Using Voice and Choice to Enhance Student Experience

Personally, I think Voice and Choice can be the hardest area of BlendEd learning for teachers who are just starting to grasp the concept.  Many teachers are so used to being the "sage on the stage" when it comes to delivering content knowledge.  As a social studies teacher, I realize that traditionally many lessons are given in lecture format.  I have definitely given my fair share of powerpoint lectures in class, but I would like to think I have adapted and changed significantly since my teaching career began.  It can be difficult to design assignments that truly give students a real voice and choice.  I personally believe there are a couple of restrictions that are hindering teachers from giving students more voice and choice.  The first hindrance is the difficulty in assessing students when they have the choice on how to demonstrate their knowledge.  As teachers, it is much easier to grade 15-150 of an assignment that has a standard set of expectations.  If we have 28 students, many of us want 28 identical "papers" because it's easier for us.  

The second limitation many teachers have when it comes giving students voice and choice is the lack of open-mindedness.  I know there are several times my lack of creativity has limited the option I have given my students.  If we as teachers are willing to give up some of the control we have in our classroom, I think we would be amazed at what our students can create.  However, I must say I have run into some bumps in the road along my BlendEd path.  The first few times I gave students the choice of how to create their projects I received fairly basic google slide presentations.  Many of my students are much more comfortable consuming information than they are creating information.  As the year went along, I tried to do a better job of modeling different medium for my students to use to share information with each other.  I have a long ways to go in this area and am open to any suggestions anyone has.

I am attaching some screenshots and rubrics that were created for the American Government classes final projects.  The students were guided in a certain direction for the project but had both a voice and choice in both the information and format for their project.

Rubrics from American Government

A rubric for a brochure option

A rubric for a website option

A rubric for a newscast option