The power of autonomy

Our social studies Wiki and our reading blogs are up and running.  We had them up for 2 weeks before Christmas break.  And the mood in the classroom has changed.  Students are asking Stephanie and I, "Can we add to the Wiki at home?"  "Can I post a blog on what I am reading over the weekend?"  "Be sure you check my blog tonight and leave a comment!"  Students are starting to become more proactive in their learning, and expecting us, as teachers, to provide them feedback.  I am beginning to feel that students in our class have truly begun to see that learning is journey...they feel that their thoughts and comments are meaningful.  They have a voice, and people are listening....  This is powerful.  

Our road bumps now:

• ensuring ALL students are able to access the wiki and blog (some have had difficulty becoming a member of the wiki)
• once all students have access to the wiki, ensuring ALL students have a voice
• mentoring students on how to be critical "colleagues" - teach them how to push back on each others' thinking with civility and without hurting feelings
• keeping the excitement and the momentum of the wiki and blog going throughout the rest of the year
• setting up the reading blogs so students provide each other with feedback using our reading rubric that the class created
• ensuring that each student has another student to provide feedback

I am confident, with more thinking, the above can be accomplished...

Noel

The Think on Pink!

Today we saw a TED excerpt with Daniel Pink, the author of Drive The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.  As I was watching, I couldn't help but think how his talk can be mega applied to the classroom.  Pink talks about the 3 things that motivate people in business.  

1.  Autonomy

2.  Mastery 

3. Purpose

Next, I started thinking...OK, what is already in place in my classroom?  Or, what is becoming the new standard in my classroom?  This is what I am finding.

What drives a student to remain engaged in a self-directed activity? What are some elements that you think need to be in place? 

I think a lot of it has to do with what Pink calls Autonomy - or in other words CHOICE - more specifically, offering choice in the way students process information.  This can be a slippery slope if it is not understood that the target needs to be clear, remain the same in all choices and be tasks that are EQUALLY respectful and demanding.  Choice I think is the first step in motivation.  Second, I do think that students become engaged if they feel they are capable of mastering the activity/content.  We need to load our students with schema on the content in order for them to feel that they can reach success even before they start the assignment/activity.  If students feel that they can't achieve success, there will be no self-direction in the activity.  Schema and their ability to think metacognatively, "Yes, I know this"- is key to self-direction.  Students need to be able to know themselves as a learner - what their strengths and weaknesses - to be self directed, and it is the role of the teacher to be coaching them through this before you can start self-direction.  Students also need to be very clear on the intended learning and outcome...it is the role of the teacher to ensure that the targets are clearly and demanding.  

What are you doing in the classroom:  I think that we (Stephanie Gallegos and myself) have those respectful tasks that include the element of choice.  Using the 3 Modes of Intelligence, we differentiate processing assignments.  This allows the element of choice for students.  We have also, this week, set students up with a Social Studies Wiki.  I am amazed with the buzz of excitement.  Here, students are given guiding questions and the final targets to "report" out on.  All opinions are valued...and though we only started it yesterday (December 2) students were already online last night adding their thoughts and opinions.  We have given students the knowledge to think critically and give their own opinions, and they are taking off with this idea!  So I think that acknowledgement of their opinions and thoughts is also key to self direction.  

Noel