Giving Students Choice and Voice Through Student Centered Learning

Gone are the days of the teacher as the center of the classroom and learning. Of course, most students do not learn via bell-to-bell lectures. Engaging activities and lessons that give students choice and voice make way for student centered learning in the classroom. Here are some ideas and activities you can use to throw out the lecture and center learning around your kids!

What are the Benefits of Student Centered Learning?

There are so many reasons to shift your teaching from the old “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side”. Student centered learning is not just buzzwords. It’s what’s right for the kids in your classroom. Here are some benefits to letting your kids own their learning.

1. Personalized Learning

Differentiation is so important, right? When you put your students at the center of their educational journey, they start to focus on things that will help their academic futures. This includes choice over how they learn and how they show what they know. Using student centered learning activities helps set them up for success!

2. Collaboration and Cooperation

Next, when it’s less about teacher lectures, students can work together to get to solutions. I encourage students to ask each other questions about activities, assignments, and what they are struggling with before coming to the teacher. This collaboration is important in a classroom centered around students. 

3. Improved Classroom Management

Believe it or not, engaged students are well-behaved students! It makes sense that students who are engaged and excited about what they are learning in a student centered learning classroom are more likely to listen and follow instructions. This doesn’t necessarily mean the classroom is quiet, but there is learning happening! 

What are some student centered learning activities to try in your classroom?

1. Scavenger Hunts

First, get your students learning and also moving with scavenger hunts. These student centered learning activities focus on new material and introducing fresh content to your kids (without boring them). You can also use scavenger hunts for early finishers, gallery walks, stations or centers, sub plans, rewards, individual work, partner activities, or even extension activities!

It’s like a traditional scavenger hunt because your students roam around the room and search for answers. First, choose any reading card to start and read the passage. Next, they read and answer the question at the bottom labeled “code word”. Of course, the code word for that card number leads them to the next card. Since they still have to wander and find the cards, they are reading, re-reading, and engaging with brand-new content. It’s much better than a sit-and-get lecture, right?

Finally, your students are at the center of this learning activity, leading the way as they find answers and start to ask questions about content on their own.

Overall, this is the perfect activity for reading comprehension, critical thinking, citing evidence, and of course, problem-solving!

Check out these Scavenger Hunts for different content areas:

• Layers of Earth Scavenger Hunt
• Cell Cycle Scavenger Hunt
• Marco Polo Scavenger Hunt
• Intro to Sound Scavenger Hunt
• Roman Mythology Scavenger Hunt. . .and dozens more!

Also, each scavenger hunt includes 10 reading passages, 10 question trails, a student recording sheet, student and teacher directions, an answer key, and two extension activities.

Of course, scavenger hunts are a perfect alternative to lectures. These student centered learning activities focus on reading and movement, so your students will never be bored!

2. Escape Rooms

Of course, if you’re a reader of Think Tank Teacher, you know how much I LOVE escape rooms! Overall, this is student centered learning at its best. Next, escape Rooms are puzzles that help students use content-specific lessons to “escape”. Like the scavenger hunts, escape rooms are wonderful introductions to material or even a great way to review.

First, students start with a reading passage and move around the classroom visiting 5 stations. Next, at each station, they read, answer questions, and figure out a 4-digit code to reveal a “letter clue”. Of course, this determines the final ALPHA code. Finally, all the codes (and the final code) allow them to escape!

How many lectures do you know that work on skills like reading comprehension, critical thinking, citing evidence, problem-solving, and text marking in one lesson? Not many! That’s why escape rooms are such a valuable way to turn the tables on old-school teaching and make way for student centered learning.

Try some of my favorite escape rooms.

• Civil War Reconstruction Escape Room
• Hispanic Heritage Month Escape Room
• US Landmarks Escape Room
• 5th Amendment Escape Room
• Periodic Table Escape Room

Of course, each escape room comes with everything you need to print (or assign digitally) and play! Don’t worry about buying locks and boxes. It’s super easy. Here’s what you’ll get with every escape room:

• Reading Passage
• 5 Stations
• Teacher & Student Directions
• Text Marking Option
• Answer Key
• Prop Signs

Overall, escape rooms are a student centered learning activity that is so much fun, your students won’t even realize they are learning!

3. Passion Projects

Of course, you have to cover so much content as a teacher. It’s hard to take a deep dive and truly make it about student centered learning. Passion Projects give your students a chance to ask questions and learn a little bit more about the content.

First, encourage your students to come up with essential questions about a new topic or an extension of something they already learned is so important. Next, give them a little time each week to explore on their own. This is the research element of the passion project. Finally, allow them to create or present something to share what they’ve learned. Of course, this could be as simple as a Google Slides presentation or poster or something more advanced like a video or sculpture. It’s all about choice and student centered learning!

Another way to take passion projects even further is to invite parents, other teachers, and administrators to student presentations. They love seeing student centered learning at play with passion projects.