Elisa Waingort Jan. 17, 2010



    In my last blog entry I promised to report back on how well my students responded to setting goals and making a plan. That process is still not complete. As soon as it is, I will blog about it. Instead, I want to turn my attention to the topic of student choice.
My school is involved in a school board-initiated project to help teachers plan instruction that addresses the needs and interests - social and academic - of our students. To this end, all students responded to a short online survey. One of the questions asked students to rate the amount of choice they feel they have in school.



    Recently, my team studied the results for our grade level. The good news is that more than half of our students feel they have quite a bit of choice in school. Nevertheless, we were asked to set goals for how to increase that number. What has been interesting about this process is my grade group’s discussion about the concept of choice. We feel we give our students lots of choices throughout the day. Yet, student perception is different from ours.
A teacher on my team suggested we use the word “choice” often to make students aware of the amount of choices they have during the day; she sees perception as the problem.
     Another suggestion is to discuss the choices students have on a particular day and to relate it to choice and responsibility in a democratic society. Still another idea is for teachers to reflect on the choices we give students throughout the day. Which are real choices and which are pseudo choices? Are choices devised only by the teacher truly choices? Are students able to suggest alternative choices to the ones given by the teacher?
    How much choice can teachers give in the classroom and still teach in a responsible and professional manner? For example, I have my students read independently several times a day in both Spanish and English. This is not a choice. Of course, I explain why they must do it; my students love to read. Yet, I think they love to write even more. If I gave them a choice between writing and reading they would probably choose to write more often. I’m not comfortable with that level of choice and I am open to hearing alternative interpretations.
    So, what do others think about this issue? How much choice do you give students? What choices do you give? What parts of your day do not incorporate choice? Can you give more choice than you do at the present time? I look forward to your responses.