Across blogs and articles that promote innovation and 21st century learning, a common thread is finding ways to provide students with authentic opportunities for choice and to exercise their voice. I couldn't agree more, but are we prepared for the choices and voices? It's an exercise in shared leadership and relinquished control that can be threatening to an environment that is used to a tight schedule or strict routine.
No one is suggesting that we ditch our plans for the day and wing it with kids in charge from the jump. Rather, we just need to have students meaningfully involved and included. If we are honest about voice and choice, it’s on us to respond to the opportunities we allow our students to create.
This is what I consider a different type of RTI (Response to Invitation). Whether it's determining reading goals, selecting writing prompts or creating digital projects,
the more choices our students have to share and show what they know, the better. Here's the question: How do we answer the call? Students demonstrating thinking and sharing their learning is an invitation- to respond, to reflect, (and yes) to assess.
Seesaw is a great example of this invitation process in action. If Twitter is a glimpse into students’ classrooms, Seesaw is a peek into their desks. It’s a tool with incredible potential, and teachers are pioneering new ways for students to demonstrate and archive their thinking. As an example, having a screen-captured and narrated recording of a student explaining their math prompt brings practices to life. What might have previously been "correcting" a worksheet (empty transaction) is now an opportunity to see, hear and watch math practices in context and in real-time, while being recorded to revisit and review. Students are naturally modeling, problem-solving, explaining and justifying, but with purpose and for an audience. We are the audience, along with parents and peers. We have an open-invite, and we can't take that role for granted.
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