Handing over the baton

I have had some success in giving students the ownership of the lesson in terms of where they go from a set framework (ie start point of topic and end with assessment).

I had been a bit more anxious about given them the ability to direct where they go from a blank page...until about 18months ago.

I put on the board a date - September 11th - and said to my PSHE class (very mixed ability ranging from A* pupils to F pupils) 'There's your lesson!  Off you go!'  After a moment of 'UH?' came the questions and I responded with another question back. 

In the end they stopped asking questions of me and started asking them of each other.  

After about 10 minutes one of the groups came up and asked if they could do a presentation - I said 'I dont know can you?'  They walked off and came back a couple of minutes later saying 'We are doing a presentation!'

This was replicated throughout the class as groups decided that they would produce poems, pictures, opinions, diaries, presentations.

They all decided that they would set PSHE HOMEWORK!!!! and that they would carry this on next time.

Second lesson - presentations of varying styles but all powerful, thoughtful and personal.

We ended with a big plenary where the lesson was discussed and what they felt they had acheived was outlined.  All went away feeling they had really worked hard to put forward their opinion on the events of this date and when I see them they still talk about it today.

All they had to go on was a date...no 3 part lesson...no learning objectives...just a date.