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Understanding the Past, Creating the Present, Imagining the Future
Understanding the Past, Creating the Present, Imagining the Future
“I can’t seem to stop Nicole from working on your project. Normally, she hates math and can’t stand working on it for more than thirty minutes,” one of my student’s moms told me.
I assigned an Algebra I integrated math and art project. Students were required to come up with five horizontal, vertical, positively-sloped, and negatively-sloped equations (for a total of twenty equations). When the equations were graphed, they would create a simple piece of artwork.
Nicole brought in her artwork, and it was the image of Godzilla rampaging a city. The image required over 150 equations to complete!
Students don’t often overachieve in mathematics; most will do the bare minimum to get their credit. However, for this project, almost every student used at least one hundred equations to create their piece of artwork. Nothing was simple about any of the pieces of artwork.
The overachievement was driven purely by intrinsic motivation. Students did not earn extra credit for doing extra work; they wanted to, because they had an opportunity to express themselves through the assignment. It is this autonomy that created a sense of ownership towards the project; students can see themselves “owning” this assignment long after it has been graded.
Artwork and other creative endeavors allow people, especially children, to express themselves.
When my students are asked to create something, they will often create something that is aligned to their interest or passion. Like a person who can’t stop talking about what he or she is passionate about, students can’t stop expressing themselves through their creative work. They will overachieve without being aware of it!
Academy of the Renaissance believes that autonomy for students must be a core component of a well-designed curriculum as well as part of the day to day function of the school.
As in the last post, giving teachers autonomy promotes a healthy work environment. Likewise, a healthy classroom environment requires students to have some autonomy.
Autonomy is not about letting students do whatever they want to do. This would be chaos.
Autonomy is about giving students choices within the boundaries of an assignment.
For example, a third-grade class could be learning about plant growth. Autonomy would allow the students to choose which seed they wish to plant. If a middle school health class had an assignment about the organs of the human body, autonomy would allow students to complete the assignment using any form of presentations such as a video, a written paper, or poster.
Choices allow students to feel like they have some control over their education. As a result, students will find ownership with their education.
Autonomy can also be part of the restorative practice. My students are often given a choice when they’re in trouble. For example, when a student is disruptive, I give the student the following choice, “You can go outside and ‘reset’ and come back in after a few minutes, or you can go talk with your counselor.” I see disruptive behavior as a student being out of control. Asking a student to make a decision puts them in control of their own actions.
During the last stage of a restorative practice, I ask students to develop their own consequence for their misbehavior. In addition, I would also follow up with allowing the student to come up with strategies to prevent themselves from repeating the adverse behaviors.
Allowing students to make choices shape them into becoming autonomous individuals. Furthermore, teaching students to deal with wrong, and even right, choices are equally as important.
Life experiences are the culmination of the choices we make, whether they are good or bad. Our accountability is reflected in how we deal with the outcome of these choices, which in turn, shape our character. Accountability and character development are two important pillars for Academy of the Renaissance.
The Renaissance Era believed in the free will of mankind. However, it stressed the importance of first building a strong intellectual and moral compass as a foundation.
We want to teach our students to make choices that will develop a strong foundation in character so that one day they will be global leaders and citizens who will positively affect the world.
