Embedded Files
Overview
Overview
Student Agency is the capacity and opportunity for students to act with purpose in their own learning. It means students take ownership of their goals, monitor their progress, make decisions about their learning, and reflect on their growth, with support and guidance from their teachers.
🎯 Why It Matters
🎯 Why It Matters
Builds motivation, confidence, and responsibility
Prepares students for lifelong learning and success beyond school
Supports equity by valuing student voice and lived experience
Encourages goal-setting, reflection, and self-regulation
Aligns directly with Portrait of a Graduate competencies and personalized learning
Agency doesn’t mean students are learning alone — it means they’re learning with purpose.
🧠 Strategy Checklist
🧠 Strategy Checklist
🔹 BEFORE THE LESSON
☐ Involve students in goal-setting for the unit or task
☐ Provide opportunities for voice and choice (how, what, or when they learn)
☐ Plan moments for self-assessment, reflection, or revision
☐ Design tasks that require decision-making, reflection, or leadership
☐ Create tools that help students track progress (rubrics, logs, checklists)
🔹 DURING THE LESSON
☐ Encourage students to articulate their goals and learning processes
☐ Use conferencing, prompts, and questioning to support reflection
☐ Provide options for demonstrating learning
☐ Model and normalize self-regulation and productive struggle
☐ Celebrate when students take initiative or advocate for their needs
🔹 AFTER THE LESSON
☐ Prompt student reflection: What did I learn? What’s next?
☐ Support students in adjusting their learning goals
☐ Use evidence of student thinking and decisions in conferences or feedback
☐ Reflect on which tasks or environments promoted agency — and which didn’t
☐ Build routines that reinforce student ownership over time
👀 Look-Fors
👀 Look-Fors
Students can explain what they’re learning and why it matters
Students have opportunities to make choices and reflect
Self-assessment, goal-setting, or progress monitoring tools are in use
Classroom culture supports risk-taking, questions, and autonomy
Teachers act as facilitators and coaches, not just instructors
📈Continuum of Practice
📈Continuum of Practice
FOUNDATIONAL
Teacher:
Teacher makes all decisions; students passively complete tasks.
EMERGING
Teacher:
Teacher occasionally offers choices or reflective prompts.
PROFICIENT
Teacher:
Teacher builds structures for goal-setting, voice, and self-assessment.
TRANSFORMING
Teacher:
Teacher partners with students in designing, evaluating, and directing learning.
Student:
Students follow directions without understanding their purpose or ownership.
Student:
Students make some choices but may not see how they impact learning.
Student:
Students reflect, set goals, make learning choices, and adjust with guidance.
Student:
Students confidently lead parts of their learning, set ambitious goals, and reflect on growth.
🗃️ Structures
🗃️ Structures
VOICE & CHOICE
Give students real opportunities to express their ideas and make meaningful decisions.
Choice Boards & Learning Menus: Students select tasks, products, or processes based on learning goals
Flexible Product Options: Let students show what they know through writing, video, design, or performance
Discussion & Debate Routines: Use academic discourse to let students share perspectives and challenge thinking
Suggestion or Innovation Box: Invite students to propose new ideas for projects, procedures, or improvements
GOAL-SETTING & PROGRESS TRACKING
Help students take the wheel by setting and monitoring learning goals over time.
Weekly Goal Sheets: Students choose specific, measurable academic or behavioral goals
Mastery Trackers: Color-coded or digital tools students use to mark progress toward standards or competencies
Personalized Learning Maps: Students map out their own sequence of tasks, checkpoints, or skill milestones
Data Reflections: Regular check-ins where students use feedback or scores to adjust strategies
REFLECTION & SELF-ASSESSMENT
Build metacognition and confidence through structured reflection and evaluation.
Learning Journals: Daily or weekly written or recorded reflections about what worked and what didn’t
Traffic Light Check-Ins: Red = stuck, Yellow = unsure, Green = ready to move on
Rubric-Based Self-Evals: Students score and justify their own work before turning it in
Portfolio Reflections: “Here’s how I’ve grown…” paired with evidence and goal statements
LEADERSHIP & CONTRIBUTION
Promote opportunities for students to contribute to the classroom, community, and learning environment.
Student Roles: Assign rotating classroom jobs with real responsibility (tech manager, discussion leader, etc.)
Student-Led Conferences: Learners present their work, data, and goals to teachers or families
Peer Coaching Partners: Students support one another’s learning with check-ins and strategy-sharing
Classroom Norms Co-Creation: Involve students in setting expectations and problem-solving challenges
Report abuse