Giving Students Power & Control

Mike Anderson, frequent contributor to edCircuit and known as The Well Balanced Teacher, spent time with Dr. Berger at the ASCD conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Anderson discussed what occurs when students have more choices about their learning, stating that they find ways of learning that matches their personal needs. The result, says Anderson, is that students are more engaged in their work, building skills and work habits that will serve them well in school and beyond. 

Anderson believes that offering students choices about their learning is one of the most powerful ways teachers can boost student learning, motivation, and achievement. In his latest book, Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn: The Key to Student Motivation and Achievement, Anderson offers numerous examples of choice in action, ideas to try with different students, and a step-by-step process to help you plan and incorporate choice into your classroom. Anderson’s new book examines:

• What effective student choice looks like in the classroom.
• Why it’s important to offer students choices.
• How to create learning environments, set the right tone for learning, and teach specific skills that enable choice to work well.

Anderson is an education consultant who works with schools and districts to help facilitate great teaching and learning. He was a public school classroom teacher for 15 years and then a Responsive Classroom presenter, consultant, and developer for more than six years. 

In 2004 he was awarded a Milken Educator Award for excellence in teaching, and in 2005 he was a finalist for New Hampshire State Teacher of the Year.

He has written several books about teaching and learning, including Learning to Choose, Choosing to Learn (ASCD, 2016), The Well-Balanced Teacher (ASCD, 2010), The Research-Ready Classroom (Heinemann, 2006), and The First Six Weeks of School (Center for Responsive Schools, 2015).