Boosting Agency, Engagement, and Independence: Getting Students to Take Ownership of Their Own Literate Lives

[Notes from a session with Mike Ochs, Katie Clements, and Jen DeSutter]

Ways to Boost Agency, Engagement, & Independence

• Provide more latitude
• Freedom in action and thought within parameters
• Be brief & clear
• The human brain is not designed to think deeply for very long
• We don’t get better by listening, we get better by practicing
• Hattie: Teacher clarity matters
• Harness interests
• Sometimes it can work against us (Be careful we don’t make it uncool)
• A hook at the beginning
• Set clear goals with regular feedback
• Where I’m going, how I’m going, and where to next?
• Foster positive learning mindsets
• How can we demonstrate positive learning mindsets? Because it’s on us, it’s not their job.
• Be what you want to see

Provide more latitude

When you provide an assignment, the teacher owns it.

Today’s menu

Clarity

IRE (Inquire, Respond, Evaluate) is a great way to lose the attention of kids.

“Guess the answer in our mind.”

At the beginning of a unit, show mentor texts of what kids will be learning during the unit.

Set Clear Goals and Feedback

Micro-progressions

Jot lot - helps with feedback

Glow and Grows (feedback post-its) often lags too far behind.

Foster Positive Learning Mindsets: Intrinsic Motivation

The true joy of learning is learning itself

Ex: Chart: “Things that I am learning”

Three types of goals:

• Social goals
• Performance goals
• Mastery Goals

Teachers can have goals, too!

Ex: I can meet with 4 kids in a conference and do 1 small group per day. (Post it and track it)

All Students are Ready for Independent Writing Projects and Inquiry Projects

Transitioning learners need:

• Process feedback
• Help linking ideas, seeing relationships
• Help extending

Proficient Learners need:

• Elaborated feedback
• Conceptual feedback
• Recognition of efforts toward extending and applying knowledge

The Power and Challenges of Choice

Maximize Day-to-Day Opportunities for choice

• Topic choice
• Process choice
• Strategy/tool choice

Idea: Can you fit in a weeklong or two-week independent writing project between units of study where writers start a project working through a cycle of writing, then maybe finish it later at home (ex: The week before Christmas break)

How can we give kids choice in genre and topic?

It sounds like a lot from a teacher perspective, but kids just take it and run with it.

Engaged students are delighted by their topics.

Independent Writing Project proposal

I want to write ________________________

I chose this piece because ________________________

I plan to use the following resources:

  1. ________________________

  2. ________________________

How can we support student choice across the unit of study? Share the plan with kids:

Rehearsal (4-6 sessions)

Draft (1-2 sessions)

Revise (5-8 sessions)

Edit (1-2 sessions)

Publication (1-2 sessions)

Have students plan out their writing process at the beginning of the project.

https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/a-clarification-of-the-goal-of-transfer-and-how-it-relates-to-testing/

Give kids more choice over the mentor texts they select for themselves.

Teach kids to look for a mentor text with…

• Interesting moves
• A tone that hooks you
• A creative structure
• Strengths you could benefit from

Study

1. Are they interesting to you? Is that something you need to work on as a writer?

2. Put a lot of words around it. “Show, don’t tell.” What does that mean?

What other tools could we get into kids hands?

• Paper choice
• Checklists
• Could kids create their own tools

Questions to Ask When Conferring Toward Independence

• What are you working on as a writer? Why?
• What are you planning to do next?
• What tools are you using? How are those tools helping you?
• What’s been challenging lately? What have you done about that challenge?
• What would you have done next if I didn’t come over?

Offer seminars rather than small groups

Ex: Offer different seminars that kids might benefit from. Then invite kids to sign up.

She suggests offer 2 per day for a week. Kids need to sign up for at least one, and can’t sign up for all of them. Kids sign up for the week.

Facilitate students to offer their OWN small groups.

The Power of Inquiry and Its Reciprocity with Literacy: A Case Study

Study Sample:

PS107 Brooklyn - 4th grade

Strong foundation in Reading Workshop and Writing Workshop

Questions:

How could inquiry propel everyday literacy work?

What new things could be learned about students as readers and writers?

Working with the Teacher:

Book study:

The Curious Classroom: 10 Structures for Teaching with Student-Directed Inquiry 
by Harvey "Smokey" Daniels 
Link: http://a.co/1EnMKHS

Inquiry as a way to propel research across the year

How do we use reading and writing when we research?

What process or protocol do we follow when wondering or curious about something?
How do questions drive new learning?

Goals for the study:

Ratchet up student engagement

Build a sense of responsibility

Build digital literacy skills

Where could inquiry live within the reading curriculum?

Content area work - Revolutionary War Reading Unit, SS units

Morning Meeting - Wonder Wall

Research based NF reading unit - topics of personal interest

The Launch of Inquiry Work: Revolutionary War Reading Unit

• Pre-inquiry work
• What did we notice readers doing
• How could we use inquiry?

Building Questions

• What do I wonder?
• What do I wish I knew?
• What is confusing or weird?

Noticed questions:

Some were quick finds

Some were questions about things they’ve already read

Teacher Reflection

• What did we learn as teachers?
• Formulate questions (Wide span of ability)
• Use search engines (Kids didn’t really know how to search)

Next Steps:

• Google Classroom
• Wonder Wall across the curriculum (SS, personal topics)

A Protocol to Support Inquiry

Choose Topics to Spark Your Inquiry

1. Topics can be something you know a lot about

2. Topics can be something you’re interested in learning more about

Dive Deeper into Inquiry: Wonderings

• Develop questions and add to the wall
• Sort and group like questions
• Decide between independent work and research teams
• Set up for the research

“How did you come up with your questions?”

Example inquiry questions:

• Who invented basketball
• How does an animal become endangered?
• What do scientist believe about DN from the first animal?

Assess Questions and Plan for Research

1. What resources could be helpful?

• Books about… Chapters about…
• Articles about…
• Videos about…
• People who know about…

2. Are my questions ready for a search engine?

• What will I get if my questions are too broad?
• What will happen if my questions are too narrow?

3. How will I collect my information?

• Digital systems
• Analogue systems
• Ability to manipulate and sort
• Ability to synthesize and determine importance