Student Voice
All students need to practice and develop communication skills. When students engage in reflective activities connected to student voice they also practice critical thinking as they plan and create.
Some of the best learning experiences engage students in creating, communicating, and reflecting.
“When students know that others will see their work, they want it to be good. When it's just for the teacher, they want it to be good enough." - Rushton Hurley
“In education, student voice refers to the values, opinions, beliefs, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds of individual students and groups of students in a school, and to instructional approaches and techniques that are based on student choices, interests, passions, and ambitions.” The Glossary of Education Reform
Why Engage in Creative Student Voice?
Exploration of student voice is connected to the 4 Cs of collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity. Creative student voice projects can easily help students develop skills connected to the 4 Cs. The ISTE Standards for Students also have many connections and goals connected to creative student voice. Creative Student Voice Projects can be incorporated into any curriculum or grade level. When student voice is connected to student choice the door to curious exploration is wide open.
If you are looking for sample activities connected to student voice or have a lesson or activity to share, we've created this Wakelet to support collaborative sharing for educators.
What Does Creative Student Voice Look Like in the Classroom?
Creative student voice can be used in a variety of classroom settings and connected to almost any pedagogical approach. Student voice can be the foundation of a lesson or simply an add-on as part of the learning process. Video creation, audio recordings, writing activities, graphic design, podcasts, social media posts, class discussions, and web design are just some of the ways that student voice can be incorporated into daily classroom learning activities.
Essential Resources to Support Creative Student Voice
The world of EdTech has exploded over the past few years with tools connected to student voice. Regardless of the device, there are a variety of tools to support student engagement with student voice. Flipgid, Adobe Spark, Pear Deck and Padlet are 4 favorites. Additional resources can be found at the end of this page. We've created resource documents for each of these favorites.
