How Self-Directed Can Students Really Be?

If I said that students should be in charge of their own learning, I wonder how many would tell me that, while that was a nice thought, students wouldn’t be able to handle it?  I know I certainly considered that myself.  As we planned our first self-directed learning unit last month, I kept responding to this sense of fear.  It’s the fear that students won’t be productive if they are working on independent projects.  Since I was so fearful during this planning process, my co-teacher and I ended up planning for all the contingencies.  And it worked! Learners need scaffolding for more self-directed learning to happen but with those scaffolds in place, they can be independent learners.

Focus on Getting to Know the Learner

The very first activity we asked students to engage in was a learner profile.  It asked questions about their level of self-directedness, what types of text they liked and didn’t like and their strengths and weaknesses in reading, writing, speaking and listening.  This not only gave us information but it helped them hone in on their interests as well as their strengths and weaknesses before they made any choices about what they were going to study.

Give Students Choice About What & How They Can Learn

As Daniel Pink argues, autonomy is one of the major factors driving motivation.  Having some choice and control over what and how we learn can have a major impact on our level of productivity and it is no different for a student learner.  In our unit we gave students choice about what they would be reading from a list of authors, novels, poems, short stories and essays.  They also had some choice about the formats of their study materials.  Some watched videos or powerpoints on their authors. Many listened to an audio version of the text they were reading. Others chose to read a novel and headed to the library for silent reading time.

Create an Environment for Self-Directed Learning

We set up the room for different types of work areas.  One table was for students who were mostly reading, another for researchers.  There is a table for students who need help immediately and a table for students who are able to work but want to check in with a teacher at some point during class.  This structure has several benefits.  For management purposes, it allows us to know where students are at in the learning process.  For students, it forces them to consider where they are in the learning process and as a result, keeps them focused on a learning task and goal.  More passive students are forced to make choices about where they are at instead of waiting for a teacher to help them.

Provide a Planning Tool

The planning sheet we provided required students to create a “big picture” plan with our help. Every day before students leave class, they set a daily goal for the next day.  They also reflect on their progress toward that goal at the end of every class.  We created this plan as a google doc and had each student make a copy, rename it and then share it with us.

Provide Standard Operating Procedures

We developed several standard operating procedures for students to follow during class.  These include some standard student responses to obstacles like “I finished my goal for the day”, “I’m having technology problems” or “I need help and the teacher is not available”.  These standard operating procedures should be geared to your particular situation and represent the routines and procedures you would normally have in your class but now need to shift because of a more self-directed environment.

Monitor Productivity Behaviors

We are monitoring productivity behaviors such as “working while waiting”, “asking for help”, and “collaborating”.  We are also keeping track of some of the negative behaviors that impact productivity in a classroom setting like socializing, “off-task with technology”, and “extended bathroom breaks”.  My co-teacher and I keep track of these behaviors using classdojo.  Other high tech options include Edmettle and RedcritterTeacher.  Classdojo is the simplest solution but it only solves this one problem.  Edmettle offers some interactivity so students and other teachers can also be tracking behaviors. RedcritterTeacher is the most complex but also offers many options for tracking not only behaviors but academic skills connected to the common core standards.  In addition to our behavior tracking, students are reflecting on their self-directedness every day using a rubric which is laid out on their tables.  They are keeping track of this in the shared google doc that houses their plan.

Identify Learning Targets in Kid Friendly Language

Also included in their google doc is a list of all the possible learning targets that they can work toward in this unit.  They use these to focus their daily work.  If they are going to read poems by Walt Whitman for example, they must choose a learning target for this activity to focus their work.

If you are working on more self-directed learning or personalized learning structures in your classroom or school-wide, please share them by making a comment, so that we can all benefit from the concrete ideas that are already working.  Also, check out my more recent post on self-directed learning.