Student Voice ideas and steps for TLIF

STUDENT VOICE Link for better format of below A Guide to Getting Started USING STUDENT VOICE IN THE CLASSROOM Why use Student Voice? What’s in it for us? *We should be basing what we do in the classroom on evidence gathered.i.e. “evidence-based practice”. Student voice is one way of gathering meaningful information/evidence about where students are at with their learning. *We can examine our own teaching and gain insights into what is working for students, what we are doing that is helping their learning, motivating them, engaging them. *We can find out what the barriers are to learning, what isn’t working for the students, what they don’t like, what they don’t understand. *We can begin to understand the needs and views of our students. *We can make our teaching connect with the reality of students’ lives and interests. What’s in it for the students? *We can empower students –give them responsibility for their learning, show them that we do care about their learning and help them become lifelong learners. What do we need to consider when using student voice? Purpose – what do you want to find out? Type –what form will your student voice feedback take? Training – students need to be trained to give responses Trust -students need to trust that their responses will be considered seriously, that they will not be punished for an honest response, that the teacher will act upon what is said in a timely manner How – how will the feedback be used? What will you do with the information received? After you have tried using Student Voice, try these reflective questions. What have you learned about your teaching since using student voice? Have you made any changes to your teaching? What have you learned about the students’ learning since using student voice? How have the students responded to your use of student voice? How has the use of student voice affected your relationship with your students? How has the use of student voice affected student motivation/behaviour/engagement? Has using student voice given you the information you were seeking? What have been the positive points about using student voice? What have been the negative points? Do you want to continue using student voice? Why? /Why not? What other information/assistance would you like regarding the use of student voice? Do you have some student voice responses that you would like to share? Mary Jamieson Specialist Classroom Teacher Adviser, School Support Services, University of Waikato, Hamilton What simple student voice activities can I start with? Decide on your Purpose. To find out what they don’t understand: A thing I am having difficulty with is…………because…….. A wall continuum. Students mark where they feel they are in terms of your learning objectives. A thing I would like to go over again/do more of is……….because…….. A thing I need help with is …………because…………………. To provide feedback about your classroom activities: An activity which helped me learn is………………………because……………….. An activity which did not help me learn is………………….because………………… I did not like doing…………………because………………… I liked doing ……………………because………………….. To encourage responsibility for learning: Two things I’ve learned today…..One question I have A question I would like answered is…………………….. An activity which would/could help me to learn this better would be…………….. because……………… One thing that surprised me is……………………..because……………….. One thing I’m really proud of is…………………… because………………. Today I am going to learn how to………………………I will know when I have learned this when I can……………………. What do you think you are learning? Why do you think you are learning this? How will you know when you have learned this? Mary Jamieson Specialist Classroom Teacher Adviser, School Support Services, University of Waikato, Hamilton How Can I Gather Student Voice? Some suggestions…. CONTINUUM Draw up a continuum for a wall chart. Mark on it the learning objective for the day/week. As students finish the lesson and leave they can mark where they are, either with initials or anonymously. Gives you instant feedback as to where the class is. CARDS Red light, Amber light, Green light cards. Students choose one and you collect at the end. See which pile is biggest! Make sure you are specific as to the question they are answering with the cards. E.g. Can you now do……….? Coloured cards with questions on them. Students give you more detailed information as to where they are/how they feel. Lunch Pass type cards. Students write on these and you collect in. BACK OF THEIR BOOKS A section on “What I learned today”. A section for whatever student voice you want to gather. Does require you looking at their books!! FULL SIZE CHART ON CLASSROOM WALL Make a chart with sections for students to write up their questions and other feedback. Have the chart laminated for reuse. ORAL FEEDBACK Ask the students to tell you what they have learned, how they know they have learned it etc. Need to be aware that you may not get responses from everyone this way. Mary Jamieson Specialist Classroom Teacher Adviser, School Support Services, University of Waikato, Hamilton