Giving children choices leads to deep engagement in learning. This comprehensive guidebook shows you step by step how to give children structured, meaningful choices about what and how they learn. Within any curriculum, the powerful teaching strategy of Academic Choice will help you create a classroom culture in which children see themselves and each other as capable learners. You'll learn how to:
- Build on children's natural curiosity, desire for autonomy, and need to feel competent
- Teach the social skills essential to a community of learners (listening, sharing ideas, working collaboratively, offering helpful and respectful comments on each other's work)
- Teach the intellectual skills necessary for independent learning (observing thoughtfully; connecting with prior learning; making choices; using materials carefully and creatively; learning how to learn through a cycle of planning, working, and reflecting)