Student choice is a cornerstone of student engagement. When students can take charge of their learning and can pursue topics of interest, they will be more engaged and more inclined to do the work, and their work will become more meaningful. We’ve all heard this time and again, but the practicality of doing this in today’s secondary public school classroom can be quite a challenge because of standardized testing. Depending on where you teach and how you’re evaluated for your teaching position, testing may be the most important evaluative component, or not matter much at all.
Having taught in Dallas, Chicago, and New York City, I find that the lower a city’s student performance and graduation rate, the more those students are tested and the more those tests count towards teacher performance evaluations. However, standardized testing does not mean that you have to teach to the test all the time. I was still able to work in student choice. How is this possible given the constraints of a high-stakes testing climate? I think student choice doesn’t have to mean students get to “do what they want when they want.” It doesn’t mean that it has to be open-ended. It’s important to find ways to work in student choice within the framework of skills in your given content area… in our case English Language Arts.
There are many ways to work in student choice every day in your classroom. Here is a list of 15 ways to integrate choice into your secondary English Language Arts curriculum.
As mentioned previously, essay writing is an accessible way for teachers to build in student choice. This can be accomplished by allowing students to choose their own prompt or topic of research. One of the methods I like to use in my high school ELA classes is the Topic-Theme List. Instead of assigning students to a specific theme to analyze in an essay, have them keep Topic-Theme Lists for every major text so that when it's time to write, they can select a theme of their choice to analyze in an essay. I have my students keep this list in their Writer's Notebooks throughout the school year. Here is a sample topic-theme list for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde along with the assignment.
When students can spend time on a topic of interest, they will be more engaged throughout the writing process. After all, we aren’t grading the topic; we’re grading the writing.
The concept of "Genius Hour" comes from Google. Google employees are given 20% of their time to work on pet passion projects. This time is meant to encourage their innovation outside the requirements of their specific jobs. Employees then share or present their projects as they make new discoveries. Some of these even lead to new, innovative technologies.
We can apply this same concept in our classes, and there are various ways to do so. Teachers can implement "Genius Hour" across a week or even across an entire semester. There are ways to scaffold Genius Hour as well. An easy and accessible way to implement the "Genius Hour" concept in your classes is to have students explore a topic of their choice over the week and present their findings to the class on Fridays. You can easily connect these mini passion projects to writing workshop and have students write about their discoveries along with targeted writing workshop mini-lessons. The options are endless!
If you’d like a more structured approach to Genius Hour, check out the 20% Time Project here. The 20% Time Project comes with guidelines, templates, and an online community for implementation that will help you structure this concept in your classroom.
Closely related to the "Genius Hour" concept is the strategy called "I Wonder" Statements. With this strategy, students craft "I Wonder" statements as they observe the world and keep a list of them in their notebooks. Students can then select one of their "wonder" statements to explore as an inquiry study guided by curiosity. Sample "I Wonder" statements include:
"I wonder why a rainbow sometimes forms when it rains."
"I wonder what it takes to become a cardiologist."
"I wonder what made Nelson Mandela famous."
"I wonder how setting affects the theme of a story."
As you can see, "I Wonder" Statements are completely open-ended, and students can explore a wide range of topics based upon their own interests and gaps in their own knowledge. Check out the "I Wonder" Statements freebie included in the Bespoke ELA FREEBIES section to implement this strategy with your students!
Book Clubs are an excellent tool that allow students to choose their own text to read, analyze, discuss, and study in groups. You may limit students to a specific list of titles, or make it a free-choice book study. It all depends on what works for you, your students, and your curriculum. I have created a few Book Club freebies to get your students started! Follow these links to check them out!
The Capstone Project concept comes from the university level in which undergraduate and graduate students at certain universities must pursue a topic of interest within their major and then present their research as a requirement for graduation. The CAPSTONE is supposed to be a summative assessment of the student's focus of study and synthesizes the various skills and knowledge acquired throughout academic study. This is the concept that has informed the new(ish) concept of AP CAPSTONE that includes Seminar and Research classes.
In a way, the CAPSTONE project is also like Genius Hour or Passion Projects; however, since these project are supposed to synthesize specific skills, the teacher may want to narrow the focus and scope of the project but still allow for choice. I have my students complete CAPSTONE Projects at the end of each semester. For both projects, students are required to demonstrate specific skills, but I give them the choice of how to present these skills. For example, I typically have students in the first semester argue the most important thematic topic in literature. Through this assignment, I am essentially assessing argumentation skills, but students are free to select their thematic topic and also how they will present their argument to the class. Options can range from:
. and many more! After students present their projects to the class, they all complete the same reflection writing activity to explain their projects in writing and discussion. Think of a CAPSTONE Project in terms of a summative project much like a "thesis." These projects can be a great way to let students explore their own ideas!
This option stems off the previous options. A CAPSTONE Project could easily be a blog or portfolio of work. A Genius Hour project could also involve this means of presenting findings and synthesizing information. Blogs and portfolios allow students ample opportunity for choice. Students can choose what goes into their blog or portfolio, how it's organized, how it's laid out, what it looks like, what it's called, etc. Basically, students can create their own bespoke portfolio of work to showcase their learning and growth. These can be scaffolded as needed, or you could simply tell students, "Don't stop until you're proud," and let them decide when it's finished and ready for publication.
Along with academic writing and academic projects, students need time to explore creative pursuits. I can't remember a time as a high school English teacher that a student chose to write a literary analysis essay during free write time (see next item on this list). 99.9% of students freely choose creative writing over any other mode of writing. Why is this the case? Creative writing is not confined by the same limitations as academic writing. Through creative writing, students have the chance to be free and to explore their emotions and life experiences. Academic writing is more sterile and impersonal. It takes the "I" out of writing. At its core, writing is a very powerful tool to help us make sense out of our lives and to process life experiences, which is why students (and humans) gravitate towards it. Creative writing provides a much needed outlet for students, and it also enriches the student's experience with life and with the class as a whole.
But just because it's creative writing doesn't mean that it's not also analytical writing. Creating something from nothing is much more difficult than analyzing something that already exists. That's the reason why we aren't all famous screenplay writers or songwriters or authors. These are difficult pursuits because they require us to synthesize our skills and think beyond ourselves. Giving students some time explore their creative sides is important. One of the projects I give my students is a Screenplay Project. This project gives students the task of creating their own film concept all the while assessing key literary elements and techniques. You can find more information about this project here.
