Student-Centered+Classrooms

====In Student-Centered Classrooms, students construct their own knowledge based on experiential, holistic, authentic, and challenging experiences. Teachers take the skills, knowledge, and concepts that the curriculum requires and connect them to students' experiences, interests, and environment. They provide opportunities for students to communicate their understandings, reasoning, solutions, and connections. Teachers encourage students to reflect on their own thinking and learning. Curriculum and assessments are centered on meaningful performances in real-world contexts. Classroom learning experiences are intentionally designed for collaboration. ====



=The Attributes of a Student-Centered Classroom =

Construction of Learning

 * Definitions: Use prior/background knowledge to make connections to new ideas (Elem); Create situations that allow students to make connections to new ideas (Jr/Sr High)
 * Main ideas: creating questions, higher-order thinking allows learner to re-think and re-shape prior ideas, differentiation of individual learning (Elem); know students' prior knowledge, build upon prior knowledge/higher-order thinking, connect to new ideas (Jr/Sr High)
 * Examples: Daily 5/CAFE, CORI, Student surveys, Text to Self, Text to Text, and Text to World connections (Elem); CORI teachers situate a conceptual goal within a unit and solicit questions from students, Rube Goldberg project (Jr/Sr High)

Metacognition

 * Definitions: thinking about your thinking (Elem and Jr/Sr High)
 * Main ideas: control or self-regulation, knowledge of one's own thought process, beliefs and intuitions (Elem); What do I know? Is it correct? What alternative strategies should I try? (Jr/Sr High)
 * Examples: modeling math diagnosis, think aloud/read aloud (Elem); science probe, math (Jr/Sr High)

Collaborative Learning

 * Definitions: philosophy of interaction and personal lifestyle where individuals are responsible for their actions and they respect abilities and contributions of their peers (Elem and Jr/Sr High)
 * Main ideas: new meaning comes from social interaction, intrinsically motivational to students, provides students opportunities to learn from peers (Elem); helps develop intrinsic motivation, provides opportunities to learn from peers & gain life skills, supports the importance of speaking/listening (Jr/Sr High)
 * Examples: 4 corners, check for understanding - Daily 5 (Elem); group work, student-led instruction (Jr/Sr High)

Educator/Student Partnership

 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Definitions: a collaborative relationship between teachers and students that focuses on student interests, needs and abilities (Elem and Jr/Sr High)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Main ideas: student involvement, teacher is a facilitator, student-centered classrooms (Elem); teacher as facilitator, classroom management is strengthened through learning communities, teach kids to be independent thinkers (Jr/Sr High)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Examples: scientific method, teacher facilitates group work, help students discover the power of their own minds (Elem); TAG, country school (Jr/Sr High)

<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Authentic Assessments

 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Definitions: students are engaged in activities that result in authentic and challenging applications (Elem); authentic assessments allow teachers to instruct to an individual's needs (Jr/Sr High)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Main ideas: student-centered learning, teacher facilitator, real world (Elem); various forms of feedback allows for specialized instruction, make sure to test application of info, not just recall, and creates a student-centered classroom (Jr/Sr High)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Examples: Have options, rubrics, student feedback (Elem); require students to apply knowledge in real world situations, assess a variety of learning styles (Jr/Sr High)