4 Ways to Give Kids Voice and Choice

Paige Dersham
Jan 11, 2016
2 min read

Want kids to be engaged in their learning and work harder than you ever thought they could? Put more choice in their hands, simple.

1. Give students a variety of ways to demonstrate proficiency. We just finished a unit on matter in my 5th grade science class, students were given the the learning outcomes that they needed to demonstrate for proficiency. Then I gave them 5 ways to do that: a paper pencil test, create a video log, make a Google Slide presentation, create an infographic, or come up with some other way to show me what you know. They worked harder and went deeper than I have ever seen a group of kids work on an assessment. I would say most put in 2 or 3 times more work than they would have just studying. The difference was, they wanted to because they got to pick how to show what they knew.

Students sharing their assessments and providing feedback to each other

2. Get feedback from kids, and take it. We backchannel frequently and for different purposes but I always find that I get important feedback through their comments that make me better able to meet their needs and tailor my instruction to their learning styles. Sometime I intentionally ask for feedback, especially for new methods or strategies I have used. I really do want their opinion, it helps me keep them excited and engaged.

Shared feedback document

3. Give up control of the learning space to students. This is hard at first, but so worth it. Let them decide how the room should be organized and set up. Let kids have discourse about why the room needs to be changed to better meet their learning needs. Then give it a try and be ready to revisit their solutions or change it all up again. When I gave kids this control I was positive their design would not work, because it made no sense to me. I was wrong, it worked, they loved it, and worked even harder to prove it was a good design.

Students changing the room based on their plan and some trial and error

4. Do passion project or genius hour or whatever you want to call it. Give kids time to learn and study whatever they want. I know in this accountability test driven time it might seem impossible but it is so worth it. The engagement and unexpected learning that will come from letting them learn what they want will be worth it! I have also found kids who have the opportunity to study about their passion become better critical thinkers and problem solvers and do better on standardized test because they are learners, not test taking machines.