Appointing student champions and giving them important jobs helps students take more control of their learning.
As an experienced assistant principal, I spend much time showing teachers how to make their classrooms more about the students. I’ve seen that both new and experienced teachers need help with this.
So, what does it mean for a classroom to be student-centred? In the end, all students should know how they are being graded, how they are doing, and what they need to do to learn a subject. Also, this process is led by the students and helped along by the teachers. Teachers should find student “ambassadors” to lead the class in regular reflection, group talks, setting goals, and reviewing data.
Find out who the student ambassadors are
It will only happen after a classroom is focused on the students. A teacher must be deliberate and ready to give up some control. This can be done by including student-led routines and a fair way of calling names in daily lessons. For instance, a student representative can read the goal, key questions, and schedule every day. Students can also review ideas, work in groups, lead classroom discussions, reflect, make goals, and study data.
How can teachers find students who can lead the class as ambassadors? Teachers can find good options by collecting data for the first two to four weeks of school and looking for students who show leadership and are interested in learning. Once the teacher knows who these students are, she will need to set aside at least 45 minutes a week to help the champions learn how to lead the class in different tasks.
It might take some time during lunch or after school to teach the students how to lead the class in joint talks and use rubrics and student data profiles. 45 minutes a week will be worth it once students are in charge of the classroom. Remember that when students run the class, the teacher is a guide, not a star on the stage.
STUDENT-FRIENDLY RUBRICS
When students are given a clear, brief, and objective assessment that lists the behaviours they need to show to perform at the best level, they can self-assess, self-monitor, and self-reflect on their learning and academic success to make changes.
This process is important for a student-centred classroom because it lets students be in charge of their growth and makes them more self-aware and responsible for their learning. Here is an example of an evaluation that we use in all math classes in my school, no matter their grade level.
This measure shows how well students can read and write, use academic language, and participate in classroom talks. We made the assessment less stressful for our students by using the words “sprouting” for basic mastery, “blossoming” for skilled talent, and “pollinating” for “distinguished mastery.” The best rubrics for students are clear, easy to understand, and concise.
TEACHING BACK AND FORTH
Lev Vygotsky, a psychologist, says that people learn through talking to each other. Because of this, teachers need to build a school setting that encourages conversation.
One way to do this is to use training that goes both ways. Reciprocal teaching is a form of interactive teaching that has been shown to help students understand what they read. This is because the teacher guides students through a gradual release of four reading comprehension strategies: asking questions, summarizing, clarifying, and making predictions.
Mutual-teaching sentence stems from an extension of mutual teaching that encourages students to lead joint talks. Here is an example of a middle school reciprocal-teaching sentence stem that we are using to support joint talks across all grade levels and subjects in my school. Students can use these sentence starters to help them lead talks that help them become experts at guessing, inferring, explaining, asking questions, and summarizing.
STUDENT DATA PROFILES
In classes nationwide, students are often tested both officially and casually by their teachers and by state and local tests. In fact, as teachers, we are always judging how well kids understand things so we know how they do in school. In a student-centred classroom, students know how they are being graded and what they need to do to learn the material. These kids are also good at looking at facts and making goals.
Here is an example of the student data record we use in all math classes at my school, no matter what grade level. These student data records let students keep track of their grades, test scores, and ability to use claim-evidence-reasoning and think about it. They also help teachers learn more about their students because they serve as learning profiles. This is effective because student leaders lead the process. My math department uses this student data profile lesson to help students make data profiles.
Ultimately, teachers in student-led schools have to plan and give up much power. But the satisfaction comes from having the student champions lead the learning using rubrics. Sentence stems for teaching and learning and student data profiles.
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