One of our big focuses as a school is fostering students' voice, choice, and agency.
These tenets are foundational in empowering students in their education.
Student Voice: This means giving students the opportunity to express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas in school. It's about listening to what students have to say and valuing their input in decisions that affect their learning and school environment.
Student Choice: This refers to allowing students to make decisions about certain aspects of their education. It involves giving them options and opportunities to select topics, projects, or methods of learning that align with their interests and strengths.
Student Agency: This is about enabling students to take an active role in their learning journey. It involves giving them the tools, skills, and responsibilities to make meaningful decisions, take initiative, and have a sense of ownership over their learning experiences.
Last week, 3 of our 5th grade students demonstrated the MOST beautifully authentic example of this. When Ms. Likar picked up her students from library, Nabila, Grace, and Adriana had each picked out a book from a series on feelings (after partnering with Mrs. Aceto for recommendations) and asked, "Can we put together a lesson plan for the first graders on feelings using these books?" Of course, Ms. Likar agreed!
The girls then independently developed a lesson plan that involved reading each book aloud and facilitating an activity that coordinated with each book. Each student individually created the craft that "matched" their book. The students even made a slide deck, model examples, and asked the first grade teacher for a class roster so they could form small groups! ALL this was initiated, developed, and delivered completely independent and unprompted!
When asked what sparked this idea, the girls shared, "We wanted them to learn more about feelings and wanted to do something "special" for them." When they reflected on the implementation of their plan, they shared that it felt so good to be "busy, professional, and have so much responsibility." They also acknowledged how important (but hard!) it is to learn everyone's names and build relationships.
These students exemplify voice, choice, agency, and our South Windsor Public Schools Portrait of a Graduate! They are DEFINITELY future teachers in the making and we will be capitalizing on their desire and skills for sure in the future!
