Independence & AutonomyWhat is independence and autonomy and why? The notion of teaching independence is really about giving up control which is simply not done in most of our education system. It is about pushing our fledglings out of the nest and leaving them there and expecting them to pull it off. Independence, self-control and self-regulation cannot be taught by teachers who control every move a student makes. It cannot be taught in an environment where the student is not allowed to fail. Even well-meaning staff who grant small moments of decision making to their student are still not fostering independence.
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How do we do it? |
So how do we do it? We do it by granting students the opportunity to fail. (Pause for shocked gasp) We don’t mean hurt, injured or killed but we do mean fail. We grant them constant opportunities every day, week and month to choose not to get their work done.
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Project Work Time
One of the things that we have on a regular basis is 60 to 90 minutes of project work time where our students can choose where, what and for how long they will work on any not complete projects that we have on the go. During project work time, they can talk and work together, they can research, ask us questions, get feedback from peers and us and even do nothing. We do not stand over their shoulder and watch their every move in order to make sure that they are “on task”. They are in control and it is a pretty safe bet that at least some of them are failing at it at any given time. We will step in if they are getting in the way of others being successful but we will allow them to not accomplish much as long as they are not affecting others. At the start of the school year, they are more students in this boat than being productive because most students have not been taught how to self-regulate and they have received little or no practical experience in actually having to. For most, if not all, of their education, an adult has been closely supervising them and would let them know the instant they were “off task”. How can we be surprised by a student’s lack of independence and self-control when they never get to practice and improve it. We don’t expect them to be good at volleyball or writing without lots of practical experience and making of mistakes. Does this mean that some of our students don’t get their work done? Yes. For a few project work times it might and then they come up against natural consequences.
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Project Deadlines
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All of our projects have sign post deadlines. What this means is that we will break projects up into common sense chunks and assign an absolute deadline to that chunk. On the due date for that chunk, a student only gets to go home if they have completed that chunk. In fact, students who are don’t that chunk and more will often get to go home early. There is no point in them hanging around just for the sake of hanging around if there is nothing for them to do because they have demonstrated self-regulation. Those that are done the minimum leave on time and those not done stay later. This is not a detention. This is a natural consequence. Just as in a job. If I waste time at work and don’t get done what I was supposed to, I don’t get to say, oh well, better luck next time. I either stay late and/or I take my work home with me. The best part about teenagers is that you don’t have to keep them that late to make your point. 30 minutes after everyone who got their work done has left and these students are chomping at the bit. This continues for every day until the work that is supposed to be done is done. Some students have difficulty getting out of this cycle and that’s OK. As teachers, we have to fight our natural tendencies to control everything and make it all perfect. Whether we or they realize it, these students are learning self-regulation. They might not be succeeding but they are learning. Going through this process in elementary school is far better than waiting until they have graduated from high school where there is no one to support and guide them. Once they are in post-secondary education or a job, the consequences of failure are often far more costly than having to stay late in elementary school.
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You Get What You Expect
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We have always found that with people of all ages, you typically get what you expect to get. If you expect your students to be irresponsible, rude and out of control, they will be. If you expect them to be mature and responsible, most of the time, they will be. Being human, sometimes they will fail. When they fail, they need feedback, natural consequences and another chance to try again. This is the only way to learn independence and self-control. It can’t be taught through notes, lectures or assignments. It can only be learned through experience. It is our belief that it is more important to effectively teach independence than math or writing. Independence and self-control are life long habits that need to be formed at an early age before it is too late. Actions speak louder than words. Teachers who pay lip service to the importance of independence but provide no real opportunities for it including failure are not teaching it. If a student doesn’t have the option to make a choice that will result in failing to accomplish a task, then that student has not experienced independence.
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Moving from one place to another
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Another way we develop independence is having them move from location to location on their own, without direct adult supervision. This takes place both inside and outside of our school. If our students are walking somewhere inside or outside of the building, they are simply told where they need to meet us and off they go. They choose the route to take and how they are going to get there. The concerns you might have about this include: What if they make too mu noise moving through the school? What if they jaywalk across the street? What if they are late? What if they get in people’s way or act inappropriately? In other words, what if they fail? First of all, some of them may fail. The ironic thing is that some of them might have failed even if you were with them and ‘controlling’ them. The only difference is that you would have nagged them or scolded them and no opportunity for self-control would have existed. Once again, natural consequences. Those that can’t walk on their own, don’t get to for a time or two. Most of them will be successful. The one to four students who fail can walk with you and be ‘supervised’ for the entire trip. After a few times of this, give them the opportunity to try again and be successful, or not. Another consequence we use is hallway walking practice where our students have to line up single file and practice walking through the school silently and keep doing it until they get it right. These consequences only last for a short period of time. We keep giving back control to the students even if they keep failing. It is called the learning process. Try something, get feedback and consequences and try again. If a student was late to where we were supposed to go, they might lose of the privilege of self-direction the next time, but after that, they would get another chance to try again. Students can learn so much from failure but for that to occur, failure has to be an option.
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Transportation outside of school |
Even more on the independence scale, our students use public transportation to move around the city. The only time we book a traditional yellow school bus is when we are leaving the city on a camping trip. In addition, we seldom travel with them on the public transit. Our students use public transit at the start of the day to get to wherever we are starting the day (not necessarily at school), go home at the end of the day, and travel to and from any other location during the day. Our students are responsible for finding their bus routes to anywhere we are going, waiting at the bus stop, catching and riding the bus on their own, and getting to wherever we are going with appropriate public behaviour without adult supervision. A natural consequence for a lack of self regulation on public transit can be a day or two of having to travel with the teachers or having to catch a different bus than the others. We have also made them partner up with another student who was willing to ‘supervise’ them and that they were wiling to accept in that role. This student was expected to be with them at all times, let them know when they were not doing what they were supposed to and inform us if there were any problems.
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Takes Time and Patience
For this process of teaching independence to work, it requires the the teacher sits down and shuts up for as long as possible, or longer. It is far more effective to give the students the instructions and task and then butt out and give feedback and consequences afterwards then it is to step in because they are not going fast enough or doing it the way you wanted them to. The only times we step in are: 1) The group is self-destructing with negativity or risky actions or 2) We really do have to be done by a certain time for some reason. Otherwise, we are more than willing to sit and watch a group not be successful or efficient for a very long time. one of the natural consequences of something taking too long is that students will probably not be dismissed on time or the fun activity that we wanted to do gets shorter or doesn’t happen. Teachers, like all adults, need to realize that if we are always doing something for our students, they will never do it on their own. Why would they? This applies to everything from starting your day, getting students quiet, doing work, etc. Get the students in charge of anything and everything. Get all of the students in charge, not just some of them. It will take time and patience but the reward in the end is a group of young adults who don’t need you to babysit them. It also results in much less frustration on your part and theirs because you won’t feel like you need to nag them to get things done. All of the time that this process takes at the beginning of the year will be made up throughout the rest of the school year.
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