Let them Fly? 5 Ways to Increase Autonomy in the Classroom and 1 Free Printable!

It's important to give students choice, because it allows them to establish ownership of learning.  When we give students more room to make decisions on their own, we increase the level of understanding and motivation. 

Let them choose how they learn

How can we increase choice?

1.       We can let them choose their own reading materials.

2.       We can let them choose a topic.

3.       We can let them choose a problem to solve.

4.       We can let them choose their own digital tools.

5.        We can let them choose their own devices.

Learning menus

Menus and choice boards are flexible tasks, they can be created and adapted for just about any subject area. Students need to complete three tasks just like a tic tac toe game. 

Tic – Tac – Toe learning menus

Learning menus offer fun, challenging and creative choices for students to show what they have learned. Students learn in different ways and each path can look different depending on the student.  (K. Bell).

One way to vary activities on choice boards is to make sure you have one task at least for every learning style. (Incorporate drama, music, writing, crossword puzzle, social learning etc) 

Each student is different

Notes: when you create a choice board, make sure there are enough instructions because most of the work is being done independently. Also, I recommend going over the different tasks in class together, before you assign it. Also, you can write pages in the book that have good examples of what students need to do, so students can refer to it. 

Here is a free choice board I created to summarize unit 3 about animals, in grade 5, book Our World by ECB.

Click the image to download

Going digital? 

See many more digital choice boards ideas and templates you can download in this blog post by Kasey Bell from "Shake up Learning".

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 Hili Zavaro

tags: english, efl,