3 tips to help your students take accountability for their learning
When students are active and involved in their learning it allows them to take ownership of it. For this to happen students must be excited to learn, however, unfortunately this is not always the case. Students spend almost a third of their day in school. Some of our students will want to do well and get involved but on the other hand we will have some students that are of a different mindset. The key is to try to reach and engage all students as best we can. Here are some simple strategies that can help.
Offer choices and ask opinions
This is one of the simplest ways to encourage student involvement. Students love to have a choice, it helps to make them feel like they have control over their learning. A simple way to introduce choice into your classroom is to give students the opportunity to choose how they present what they’ve taken from the lesson. Give them the chance to show you what they understand in a way that suits them. Equally our students like to feel heard, I’m sure if you look back at your own time in the education system there have been times where you did not feel heard. It is a disheartening and frustrating to feel like your input has no value. Encourage your students to talk and discuss their opinions and feedback daily.
Make it interactive
Mix up your lessons and offer a variety of content to help engage your students. Our students will naturally become more involved when the learning that’s happening matters to them. Incorporate hands on elements in your lessons where students can be actively involved in the learning process. Introduce different methods for students to document and present their findings. There is a variety of education technology available to suit every classroom from Google Classroom, Flipgrid, Sketch Notes, Google Expeditions etc.
Self-Monitor
Give your students the opportunity to monitor their own learning. Firstly, help them with the task of goal setting. Once these are in place it will help students to focus on their learning outcomes for the task that has been set. When this responsibility is handed over to our students it encourages them to be reflective throughout their learning, in turn making them aware of what they have learned and what they still need to learn.
We’d love to hear about any teaching strategies that you use with your students. Please share what works well for you with @aquilaeducation on Twitter orFacebook.
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