We have all heard of student-led learning from an inspiring Ted talk, a PD session, or a colleague. Just like a motivational talk, when you hear about it, you think: yeah, great, I’m gonna make some changes!
But a week later, that thought disappeared under a pile of to-do things.
Student-led learning sounds like a dream: instead of teaching, teachers engage with students individually.
Dreams aren’t real, right?
Would you believe me if I told you that I have stopped teaching year 8 and year 9? They now do it on their own. They come into the classroom after greeting me, sit with their Chromebook, and go to Google Classroom, where they find everything they need.
After the first 15 minutes, I join the crowd and engage with students individually.
I am not a teacher anymore but a facilitator. Since I shifted from teacher-led to student-led lessons, I am baffled every day by their progress, progress I would not have dreamt of when I was teaching.
The secret of a student-led classroom is in planning. Once you have understood how it works, you can stop teaching.
Here are the 4 keys to planning a student-led lesson:
- The video lesson
- Choose the right exercises
- Assessing your independent workers
- How to organize your student-led lesson
The video lesson
The video is the keystone of a student-led classroom. Why? Because it replaces you as the teaching teacher. If you had a lot of free time, you could record and edit your own, but if you are a teacher, it is probably not the case. You’d better open Youtube; it is your cave of wonders. There are fantastic lessons available for free. Type what you are looking for: solving simple algebraic equations lesson, near future tense french lesson, food chain lesson, name it, it’s there.
Each video should have a questionnaire to ensure all students watch it before moving to the next step.
You want to keep your students motivated, so the video lessons should be short (5 to 10 minutes) and cover one skill at a time.
Videos give teachers non-teaching time but also benefit students with differentiation and collaboration. Students can pause or replay the lesson according to their needs. They can discuss the content with their partners; when this happens, you know your student-led lesson is a success.
Choose the right exercises
Practice makes perfect; this is why your students should drill after watching the video lesson. However, doing the same thing over and over again isn’t engaging. Instead, it would be best if you made them practice the skill in various ways.
For example:
| Metaphor exercises | Multiplication exercises |
| – Spot the metaphor – Turn metaphors into similes – Turn similes into metaphors – Explain metaphors | – Find the product – Find the factor – Solve simple word problems – Solve 2 steps word problems |
Remember, the drills are here to acquire and practice the skills, so they should be relatively easy. It allows your students to explore the concept and better grasp it. Then you can evolve towards exercises that require problem-solving and collaboration.
Make sure to look at the textbooks your department has been using; they are treasures for resources, scan the exercises and earn time. Otherwise, you’ll find everything you need on TES or Teachers Pay Teachers.
Assessing your independent workers
Having your students work on their own seems scary. How do you know that they are working? After all, they could be playing video games.
Yes, they could, but it is your job to make it clear that they are now responsible, and you should start trusting them and let them make their own choices and mistakes.
- How do you know if students are progressing?
Although the lesson is student-led, you won’t be able to put your feet up. You will walk around and sit with your students to engage in discussions. MFL teachers could use this time to converse in the target language. It is a great way to assess and give feedback.
- Exit ticket
Each lesson could end with an exit ticket: a question that would assess their ability to apply the skill or to explain it in their own words. Exit tickets are great opportunities for formative assessment.
Like us, students have ups and downs. As a result, they might unexpectedly fail an assessment. If so, you could use their progress file and your professional judgment to assess whether they acquired the skill.
How to organize your student-led lesson
Going from teacher-led to student-led learning takes a lot of time and preparation. Between thinking through the process and finding/creating resources, an hour lesson could take at least an hour of planning.
First of all, create 3 Google Documents and name them as follows:
- Task sheet – Title of the unit – Name/Number of the sub-topic
- Progress file – Title of the unit – Name/Number of the sub-topic
- Resources – Title of the unit – Name/Number of the sub-topic
The task sheet is the map that will allow your students to navigate through the lesson. It contains everything they need: learning objectives, outcomes, a to-do list, and links to resources.
Learning outcomes are crucial in a student-led lesson. Students must know what the learning outcomes are; this will guide them and make sense of their work. On the other hand, clear learning outcomes will help the teacher to choose appropriate activities. So before anything: set your learning outcomes.
Next, we have the to-do list. That list should contain everything students need to complete the progress file. The to-do list is the guide, the map that will lead your students to the holy grail. The first instruction should be to watch the lesson video, and a link to the video should accompany it.
Add a link to the resource document when required.
Share the task sheet with your students (make sure to set it so anyone with the link can view it)
The progress file
The progress file is valuable as it is the base of your formative assessment. It contains exercises your students have to complete and questions they should answer.
Print the progress file and hand it to your students.
Resources
It contains all text/image resources that don’t need printing – the school accountant will like you, and you will maximize the use of IT in the classroom.
The resource document will is only accessible through a hyperlink from the task sheet.
Takeaways:
Shifting from teacher-led to student-led lessons requires a lot of work. You will spend long hours planning and gathering resources. But the rewards are uncountable. In the long term, you will earn a lot of time which you can use to engage with your students and provide them with valuable feedback. Since I have flipped my classroom, students have been more involved with the work as they became responsible for their learning. Some rush through the work, some take their time listening to music simultaneously, and there is no more behavior issue. A constant positive working vibe is now floating in the classroom, which feels more like an office space.
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