How to Facilitate Voice and Choice in a Student-Centered Classroom

Students in Classroom looking at boy with hand raised

by Maria Lee

Student Voice and Choice

Student voice and choice are part of 7 essential elements of Project Based Learning, according to PBLWorks.

John Larmer (2020), author of Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements, says, "Having a say in a project creates a sense of ownership in students. ---Students can have input and (some) control over many aspects of a project, from the questions they generate, to the resources they will use to find answers to their questions, to the tasks and roles they will take on as team members, to the products they will create." (pg. 3) But Larmer emphasizes that "student voice" differs somewhat from “choice"--"it means allowing students to speak in their own way, to express their own opinions, rather than speak in ways they think the teacher wants’ (Pg. 3)

How do you provide more voice and choice to your students? Let's find out.

3 Ways to Provide Voice and Choice

Jennifer Pieratt, author of "Start Small But Mighty: Voice and Choice in PBL" article, believes teachers who want to provide students with voice and choice should start small. Pieratt suggests that if teachers want some success, there are 3 ways to provide students with voice and choice:

Idea 1: Provide Three Choices for Final Products

Identify products with a similar theme, and can equally showcase content mastery and skills. For example, perhaps students will create a public service announcement. To increase voice and choice, students can choose from:

Visual PSA Commercial
Audio Public Broadcast Ad
Print or Social Media Campaign.

These three options will allow you to equally assess student understanding of content and evaluate similar 21st-century skills.

Idea 2: Provide One Choice for Product, But Variety In Content

Teachers can provide some choice for students by allowing them to pick what they learn about. You can do this through research topics in the early benchmarks of a project. For example, in a first-grade project exploring biomimicry, students may get to pick which animal they research for their final product. In upper grades, students can have variety in the field work they engage in to help them collect data for their project. Perhaps you set up five unique field experiences, and students can identify which they feel maps best to their research and interests. And if you're feeling adventurous, you can allow students to have some choice in their final product and their research content.

Idea 3: Allow Students to Propose an Authentic Audience of Their Choice

Students will naturally connect to people and places in your community when you develop the bones of an authentic project. Pieratt suggests As you round the final benchmarks of the project, you can ask students to identify an audience for their final product. You can simply ask them:

Who do you think needs to hear about this issue?
Who in our community has the power to help solve this problem?
What is the best way for us to tell them about this issue or problem?

You can provide examples such as blog posts, editorials, print campaigns, PSAs, letters to board members, etc. From here, students can write a proposal for who they would like to share their learning with and how they would like to go about it.

5 Ways to Get the Ball Rolling to Transform Learning

Rebecca Alber, author of "5 Ways to Give Your Students More Voice and Choice" article, suggests 5 ways to transform your learning space you share with your students, where you become the facilitator and guide. They are:

1. Stuff we want to know about:

Brainstorm an ongoing class list of stuff they want to know about and are interested in—a phenomenon, an event, or a law, for example. If you are a science, math, or history teacher, you can ask that it be about your field, but I also encourage you to have it be about anything (and then you can find connections to content later). Inquiry is a skill that all teachers should build regardless of content.

2. Task force teams of inquiry:

Let teams form (or help with this) and ask each team to select a topic from the brainstorm list. Their mission is to explore, research, and present on that topic. If you’re thinking too much valuable class time off the curriculum or content, connect it to the educational standards your school follows. (Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are involved here, so turn to those Common Core anchor literacy standards.)

3. Assessing their needs and wants:

We should never underestimate the power of the five-point Likert scale as a quick, quantitative measure to see where students are. You can create several statements for a unit of study to gauge student interest first, and then their understanding and experience with the content, materials, activities after.

Consider including a couple fill-ins and evaluate the responses for patterns and repetition. Use both the tally of numbers from the Likert and the fill-ins to inform your planning. You can say to students, “I tallied the numbers and there were twelve 5s and eleven 4s, so that tells me _____ is important to most of you. We will explore that next together. However, in ranking how well you understood writing a thesis statement, most of the class selected 1 or 2, so we’re going to spend some time reviewing and practicing thesis statement writing." With anonymity, students are more candid and honest, so make including a name on the survey optional.

4. Think-aloud:

Model for students' learning as you read an article on a current event or topic of study. For example, as you read, pause, ask questions and make comments and connections to things you already know or even things you’ve explored as a class. Have students do the same with a partner, then eventually in groups of three or four.

For high school students, I like Kelly Gallagher’s Article of the Week, which he uses with his students. Building the prior knowledge of students is also part of our job—and not just knowledge about the content we teach, but also about the world.

5. Project options and self-grading:

Think about how these two sentences sound: “You will have several projects to choose from” and “You will create a trifold poster...” They might remind us that no matter the age, we all like choices, especially for demonstrating our skills and abilities.

Strategies to Give Students More Ownership, Choice, and Voice

A Better Lesson instructional Coach, Valerie Librezzi, suggests in her article "How to Give Your Students More Ownership, Voice and Choice in Your Classroom" to start by thinking about a strategy you’d like to try for each area:

Ownership

How can you help students “own” their learning? Try having them set personalized learning goals using the SMART Goal Setting strategy, and then reflect on and refine those goals regularly

Choice

How can you give students choice in their learning activities? Create a choice board in which students can select the tasks that are most meaningful and relevant for their success! To learn more, consult the Choice Boards for Student Agency strategy.

Voice

How can you support students to have a voice and role in the classroom, so they feel valued members of the community? Create specific roles for each of your students during group work. To learn more about student roles, consult the Student Roles: Democratizing Group Work strategy.

Better Lesson’s Master Teachers have also written lessons to support you in building more ownership, choice, and voice into your classroom.

• To give students more ownership and voice in her classroom, 5th Grade ELA Better Lesson Master Teacher, Teresa Klein, developed a Classroom Jobs and Expectations lesson to demonstrate how to create jobs for each of your students, and share those roles with students.

• To give her students choice in their learning experiences, 8th grade Science Better Lesson Master Teacher, Lori Knasiak, implemented 20% of their time into her science curriculum, where students have 20% of their learning time to devote to a content-related topic they developed.

• To give his students more ownership and voice in his classroom, 9th grade Algebra Better Lesson Master Teacher, James Dunseith, gave his students space to collaboratively problem solve to demonstrate their understanding and provide feedback on each other’s algebraic moves. To learn more, explore James’ Collaborating to Level Up lesson.

As for Language Learners, Abbey Algiers, author of the "Building Student Ownership and Engagement for Language Learners" article, emphasizes that "the key to engagement lies in giving students ownership of their learning, in all areas of their education". Algiers suggests how to build this ownership and engagement for great student success:

1. Help students take ownership of their own learning.

We all know how overwhelming for newcomers when they arrive in a new country and new school. If you are an EL educator, you may have many resources to help our newcomers. Students may quickly learn to feel comfortable with the ESL teacher, as it is likely their safe place where they’re understood, with easy access to the resources they need. However, in mainstream or content classrooms, this isn’t always the case, and confusion and overwhelm can cause EL students to “check out” during instruction that is too difficult.

Therefore, have work modified for their language level, but the work should be interesting and understandable. It’s one thing to have a newcomer folder ready full of student activities. However, a folder full of activities isn’t always the most attractive thing for an 8-year-old. Instead, present the folder with a schedule and system of expectations/rewards. Let the student know that when the class works on X, the student will work on Y, which is provided for him or her in the folder. As much as possible, have these activities closely tied with the regular lessons, and ask the student to show feedback in the form of visuals created for the class. For example, he or she could work on drawing a diagram of a plant with labels, while students in your class area read or take notes. The student could then share that with the class afterwards. The bottom line, student engagement is much more likely when a student understands the work assigned and the timeline and expectations associated with it, and how it plays a part in his or her daily education.

2. Allow students to create ownership in the classroom.

When newcomer students arrive, make them aware of the daily routines of the classroom and school. Better yet, give them a job in that routine, something that will allow them to feel part of the experience. Ask a student to help you put up a bulletin board, arrange books, or similar activity that gives the student ownership. When labeling objects around the room, consider asking the student to label them in their language, then English, giving the student an active role in their own learning. Newcomers, seasoned EL students, and non EL students can help create a bulletin board in the room that celebrates the cultures of all students. Here, students can share photos, flags, or interesting facts about their heritage countries and home languages. Other students can also contribute, using family heritage information. All these activities show EL students you care about their background, and that you’re interested…which may spark more engagement and ownership in their learning and environment.

3. Take that ownership to the school community.

Look for places around the school where students can share information about their countries, such as bulletin boards, display cases, or specific areas of the cafeteria or gym. Students can also be featured on the school website or in social media posts. Flags, country information, language information, or facts about foods eaten around the world are great topics to share. Ask your EL students to share their favorite foods and see if the cafeteria staff can incorporate it into the school lunch. Then have the student on hand to talk about it with their class.

4. Show students how to take ownership of their futures.

As students become more comfortable in school, remind them that being bilingual has many benefits. Use this to fuel discussions with your EL students and whole class. This can lead to discussions about future careers available to bilingual workers. Ask students to investigate areas of interest and point out how their linguistic abilities are an asset. This is a win-win -- your EL students will realize how beneficial their language abilities are, and other students will see why studying a second language is important. As a bonus, your EL students will feel more “special” than “different” as they learn English and adapt.

5. Create a strong connection with families, so everyone can take ownership of the education of EL students.

When families are informed and educated about what’s happening at school, they are much more able to help them at home and reinforce school expectations. Plus, when students see the school reaching out positively to their parents, they are also likely to feel more connected to the school community. Invite parents to visit your classroom or volunteer in the school. Ask them to come in and share food from their country. Since language is often a barrier, using interpreters whenever possible is welcomed. Also, look at the number of communications sent home daily. Try to translate important letters, or have an interpreter contact the family regarding special events or projects.

Conclusion

To create a mindset of self-direction and student ownership, educators can empower students with voice and choice. How do you provide student voice and choice? Jennifer Pieratt “ Start Small But Might: Voice and Choice in PBL” article suggests 3 ideas of how to start small but mighty in PBL. "5 Ways to Give Your Students More Voice and Choice" author Rebecca Alber suggests brainstorming, tasks force of teams of inquiry, assessing students' needs and wants, think-aloud, and self-grading to get the ball rolling on transforming learning. Valerie Librezzi and Abbey Algiers provide strategies educators can use to give students more ownership, choice, and voice. These are just some ways educators can use student voice and choice in the classroom.