Why is it important for gifted students to own their education?
There are many reasons why it is important for gifted and talented students to take ownership of their education…
- Students can challenge themselves more. Since they know their limits, they can push themselves to do more.
- It helps students feel in control (with provided guidance and options) on how they learn the material and demonstrate their understanding.
- With the two reasons above, it increases the students’ motivation, giving them more desire to want to learn.
- Students will also feel more responsible for their work and put in more effort in order to make it the best it can be.
Ways to Help Students Own Their Education
1. Project-Based Learning
Project-Based Learning is a great way for students to engage in real-world projects and feel their learning has a purpose. The students have to either answer a complex question or solve a real-world problem and then present what they learn to an authentic audience.
Students are able to own their education through Project-Based Learning by choosing how they want to learn the material and present it (using teacher recommendations/guidance). By presenting the knowledge and skills they learned to an authentic audience, students will feel like there is more of a purpose to their learning than just having to do something like a poster and then being done with the project.
I read a book last year that really helped me see how I can incorporate Project-Based Learning throughout my curriculum. The book, Inquiry Illuminated: Researcher’s Workshop Across the Curriculum by Anne Goudvis, focuses on what she calls “researcher’s workshop,” however, it can be a great guide on using it for Project-Based Learning.
You can read more about Project-Based Learning and access some projects at PBL Works.
You can also find some great books on Amazon to learn more about Project-Based Learning. They even have one specifically for gifted and talented students!
Digital Portfolios
Digital portfolios are another way for students to take ownership of their education. This is a great way for students to showcase what they are working on throughout the school year. Digital portfolios are become a place where teachers, parents, and whoever is given access can see the students’ work, providing them with an authentic audience. (Note: Do not make students’ portfolios public for everyone to view.)
In order to make sure the students have ownership over their portfolio, they should be the ones selecting what goes in it, with an understanding that it needs to be high-quality work that demonstrates knowledge of the provided task. The work should show academic and personal growth throughout the school year.
An awesome thing with having digital portfolios is that it can follow the students throughout their educational career! If every teacher uses digital portfolios, then the students can use the same link for every grade level, letting them see a big span of their growth from the beginning of their career until they graduate.
Genius Hour/Passion Project
There are a variety of names for this. I call it Genius Hour, but I have also heard it be called Passion Project, 20% Project, etc. Whatever you call it, they are all very similar.
Genius Hour is a great way for students to find what they are passionate about and explore more about it. They choose how they want to learn about their passion and then what they want to do with the information in the end (examples: create a project, write a paper, create a poster, have a bake sale, etc.). The possibilities are truly endless with Genius Hour!
This past school year I was so excited to have my students participate in my first ever Genius Hour project! Unfortunately we did not get to complete the whole thing due to switching to virtual learning, but the students did enjoy what we began working on while we were still in the classroom. You can view the packet they worked on either by clicking the picture above or clicking here.
Within the Genius Hour project, the students worked on/learned about the following items (which can be found in the packet):
- how to be a responsible digital citizen,
- discovering what they are passionate about by completing a March Madness graphic organizer,
- creating a question based on their selected topic,
- making a proposal and Shark Tank pitch to get their topic/question approved,
- blogging about the work they complete throughout the project,
- researching their passion and question,
- creating a product based on their research, and
- presenting their work through an “elevator speech.”
Real-World Events
By connecting real-world events to the skill/information students are learning, you are making it relevant to your students. This, again, will help them feel like their learning has a purpose, which will help them take more ownership of their learning.
In the comments below, share with us how you bring real-world events into the subject areas in your classroom!
Teacher as Facilitator
When you want your students to take ownership of their learning/education, it is important that the teacher becomes more of a facilitator. Let your students lead their learning with your guidance. Take your students’ thoughts and ideas into consideration. For example, if you wanted to assess your students through a poster but one student wants to create a 3-D model or write a paper to show their learning, be open to it. The same goes with how they want to learn the material. Be open to their ideas. This will allow them to feel like they have some control in their learning, providing them more responsibility and ownership.