Learning Design & Student Voice Strategies

In their classrooms, teachers are architects of student experiences, and thus can create spaces that invite student excitement, creativity, accountability, and play. With thoughtful attention to their own planning processes, teachers can build upon their knowledge of students and content, and frame their classrooms as inviting and challenging spaces for students to do authentic work.

Where can teachers start? One productive route is inviting student dialogue, leading discussions, and raising the stakes in their ongoing inquiry. Metacognitive scaffolding can help students reflect on their own strengths and struggles and digital portfolios serve to collect and curate reflections along with student artifacts. Teachers can frame possibilities for student-led inquiry that translate into student-centered final projects.

Questions ERC can help you answer…

• How can teachers design opportunities that invite student engagement?
• In what ways can the Question Formulation Technique lead to student-centered classrooms?
• What ways can teachers leverage EdCafes to give students the space and structure to own their learning?
• How can Newmann’s definition of authentic achievement and rigorous work inform unit and lesson planning?
• When can aspects of Understanding by Design serve to shift the paradigm from traditional planning?