Organizing learning around student ownership doesn’t mean letting students decide all that happens in the classroom. It does mean providing them the opportunity to decide what success looks like for them. And structuring assignments and classwork so students have openings to making school relevant to their vision of success.
Here are five quick tips for educators from our latest Portico webinar. Keep these in mind as you organize learning for student ownership.
Let students define the criteria for success in alignment with their goals.
This allows learning experiences to be relevant, both culturally and in terms of kids’ future plans.
Make students decision-makers when it comes to designing workflows and timelines and milestones.
Bring mistake-making and uncertainty (“we don’t have all the answers”) into instruction.
This creates an environment where taking both risks and responsibility are practiced and normalized. It helps marginalized students who often feel a lot more pressure to not make mistakes, since failure can make them feel like they don’t fit or don’t belong or aren’t capable.
Create opportunities for students to teach or lead in class.
Feeling autonomous, actually having volition in what they’re doing, is key to motivating students and to academic success.
Encourage students to share their work, to put themselves out there for all to see.
A key part of ownership of learning is shared vulnerability. It’s powerful in both student-to-teacher and student-to-student relationship building.
See more about student ownership of learning in our video series, featuring Desiree Kiesel, Principal of Woodburn Arts and Communications Academy, and Ross Anderson, Principal Researcher at Inflexion. Through the MakeSPACE project they partner to foster ownership of learning in the classroom. This initiative enhances the creative resources of K-12 educators and facilitates innovative arts integration strategies for creative engagement in student learning.
