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Identify one or two ways you can, as Dr. Black says, “build a structure [in your classroom] that also has a level of flexibility.”
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We do an end of the year project where the child has 12 choices as to what they would like to do. They can write a children’s book, write a song, make a comic. They have many choices to choose from which gives them some level of flexibility on how they would like to be assessed.
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Student assessment choices is one obvious way to provide flexibility within structure. I also sometimes have several different approaches to a lesson sketched out and let students select which one they prefer. Particularly, with more advanced students, this can work well to give them input into the teaching strategy that meets their learning needs best — and to give me a measure of their energy level. Some days students are ready to tackle a challenging skill development activity; other days, they are wiped out and benefit more from an approach that allows us to work on the same skill but take some of the pressure off.
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I certainly believe and have has positive experiences where for example in a history lesson, you may have multiple ways with a rubric to assess a student’s learning about the Civil War or any important event in history. Someone may prefer to write a paper, another student, a presentation and another a diorama or poster. All these ways allow for choice within the structure provided yielding the same end result: demonstration of understanding. By the same token, students that may have a behavior plan may need a choice of rewards for accomplishing certain things that their IEP may require. Deciding as a course how earned privileges in the classroom can work teaches cooperation but allows flexibility as well.
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When doing activities such as math or literacy centers, the students have a choice of three activities. Each activity meets the same academic standard but they can choose how they want to do it.
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As an art teacher, I give my students more flexibility as they gain concepts. All of my elementary students do “the same project”, I’m teaching how to use materials, I’m teaching vocabulary, I’m teaching specific skills. By middle school, I’m giving the assignment with more “how”, but far less “what”. By the high school level, my flexibility becomes far more prominent. Maybe slightly less so at the intro level, but I often give a lot of choices to my advanced students. Because I am at a small school where I often have multiple levels of courses in the same room at the same time, I put my lessons in Google classrooms. For each assignment, I type out my lessons with my Biblical integration. I spell out my parameters, but then I give them the flexibility to choose the direction they want to take it. This means that some may choose to paint on canvas, some may draw the assignment in graphite or ink, some may go 3D with it. All of it is fine, so long as they are meeting my minimum requirements.
