Delegating Decision Making and Easing Stress in the Classroom
Due to the staggering reality of teacher shortages, task overwhelm, and exhaustion, the idea of student-academic self-monitoring is a welcoming idea to tens of thousands of weary American educators.
Academic self-monitoring allows students to take charge of their own learning. This opportunity will ease pressure off teachers who must direct student learning along with several other daily task, including lesson planning and grading papers.
How does Academic Self-Monitoring Work?
The approach is highly profitable for both teachers and students. The purpose of this paper is to show how this project works through each stage.
Stage One: Morning Meeting-Student Led
Allow students to take charge of morning meeting. Go through and explain the routine for about 3 weeks to a month into the school year. Then start assigning responsible students to lead the meetings from then on.
Students should master various greeting and sharing styles, board routines covering the days of the week (for younger students), daily news for older children, word wall routines, vocabulary building, number manipulations, and well-organized games to end the meeting and prepare for regular daily instructions and learning.
Once students have mastered the morning meeting routines, an educator is free to present the lesson objectives for that day.
Stage Two: The Daily Instruction Set Up
When students enter the classroom, they will see several academic learning options that can selected for the appropriate learning experience for that day.
These options will consist of six to seven academic Work Sheets, including
- Phonics
- Reading Comprehension
- Mini Literacy Projects
- Reading
- Morning Mathematics
- Word Cards
- Educational games
Each student must complete five of these academic tasks and check off the work they have completed. Teachers will provide check list of all the task. Children will be able to locate the list and check off the tasks they have chosen to complete.
This gives children a sense of responsibility for their own learning experience while the teacher observes and facilitate when necessary.
Teacher facilitation consists of keeping track of the check off sheets as well as the type of work the students are completing during the day.
Academic self-monitoring should not happen all day. To connect with students, teacher guided lesson plans must also be in place, especially in the areas of science and social studies. Teacher engagement must always take priority in critical classroom moments.
Student assessments are critical times in which the teacher must discover how effectively self-monitoring has been for his or her classroom.
Pupils who are struggling must still be given one on one instructions until comprehensive is achieved and verified via assessment.
Stage Three: Group Projects: Peer Problem Solving
In the afternoon, after lunch and before the end of the day, students should be given a project to complete together.
After the teacher explains the tasks, students in groups should be allowed to work together to solve problems and discover solutions independently.
Some teachers assign four or five students to group, but this depends on how large the classroom as well as the character of the students. Educators must place students in groups and allow cohesiveness to development among the members.
Group assignments should be a regular part of the curriculum, not just a one-time event. The goal is to get students working together as teams. This approach allows true student leadership to development over time.
Once students master the art of academic self-monitoring, educators in their classrooms can feel a sense of relief from feeling overwhelmed. Educators will have more time to get other important things done, such lesson planning, measuring progress, and examining and fulfilling gaps in student achievement.
Students will get so accustomed to the self-monitoring approach that they will look forward to engaging it every day.
My experiences in such classrooms gave me the joy of observing how students can take responsibility of their own education. Teachers present, explain and answer questions during the entire learning experience.
Imagine a school day in which teachers are no longer exhausted, stressed out and overwhelmed by the volume of responsibilities that comes with the profession. Academic self-monitoring reduced or delegate these tasks to students themselves
Stage Four: End of the Day Routine
End of the day routines are just as important as morning routines. Students need to come together to determine what they have accomplished during the school day. They must consider whether they have put their best foot forward in fulfilling the expectations of their academics.
The process of discussing difficulties in understanding, obstacles to learning, and distractions will give educators ideas of what needs to be presented to help students get over their educational roadblocks and make ongoing academic progress.
Academic Self-monitoring is one of the most powerful approaches when it comes to combating the overwhelming responsibilities of American teachers.
This method frees up time and takes some of the instructional burden off teachers who now have more time for planning, assessing, and resolving learning challenges for struggling students who need additional help.
