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technology expands the walls of the One Teacher's Experience
classroom, allowing parents greater Incorporating Student Choice. The change needed to
access to student projects and the begin with me. If I was
day-to-day goings on in their child’s About four years ago, I found myself
classroom (Sulla-Routledge, 2015). frustrated by my “stand and deliver” going to ask my stu-
Using the principles of Response to style of teaching. I was simply rep- dents to take risks and
licating my learning experience and
Intervention (RTI), teachers who operate passing along information using the invite them to wonder
a student-centered classroom that incor- same tools that were used on me. about what was pos-
porates choice do not wait until students I have such a diverse population of
fall far enough behind before being pro- students, and I was not reaching all of sible, I had to be willing
vided the help that they need (Buffman, them. I felt as though I was doing all to do that for myself.
Mattos & Weber, 2010). Alternatively, of the work and my students were just
teachers have a responsibility to create passive receivers of the information.
a classroom environment that is flexible They were not inspired or curious. My class is completely different now.
enough to respond to individual student Some were revolting, some of them In the past, you may have walked by
needs in the moment. were getting good at checking the my room and seen levels of compli-
The American Council on the Teaching boxes and filling in worksheets, and ance, but today, there is engagement.
You might see students working
of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has others were simply checking out. I was independently or in a small group, they
identified five major levels of profi- ready to do whatever it took to change might be using a video app to lend
ciency, from advanced through novice, so that I could reach every single one their voice to a discussion we started
with levels in between of high, mid, of my learners. online, some might be playing games
and low (Swender, Vicars, & Conrad, The change needed to begin with me. to practice their skills, while others are
2012). By applying a tiered system of If I was going to ask my students to contributing their comments via “talk
interventions, combined with the ACT- take risks and invite them to wonder to text” to a shared Google doc. I have
FL guidelines on proficiency, teachers about what was possible, I had to be become a facilitator of the learning,
can create levels of work based on willing to do that for myself. I read stopping in to visit each student and
student skills, which can serve as a everything I could get my hands on helping him or her with his or her as-
pathway to proficiency by allowing to help me change the way I thought signments. I am amazed by my class-
teachers to meet their students where about teaching and learning. Then, I room today. It was such a worthwhile
they are and support them as they worked on building the learning space. endeavor to invest in my professional
move through a continuum. This keeps I eliminated the rows of desks and learning and in my students.
the content accessible and inclusive to put my students into clusters, I invited
all the learners in the class, and allows my students to participate in creating
students to move at their own pace. a safe place where they had input Empowering Teachers to
Teachers may want to reconsider into the learning process. I, too, was Implement Choice in the
traditional scaffolding practices, going through a learning process, right Classroom
which may actually rob students of in front of them. This was difficult, it Implementing student choice in the
important learning opportunities and took a while to break away from the classroom represents a paradigm shift
independence (Burkins & Yaris, 2016). belief that I needed to be the expert for students, teachers, and school
Instead, teachers should make small on everything at all times, but I knew leaders. The comfort of the traditional
but powerful adjustments to instruction that I could not be the sole purveyor classroom is appealing to school
in order to support students in taking of knowledge, especially with all of the leaders who value an orderly school
ownership over their own learning. technology that was available. environment. Teachers own school
Creating appropriate scaffolds that I gathered resources both in print and experience often represented orderly
empower students to make decisions digitally. I wanted to empower them to rows and teacher directed instruction.
about their own levels of proficiency make choices about when and how In order to support student choice in
and set goals as to how and in what they learned. Students love to use the classroom, school leaders must
period they will be able to move to the their cell phones, so I taught them to first design strategies to support both
next level of proficiency is a critical use it as a tool to take their learning on students and teachers in an environ-
component to incorporating choice the go. I gave them choices in which ment that maybe uncomfortable at
into the classroom. Student choice activities they did. I used technology first. Twenty-first century skills demand
is much more than allowing students and sound pedagogy to help me that students become producers of
control over what they learn and personalize their learning. As a result, content rather than consumers of it.
how they demonstrate knowledge, they did the most amazing things. I The question that remains is “how do
it also requires that students have a could not believe what my students we get there?” Implementing student
mechanism to track and be reflective were capable of doing. choice in the classroom is an impor-
of their own learning. tant step in the process, but it requires
that we first help students become ac-
customed to academic freedom. Stu-

Educational Viewpoints -77- Spring 2018