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Seizing the moment and inviting my students to take more ownership of their learning
Filed Under Lesson Plans
Recent PD sessions at our school have focused on assessment- assessment for learning, as learning and of learning. The message I took away from one of these sessions was that I ought to be inviting my students to take more ownership of their learning.
I’ve been thinking about this for a bit and decided to look for an opportunity to do just that, so when a few of my grade 12 students asked me what they should take at college next year, I decided here was my chance to invite my students to take more ownership of their learning.
We talked about how you would go about finding out what to take at college. Someone remembered a program called Career Cruising that he used in the grade 10 Careers course, but he had forgot what the results were. Career Cruising suggests what careers students might be interested in pursuing and what education or training is required for that career after they complete an extensive on-line survey about interests and affinities. Everyone in the class decided they wanted to use Career Cruising to see what came up.
That was great.They had started to take more ownership of their learning- deciding what to learn. Then, right on cue, one of the students suggested they do a major project on this. He wanted to create a PowerPoint presentation to present his research results because he was good at doing PowerPoint presentations and that would raise his mark. (We’re not at the learning for the sake of learning point yet. 
That was fine with me, and I asked the others how would they like to share their results. Some said they’d like to use a PowerPoint presentation, others said they’d like to use a VoiceThread presentation. A few even wanted to do a an essay. I told them that was fine with me. They looked a bit puzzled when I agreed to everything, but didn’t say anything.
Then I raised the question about evaluation. I suggested they could create a rubric, a checklist etc to evaluate their work. It was up to them. Again, they looked a bit puzzled, but didn’t say anything. I did suggest there was a certain process I would like them to follow. We discussed it, and they were in agreement. I wanted to give them some guidance for process. I’m hoping they see the value in it. I’ll ask about the process in the reflection I’m having them do.
This is the process.
1. Explore Career Crusing to discover careers that interest you. Choose two. One will be a back-up just in case your first choice doesn’t pan out.
2. Decide how you want to share the information about the careers you have chosen – VoiceThread , PowerPoint, etc. It’s up to you.
3. Create a rubric, check list whatever to evaluate your work. Have two peers edit your evaluation tool- one will edit the first draft, then you’ll make corrections, additions etc. and then the second editor will edit the second draft . Then use those suggestions to create a good copy of your evaluation tool. Have the editors complete the editor’s feedback form indicating they’ve edited the evaluation tool and have given you feed back about it .
4. Start creating the presentation.
5. Use a graphic organizer of your choice to show what info and graphics you’ll present during your presentation. Make a copy and submit it to me.
6. Create a rough draft of your presentation including any graphics and the script you will be using.
7. Show the rough draft of your presentation to two peers editors as discussed earlier to get feed back. Have them complete the editor’s feedback form indicating they’ve edited the draft and gave you feed back about the presentation. Create the good copy of your presentation using the suggestions the editors gave you.
7. Share your presentation with us, but first distribute a copy of your evaluation tool to each class member so that we can evaluate your presentation.
8. Collect the evaluations and submit them along with the two rough drafts and the good copy of the presentation.
9. Finally, complete the reflection about your assignment and submit everything to me. Thank you.
It will be interesting to read the students’ reflections about the assignment. They’ll inform the next assignment we do.
I’d appreciate any comments or suggestions about the process. I’m learning to give my students more ownership of their learning and would appreciate your recommendations. Thanks.
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