How To Make Students Own Their Learning

From the serial: Developing Students ' Ownership of Learning—from a Distance, besides!

Over the past several years, we have worked together with our colleague John Hattie to identify key practices that assist students develop ownership of their learning. We believe that students tin can — and should — get their own teachers . And westward east believe that teachers accept a profound function to play in helping students accomplish that goal . P erhaps most chiefly, we firmly believe that this is yet all possible within the current context of social distancing practices. In fact, these imperatives hold even more relevance now, as nosotros strive to ensure that educatee learners find success in every learning manner and context they may encounter on the ir learning journe ys.

Over the side by side several weeks, we're going to delve more deeply into th is idea of empowering students to own their own learning . And w e'll share a series of applied lessons that will help you support students as they make the leap into taking this ownership — even in the midst of challenging and sometimes difficult-to-navigate educational circumstances.

What Exactly is an Cess-Capable Visible Learner ?

When students own their learning and begin to teach themselves, we say that they are "cess-capable," visible learners. There are several indicators nosotros look for when identifying those students who meet the criteria of assessment-capable, visible learners. These students can exist characterized as learners who . . .

Know their electric current level of understanding
Understand where they're going and accept the confidence to take on the challenge
Select tools to guide their learning
Seek feedback and recognize that errors are opportunities to larn
Monitor progress and accommodate their learning
Recognize their learning and teach others

Of course, fostering these skills requires teachers to be assessment-capable themselves and to provide students with opportunities to practise and apply the skills required to get assessment-capable, visible learners.

How Do I Get Started? Elementary Lessons to Drive Students' Ownership of Their Learning

In our Condign An Assessment-Capable Visible Learner books for grades 3-5 and half dozen-12 , we worked aslope Karen Flories and John Hattie to arts and crafts lessons that are impactful and easy-to-implement. Every other week, we volition provide y'all with sample lessons from these books , including both teacher and pupil pages . You'll be able to immediately download and use these as yous develop plans for your particular teaching and learning surround.

We recognize that " distance learning, " does not always hateful virtual and digital . Depending on the realities in your district or school, you may need to physically print pages and drib them in a place where students can recollect them. Regardless, nosotros hope that that this presents an opportunity for yous to develop some habits with students that will serve them well —whatsoever the learning context may be.

Lesson: What is Learning ? One thousand rades half dozen-12

We'd like to start with students focusing on the question , what is learning? Perchance they accept taken this for granted. Maybe they haven't considered what learning will exist like from a distance. And so, we encourage y'all to first by surveying students. It'south a nifty starting signal or cheque-in signal for gauging any changes in students' experiences with school over time . Once they have the survey in the lesson, y ou might ask them to reflect on their results or perhaps have an online discussion about it. We adult a tool for utilise in grades 6 – 12, but this could exist adapted for employ with younger students.

View the southward ample l esson h ere : Teacher pages and student pages

Lesson: Ensuring Students Know What They Are Learning and What Success Looks Like , Grand rades 3-5 and 6-12

Teacher clarity is an accelerator of students' learning and we should be thinking about that as we change the environments in which students learn. Function of teacher clarity is ensuring that students know what they are learning (learning intentions) and what success looks like (success criteria). We promise that the altitude learning isn't distracting for students but rather presents an opportunity for them to keep learning. To encourage this, we suggest that you become even more than explicit nearly learning intentions and success criteria for each lesson. To aid students sympathise what learning intentions and success criteria are and how they piece of work, we have developed these lessons .

View sample lessons about 50 earning I ntentions here :

Grades half dozen-12 instructor pages and student pages
Grades 3-5 instructor pages and educatee pages

View sample fifty essons about Due south uccess C riteria here :

Grades 6-12 teacher pages and student pages
Grades 3-v teacher pages and student pages

Looking Ahead

In our next postal service in this serial, we'll take a closer wait at how to help students monitor their progress. And, nosotros'll begin to answer that elusive question facing students as they work to proceeds proficiency: How practise I know if I'm on the right path?