Academic ChoicesMoore Public Schools

What is Academic Choice in public school and why should we try it? Academic Choice is a way to structure lessons and activities. When

teachers use Academic Choice, they decide on the goal of the lesson or activity, then give students a list of options for what to learn and/or how to go about their learning in order to reach the defined goal.

When students have choices in their learning, they become highly engaged and productive. They’re excited about learning and sharing their knowledge. They’re likely to think more deeply and creatively, work with more persistence, and use a range of academic skills and strategies. In addition, research has generally found that children have fewer behavior problems when they have regular opportunities to make choices in their learning.

From Responsive Classroom website

The three main purposes of using Academic Choice in your classroom: To help children learn new skills or information

A third grade class is studying insects, and the teacher wants the children to get some basic information about these animals. The teacher gives children choices in how to get such information, including by reading a book about insects, listening to a recording about insects, interviewing someone who studies insects, or observing and recording insects’ appearance and behavior.

To help children practice new skillsA first grade teacher would like the students to practice subtraction. She gives them a list of ten problems and lets them choose eight to solve. Then the children decide what they’ll use to solve the problems. They can choose from three manipulatives (stickers, counting blocks, or Cuisenaire® Rods), a computer program, and a worksheet.

To have children demonstrate mastery of skills or contentA fourth grade class has just read My Father’s Dragon, and the teacher would like the students to demonstrate their understanding of the format of a heroic adventure story. He asks the students to create their own adventure story following the format of the book but to include their own original ideas. The students have an open-ended choice of characters, events, and resolutions. They also have a choice in how to present their story, from writing it, to performing a skit with puppets, to making a map showing where the major events of the story take place. From Responsive

Classroom website

What are the benefits of Academic Choice in the classroom? Supports children’s intrinsic motivation to learn

Academic Choice helps children meet their innate need to feel competent, to belong, and to have some degree of freedom or autonomy. This frees them to pursue constructive learning experiences.

Encourages children to learn from each otherAcademic Choice gives children opportunities to consult each other about their work, see each other’s finished products, and talk with each other about how they achieved their final result.

Draws on different strengths, abilities, and interestsHaving choices allows children to work from their areas of strength and personal interest. They’re then more likely to feel invested in their work and to draw personal meaning from it.

Maximizes children’s learningThe planning, working, and reflecting process mirrors how children naturally learn. It allows them to generate their own goals, actively interact with concrete materials, and make sense of their experiences. This gradually broadens their knowledge and makes them more sophisticated thinkers.

  From Responsive Classroom website

How do I start using Academic Choice in my classroom?Planning, working, reflecting Many teachers already give children choices of how or what to learn:

Choose six of the following ten questions to answer. Choose a mammal to study in depth. Choose whether to write a report or make a diorama. But what sets Academic Choice apart from the choices that many teachers already offer—and what is essential to its success—is the three-phase process of planning, working, and reflecting that children go through in an Academic Choice lesson.

From Responsive Classroom website

Planning After the teacher introduces the activity choices, students plan what they’re

going to do and sometimes how they’ll do it. For example, the students may plan whether they were going to chronicle the events leading up to women gaining the right to vote, show what rights men and women had before women’s suffrage, or show something else they learned about the suffrage movement. Then they planned how to show their chosen content—by creating a diagram, comic strips, a magazine, or a letter.

Working During this phase, the children complete their chosen task. Reflecting After completing their chosen task, the children reflect on the work they did

and the learning that occurred. This often consists of children presenting their work to the group and discussing some aspect of their product or process. But it can also consist of a private reflection through journal writing or a self-evaluation of their work. Whatever form the reflection takes, it allows children to make sense of their concrete experiences: Why did they make the choices they made? How did their work change the way they think about a topic? What helps them learn? What went well? Why?

From Responsive Classroom website

Why is Academic Choice effective?

This cycle of planning, working, and reflecting mirrors natural learning. According to educational researchers and theorists Jean Piaget and John Dewey as well as more recent brain research, children learn most effectively when they initiate activities based on self-generated goals, work actively with concrete materials, try out ideas, solve problems, are allowed to make mistakes and correct them, and have opportunities to stop and reflect on what they’ve done. Academic Choice and its planning, working, and reflecting cycle nurture just this kind of learning in children.

Academic Choice is a powerful tool for motivating students’ learning. When teachers use Academic Choice to structure lessons, children become purposeful learners who engage in an activity because they want to, not because the teacher told them to. They work with a sense of competence, autonomy, and satisfaction. This is essential to learning. This is how school should be.

From Responsive Classroom website

Not an add on! I know you can’t do one more thing!“Great idea,” many teachers say, “But how do I fit Academic Choice into an already full schedule?” The important thing to remember is that Academic Choice is not an

add-on. Rather, it’s a format that can be used for many types of required lessons and activities. Academic Choice can therefore be incorporated into many portions of the day without adding to the schedule.

It is a way of having students “show what they know” after you teach a subject. It will take some more time for students to do more than just fill in a worksheet. You might make it a goal to try Academic Choice once a week with a science or social study theme. Then see if the engagement of your class is not markedly increased!

Samples of Academic ChoiceChoice Board Activity

Language/Level: Grade 4 Unit/Theme: Polygons Name and describe the polygons that we have learned so f ar.

Polygon Butterfl y Only using one circle, the student will draw a butterfl y using diff erent polygons.

Complete tangram activities while identif ying the number of angles verbally in each polygon that is used.

Match pictures of polygons with the correct name. (Cut out and paste them on construction paper.)

Write a song/ poem about polygons. You must mention and describe as many as you can!

I dentif y the types of angles used on common polygons including triangles.

Polygon Race! Students will be divided into two teams. The name of a polygon will be called out. The students will draw a picture of it. The first one that completes the drawing correctly gets a point f or their team.

Complete an online game with 100% accuracy. Print the results and show your teacher!

I dentif y and classif y polygons using Venn Diagrams.

The following is a Prezi that presents Academic Choice…https://prezi.com/lxszjfhoojyr/copy-of-academic-choice-in-the-responsive-classroom/

http://effectiveclassroom.sfinstructionalresources.wikispaces.net/DI-AC+Everyone

http://www.minds-in-bloom.com/2013/09/72-creative-ways-for-students-to-show.html?m=172 ways for students to show what they know!