In my blog post titled “3 Ways to Build Student Agency into Your Lessons,” I encouraged teachers to design lessons that allow students to make key decisions about their learning. Student agency is one of the easiest ways that teachers can begin to personalize learning. If students are invited to make decisions about the subject or topic they focus on, how they complete a task, or what they produce to demonstrate their learning, the learning path and products will be different for individual students.
In addition to personalizing learning, giving students agency is a powerful motivator. When students are given opportunities to select the lens they look through or decide how they want to approach a task, they are more likely to be interested and engaged in the learning.
A simple strategy for increasing student agency in your classroom is to provide students with a choice board of options they can choose from to demonstrate their learning at the end of an investigation, unit, or project.
In addition to offering a range of options, teachers can build supports and scaffolds into the choice board by hyperlinking to support documents. For example, if students decide to create a TED Talk to inspire others to act on an issue, they simply click the link to access a storyboard that will support them as they plan their talks.
Alternatively, if a student wants to build a model, the link will take them to a planning document that prompts them to think through the steps needed to create their model, create a list of the materials, and write an explanation of what their model is designed to do.
When students are told exactly what to do and how to do it, they remain passive participants in the classroom. They may not have to think critically or creatively about their learning. By contrast, when they are challenged to make key decisions about what they do and how they do it, they must actively engage in the learning process.
32 Responses
Hi Catlin,
I love these and would love to use them with my students. Are these documents available for classroom use? Thank you!
You are welcome to use them, Jennifer!
Catlin
Love this and it comes at a perfect time when I am wanting to add some choices to a final product list we are about to have. I’m going to try to use some of these for my U.S. History students to convince me which factor was the greatest influence on why the colonists were able to defeat the British in the American Revolution. I think the TEDTalk might be fun to include.
Hello
I’m really glad to read this article. The voice, choice, and ownership can be given to the students very specifically. Although we have been doing a choice board in our classroom as a strategy or assessment. But this is very individualized.
thank you for the wonderful resource!
Regards
Reshma.
[…] Student Agency: What Do Students Want to Create to Demonstrate Their Learning? | […]
This is great!!!!
[…] is a really nice post by Catlin Tucker about giving students an opportunity to choose their own final project. She […]
As usual, you share out the practical behind the theory. Your posts are the most useful. I share them regularly with my teachers.
Thank you, Eileen!
Catlin
[…] incorporate different performance assessments in your classes, check out this post, Student Agency: What Do Students Want to Create to Demonstrate Their Learning? There are some great options and ideas that your students could choose from including presenting a […]
Thanks Caitlin, I love this and my kids will also!
Thank you for always being so helpful and supportive. You are appreciated! 🙂
Thank you for the kind words, Tara! 😊
Catlin
Thank you for sharing ! Really inspiring resource. I was wondering if you do not mind if I could try it ? Just thinking of introdicong the choice boar for the four last units of inquiry . After presenting it give students the chance to start choosing one by one of the options until they have used them all. All of the choices given are very valuable practice for exhibition presentation later on. Your article is very much appreciated. Many thanks. Cheers!
You are welcome to use it, Maria!
Catlin
Amazing way to show student’s voice and choice to deliver learning.
This is great, I also ask my teachers to give choice if project and attach a task sheet…
Thanks for sharing more ideas!
Caitlin, thank you so much for sharing these incredible ideas for getting students to create! This is a timely reminder as I am working closely with a 4th-grade team looking for great ways to have their students engage creatively and collaboratively to culminate their research clubs in a weather unit.
I used your templates and tweaked it for our students and their research, thank you for sharing!!!
You are so welcome, Brian! I’m thrilled you can use modified versions with your students.
Catlin
Thank you for sharing
Thank you for the great idea. I am inspired to use it with my first graders. I will have to tweak it a bit to fit my students and things they can do. I am thinking of using it with my informational research project.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Form Teacher in Thailand
You’re welcome, Nathawin!
I love how you’ve built voice and choice into these projects for youth to showcase their learning as well as generate meaningful content while building their tech skills. I think your projects can be beautifully incorporated into out-of-school environments, including teen internships in my not-for-profit educational institution (a library). For this reason, I’m writing to ask if it’s acceptable to cite you as the original creator for the project choice board like so: “This remixed _______ worksheet was originally created and shared by @Catlin_Tucker (https://catlintucker.com/).” May you please confirm? Thanks so much!
Yes, you are welcome to use it with credit, Robin. Thank you for asking 🙂
Take care.
Catlin
Thank you very much for sharing. I will use it in my class kids will love this.
You’re welcome!
Take care.
Catlin
Thank you for this fantastic resource!!! May I use it with our 5th graders for their IB-PYP Exhibition projects?
Absolutely, Carolyn! I hope your std enjoy the project options.
Take care.
Catlin
Hi Caitlin! I love your stuff and have been following you for a few years now:) We are having our students do their own TED Talk style speeches this year and am interested in your storyboard / planning page assignment. Any chance I can get a copy to use with my kids?
Hi Jen,
You can access both the project choice board and all of the supporting documents in that blog post. I’ve provided the direct link below.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1P4j2RWVZV1mCMXEOtHR_uZ7ENqentZsMcK8vbaTFyqk/edit
Let me know if you have any issues accessing it or making copies.
Take care.
Catlin
I really like this choice board. I’m excited about introducing this to my students.