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Balancing the Classroom: Strategies for Sharing Responsibility
By Ken Messersmith
9/26/07
A teacher in our local school district recently posted a question on one of our discussion boards: “I’m having a difficult time coming up with ideas on how to give my students more responsibility and freedom in my classroom. I am very structured and organized -- how can I give my eighth graders a little freedom in the classroom and retain structure and organization?”
This is an excellent question. Responsibility and freedom are clearly two concepts we must embrace if we are to teach young people to participate in our democracy. It’s easy for teachers to be so organized and structured that students lose freedom, which in turn lowers the level of student responsibility and increases the teacher’s responsibility. Is this the way we want it to happen?
To answer this teacher’s question, two instructional strategies come to mind.
1. Project-based, cooperative-, or service-learning methods. These place the responsibility for learning on the student by encouraging him/her to find the answer to a problem rather than memorizing a teacher-given solution.
2. Student-generated and tested hypotheses. Students write down what they know about a concept and then conduct research and experiments to either verify their knowledge or correct their misconceptions. This strategy is most often associated with scientific methods but can be applied to many areas.
How would you answer this teacher’s question? Do you have specific examples to share? Please write and let me know!
Student-generated and tested hypotheses
Submitted by Mal. M (not verified) on July 21, 2008 - 16:55.
I just completed my first year of teaching and throughout the year I was constantly struggling with how much "leeway" and responsibility to give my classes of 7th graders. I think the strategy of "student-generated and tested hypotheses" is a great way to create responsibility in a 7th grade science classroom. Instead of feeding students hypotheses to test, this would put more of the responsibility on them and make them think!
Responsibility in young children
Submitted by Alisha (not verified) on January 29, 2008 - 13:21.
I knew that I wasn't alone when it comes to giving more responsibility to children. However, I am a 1st grade teacher and giving responsibility to little ones sometimes becomes work. I do, however, believe that in the end the hard work will pay off if we can start giving more responsibility to children when they are younger. The problem sometimes occurs not from the teacher-student relationship and the responsibility we have established at school but yet the parent-child relationship they have established at home. What I mean by this is that not all parents allow or give their young children much responsibility which in turn creates a problem with the responsibility at school. So when this has occurred in my classroom I simply visit with the parents and make sure they understand the concept that I am trying to teach the students more responsibility and the parents need to support this at home as well. Sometimes this is effective but sometimes not. I simply do what I can to teach responsibility to these little guys so that it may be easier when they get older. My challenge seems to be that sometimes I might set my expectations a little high and so the 1st graders are not able to achieve at a level of responsibility that is appropriate. So, does anyone have any good responses for 1st graders and responsibility?
cooperative learning
Submitted by Karl (not verified) on January 29, 2008 - 06:48.
I am also new to blogging. Cooperative learning is an excellent method to allow students to share ideas, voice opinions and work together toward a common goal. Being responsible for their work can also add to self-esteem and apositive self image. Do alot of you use cooperative learning? If you do, has it been beneficial? If not, what other methods have you found to be more successful? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
I too am new to blogging.
Submitted by JJ (not verified) on November 28, 2007 - 21:21.
I too am new to blogging. Wow! What a great way to talk with others. You can remain anonymous, or submit part of your name...no one will ever know who you really are. There is no one to judge you on what you may or may not say. Very cool.
I am a 5th grade teacher who is in my 3rd year of teaching full time. This is a second career for me. Teaching responsibility is essential in this day and age. Students need to be able to rely on themselves as a lot of the time both parents work, or they live in split families and spend part of the week in one home and the remainder of the week in another. It is difficult for them. They need to learn to make choices and be responsible for their actions. They also need to be held accountable for their actions and their decisions. This is a lifeskill that they will use forever.
Classroom Responsibility
Submitted by KB (not verified) on July 17, 2008 - 08:31.
I teach 5th and 6th graders. One way I've found to help the kids become more responsible is to let them in on the "rule making" for the classroom. The first day of school we discuss things that should be allowed and shouldn't be allowed, and then put the rules into their rules. I go into this already knowing things that I want included in the rules, but through discussion let them come up with the kids.
I also do as much cooperative learning and project learning as I can. The kids love being in charge of their own learning.
Giving students choices
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on November 28, 2007 - 20:08.
In my experience, I have found that if you give students choices and make them feel like they have a voice in their own education, you will gain their respect and have less behavior problems. You can give students different assignment choices that involve all different learning styles. By giving clear expectations for behavior and explicit directions for each assignment, you can maintain organization and structure in the classroom.
Student choices
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on January 27, 2008 - 09:32.
I went to a workshop last month about difficult behaviors in the classroom. The speaker said in order to decrease behaviors in your classroom give students a choice so that way they feel like they are in control even though the teacher still has the control. After the workshop I started to give my students a choice before they have the opportunity to misbehave and become disruptive. It definitely works and my students usually make the correct choice.
Giving students choices
Submitted by Janice (not verified) on January 26, 2008 - 08:49.
I highly recommend Kathy Nunley's site www.help4teachers. There are dozens of lesson plans that use a layered system which gives students choice. I've found that this program lets my independent workers thrive while my more dependent students have the scaffolding they need to be successful. Try it, I think you'll like it.
I love this website! -- www.help4teachers.com
Submitted by Alicia A. (not verified) on March 23, 2008 - 15:14.
Thank you for sharing this website. It is great! I plan to share it with other teachers in my school.
The layered lesson plan
Submitted by Jennifer (not verified) on January 27, 2008 - 18:40.
The layered lesson plan system is awesome for giving student's choices. I recently did something similar on my final exam. It gave my students choices to answer what they knew best. When they got their grades back, it was a huge confidence booster! I liked the layered formats at www.help4teachers.com but believe that they would take enormous resources and time to create. As a new teacher, I don't have that many different activities, worksheets and projects to pull from. I can see myself using the system, maybe on a smaller scale, in the future. Thanks for the suggestion.
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