George Lucas Educational Foundation
Edutopia

Student Voice

Discover how students' input and expertise can help shape their classroom, their school, and ultimately their own learning and growth.

  • Bringing Student Choice to Assessment in Science Classes

    What happens when students can opt to skip tests and instead give oral presentations or create art to show what they know?
    John Dorroh

  • 60-Second Strategy: Traverse Talk

    This fun classroom activity helps students find their voice by teaching the basics of debate in an accessible way.

  • 3 Common PBL Problems—and Solutions

    Ideas for how to overcome issues that teachers new to project-based learning frequently encounter.
    John McCarthy

  • Social Contracts Foster Community in the Classroom

    When students and teachers collaborate to create shared behavior expectations, the whole class is invested in the norms.

  • Creating a Classroom Culture of Shared Ownership

    Getting buy-in from students at the outset encourages them to engage more deeply in their learning.
    Miriam Plotinsky

  • Using Learning Stations to Kick Off the Year

    An engaging way for students to get to know each other, review the syllabus, and decide on classroom agreements.
    Angelina Murphy

  • 60-Second Strategy: Participation Cards

    A quick formative assessment tool also encourages all students—even shy ones—to participate in discussions.

  • Teaching Students to Give Peer Feedback

    Giving their classmates feedback on writing is a complex skill for students to master, but it can be taught with scaffolded modeling.
    Mark Gardner

  • When Middle School Students Think Like Historians

    Students can learn about implicit bias by investigating the cultural assumptions underlying their history textbooks.
    Carl Cooper

  • Developing Agency With Student-Led Conferences

    When students lead meetings with their parents and teachers, they gain a voice in their education and develop skills like goal-setting and metacognition.

  • Morning Meetings: Building Community in the Classroom

    Starting the day with this 15-minute activity helps students regulate their emotions and focus on the day’s learning.

  • 6 Opening and Closing Routines for New Teachers

    Check for understanding, manage your students, and build classroom community with these six opening and closing classroom routines.
    Rebecca Alber

  • Sparking Curiosity With Self-Directed Learning

    Teacher-designed stations linked to core skills prompt students to learn while exploring their interests.

  • Justice Committee: Using Restorative Practices to Resolve Conflicts

    Students at Pittsfield Middle High School are trained to mediate conflicts between their fellow students—and between students and teachers.

  • Student Voice and Choice in the Early Elementary Grades

    A look at how a second-grade teacher gave her students some control over the classroom jobs list to bolster their sense of autonomy.
    Justine Bruyère