Jonathan C. Erwin's The Classroom of Choice: Giving Students What They Need and Getting What you Want is a treasure chest of ideas for building choices into a classroom in order to develop social relationships and accountability. One link he makes in the chapter on freedom is that with rights come responsibility. Often students think that being an adult is going to be awesome because you get to do whatever you want. The truth is that yes adults get lots of opportunity to make decisions, but each decision comes with consequences that need to be addressed. He urges schools to step up and make this a reality for students so that as they go out into the world, they are ready to be responsible citizens.
He discusses the requirement for learning of meeting basic needs which he defines as survival (food, shelter, physical comfort and safety), love and belonging, power, freedom and fun. When a classroom is built to ensure that these needs are met, behavior and learning both increase. The class becomes a place where students want to be rather than a place where they are forced to be. For students who have been chronically disengaged or abused, achieving this goal is hard. Establishing routines and consistency is important and surprises minimized. That being said, Erwin acknowledges that novelty has a place in intriguing the mind. There does, however, need to be adequate structure with that novelty.
The chapter on creating the environment had several points that struck me. He argues that students need to have a voice in the classroom. This can be established through class created rules/constitutions, needs circles to address how to meet student needs, student-generated curriculum, student recognition, specific feedback, celebrations, and recognition. A focus here is on responsible behavior. He states that "responsible behavior is that which enables us to meet our needs without making it more difficult for others to meet their needs" (105) . The whole you rights end where mine begin idea. This would mesh nicely with discussions about the bill of rights. Personalized learning fits nicely in this framework where voice and choice are key features.
Power is another key element he talks about. One way students get power is by having help to achieving competent or better quality work. When students have success, it generates other success. Here he talks about the difference between educating and schooling. Education is "using knowledge and gaining skills that can improve the quality of our lives" whereas schooling is "acquiring skills and memorizing knowledge they will rarely use outside of school" (119). So often students ask when are they ever going to use this. If we can provide concrete examples to students, they are more hooked. This means reading for meaning is so important because that is something that must be done regardless of occupation as opposed to trigonometric proofs which do provide practice in logical reasoning, if taught well, but students often fail to appreciate it. Some of the social studies programs have moved to be more around reading like a historian, that repeat these facts/dates.
The true power of the book lies in its strategies. each chapter is loaded with activities, games and structures that you can use today to enhance your classroom. A great read.
