You Don’t Have to Do It All

Student Ownership Achieves Balance

Many of the teachers I coach are tired. Their jobs are multifaceted and demanding. They design and facilitate lessons, monitor student progress, collect student data, provide feedback and assess student work. They also carry the burden of communicating with parents about student progress. It should not surprise anyone that most teachers are exhausted and struggle to find balance in their teaching practice.

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Teachers are doing the lion’s share of the work in the classroom. That is a problem. The person doing the work is the person doing the learning. We must find ways to shift the ownership of learning from the teacher to the learners.

In my book, Balance with Blended Learning, I encourage teachers to embrace a partnership model and view their students as real partners in the learning process. Students can no longer be passive participants in the classroom. However, to actively engage in the learning process, students must learn how to think about their learning, assess their skill development and communicate their progress with parents or guardians.

#1 Metacognition
The teacher cannot be the only person in a classroom thinking about student learning. Too often, students receive information, learning objectives, instructions and grades without ever being asked to think about their learning or evaluate the development of their skills. Teachers who help students develop metacognitive skills promote active engagement in the learning process. Students must practice flexing their metacognitive muscles by regularly reflecting on their work. They must understand what they are learning, how they are learning, and where they need to focus energy to improve.

A straightforward strategy for teaching kids to slow down and think about their learning is to end the week with an exit ticket, like the one pictured to the right. An exit ticket focused on metacognitive skills helps students to appreciate what they are learning, while also giving them an avenue to advocate for themselves as learners. They must articulate what they are learning, how they are learning and how they might help someone else to develop a specific skill or learn a concept. They also have the opportunity to identify skills and concepts that are challenging or unclear and ask for additional support. This student feedback can be a powerful guide as teachers plan their next week of instruction.

#2 Self-Assessment

The teacher cannot be the only person in the classroom thinking critically about assessing student work. Students must practice evaluating the quality of their work and reflecting on what that work reveals about their skills and content knowledge.

One routine that teachers can implement to teach these skills is asking students to regularly reflect in a self-assessment document. Teachers begin by identifying key standards and skills for a particular unit. Then they give students time each week to select a piece of work, align it to a target standard or skill and reflect on what that work reveals about their journey toward mastering that skill.

Ongoing Self Assessment Document
Think about the work you have completed this week. Select a specific piece of work to analyse and reflect on in depth. Identify the skill or standard to which this particular piece of work aligns. What is the title of the asignment you are assessing? Provide a link to online work or insert a photo of offline work. Evaluate your work and give yourself a score based on where you think you are in relation to mastering this skill/standard Explain your self-evaluation score.

Not only does the ongoing self-assessment form require that students think critically about their skills, it helps them to understand the value of the work they are doing in class. Teachers also gain invaluable data from this form that they can use to move toward personalising instruction, supports and scaffolds for students as they work on mastering specific skills and content knowledge.

#3 Communicate Progress

Teachers cannot communicate regularly with 30-150 families about each student’s progress. It simply isn’t possible. Instead, I believe students of all ages should own the conversation about their progress. They should have a strong sense of how they are doing in a particular class and practice articulating their progress to parents or guardians. When students communicate directly with parents and guardians, it encourages conversations about academic progress, keeps parents and guardian’s in the
loop and requires that students take responsibility for their learning.

When I coach teachers, I encourage them to dedicate time every other week to having students communicate their progress with their parents. In the older grades, this takes the form of an email. In younger grades, students can write a short script and record an audio update using an app like Remind or Class Dojo. If students are developing their metacognitive muscles and regularly engaging in self-assessment, then communicating their progress to parents will be exponentially easier.

The teacher profession needs to be sustainable and rewarding if schools are going to attract and retain high-quality teachers. Unfortunately, traditional approaches to lesson design, facilitation and assessment put the burden on teachers to do the work. It’s time to flip the script and get students doing the heavy lifting in the classroom.

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Catlin Tucker


Catlin Tucker

Catlin Tucker is a Google Certified Innovator,
bestselling author, international trainer, and keynote
speaker. Catlin is pursuing her doctorate in learning
technologies at Pepperdine University and working
as a blended learning coach. Catlin has published
a collection of books on blended learning, including
Blended Learning in Grades 4-12, Blended Learning
In Action, Power Up Blended learning and Balance
With Blended Learning: Partner With Your Students
to Reimagine Learning and Reclaim Your Life.
She is active on Twitter @Catlin_Tucker and
writes an internationally ranked education blog at

CatlinTucker.com