Student voice and choice doesn’t mean you relinquish control of your classroom, but that your students’ interests, ideas, and opinions help to shape their experience.
Giving students voice and choice has many benefits, such as:
Promoting ownership of their work and the classroom environment.
Creating resilience and grit in their attitudes toward work.
Deepening learning as students make connections to previous knowledge and skills.
When incorporating voice and choice, remember:
Too much choice can be overwhelming, so scaffold independence as the year progresses.
Voice and choice will look different depending on your students’ inquiry experience level.
Giving students options when performing a task, allows you to shape their experience AND gives them agency.
Remember, too, that voice is different from choice. You can always provide opportunities and outlets for students’ voices to be heard - even when their choices are limited. Download an 11x17 poster like the image above to remind students that their voices matter. To find out more about how inquirED supports voice and choice in elementary social studies visit: www.inquired.org/inquiry-based-social-studies