Choice and Engagement During a Pandemic #engaginglitminds
I believe student choice and engagement are inextricably linked. In Chapter 16 of Engaging Literate Minds, "Apprenticing Humanity", the authors write about the connection between engagement and being a “lifelong learner” (p 270). This leads me to connect choice and lifelong learning. It makes sense. I’ve consciously included choice in my lessons, and I can see students’ engagement increase, and they want to learn more about what they’re reading, independently. The challenge now, being physically apart from each other, is that student choice is not as regulated (which is a bit of a strange concept: regulated choice. If you want to read more about choice, I recommend the 2004 book The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz).
VERY generally speaking, the teacher chooses the text, leads the class in reading/discussion, and everyone makes sense out of what they read (or if they are answering questions from textbook companies, they are learning what makes sense to the test writers in order to earn a passing grade). But with students learning at-home, all students may not have access to the same text, if they are lucky to have any kind of book at home. And if the student is fortunate enough to gain access to the chosen text? Are they going to spend the time reading it, or are they more likely to use “connection issues” as a way to get out of reading something in which they have no interest?
So we need to let go and flex our trust muscles. Trust that the students are going to choose a text (it may not be a book!) and work with it, with our expert guidance. Maybe the student isn’t going to be able to talk about character development in Because of Winn-Dixie, but they might be able to describe it for a character in the video game Fortnite. (Is this even still the game everyone is playing? I feel very detached from middle-grade pop culture right now.) We were thrown into this situation - no precedence for how to teach through a pandemic or how to keep the same quality of learning. I think that maybe this element of student choice is a part of this new teaching that can carry over to when we teach in person again, or at least have more planning behind cyber instruction.
I’m not suggesting that we let the students choose anything they want (although at times this is totally appropriate). Rather, can we think of ways to incorporate choice into our daily teaching to increase engagement? Giving a choice of questions to answer, allowing students to choose which book (of the teacher’s choices) looks most interesting. How can students show understanding in a way that makes sense for them? Can they direct a movie? Write a play? Build a model?
I really enjoyed reading Chapter 16, "Apprenticing Humanity". And in a model of how we can incorporate choice into our classes, I was given the choice of which chapter of this book I wanted to read and write about. I was trusted to make my own choice and decide on the direction my writing would take. And this connects to the chapter as well - when we read other people's viewpoints and hear their experiences, it makes us more empathic and open to change. What perfect timing.
This post is part of our 2020 Summer Book Study. Find all previous posts and more information here. We have also discussed Engaging Literate Minds at the newsletter. Join the community below – it’s free!