching and Learning

Help Your Students Figure Out How They Learn Best

Rather than opening a textbook, memorizing steps to an equation, or learning the teacher's method on how to understand something, personalized learning allows your students to figure out how they learn best. They also get to see how their peers learn best, showing them that there are many ways to problem solve and reach the same solution. "At other schools, they might know one specific way to do things," explains Richardson, "but our students are prepared to be more creative in how they figure out the solution. They learn how to learn on their own, and they take that into college."

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Driving Engagement Through Voice and Choice

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What began as a classwide math project to learn about the profit function equation and quadratic functions culminated into a grade-level presentation to imitate the show Shark Tank.

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Voice and Vision: Engaging Students in School Decision

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Voice and Vision: Engaging Students in School Decision

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When Pagosa Peak Open School, a small, rural, public alternative elementary school in Colorado opened in fall 2017, many stakeholders with strong opinions had discussed visions for its future. Staff continued to ask, "Who are we?" and to come up with a variety of answers: we are an outdoor education school, we are place-based, we are project-based, we are stewards of the planet, we are global citizens. The founders believed in a school where students and teachers work alongside each other in a multi-age environment that assigned no grades and had a focus on healthy living. In addition to these groups, we heard from the school board and parents about their expectations for this small, year-round elementary school in its infancy.

The voices we had not yet heard were those of the students. While many adults were building a framework for their experience, children moved through their day without being asked about their visions for their school. By January, we realized our mistake and invited them into the conversation. In small groups, students listed their thoughts about an ideal school, and told us things like:

Staff spent time reviewing student ideas and identified trends, including gardens. In Archuleta County, Colo., there was only one school that had a garden and it was a private preschool. Staff, school board members, founders and parents had all agreed that a school garden would support the curriculum and vision of the school. This seemed like a project that would align values among all our stakeholders, including our students.

The first step

As a new school with a staff that had limited experience in project work, we started in a place that comfortably aligned with curriculum needs and the staff's past experiences: bookmaking. Students in grades 1-3 worked in partners to research local plants, and then put their work into an alphabet book. We took trips to the local library, invited in plant experts, authors and illustrators, and finished up with a book release party. This book would serve as a reference guide not only for our school garden, but also for others at our local library. From here we were able to build on student knowledge to expand this project to a physical garden space.

The staff planning stage

Involving students in creating their garden space was met with some hesitation from adult stakeholders. There had already been a garden task force of adults that was created to take this on: why would we interrupt their work by involving students? After further discussion, we decided a student garden project that overlapped with an adult task force was important because:

We wanted students to have voice and choice in creating their school.

We wanted students to have buy-in for the garden space when it was finished. We hypothesized that if they were involved from the beginning, they would take better care of it in the long run.

We wanted students to identify the hard work goes into establishing a garden space.

We wanted them to have meaningful experience in projects relating to nature, place, and environment.

From here we decided to establish a student task force, made up of 16 children from grades 1-4.

The student task force

This group met daily to plan their school garden. Originally, students researched school, community and home gardens through online resources and books checked out from the library. Then they drew blueprints and discussed visions with the larger group. From here, questions arose: What materials do we need? How much money do we need? Who can we ask to help us? How will we maintain the garden?

Students did not shy away from such big questions. Immediately they began organizing themselves into small groups. The artists took on the design work; another group identified materials and built a budget, while others focused on fundraising efforts. Throughout the next couple weeks, students were able to meet these goals, and scheduled a fundraiser: The Fairy Garden Play. The play would be written, directed and put on by students. They would sell items like garden art, popcorn and lemonade before the show, and students from around the school would be invited to sign up for roles in the play.

After making this plan, discussions between teachers and students guided them toward implementation. Students would need to share this information with adult stakeholders, such as the owner of the school building who we were renting from, the adult garden task force, and the school board. We would need permission before we could begin.

Implementation and results

A cast of 18 students ranging from 6-11 years old practiced their play, collected and created costumes, and painted sets daily. The first- and second-graders took on making garden paintings while the fourth-graders made bracelets, puppets and other crafts to sell. While these efforts continued, a group of five students ages 6-11 began work on a presentation that summarized their findings. This presentation would be in PowerPoint format, and would outline designs, fundraisers, and needs for our garden space.

Students presented to adult stakeholders in order to share ideas and gain permission. Not only did students meet these goals, they were also told that members of the town community would match any funds collected through student efforts. Altogether, students raised $1,000 for their garden space, and construction began within a few weeks of the presentations. Students shoveled mulch, planted trees and seedlings, and now harvest and eat what they have grown in a space they identify as the product of their hard work.

Through this project, students' capabilities were identified and highlighted, which has given way to deeper relationships between adults and students. We see their work maturing, their voices being heard, and school becoming a community built with them instead of for them.

Want to learn more about PBL? Check out our books. See this post for more ideas for garden projects.

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Voice and Vision: Engaging Students in School Design

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How a rural elelmentary school launched its program by involving students in planning a garden project.

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Voice and Choice: It's more than just "What"

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Voice and Choice: It's more than just "What"

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Student Voice and Choice: How I Learned to Let Go of the Reins

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Student Voice and Choice: How I Learned to Let Go of the Reins

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The Ontario French as a Second Language curriculum is a PBL teacher's dream: the expectations are simply that students read, write and communicate in French about familiar topics and in authentic contexts. It is up to the teacher to decide exactly what subjects, topics or projects are covered.

Or up to the students.

It was this realization that hit me while brainstorming about our next project for my beginner French classes. As I tried to conceive of an authentic use of language around the holidays, it occurred to me that perhaps I didn't need to choose the topic - the students could. It didn't really matter if they wanted to write holiday cards, organize a gift exchange, have a bake sale, or decorate the classroom; I could easily design a project around any topic of interest they showed. The students can read, write and communicate about any or all of these things. I could see my role as a teacher in a world language class evolving right in front of my eyes: my students choose the project, and I weave in the language learning.

Day 1:

I pitched the project, and the excitement was evident right away. I asked students to brainstorm all the possible activities around the holidays. The class came to life. Sticky notes filled the board. As students organized the notes by topic, we began to see two clear projects emerge. The first was a bake sale, the second was a secret Santa gift exchange. I told the students that I would take these two ideas and design a project around each one.

But that night, buoyed up by the participation and engagement I had seen that day, I decided that I could let go even more. They students had picked their projects, but they could design them also.

Day 2:

I shared my parameters of the project: each had to have three components, something they read (research), something they write (product) and something they communicate (interaction about the topic). I showed a sample yard sale project outline. Then students broke into their respective groups (bake sale, secret Santa) and began thinking about options for each component.

Students Lead Their Learning

I was running this project in two different French classes, and while they both had landed on the same overall topics (popular ones for 12 year olds!) they ended up designing completely different projects. One bake sale group decided to write recipes, while the other decided to design advertising posters. One Secret Santa group opted to write and read aloud holiday cards, while the other class chose to practice pitching the project to our principal (who happens to speak French). Seeing the same project evolve in different ways demonstrated to me that there are many effective ways to study and learn.

By the end of day 2 I was hooked. I started looking for more opportunities to let the students lead their learning. The next step in a language class would be to equip the students with appropriate vocabulary. I altered my original plan of supplying that list by instead asking them to write me out a list of English words they expected they would need, and I would provide the translations. My role emerged clearly: I created organizers to help in planning, and mini lessons to teach the grammar the students would need to complete their projects. They would lead, and I would provide language support.

Lessons Learned About My Role-and How Much Time Projects Take

There have been bumps along the way. Responding to student voice means that I can't plan everything ahead of time. Instead, I used my planning time to search out authentic texts and resources and familiarize myself with different types of graphic organizers. This helped me to respond to student needs as they emerged. Sometimes that time crunch meant that I didn't provide the perfect planner or I pushed the students beyond what they were ready for. I had to back up several times to scaffold the learning in greater detail to ensure student success. But what I learned was that these bumps were not detrimental to their learning, just another step toward standards mastery.

There is also the challenge of time, time, time. I looked down the long, two-month timeline before the holidays and thought it was more than enough... and in fact I found myself stressing as the weeks ticked by and we were stalled in one area of learning. What I have learned is to start early and assume you need at least half as much time again as you have planned. There are always opportunities to go deeper; it's much more difficult (and detrimental) to scale back or rush through.

Seeing the Freedom in Our Curriculum

When we look at the curriculum provided to us by the powers above, we can fall into the trap of seeing it as a forced pathway. But sometimes we as teachers get caught up in what we think our curriculum is asking of us as opposed to what's really there. As I studied my own French curriculum, I started asking myself what parameters are really there, and which ones have I imposed myself? How specific are the expectations, and where is there room for movement? I started to see the freedom that exists, and now I have turned that freedom over to my students to give them a voice in what they learn, and choice in how they do it.

Point to ponder: What parameters do you have that are self-imposed? In what ways might you let them go?
Want to learn more about PBL? Check out our books. Register now for PBL World 2019.

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Student Voice and Choice: How I Learned to Let Go of the Reins

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A teacher tells how a beginning French class project made her question self-imposed parameters for how to teach the course curriculum.

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Scaffolding PBL in Early Elementary Classrooms

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Scaffolding PBL in Early Elementary Classrooms

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After making the switch from third grade to kindergarten last year, I was struggling with how to incorporate student voice and choice into projects.

I found with older students I could give them more freedom to create from the beginning and provide guidance along the way. However, five-year-olds really struggled with creating something from scratch. I wanted to find more ways to allow them to have creativity but also complete projects in a timely manner.

This past summer I attended PBL World in Napa where I took part in the PBL 201 workshop, "Building a Learner-Centered Classroom." My school has been implementing PBL since our opening three years ago, and I was excited to extend my PBL learning to bring back to my kindergarten classroom.

In the workshop I met another veteran kindergarten teacher who understood my concerns over choice for little ones. It was great to be in a learning environment with other early elementary teachers as well as teachers of older students who could give meaningful feedback and suggestions, such as creating structured choice boards around students' personalized learning styles and gradually adding more choices throughout the year. I learned that giving students choice doesn't mean you give them free rein; it's more about structured choice, especially with younger students. In kindergarten, we really spend most of the first semester helping students get used to school, so it's about setting routines and expectations.

The charter school I work at recently moved to a new building, which was very exciting for our families as we had been renting a temporary space since our opening. I decided to build on this excitement by creating a project for our kindergarteners using the template for "Welcome to the Neighborhood" from PBL Works' project library. Our driving question was, "How can we welcome new friends to our community?" Our learning targets were map skills and informational writing. Our final products were a community map and an informational guide.

In the 201, our facilitator explained how to prepare for the "messy middle" of projects by creating a PBL work-time routine from the beginning of the year.

This was something I carried back to my class. After our entry event (a reading of Me on the Map by Joan Sweeney) and creating our list of Need-to-Knows, I set up our PBL routine of doing a short mini-lesson each day on either map skills or informational writing, then sending students to journal a response. This allowed me to formatively assess their thinking and also gave me an idea of what kinds of places they wanted to include on their map. While walking around and observing their journal notes, I got a better idea of how to allow more structured choice for our project.

I also learned some very helpful ways to scaffold learning for my kindergarteners. Since they are so young, background knowledge is not as extensive, so I showed them pictures of local businesses and landmarks, and I collected sample maps and community brochures to show them. I invited an expert, a parent from the neighborhood, to bring in pictures of local businesses and take us on a walking tour of the community.

Students were interested in finding out that we have a park, fire station and taco shop within walking distance of our school! Another teacher in my 201 made the suggestion of having students create a large visual map. I gave students a large white piece of butcher paper and broke them into groups. I created a template for our map by drawing some of the streets and sectioning off where different landmarks would go. I partnered some of my more advanced students with ones who were struggling with map skills to draw the parts of the map. Artistic students added detailed drawings, while advanced writers worked on adding labels.

When I reflect on this project, I am really proud of how our map turned out.

I asked parents to leave "I Like/I Wonder" feedback on sticky notes at our Project Exhibition Night. Comments ranged from "I like that you included English and Spanish labels" to "I wonder if you could use this map to get home?" If I were to do this project again, I would like to introduce more self and peer assessments earlier in the project. I wish I would have given students a checklist as they were making the map. I realized that they were more capable of assessing and improving their work than I initially thought.

Our map hangs on our classroom wall now for students to see as a reflection of their first project together. It also serves as a great reminder for me of how capable my youngest learners are when I give them guided opportunities to create.

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Scaffolding PBL in Early Elementary Classrooms

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I found with older students I could give them more freedom to create from the beginning and provide guidance along the way. However, five-year-olds really struggled with creating something from scratch. I wanted to find more ways to allow them to have creativity but also complete projects in a timely manner.

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Student Voice and Choice in the Elementary Schools

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Student Voice and Choice in the Elementary Schools

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Student Voice and Choice in the Elementary Grades

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A 3rd grade teacher explains how she gave students four opportunities to make choices in a Heroes Museum project.

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Student Voice and Choice in the Early Elementary Grades

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Student Voice and Choice in the Early Elementary Grades

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Student Voice and Choice in the Early Elementary Grades

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A look at how a second-grade teacher gave her students some control over the classroom jobs list to bolster their sense of autonomy.

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Like a lot of things about PBL, student voice and choice sounds simple on the surface but has deeper layers if you drill down. I was led to consider some new aspects of this Essential Project Design Element in a recent hangout discussion with some of our deep-thinking National Faculty members, Jennifer Klein, Kristyn Kamps, and Mike Kaechele.

Why provide opportunities for students to have voice and choice in PBL? It's often noted that being able to make choices is motivating for students. It makes them less passive, more active. But for some kids, we agreed, voice and choice in a project is really a "make or break" element. Without it, a project can feel like just another assignment given by the teacher - except longer and harder.

"We have to stop doing school to kids," Mike said. "Make it more about what they care about."

Kristyn added that many 7th and 8th grade students know that what they do before high school "doesn't count." But at that age they also feel like they're "ready to contribute, so if they're not allowed that chance, they can shut down very quickly."

Another layer was added by Jennifer, who said, "It's a 21st century imperative." She explained that, to meet the challenges facing the world today and in the future, we're going to need leaders and problem-solvers who will take initiative. Schools can help create these citizens by letting kids explore what matters to them - when given voice and choice in PBL - and teaching them how to tackle real-world problems.

Here are some of the best practices and tips shared by our National Faculty members:

Consider the purpose of giving students voice and choice; why are you offering it? Would it be done in a comparable real-world project? Don't offer it just because they ask or it's what you think you're "supposed to do" in PBL.

Voice and choice should be limited at times, just like in the real world, where we often work under constraints. For example, adults can't always choose their own work groups. Or think of an architect who is constrained by budgets, building codes, location, and client preferences.

Too much choice can be paralyzing for students, so provide scaffolding. Especially for students who are new to PBL, some structure is needed, and you can always given them more freedom. For example, instead of allowing totally wide-open choice of products in a project, have them pick from a list.

Create a list of product options with students, so they won't feel like they're being over-directed by the teacher. And as Jennifer noted, the divergent thinkers in your class will come up with 15 options you had not thought of! (Mike said he sometimes tells students what they can't do - e.g., "no slide presentations" if they've become too common.)

Find out what your students are interested in; conduct a survey or inventory at the beginning of the year.

If you're new to PBL, create opportunities for voice and choice before you launch projects, too. This allows students to understand what it means to have voice and choice and learn how to exercise it - and helps build a culture conducive to PBL. These "practice runs" also allow teachers to experience what it's like (if they haven't done so in the past) to give up some control over the classroom.

The content coverage issue

We acknowledged another challenge when it comes to voice and choice, especially at the secondary level where, as Jennifer put it, "content trumps everything." Teachers might worry that if student teams choose a certain aspect of a topic, they will miss other aspects, and potentially be "missing" a key piece of knowledge. This gets more into the pedagogical weeds than we had time for, but it is to some extent an issue of what do students really need to learn; how much content do teachers really have to "cover"? (The answer usually is, "less than we used to think.") We mentioned that this challenge can be addressed by proper project design and scaffolding - e.g., the requirements for products, peer feedback systems, jigsawed group work, and guidance for students to help them make good choices.

Voice is distinct from choice

One other point came up that I think bears repeating: providing opportunities for hearing student voice goes beyond just giving them choices. Mike gave the example of the MyParty Election project, in which students create their own political parties and it is key that they make their own opinions heard. I also thought of the Resilience Café project (link no longer available) from PBLU.org, where students write and perform spoken word poetry about their own identities, lives, and communities.

Another opportunity to hear student voice is at the end of a project, by asking them to reflect on the project itself - how it was designed, taught, carried out, what was learned, and so on. This might not always be consistently good news for the teacher, but Mike pointed out an important reminder:

if you give students a voice, you have to be willing to listen. (If not, he says, "they'll call BS on you!")

In conclusion, our guests gave some words of encouragement. Jennifer reiterated that we don't need more repetition of what's been done in the past; we need "classrooms that foster independent thinking." Kristyn said that with voice and choice, "a child who's totally disconnected in class may suddenly wake up and surprise you." Mike offered, "When it comes to voice and choice, go for it - you won't lose control of everything. Take the leap and the reward will pay off. You'll see students do things they'll never do in the classroom you're controlling."

I think each of those comments is Twitter-worthy - see you there!

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Gold Standard PBL: Student Voice & Choice

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6 best practices and tips for designing and facilitating projects to allow for student choice, and how "voice" is different.