E9 Learner agency

Learner agency is where the students are empowered to make choices about their learning. With strong links to the key competencies within the New Zealand curriculum (Ministry of Education , 2007, p.38) my students are enabled to make choices that help them achieve improved learning outcomes.

I have built upon the professional learning that I attended with Mark Osborne at the end of 2015 by setting up my classroom with a dynamic system that can be easily adapted to meet the learning needs of my students. I believe that students need to be comfortable when learning and therefore give them the freedom to set up the learning space as they require. I have linked this to the online learning site where students can learn anytime, anywhere with whanau support.

Here are my notes from the workshop with Mark Osborne.

Other examples of learner agency in my class are:

• Use of rubrics, checklists and success criteria to develop next steps in learning. 
• Ownership of the learning - my students are engaged in learning that enables them to own it. 
• Student driven workshops. I know that not every student needs scaffolding for every lesson. So with this in mind I offer workshops in class where students can choose to attend or not based on their identified learning needs. 
• Choice of how to present learning - my students are very IT capable and often choose their own presentation models, research and collaborative tools. 
• Input into designing lessons - students are often offered input into the direction of learning. This can be guided by learning progressions or simply by interest. 
• Choice of learning support - I allow students to choose their learning support in class. Most times this allows for students to choose who they learn with but on occasions it extends to whanau and other teachers coming into class. 
• Use of must do and can do style learning - students have a list of learning to complete and they can choose to engage with this as they see fit.