Kathy Feigenbaum

Blog #3 Student Agency

I love the idea of building student agency; it gives them life-long skills for learning across the board. When my sixth graders begin middle school, they come excited about a new experience. They buy into learning as we talk about how the brain is affected by language learning. We set goals for the academic year (as well as middle school in general), discuss different strategies for learning (vocabulary especially), and for New Years I always have my students review their goals and write a letter that tells me about how they feel they are doing as far as learning Spanish. I enjoy reading through them, as many are very optimistic. (One boy told me he felt “almost Mexican” because he had learned so much in half a year.)

I am motivated by the video about Believing You Can Improve. Dweck presents ideas that I can definitely use to build student agency in my classes. Middle school students are empowered by the idea that they can scientifically make some changes within themselves. They are at a stage in life where many things are still beyond their control. Giving them some authority over their learning provides them the satisfaction of some control. Growth mindset is extremely beneficial at this time of transition.

I also like the rubrics provided, and plan to adapt them for use in my class. I will still need to come up with numerical grades, of course, but I believe that the rubrics will be useful in engaging my students to work toward improvement. The “power of yet” is also very useful for me. I don’t see how students can move forward without achieving the necessary learning in a unit of study. This is particularly concerning in a class in which material builds upon itself (like math and foreign language.) If I have a student that fails an assignment, I have them “re-do” it after better preparing and/or individual help. I like the idea of using the term “not yet” in place of a low grade. By saying “not yet,” I can let my student know that help is available and it’s just a continuation of the process.