Compliance? or Empowerment?

 "Many students are smart enough that they know how to meet the objectives of a rubric and still not grow much in their learning.  A master teacher sets the goals based on learning not on receiving a grade."

I pulled this quote from a recent George Couros blog that highlighted the difference between performance and learning goals and how to make the shift from compliance to engagement to empowerment.  Ownership in learning is not a new concept, we know that when we are engaged and have opportunities to process, learn with others, study, productively struggle, and have the opportunity to teach others that we become knowledge users rather than just knowledge consumers.  As we think about instructional leadership at the classroom level, how often are these opportunities provided to our students?

This last week, principals and teachers shared some examples with me and I also did some scanning of twitter for evidence and here are some examples of where students (and teachers) were being empowered.

.  Kindergarten students could explain the success criteria for learning new words.  They were explaining the criteria they used to figure out the words.

Walnut progress monitoring how well students know, understand the learning targets and the use of collaborative groups to provide opportunities for students to process and own the learning.

Dodge teachers collaborating in their PLC around student data (designing instruction).

GISH students analyzing multiple texts to synthesize background understandings of a particular era.  Students talked about connections of the text to current happenings in today's news.

 We have to move away from a focus on compliance to a focus on growth! I know there are so many more examples, so be sure to recognize and celebrate growth with your colleagues and your students! So excited about the opportunities for our GIPS students!