By the time students hit high school, they begin making the transition from academic hand-holding to independence. Up until about 9th grade, most students receive tremendous amounts of support with all aspects of their learning. Teachers help them with everything from how to have a group discussion, to remembering a deadline for an assignment. Once college comes, students will need to demonstrate these skills with relative ease, and definitely without any hand-holding. If a student misses a deadline, then that’s that. So how do we help high schoolers make this transition so they’re ready for all this independence in time for college? Here are some ways to build that independence while also giving students meaningful learning opportunities.
Socratic Seminar
High school students are not yet at the age where they will get much out of a lecture-style lesson. While some may invest enough interest in the topic or subject matter to pay close enough attention, many won’t. Very few will have the note-taking skills to gain meaningful learning. Instead, students need to engage in their learning as actively as possible. Socratic seminars are an excellent way to empower students by putting them in the driver’s seat. These formal and structured classroom discussions require critical thinking, active listening, and articulately and respectfully sharing views. And when planned thoroughly and implemented correctly, they are not only excellent learning experiences, they are also incredibly motivating for students.
Rubric Making
Another great way to get students more involved in their learning is to include them in decisions about what components they should include in their own assignments. Next time you are going to assign them an essay, ask them what they think a good essay should have. Show them what rubrics look like, and have them make their own for a given assignment. Then have them evaluate each other’s (perhaps with names removed) and vote on the one they think is best (with your supervision and input, of course!).
Encourage Critical Thinking
Students should be practicing critical thinking skills as early as pre-school. It’s a crucial part of becoming an independent adult. But at the high school level, it becomes especially vital that students are thinking critically every day in every single one of their classes. Simply put, critical thinking means being able to evaluate an idea or thought objectively in order to form a personal judgment or draw a conclusion. It means questioning, looking for evidence, making connections, and not taking everything at face value.
A great way to ensure that students are thinking critically is to have them problem-solve. This doesn’t mean just giving them math problems to answer, or information to locate in a text. Deep and meaningful problem-solving involves open-ended questions, problems or scenarios with multiple answers or solutions, and paths to those solutions. By having students problem-solve independently or with peers, and then sharing their solutions and their processes you can address every critical thinking skill. The more they practice these important skills, the quicker they’ll develop the ability to think and learn independently.
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