STUDENT AGENCY

Individually or with a class of students, brainstorm a mind-map to find out everything that interests them.  What are the students interested in, curious about, passionate about?  List as many topics as the student can think of.  Sometimes students can't think of anything that interests them.  A long list and ideas from their friends help them think of ideas that they might not have come up with on their own. From this list, design the student's learning or co-design the class learning.

Ask your student(s) to either sign their names under a topic or to tell the teacher their topic of choice.  The process of being required to deliberately choose a topic encourages students to practice the skill of choosing and making a decision -- something they are not always asked to do in an educational setting.

Self-Awareness is important so that students understand whether they are being efficient or not in their learning journey.  This ability is age-dependent, but also different for each learner.  Create forums for questioning, discussion, contemplation.  This can be done in simple conversation, in class councils, in journals, in freeze-and-think moments.

• What do you want?

• Did it work?  How do you know that?

• Did you tell that person what you need?  Did they understand?  How do you know that?

• What is your goal?  When will you know you have achieved it?