Unit 1: What is Choice-Based Learning?

Unit 1: Students will learn what choice-based learning is and how it affects instruction.

Lesson 1: Participants will describe choice-based learning.

Learners will watch two videos about choice-based learning

Learners will complete an informative quiz about choice-based learning without prior instruction

Learners will end the quiz by giving their own description of choice-based learning

These are the links to the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcFRfJb2ONk

http://frontoftheclassde.com/academic-choice/

The link to the quiz is below, with the personal description of choice-based learning as the last question.

https://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=mtg4nzk4mgk1i3

At this point it would be a good idea to talk with your group mates, or reflect by yourself, about how your ideas of choice-based instruction have changed.

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Lesson 2: Participants will describe the benefits and challenges of choice-based instruction.

Learners will read about creating choice-based instruction

Learners will review the challenges and benefits of choice-based instruction through a quiz and complete the lesson with a written summary

As mentioned in lesson 1, there are many benefits to creating a choice-based classroom. Giving students a sense of control increases their happiness and activity level, while reducing anxiety and stress. It also comes with the added bonus of confidence! Giving students choice, even in younger grades, leads to better work in less time. For older students, studies have shown that students do better work without step-by-step instructions, and remember the material better later. The idea of learning styles in education is something that was very popular for quite some time. While many people still believe in it, studies have shown that teaching to students' learning styles does not actually make much of a difference. While people do have preferences in the way that they learn, learning styles is not necessarily the way to reach them. By migrating towards a choice-based classroom it allows students to interact with the content in a way that they prefer, without teaching the same material in 7 different ways.

It is important to set up a classroom community that encourages students to make good choices about their learning. One way to do this is to allow students to choose their seats. They must make good choices about who they will sit with, and who will help further their learning, while not distracting them. To start off, it may be a good idea to give guidelines for choosing a seat. For example maybe the seats have to alternate genders, or the students have to sit next to somebody new each day. Another way to integrate choice is to give students some choice about how to complete their homework. If you are assigning a problem set, allow students to choose which problems, as long as they do a certain number. If you are assigning reading homework, can they choose their own book as long as they meet a page goal? Is it imperative that each student completes the same exact homework problems? Assigning summative projects is another way to integrate choice, as long as there are not too many specifics involved. Giving students a rubric and general guidelines, while allowing them to choose the method of expressing themselves, is going to get the best and most varied results. Giving students unstructured time to experiment and innovate is another great way to encourage innovation and creative ideas while giving students complete freedom (Ronan, 2015)! For more ideas on how to integrate choice into the classroom you can visit this site! For further reading, this is another great site.

To create a choice-based lesson start by thinking of exactly what you want your students to learn from the lesson. Not how you want them to learn it, just one or two succinct objectives. These objectives are the most important part of the lesson. After you have chosen your objectives then you can begin writing a rubric that works with those objectives, and is vague enough to allow lots of freedom for the students. After completing the rubric I like to create an introduction presentation that includes examples and some history behind my lesson. For example in an art lesson I would start by showing various artists that work in similar subject matter, or in interesting processes. While showing these artists I would give a brief art history lesson on each artist. Then I would explain the project and talk about the rubric. For the first day or two the students have free time to do research, sketch, experiment and do anything they need to do to prepare themselves for the final project. Once they are ready they present their idea to a peer and they do a peer critique offering constructive criticism (be sure to review what is appropriate and helpful language). Then students begin the process of creating their artwork. Throughout the project the students participate in various critiques and receive lots of feedback. I also periodically remind them of the end goal so that the do not get too far off track. At the end of the project we do one last critique, and students have another day to fix anything that the critique brought up. After that, students are responsible for coming in outside of class time to finish their projects if not complete. In the end each student completes a project that they feel a connection to, and that they have spent a lot of time on. Each piece is very different and reflects the way that each student works.

When creating choice-based lessons there are obviously some challenges that come along with such freedom. While it may seem that the teacher has to do less work if they are not lecturing or constantly giving presentations, they actually have to do more. They have to plan out how to make direction clear enough for each student to understand, while also not including too many specifics. Creating a rubric for a project, when you have no idea what the end product will look like, is quite challenging. Especially if students are using a wide range of materials. Teachers also have to be paying attention to how the students are working, and if it would be beneficial to stop the class to have a mini workshop to teach a new skill. Students obviously do not know everything, so it is critical to pay attention to what they are doing to know if you should introduce a new tool. Classroom management is a must in choice-based classrooms! Because everyone is doing something different, it is important that all students know the classroom routines and are ready to listen when they need to. Creating classroom routines is important so that everyone knows what they have to do when. Many teachers that work in public schools that have to deal with standards and testing may find this method of teaching difficult due to the wide range of content to be covered during the school year. However, without converting to a fully choice-based classroom you can still incorporate some degree of choice. Teaching choice-based classes also requires you to be comfortable with flexibility. Most of the time you will probably not know exactly how today's lesson is going to go, and that's okay. You will also probably not know the answer to every student's question, because you were not able to prepare for it. You have to be okay with not being the only person in the room that knows things. This is a great opportunity for students to involve research in class. If neither of you knows an answer, look it up! Teaching in a choice-based manner can be very rewarding for both students and teachers, and I hope you are ale to give it a try!

Follow this link to get to the quiz and short answer response.

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Resources

Corley, Mary A. "TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 6: Student-Centered Learning." Literacy Information and Communication System. U.S. Department of Education, 20 May 2016. Web. 04 May 2017.

Erwin, Jonathan C. "Chapter 4. Power in the Classroom: Creating the Environment." Books. ASCD, 2017. Web. 04 May 2017.

Kohn, Alfie. "Choices for Children: Why and How to Let Students Decide (*)." Alfie Kohn. Phi Delta Kappan, 16 Nov. 2014. Web. 04 May 2017.

McCarthy, John. "Student-Centered Learning: It Starts With the Teacher." Edutopia. Edutopia, 09 Sept. 2015. Web. 04 May 2017.

Pipkin, Cameron. "Three Ways to Give Students a Choice with Student Centered Learning (EdSurge News)." EdSurge. EdSurge, 10 July 2016. Web. 04 May 2017.

"Project-Based Learning with Academic Choice." Front of the Class. W.B. Simpson Elementary School, 02 Nov. 2016. Web. 05 May 2017.

Ronan, Amanda. "7 Ways to Hack Your Classroom to Include Student Choice." Edudemic. Edudemic, 20 Mar. 2015. Web. 04 May 2017.

TEDxTalks. "Teaching art or teaching to think like an artist? | Cindy Foley | TEDxColumbus." YouTube. YouTube, 26 Nov. 2014. Web. 04 May 2017.