Student Suggestions for Increasing Autonomy
This chart is a compilation of my students' suggestions on ways that they could have a bigger role in the classroom and the reaction that they had when I introduced the idea to them. These artifacts are discussed in greater detail and contextualized in the Implementing my Inquiry Project section.
SuggestionGiving students classroom responsibilities & duties
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ReactionMany of the students thought that this is irrelevant in a high school class and more appropriate for elementary school students. Some students suggested that we have a class leader who is in charge of collecting papers. However, the students didn’t really seem interested in this idea and declared that I should be the one in charge of assigning students jobs. Therefore, I concluded that this method is not applicable for my students and would do little to improve their actual learning.
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Class Discussions
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While my students appreciated this suggestion, they acknowledged that we already have this activity in place. I think that discussions will continue to be a critical classroom activity because it encourages critical thinking and allows the students to relate classroom information to their own lives.
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"Student As Teacher" AKA Flipped Classroom Model
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Some students seemed to really like this suggestion because they said that, “children understand children better,” and will be able to get their points across. However, I am unsure how to implement this. Should the students read from the textbook to learn about the topics? What other sources can we use? Although some students liked this suggestion, another student warned that if they were given too much freedom, some students would simply “play around” and not take the topic seriously. Over the next few weeks, I will work to tweak and implement this suggestion because I think that it can be useful in giving students more autonomy and improving student learning.
Updated Comment (from April) After spending the semester implementing my inquiry project, I can say that I was successfully able to incorporate this idea of Student as Teacher aka the Flipped Classroom model. It was actually easier to do than I expected and I think that the students really enjoyed having the extra control over their learning. For more specific information on “Student as Teacher,” see the section on outlining. |
Movies
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This was a very popular suggestion. However, I had to explain that we needed to make sure that the movie/video clip was educational, as well as entertaining. This point seemed lost on the students, but is definitely something I will keep in mind when planning for future lessons.
Updated Comment (From April): My classes never watched a movie as a learning activity. Although we continued to watch short video clips, I did not think that watching an entire movie would help my students learn, nor did we have the time to watch a complete film. |
Trivia Ball Game
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Several of the suggestions that my students proposed were ways to review the material before a quiz or exam. One of these was something called a Trivia-Ball game, in which a beach ball would be thrown to a student, who would then have to answer a question. If they did not know the answer, the student would be allowed to pass the ball to another student. If they got the question correct, they would get extra credit points and then throw the ball to another student. The students really liked this suggestion and it should be a useful and fun review activity.
Updated Comment (From April): We were not able to complete this activity because I did not have a beach ball and I was not sure how the students would respond. However, we did review in similar ways where students were able to demonstrate their knowledge and exert some control over the learning. |
Current Events
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Some of the students said that they wanted history class to be more relevant to their lives. Someone suggested that we learn about things that are happening in the world today. I really like this idea and think that it is very important for the students to know what is going on in the world around them. However, when I asked the students if they would want to present an article every week or put in some effort to achieve this goal, they immediately said no and were not interested. It seems like it may be difficult to accommodate their suggestions if they are not willing to put in work outside of the classroom.
Updated Comment (From April): This inquiry project focuses on my experiences with the 9th grade World History classes. I also taught an AP Government class, where the students were older, more mature, and interested in and knowledgeable about current events. I found that I was really able to get the students excited about the topics and interested in the material. About 2-3 times a week, I would show students different articles and we would discuss what was happening around the world. I would definitely want to implement this practice in the future because I believe it is really important for students to be knowledgeable about what is going on in the world. To combine current events with student autonomy, I would have a rotation of students present an article once of twice a week. The students would have autonomy in the articles that they present and they would have the opportunity to teach the information to the class. |
Debates / Mock Trials
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When I introduced this suggestion to the students, they were immediately excited by it and clearly liked the idea. Students seemed to really want to do this and said that they were willing to put in effort to complete the project. I have already begun thinking of ways to include this activity into my units for this semester. It is definitely something that I would like to do with my students.
Updated Comment (From April): Since the students were extremely excited about this suggestion, I made sure to implement it. When learning about the Scientific Revolution, students worked to put on a Mock Trial about Galileo Galilei, which will be discussed in greater detail in a later section. Although I was happy with the outcome, I would definitely make several changes before doing it again. |
Group Work
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Some students requested that we more group activities in order to complete assignments. This was the most controversial suggestion. Students in my second period class are strongly opposed to group work. Many of them say that group work is not fair because not everyone contributes equally and although the hardworking students end up doing all of the work, everyone in the group gets the same grade. We then came up with several suggestions on how we can avoid this problem. These include holding students accountable for certain aspects of the project, having students write out what each group member contributed to the project, and/ or writing a reflection about working on the project. The students also suggested that the teacher put all of the hardworking students in one group and the non-hardworking students in another group. However, Ms. Jean-Paul and I discussed why this would not be fair and could even come off as rude. At the end of the lesson, my students seemed slightly more interested in doing group work, but were still not convinced that it was a good way to learn.
My 3rd period class was much more amenable to group work and said that they wanted to work with each other. However, I’ve seen them work together and they do not always produce the greatest work. Therefore, I was a little surprised that they were so interested in doing group work. I will need to work to come up with ways to make this strategy useful for the students. Updated Comment (From April): Although my students have not yet reached a consensus, they have continued to do group work throughout the semester. I have found that it was really helpful to use in conjunction with some of the projects that we have done this semester. This will be discussed in greater detail throughout the rest of this paper. |