Student Jobs~Responsibilities & Contributions
I am doing a lot of action research about giving students opportunities to become meaningful contributors to their own learning, their learning community and society at large. Alan November and his thoughts on Digital Learning Farm: Students as Contributors, the six roles to empower learners and Heidi Hayes Jacobs’ book Curriculum21: Essential Education in a Changing World are the driving force behind me.
Read about Digital Learning Farm in action:
- Tutorial Designers- Empowered Learners- Contributors
- Taking Notes- Summarizing Information- 2nd Grade Style
- Backchannelingâ- Movie Watching… Note Taking- Information Scribes
- Students as Meaningful Contributors
As I am collaborating with teachers to create classroom job responsibilities that allow their students to make meaningful contributions, I wonder:
- What kind of jobs, responsibilities or contributions do YOU allow your students in your classroom?
- Are younger students (lower elementary) as capable as older students to be contributors to a classroom learning community?
- What is the difference between “classroom management” jobs (ex. pencil sharpener, line leader, attendance taker, etc.) and “learning management” jobs (ex. official scribe, tutorial designers, collaboration coordinator)?
- Do these responsibilities/contribution make a difference in your students’ learning?
If you have a few moments, please fill out the following survey to help me get an overview of what you are doing in YOUR classroom. I will share the results in a future blog post. Thank you in advance.
Hi,
My name is Taylor Williams. I am a student at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama, where Dr. John Strange is my instructor in EDM310. My assignment was to read your blog and I might add it was very interesting. I think involving the kids in their own learning is a fantastic idea. It makes them feel important as well as give them leadership roles. I hope to incorporate this into my classroom once I start teaching. Thanks for the insight.
Hi
I also think that it is a really great idea. It puts them in a leadership possition, they can stand up for themselves. And it makes them more responsible students.
I am doing now a distance learning at Uned in Spain. Now I love it and it is a really good university. But in the beginning I had troubles with learning on my on, I was not responsible enough to manage it, now it works but I would have prefered to learn to be more responsible on a more early age.
Thanks for sharing your interesting insights.
While reviewing blogs, yours caught my eye. Reflecting upon my own classroom, I do not give jobs to students like I probably should. Thank you for the idea.
My teenage son works very effectively at his job but not at school. Is that because, we teachers do not make him feel like an effective contributor within the school environment.