My focus this fall has been on implementing all the components of Academic Choice, especially representing, throughout my curriculum. My goals are 1) to have students engaged in at least one Academic Choice experience each day, optimally in each of the subject areas; and 2) to see students using time wisely and choosing challenging activities during their work time.

Data collection
Each week I kept track of the academic choices that I have implemented and the subject areas in which they occurred. I counted only the Academic Choice experiences that included all the components of the Responsive Classroom approach to Academic Choice: Plan, Work, and Represent [an opportunity to present your work to others and otherwise reflect on it]. I tried to have students use a variety of methods to represent what they had learned, and kept track of the methods each child used. During their representing I asked students to rate their own work and consider changes they would make next time. Sometimes I recorded who shared with the group and what they accomplished. I also developed a simple planning and reflection written piece for students to use during our literacy work period.

Beginning
I began using Academic Choice on the third day of school. Students had a simple choice to make (writing, reading, puzzles, or drawing), and I wrote their names on a chart along with their choices. Students quickly became familiar with the Academic Choice routine. I was surprised that they were soon able to make their choices on the sign-up chart quite efficiently after just a few weeks; in the past, the transition to work time had been chaotic. The students represented for the first time during the first week of school, when they shared their Hopes and Dreams with the class.

Expanding Academic Choice
The area in which I most consistently use Academic Choice is literacy. I have used a work board and given students choices during literacy for the past four years, but I haven’t allowed time for students to plan their work or represent their learning. My dilemma was finding time for them to share. If everyone represented individually, it would take an extra five to ten minutes, so I started using other formats for representing, such as partner sharing or asking a certain team of students to bring their work to the circle. Even when not everyone shares, the element of not knowing who will share till the end of the literacy work period keeps students using their time wisely.

Writers’ Workshop
During writers’ workshop, my students choose their topic, genre, and publishing format. This year I have spent more time on the writer’s craft so that students would not just rush to publish and would focus more on quality writing. Now that they are publishing more regularly, I am improving on the representing part of Academic Choice. Students share both in the Author’s Chair and by placing their writing in the class library for others to read. Sometimes they share with a partner, sometimes with the entire class.

Math
I also use Academic Choice weekly during math. When I asked the students what skills they needed to improve in math, they also suggested activities that would help them practice each skill. When my principal observed them working at their choices, she was impressed with how engaged they were and noticed that I even had time to work with a small group of children who were struggling with place value.

Theme units
I thought that I would have the greatest difficulty implementing Academic Choice into my theme units, but I found that this can happen very naturally in culminating activities. At the end of my space unit, for example, I asked my class what space topics they wanted to learn more about. I was pleased and even surprised to see that they signed up for one of those topics, two people to a topic, according to their interests, not according to their friendships in the class. The next day, the children searched books and the internet to find out more about their topics. On the third day, they listed ways they could share their new learning with the class, and they signed up for ways to represent. Finally, everyone shared his/her work, and I displayed the projects in the hall.

Accountability
Knowing that their peers will be looking at their work keeps students more accountable. I set up a bulletin board display dedicated to best work. One first-grader and one second-grader share a rectangular space. When I introduced the concept, the students were excited to choose and hang their best work, and now I sometimes hear students ask each other if they think that some piece of writing, drawing, or worksheet is some of their best work.

Continuing
I will continue to use Academic Choice throughout the curriculum, and right from the start of school again next year. I used to think that Academic Choice was for much later in the year, once the students were well “trained.” But I realize now that giving the students small opportunities to make choices in their work early in the year is training. It is a wonderful opportunity to teach them how to make good choices and learn the basic Academic Choice routines. It is also a great motivator. Consistently I have fewer students off task during Academic Choice lessons than when I have all my students doing the same assigned task.

Working on these goals within an Action Plan was definitely a motivator for me to start using Academic Choice more regularly. During the past two years, I would use Academic Choice a week or two before the RC trainer came to our school, so I could get some practice before I was observed. My lessons usually went well, but then I would get back into my old routine. Now I am seeing how well Academic Choice fits into the children’s learning. I am using it daily, and even sometimes at the spur of the moment in the middle of a lesson!

Renae Kiser teaches 1st-graders at Richardson Elementary School in St. Paul, MN.

This article first appeared in Origins: A Newsletter for Educators, Winter 2003-2004