When students own the learning they are motivated…

Skills and attitudes demonstrating ownership of learning.

“When can we do our mapping learning, Ms J?”
Various students have asked me this question since our mapping inquiry time on Friday and Monday. I love how excited many of them are. You can read about my thinking about using this lesson as an opportunity to hand over ownnership of their learning here and how they responded here.

During Monday’s mapping session my students demonstrated ownership of learning throughout. They were totally engaged and noticed and named behaviours, skills and attitudes that relate to ownership of learning. I heard students saying things like, “We talked about it and now we’re back on track”; “I need to make that decision”; “I need to ask myself that question before going to ask Ms J”; ” We’re ready to move on to part 2 – we’ve thought about it and made a plan so we are ready.”

Some students worked independently and collaborated as needed. Others worked in groups and made an effort to compromised fairly when making decisions.

When we reflected using What Went Well? and What challenges did you face? Many groups responded that they faced no challenges on Monday – things went smoothly because they communicated and cooperated with each other.

I noticed how students used their strengths and knew who to go to for support with a skill they lacked or for feedback,etc. I noticed some students being mindful and reflective.

I can’t wait for our next mapping session on Friday either.

One Response to When students own the learning they are motivated…

johnbarell says:

June 6, 2013 at 2:41 pm

Sounds like a very exciting classroom. Indeed, as you indicated, when students feel a sense of ownership–can make decisions about their own learning–they will feel more engaged. You asked them what went well and what are the challenges. If students think that all went well, then I want to know, “Why was this learning situation so successful? What worked well? What didn’t? Why?” Always want participants to be able to identify those important factors that you and I can identify–choice, control, motivation, engagement, achievement–only in their own terms.
Can ask ourselves same questions and, indeed, these reflective questions can be focus of supervision-for-improvement-of-instruction reflections with others. Nobody should be left saying, “It all went so well!” without being asked to identify important elements therein. Won’t always go so well and then we can control the elements/variables if we know what they are.

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