4.4 Building Student Autonomy

juliana headshot"Building student autonomy is a vital part of a strong blended culture because it allows teachers to put their students in the driver's seat of their own learning. Building student autonomy is like driver ed. These strategies will help support students in the transition to the driver's seat, by allowing them to reflect on their actions, troubleshoot and push through struggles, and self-monitor their behavior before being given the keys!"

 —Juliana Finegan, Relay GSE Blended Learning Curriculum Designer

Blended Strategies

Blended strategies are named strategies that have been found to support teachers in successful blended implementation.  These specific strategies are used to give students opportunities to reflect on their actions, as well as to problem solve independently. It is important to make sure that all of the strategies you use to roll out blended match your model, are age appropriate, and match your teaching style in order to be successful.

3 Before Me

  • Description: Before asking the teacher for help, students are required to ask three different people (including themselves) how to solve the problem, challenge, etc. first
  • Rationale: Allowing students the opportunity to problem-solve, collaborate, and push through challenges independently helps them to build confidence in their abilities, resilience, and in turn autonomy, instead of solely relying on the teacher for the answers

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Take Your Temperature

  • Description: When students are off-task or losing focus, or seem to be having a bad day, they are asked to take their temperature and gauge where they are mentally, productively, or even emotionally on the thermometer and then alter their actions accordingly. This action can also be done without a teacher prompt in order for a student to reflect and refocus

  • Rationale: Giving students the chance to self-monitor their mental and/or emotional states, as well as their actions, gives them the opportunity to take ownership of their actions and change. This helps to build autonomy because it is not the teacher telling the student to switch gears, but instead the student reflecting on his or her actions and what needs to be improved in order to be successful

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Teacher Techniques

These strategies and pieces of advice came from individual teachers. They include recommendations and techniques these teachers found to be helpful when building student autonomy.

Remote Desktop

Hear how Ms. Bane uses a remote desktop to give students the ability to work independently but also have a line of communication when needed.

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Digital Learning Rubric

Mr. Stoudt uses a digital-learning rubric to help his students reflect on their actions and refocus on expectations when working independently on videos.

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