TEACHING SELF-DIRECTION
TEACHING SELF-DIRECTION
A student who can take charge of herself, make responsible choices, pursue her own interests, and learn without your constant supervision is likely to become a self-motivated, lifelong learner.
If your students are to become self-directed learners, you must teach them to learn independently, just as you teach phonics to enable them to read.
Steps to Take
To teach self-direction, start with activity choices that let your students do
things they already know about and enjoy. Begin with the following step-by-step instructions:
1. Set up three to six activities in which your students can work on a task without direct super- vision, such as doing puzzles or listening to stories at a listening center.
58 IF22636 Skills for Successful Teaching
2. Describe the choices to your students, where they are located, and how many students can participate.
3. Give clear directions for selecting an activity, working appropriately, cleaning up when finished, and making another activity choice.
4. Direct each student to select an activity to do first.
5. Ask the students to model how to go to the activities or get materials for them. Then ask the students if they feel they are ready to do the activities without any help.
6. Dismiss your students a few at a time to make their choices, and direct them to begin.
7. Circulate for 15 to 20 minutes in order to diagnose your students—their needs, interests, and abilities to focus and sustain effort on the activities.
8. Hold a group discussion to evaluate the independent learning session. Ask students to comment on the experience and suggest how it might be improved.
9. Record the names of students who need help and note their areas of weakness.
10. Reinforce your students’ productive behavior, such as gathering needed materials, focusing on a task, ignoring distractions, moving from one activity to the next, and cleaning up. This is a very important step, so be sure to praise all appropriate and positive actions.
11. Teach your students a signal that indicates that there are
2 to 3 minutes remaining before the close of an activity and time to clean up.
12. Teach another signal to indicate that it is time to stop, clean up, and return to a designated area for evaluation of their performance in working independently. Reinforce those who respond productively to the signal. Example: “You got a lot done today—you can work well on your own.” Refocus and restart those students who did not sustain their effort. Example: “Show me what you will do next,” or “What kept you from being able to complete this activity today? Let’s see how we can help make sure you will able to complete it tomorrow.”
13. Reteach the same procedure each day until it becomes routine. Now you can work with a small instructional group for a short time, while observing the self-direction of the rest of your students. Afterward, circulate again among the independent learners to reinforce their productive behavior.
14. Add new independent activities to the learning environment every week or so. As new activities are added, old ones should
be removed so that your students neither lose interest nor face too large an assortment of choices.
15. Once your students have mastered working independently, provide creative contracts and assign job cards. Tip: For extra motivation, add a few activities designed or made by the students!
59 IF22636 Skills for Successful Teaching