TL;DR: Choice and voice are essential in order to engage students. Student choice is directly related to the concept of autonomy. Student voice is often communicated through their choices and behaviors. It might be the teacher in me, but when words rhyme or have a strong sense of alliteration, I’m all for it! Two of my favorites? CHOICE + VOICE, … Read More
Authentic Audiences
TL;DR: The importance of valuing our students’ voices and helping them feel heard. Taking your classroom to the next level with these strategies to provide an authentic audience. Have you ever struggled to challenge your students? Have you tried to incorporate authentic audiences in your learning activities? If the teacher across the hall can do it, you can too right? … Read More
Teaching Writing for Student Voice
In this post: The importance of providing freedom for students in your writing instruction. Strategies to use when teaching writing to shift the focus to student voice. My experience and background in empowering student writers. When we think about teaching writing, we often associate it with the traditional 5 paragraph essay, a regimented guide, or a ready-made curriculum. There’s a … Read More
Dear Desk, It’s Not You, It’s Me: Promoting Student Agency
In This Post: After removing a desk from our learning space, my students reacted with excitement. My realization was that I was too focused on how I saw things, and not on how THEY see them. This lead to 5 pedagogical shifts to promote student agency. In a lonely corner of an elementary classroom stood an oversized wooden desk. Its … Read More
Collaborative Behavior Planning: Putting Students at the Helm
In this post: Discover the biggest problem with most student behavior plans What is a student-led behavior plan? Steps to make a student-led behavior plan work for students and teachers Let’s get this out in the open: implementing and designing behavior plans to improve the behavior of challenging students is not an easy task. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they … Read More