Using Voice and Choice to Enhance Student Experience

Student voice and choice is an area that I want to improve on the most.  I have a few examples of students having the choice of "topic" for a specific project, but not as much freedom with topics AND projects.  Students did not have a choice in this project created, however, they were required to review other students submissions.  

Students created an imaginary press release for an event or person from the chapter on Rome's Beginnings.  I included a template for the students to fill in to prevent any formatting issues and allow the students to have the same layout to review.  Once the students had chosen their topic, they needed to do some additional research to answer the 5 W's and How in their writing.  

The rubric I created in Canvas made for easy grading on my part.  Having the rubric as part of the lesson on Canvas gave the students clear expectations of what I was looking for in their final submission.  If students are very familiar with the BlendEd environment, this will be easy but is an area that will need some direct instruction to lay the groundwork.  

I did not do enough with individual reviews and comments for the students.  In the future, this is the area I want/need to work on more is timely personal feedback for students.  I also struggle on having voice/choice in daily lessons, but adding more projects, assignments, and discussion boards to my Canvas modules in each class I believe I can get to a fully integrated classroom. 

Rubric for assignment

Rubric for student assignment

This is the template students can work from.