Day 8: Student Voice and Choice

The last couple of days I have been in a number of classrooms and spoken with many students. One of the things that made me very excited was seeing the intentional creation of opportunities for student voice and choice to be heard. 

I saw a variety of seating options. Not only choice for students to choose where they sit, but when and how. There was no assigned seating, and multi-levels of seating choices. Students made decisions based on the work they were doing and how they felt at certain times of the day. One student told me that in the morning the choice was to be at a standing level table away from other students. This helped the student wake up. Later in the day, this same student chose to sit on the floor with a group of peers to discuss the problem they were solving. This choice was extended to students even when they gathered as a whole group. Some students sat on the carpet, some stood along the shelving, some sat at tables at the edge of the carpet. All students were engaged and participating in the lesson, and there was minimal fidgeting and squirming. The classroom had spaces for quiet work and group work. It was lovely to see.

                           

Students told me that they loved being able to choose where to sit and who to sit with, because sometimes they liked to sit with friends but other times they needed to sit with different people or by themselves in order to learn better. I heard comments like "standing helps me do my math because I can jiggle my feet"  and "I like to be in a corner and lean back when I am reading a really interesting book" and "I like standing when we come to the carpet because when I used to sit I would need to move and wiggle and I would distract other people" and "I like sitting at a round table with my group so we can all reach the paper". Thanks to Mrs. Lalonde's and Mrs. Kowalyk's class for welcoming me and letting me join in their learning.  http://kowalyk.edublogs.org/   Our Thoughtful Threes @MrsKowalyksroom