The main audience I want to address in my research is my students. Because my research is focused on engagement, my focus is on them and their needs. WIth that being said, engagement is not only a struggle in my classroom, and I would like my research to be useful to other teachers who have similar struggles.
The biggest problem I have thought about thus far in creating a product that emphasizes student choice is that, thus far in my research this is a very broad idea. The decisions that students get to make need to be authentic, and this often means a simultaneous increase in the workload and relinquishing of control for the teacher. Neither of these are factors that many teachers will be overly enthused about, and I worry that many teachers will like the idea, but will not truly implement in their classroom. I have even struggled to continue providing students with student choice with testing coming up and feeling like there aren’t many authentic choices that even I can make. So I guess my aha from these past few weeks is I need to think of a simple method of implementing student choice into a daily routine that does not create too much work for the teacher or ignore the realities of time constraints and testing pressure that exist in classrooms all over this country.
4 Comments
Shawn
3/11/2018 07:38:31 am
Engagement can be tough when you the teacher have limited choice in what curriculum is provided to students. I know for myself when our district adopted this new curriculum I was excited to have more guidance in my classroom but as the year is moving forward I miss all of the fun and engaging thing we did to learn the same concepts last year. I think giving students choice is very important. Just like it is to us. I have found that when my students have been more choices they take more pride in their work. Good luck. Start small and work your way up.
Reply
Diana Moore
3/11/2018 10:15:21 am
You are so right! It is difficult as a teacher to give up control in the classroom and to allow students to choose their own path. I know for myself, I worry that my students will always choose the path of least resistance. At that point are they even learning anything? I do try and include some ideas about this as frequently as I can though. In History, I usually create a Tic-Tac-Toe board of activities and the students get to choose the three activities that sound the most interesting. The teachers secret is that no matter which path they take, they are fulfilling the same requirements.
Reply
Alicia Martin
3/11/2018 12:27:50 pm
For some reason I thought I would be standing alone when I said my audience would be my students. I do understand that we need to share our research with our peers and administrators but until my research is complete it is hard to focus on the adults in the situation. I see how you can struggle with creating choice that does not cause too much prep work for the teacher. Teachers have enough on their plate and they need to be willing to change and try new things. I think that is a good point to bring up not only for your driving question but for everyone. We need to think about how can we make our peers want to implement our "product." Thank you for sharing, you really have me thinking now.
Reply
Teresa Barron
3/13/2018 01:26:43 am
I agree with you that it is difficult for many of us to let the students take control while we sit back and only assist. Yet, I think that is building a stronger link for student engagement since they will feel more like they own their learning. I think it is smart from your part to look for ways to include student choice daily and trying to minimize the additional workload for the teacher. Sometimes extended time is a deal breaker depending on curriculum and the pacing guide.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
May 2018
Categories |