To Provide Students with a Voice in the Classroom

 

My first goal includes several strategies.  To start, I will acknowledge the positive impact of individuals in the classroom through the recognition of accomplishments and contributions they have made.  Acknowledgements may not necessarily be only for intellectual or school based accomplishments and contributions but will also be social, emotional, physical, or creative. Another strategy would be to provide students with an opportunity to give feedback on lessons.  This may be done at class meetings by asking questions such as: “what did you enjoy most about this lesson?” or “what did you find challenging about this lesson?”  I had the opportunity to do this with a grade 7 class. Their feedback helped me in creating my next lesson.  I could also sense that there was a shift in the teacher-student relationship; the students were more relaxed and comfortable around me. Their feedback was important to me, but I also feel that asking was important to them as well.  

To Provide Students with a Sense of Ownership Over their Work

 

​     Asking for feedback relates to my second goal: to provide students with a stronger sense of ownership over their work. When possible, I would like to encourage students to explore topics that are of interest to them; however, I feel that giving pure academic freedom has too many challenges for both the student and the teacher.  I think it is important to provide students with guidelines, preferably that they help to create, not only for topics but also for presentation of knowledge and assessment.  Some strategies that I have used include “I wonder” questions sparked from a unit of study to further delve into subject matter, student created rubrics, self-evaluation, and student led teacher conferences.