Choice in the classroom
"Let students drive while teachers guide"
*Providing choice for students enables lessons and daily routines to better reflect the individual learner*
In my classroom, I will create a choice-rich environment that.....
- Keeps students motivated and engaged
- Enhances learning by providing options that can meet the needs of each student
- Makes differentiating lessons for varying learning abilities easy and effective
- Encourages students to make smart decisions and understand what choices work best
"Teaching in a choice rich classroom is like….building a home. The teacher provides the bricks that build the structure, but the students design the floor plan that meets their own needs and desires. "
-Amber Vitaliano
"A key Responsive Classroom strategy, Academic Choice is a way to structure lessons and activities. When teachers use Academic Choice, they decide on the goal of the lesson or activity, then give students a list of options for what to learn and/or how to go about their learning in order to reach the defined goal."
I found this excerpt from the book Learning Through Academic Choice to be very helpful while exploring content knowledge about creating a responsive classroom. Below are some of the scenarios the author provided that I will use to incorporate choice into lessons.
- To help children learn new skills or information
A third grade class is studying insects, and the teacher wants the children to get some basic information about these animals. The teacher gives children choices in how to get such information, including by reading a book about insects, listening to a recording about insects, interviewing someone who studies insects, or observing and recording insects' appearance and behavior.
- To help children practice new skills
A first grade teacher would like the students to practice subtraction. She gives them a list of ten problems and lets them choose eight to solve. Then the children decide what they'll use to solve the problems. They can choose from three manipulatives (stickers, counting blocks, or Cuisenaire rods), a computer program, and a worksheet.
- To have children demonstrate mastery of skills or content
A fourth grade class has just read My Father's Dragon, and the teacher would like the students to demonstrate their understanding of the format of a heroic adventure story. He asks the students to create their own adventure story following the format of the book but to include their own original ideas. The students have an open-ended choice of characters, events, and resolutions. They also have a choice in how to present their story, from writing it, to performing a skit with puppets, to making a map showing where the major events of the story take place.
In this document, Dr. Codling, a recent professor of mine, explains how autonomy plays an important part in the self-determination theory and inhibits intrinsic motivation.
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