Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning

for learning

framework for what student agency is and how to achieve it . . . leveraging his considerable experiences as an educator and coach to bring simplicity to complexity. Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning is a book that will last the test of time, inspiring educators with clarity and direction as they prepare

A Framework for Building

Principal, Proviso East High School, Maywood, Illinois “This book helps us to right the balance of instruction in the classroom and invites us to look at the larger purpose of education: how to grapple with questions and how to find joy and affirmation in the struggle of learning.”

—Brenda Whi t a ker Principal, Edgewood Primary School, Bloomington, Indiana

• Explore the framework for building agency and understand the importance of developing agency in students • Receive detailed explanations of all components of the framework, including end-of-chapter assignments that ask readers to apply their understanding of the components • Utilize an agency unit planner to design learning experiences that develop learner agency • Investigate what agency looks and sounds like in the classroom while utilizing research-based tools and strategies

A Framework for Building Student Agency

ISBN 978-1-943360-35-2 90000

9 781943 360352

ZIMA

Visit MarzanoResources.com/reproducibles to download the free reproducibles in this book.

MarzanoResources.com

for learning

the purpose of teaching our students

Re ad e r s w i l l :

• Gain firsthand perspectives from teachers and students who have transformed learning with the framework for building agency

MINDSETS SKILL SETS

A Framework for Building Student Agency

When educators hear the term student agency, many are left wondering, What does that truly mean, and how do I make it happen? In Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning: A Framework for Building Student Agency, author Bill Zima provides definitive answers. With a research-backed conception of agency as the foundation, Zima introduces a framework that K–12 teachers can use to organize their instructional practice to create the conditions that give learners control over their thinking. This framework allows teachers to shift from simply delivering content to deliberately planning lessons and opportunities that encourage students to become active participants in their learning. By reading Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning, educators will support and cultivate students’ ability to build agency within themselves.

—Pat ri ck Ha rdy

for learning

Student Agency

students for a rewarding future.”

MINDSETS SKILL S ETS

MINDSETS SKILL SETS

“Bill Zima provides a unifying

Bill Zima

Copyright © 2021 by Marzano Resources Materials appearing here are copyrighted. With one exception, all rights are reserved. Readers may reproduce only those pages marked “Reproducible.” Otherwise, no part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission of the publisher and the author.

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Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Zima, Bill, author.

Title: Mindsets and skill sets for learning : a framework for building student agency / Bill Zima.

Description: Bloomington, IN : Marzano Resources, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020041614 (print) | LCCN 2020041615 (ebook) | ISBN 9781943360352 (paperback) | ISBN 9781943360369 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Individualized instruction. | Motivation in education. | Student participation in curriculum planning. | Agent (Philosophy) Classification: LCC LB1031 .Z56 2021 (print) | LCC LB1031 (ebook) | DDC 371.39/4--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020041614 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020041615 Production Team President and Publisher: Douglas M. Rife Associate Publisher: Sarah Payne-Mills Art Director: Rian Anderson Managing Production Editor: Kendra Slayton Copy Chief: Jessi Finn Production Editor: Laurel Hecker Content Development Specialist: Amy Rubenstein Proofreader: Elisabeth Abrams Text and Cover Designer: Abigail Bowen Editorial Assistants: Sarah Ludwig and Elijah Oates

Table of Contents Reproducible pages are in italics.

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

INTRODUCTION

Why a Book on Agency? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Education That Builds Agency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Structure of This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

CHAPTER

1

The Framework for Building Agency . . . . . . . . . 7 What Is Agency, and Why Is It Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 What Is the Framework for Building Agency? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 How Do I Plan Units That Build Agency? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

CHAPTER

2

A Learner-Centered Classroom Culture . . . . . . 15 What Is a Learner-Centered Classroom Culture? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Why Is a Learner-Centered Classroom Culture Important? . . . . . . . 17 How Do I Do It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Creating an SOP List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Behavior Tracking Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

v

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MINDSETS AND SKILL SETS FOR LEARNING

CHAPTER

3

The Inquiry Starter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 What Is the Inquiry Starter? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Why Is the Inquiry Starter Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 How Do I Do It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Developing Inquiry Starters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Evaluating Driving Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Agency Unit Planner: Inquiry Starter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

CHAPTER

4

Learning Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 What Are Learning Targets? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Why Are Learning Targets Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 How Do I Do It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Identifying Essential Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Evaluating Learning Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Building a Proficiency Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Agency Unit Planner: Learning Targets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 Agency Unit Planner: Mindsets and Skill Sets of Agency . . . . . . . . . 71

CHAPTER

5

Application of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 What Is the Application of Knowledge? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 Why Is the Application of Knowledge Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 How Do I Do It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Understanding the New Taxonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Understanding Depth of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Building a Learning Target Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Agency Unit Planner: Application of Knowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Table of Contents Agency Unit Planner: Assessment Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Agency Unit Planner: Culminating Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

CHAPTER

6

Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 What Is Reflection? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Why Is Reflection Important? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 How Do I Do It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Identifying the Stages of Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112 Agency Unit Planner: Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Sample Completed Agency Unit Planner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Agency Unit Planner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 References and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

vii

About the Author

Bill Zima is the director of implementation for Marzano Academies, partnering with schools and communities to realize a vision for personalized competency-based education. Throughout his career, he has served as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, and superintendent in competency-based systems. His role prior to joining Marzano Academies was as superintendent of Regional School Unit 2 in Hallowell, Maine, considered a leader in the creation of a learner-centered, proficiency-based approach to education. Bill also acts as an adjunct professor of education for the University of Maine at Augusta. He works with teacher candidates by teaching courses on foundations of education, the teaching process, and classroom assessment. Bill has also supported student-teaching candidates for the university.

Bill received his bachelor’s degree in industrial technology–electronics from Illinois State University and his master of education in science from the University of Central Florida.

To book Bill Zima for professional development, contact pd@MarzanoResources.com.

ix

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Why a Book on Agency?

Conversations about how to best prepare students for their yet-to-be-known futures almost always involve an educator chiming in with, “We need to increase student agency.” The line is said with such confidence that most within earshot nod in agreement. However, when pushed to further define or describe what they mean by agency, rarely do educators have a clear idea of what it looks like or sounds like in a school or classroom. Often the answers involve phrases like: • “Putting learners in control of their learning” • “Giving them voice and choice” • “Students’ having more autonomy” When asked how those phrases are realized in the classroom, educators slow their uniform nodding, and their expressions shift from confident acceptance to perplexed uncertainty. K–12 educators are not alone in this struggle to define agency. Researchers Eugene Matusov, Katherine von Duyke, and Shakhnoza Kayumova (2016) stated, “Scholars who use the concept of agency do not define or operationalize it” (p. 420). If even experts leave the concept undefined, how can we expect practitioners in the classroom to know what agency is or how to encourage its development?

Unfortunately, the lack of clarity or complete misunderstanding of what agency is has led to poor practices in our classrooms. I have heard educators proudly share that they have “given agency” to students because they have left students to “figure it out.”

Dana L. Mitra (2009), professor of education at Penn State University and author of numerous books on student voice and leadership, uncovered a misconception among educators that increasing students’ sense of control means adults must simply “get out of the way” (as cited in Toshalis & Nakkula, 2012). Under

this belief, students can learn what they want when they want and share it how they want. However, this approach does not account for educators’ need to proactively monitor learning and intervene when a learner is confused or heading down the wrong path. In the name of agency, students might spend the entire day in front of a computer working through an online curriculum. While virtual options for the inputting of information offer value, they need to be accompanied by means of review, feedback, discussion, and reflection if the learner is to truly build agency. In some purportedly learner-centered classrooms, teachers sit at their desks waiting for students to come to them with questions, never rising to give the learners a reason to wonder or to provide the learners with feedback in a moment of decision making. Is this building agency in the learners? Some educators may answer yes—the students can move through the curriculum at their own pace, moving back and forth between activities and videos, rewinding when necessary to capture a description one more time. However, there is more to developing agency than simply allowing students to determine the pace of their learning.

Shane J. Lopez (2013), a psychologist, research director for the Don Clifton Strengths Institute, and senior scientist for Gallup, argued that agency is a core competency of the type of person that educators want students to become. Expanding on his research, one can think of agency as the perceived ability of the individual, based on his or her capacity, to shape his or her life. This definition has two parts. The first is perceived ability. A learner must believe that he or she is capable. I refer to this as the mindset of agency. Humans do not develop agency because someone has told them they can do something. They have to experience the success for themselves. They have to know they 1

2

MINDSETS AND SKILL SETS FOR LEARNING

successfully completed a similar task in the past and, if they attend to it, they will succeed again. This leads to the second part of the definition: based on capacity.

The learner needs to have the skill set required to be successful. Just believing you can do something, while important, is not enough.

In this definition, learners must be active participants in the learning opportunity by making decisions, designing solutions, and testing hypotheses, since it is their experiences that shape how they respond. Two students sitting in the same class will have different experiences. Paraphrasing a sentiment often shared by Ralph W. Tyler (2013), a former professor of education at the University of Chicago, one learner might be engaged in the lesson while the other is thinking about a basketball game. Lopez (2013) expanded on the profoundly individual nature of agency: As “agents,” we know we can make things happen (or stop them from happening), and we take responsibility for moving toward our goals. Over time, we develop our ability to motivate ourselves; we build our capacity for persistence and long-term effort. Agency makes us the authors of our lives. (p. 25)

Teachers must create learning opportunities that require the learner to be active, apply the knowledge gained, and work with others to solve problems faced by the community. Schools should strive to become the place where learners practice being the authors of their lives and reflecting on what they did or did not do to reach the goals they set at the beginning of the learning opportunity.

To begin creating learning opportunities that allow learners to develop agency, teachers must understand they cannot give agency to someone else. People have to develop it within themselves. Agency centers on the individual’s belief in his or her own power to successfully overcome obstacles that arise. For example, a clerk at a coffee shop will not develop agency in her job if her supervisor is continuously micromanaging or making her feel that there is only one right path to accomplishing her tasks. This form of management will slow or stall innovative approaches to customer service. New and more effective processes will lie undiscovered because the employee does not have

agency to wonder about better ways of performing tasks, to try different strategies, and to see the success.

The same can be said for students. Therefore, schools need to create the conditions that allow learners to develop agency in themselves. Classrooms, learning opportunities, and assessments must give learners the chance to practice taking control, making decisions, reflecting on the outcomes, and adjusting plans to ensure they are meeting the intended learning outcomes, all while under the watchful eye of a more knowledgeable person. Schools need to reduce the focus on ritualistic compliance, where the adult alone controls the classroom and the learning activity, and instead become zones of agency development.

Some 21st century education innovations that encourage educators to focus on developing the whole child, rather than accepting a single standardized test score as a measure of student potential, are a step in the right direction. The use of effective instructional strategies recommended by neuroscientists and cognitive scientists is encouraging. The commitment to social-emotional learning in service of developing students who can cope with life’s challenges is a positive trend. The robust conversation about personalized competency-based education begins to put the learner at the center of every decision, including curricular ones.

There is a caution, however: some recommendations are filled with empty words that do not actually offer a pathway forward. For example, social-emotional learning cannot be taught through worksheets. While teachers need to expose learners to what social-emotional learning is and model how to use the strategies, it is the student who solidifies his or her understanding by using the strategies in a situation that requires adequate use of the skill. Holding educators accountable for preparing students for their futures necessitates a clear vision and an actionable plan.

While teachers do an excellent job of hearing the voices of their learners and collecting their thoughts, acting on student input becomes the tricky part.

Whether teachers’ lack of action is intentional (such as telling students their ideas can’t work in the real world) or unintentional (such as becoming busy and letting student requests slip to the back burner), the message to students is the same: “Your opinion does not matter, and authority always wins.” If the purpose of school is preparing students to manage the world they will encounter, educators need to ensure they

Introduction

listen to students’ ideas and implement them when possible. This action alone will go a long way toward building agency in students.

So, is there a right mix of teacher-controlled and learner-centered approaches and strategies? Where is the balance between providing authoritarian instruction and simply getting out of the way? The argument that educators must choose either a teacher-centered classroom approach or a learner-centered one is built on the false dichotomy that only one entity— the teacher or the learner—must be in control. This binary choice must come to an end. We need to realize the proper place on the continuum of control will vary for each student and each learning task. Some students will need more support from a teacher on a given topic, while others will need less. Then, as learning continues, different students will need assistance while others practice more independently.

How can we allow learners to be active in their learning and have their voices heard while also maintaining the structures necessary for classroom control? How can we create learning opportunities that provide all learners a chance to practice and develop the skills of thinking while also ensuring they are mastering all the content? These are questions that, with proper planning and a proper framework, educators can address.

Education That Builds Agency My approach to designing learning opportunities to build student agency began in a much less structured attempt. In an effort to foster agency development, I encouraged the teachers in the school where I was principal to create project-based units. I supplied a unit-planning template that followed the theories and processes of project-based learning, as defined by the Buck Institute for Education. The Buck Institute for Education had, after all, written the book on projectbased learning (PBLWorks, n.d.).

One day in November, following a staff meeting, a teacher approached me and informed me that she “hated my little boxes.” This teacher was not typically skeptical of new ideas—she was a member of the team that was pioneering project-based learning and had an incredible ability to connect with students and get them to read, think, and create.

3

I looked at her and smiled politely and asked, “You hate my little boxes?”

She smiled back but confidently restated, “I hate your little boxes.”

I was happy that I had created an environment where people were comfortable and willing to share their true feelings. But I had to admit to her that I had no idea what she was talking about. “What boxes?” I wondered openly.

“The ones on your planning tool. They simply lock me into preparing units that are not organic.”

I let her know that was not my intention. She then said, “I want to do the James Beane model of curriculum integration.”

I was unfamiliar with that approach.

She came back the next day and handed me a copy of James Beane’s book that explained the theory (Beane, 1997). That summer, I did what many good administrators do and engaged in some personal professional development. For me, that meant heading to the beach—with book in hand, of course.

As I turned the pages, I was intrigued by what James Beane was arguing. His ideas connected with the primary components of the Buck Institute’s approach to project-based learning—the elements that supported the engagement and conceptual development that made it so successful. As I finished, I had a hypothesis that, when further studied, led to the creation of my framework for building agency. My hypothesis was that learning experiences that develop student agency—whether they are based on project-based learning, the James Beane model, phenomenon-based learning, service-based learning, or any other model— have five similar components: (1) a classroom culture that encourages agency; (2) a way to trigger wonder; (3) well-defined learning goals; (4) an application of the knowledge gained in the unit; and (5) reflection before, during, and after learning.

These components guide teachers as they create learning opportunities that foster student agency.

Their strength is that they form a flexible, multifaceted approach to education that emphasizes students and their learning. While the model still asks teachers to be deliberate in their planning of the five components, it is designed to allow teachers to choose the outcome they deem most appropriate for their

4

MINDSETS AND SKILL SETS FOR LEARNING

content and teaching style. To use a metaphor, chemists tried for some time to determine what made a diamond different from charcoal. What chemical element was responsible for turning a lump of carbon into a magnificent diamond? Sir Humphry Davy, a chemist whose early work included the isolation of sodium and potassium, discovered the difference was not a single additional element, but an underlying structural change (Siegfried, 1966). We can think of education in the same way. Improving student learning is not about identifying a single program or the magic element that will transform a decent and useful school into a gem. It is about an underlying structural change—one that shifts from a focus on teaching to a focus on learners and learning, the result of good teaching. School can no longer be about what the teacher is doing with the essential knowledge. It must be about what the learner will do to interact with the essential knowledge and build understanding.

Educators need to create the classroom conditions that allow students the opportunity to practice interdisciplinary problem solving and build a sense of agency, increasing their belief that they can—or that they will be able to, just maybe not yet. Overcoming the struggles associated with moving from not knowing something to then being able to demonstrate understanding of a concept or execution of a strategy without error is what gives people that feeling of accomplishment and the sense that problems are not something to avoid but a signal to work harder. Let your learners experience a state of desirable difficulty, the term cognitive psychologist Robert Bjork coined to describe “tasks that make students’ brains work a little bit harder in the name of better long-term working memory” (Gooblar, 2014). When they overcome the difficulty and discover that success is possible, they will get a shot of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Firsttime success fires the dopaminergic pathway (UVA Psychology 5559: Evolutionary Neuroscience, n.d.), and when the learners find themselves in a similar situation at a future date, they will get the release in anticipation of successfully completing the task. The earlier release makes it more likely the learner will persevere and find the future solution. They believe they can and they will persevere to a resolution. Learning opportunities that allow students to practice overcoming obstacles in their learning pathway—desirable difficulties—lead to the development of important

skill sets. This perceived ability, based on the capacity of the students, increases their sense of agency.

The components for building agency lead educators to use strategies that make learners think on obstacles and overcome the productive struggle. Educators should also monitor the strategies’ effects on the learners’ sense of success. Learners’ perception of their agency should increase, which then increases their hope. Gallup has shown that students’ sense of hope is a far better predictor of success than is their GPA or which school they attend (Busteed, 2014). If teachers intentionally create learning experiences that give learners the opportunity to practice the skill sets and mindsets of agency, they will increase in their hope.

On the surface, a school or classroom focused on building agency may seem no different from any other school or classroom. A casual glance in the window or a walkthrough might see students engaged in building foundational knowledge through lectures, videos, activities, discussions, debates, and the like. What differs is why the students are building this foundation and how the teacher is answering that question.

Unlike in a traditional classroom, students do not all work on the exact same assignment designed to help them develop the foundational skills and knowledge. The teacher does not always lecture the whole class from the front of the classroom. Students do not work in lockstep, waiting for the brightest students in the class to answer the questions or show the path forward. They do not all read the same chapters from the text and discuss them. They do not work toward the single goal of all students’ taking and hopefully passing a unit exam. They are not graded on the percentage of information they recall for the test.

In a classroom that builds agency, students work toward a knowledge application of their choosing, rather than a traditional assessment. While exams might still be used, they are one piece of evidence in the assessment portfolio of a student’s performance.

When asked, students can tell you they are working to better understand a concept in social studies, physical education, English language arts, or civics. They explain they are improving in a skill in music, art, science, or another subject or group of subjects they are currently studying. They are able to tell you what they are doing to take in the necessary information, data, or skills and what they are doing to demonstrate their

Introduction

understanding or ability to execute a skill; each learner’s answer is different depending on the pathway he or she has chosen in response to an activity that triggered his or her curiosity. This is not to say that students move in all different directions. They all work on the same learning targets, just in different ways. The teacher still lectures to deliver important information, but only to those students who need it. The teacher is then free to work with individual students and small groups to help them process the information to generate the knowledge they need to answer driving questions. The teacher assesses to gather evidence of performance and is ready to provide feedback based on what each learner needs to move from not knowing to knowing to being able to demonstrate understanding. This is a classroom where students have a say in how the learning unfolds.

As an example, fourth graders choose an animal and use one of the animal’s adaptations to design an article of clothing. To capture students’ interest at the start of the unit, the teacher shows examples of products developed from knowledge of animal survival. Then the students work on developing their understanding of animal adaptations and biomes, and the skill of creating arguments, which they will use to design a new product and create a marketing plan. High school students, while working on a unit involving historical research, choose a historical figure and describe how life would have been different without this figure’s accomplishments. Regardless of the historical figure chosen, the students will all work to develop the necessary skills associated with sources and research, generating claims, citing specific textual evidence to support analysis, and editing techniques.

These types of activities, while used in many schools, typically exist only as extra credit or enrichment. I argue that these could be everyday learning experiences.

The framework for building agency will ensure students acquire the foundational knowledge and concepts they will need to be successful in the next step in their lives, whether that be college, career, or military service.

The Structure of This Book The purpose of this book is to give teachers a framework they can use to apply the aforementioned components and develop robust learning opportunities that will place students into the state of desirable difficulty

5

while they apply the knowledge gained during the unit of study. By the end of the book, you will be equipped to structure your units, lessons, and classroom in ways that help your students develop agency. Chapter 1 presents the framework for building agency and introduces a tool for planning units accordingly. Chapters 2 through 6 each explore a component of the framework in depth: classroom culture, the inquiry starter, learning targets, application of knowledge, and reflection. These chapters include an explanation of the component, why it is important, and how to enact it in the classroom. Each chapter begins with a question to ponder as you read and includes firsthand perspectives on the framework from teachers and students at schools where I was teacher, principal, or superintendent. As you work your way through the book, you will encounter tools and worksheets at the end of each chapter that will ask you to apply the knowledge from the chapter. Collectively, these interactive tools will build an instructional unit based on the framework for building agency.

This book is not a policy book. It does not suggest changes to state or provincial accountability measures or a complete reform of the education system. While these are worthy causes and reforms are needed, both lie beyond the scope of this book.

Instead, this book is about reorganizing what educators do in a way that will give the learners more control over their own thinking. It is about creating opportunities for thinking so students can build the confidence to persevere. Simply teaching the knowledge embedded in state or provincial standards to the point of memorization minimizes students’ potential to become thinkers. While this book presents example strategies for each component, it does not provide an exhaustive list of possible instructional strategies.

Rather, this book lays out an organizing framework for how teachers can deliberately plan agency-building instructional practice. My hope is the book will add to the pool of knowledge about schools that promote agency and encourage other practitioners and researchers to expand and enhance the framework for building agency with more tools educators can use to plan for the development of agency in all their learners. That journey begins with chapter 1, which will develop your understanding of learning opportunities that build agency and present an overview of the organizing framework.

C H A P T E R

1

For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.

—A R ISTOT L E

I never considered myself to be the best student or even a good student. But it was not until my senior year in high school that I came to realize what that meant. While I was focused on my schoolwork enough to maintain the points for a decent grade, I would easily find something to distract myself that kept me from going the extra step. I was not lazy or even uninterested. I just always had something on my mind I needed to work out before delving into my studies. Once, I decided to head to the library to focus on my reading so I could be prepared for my English class. I had my book, notebook, highlighter, and blue and black pens. I was going to take the best notes. I found a study carrel by the home improvement section. This should have been a good spot as my teenage self was not in need of any improvements to a home that I did not own. But what about the light system I wanted to build for my band? That would make us seem even more rock and roll. As hard as I tried, I could not stop thinking about how to wire the circuit.

One quick glance at a book and I should be good. A few hours later, my notebook was full, my pens were used, I knew how to calculate the load per switch, and I had created a schematic to build the lighting system.

This distraction would cause a less-than-perfect grade in American literature but fuel a passion that would ultimately lead to my decision to study electronics in

college and accept a job in research and development for NASA. Well-intentioned adults told me I needed to get top grades in school, attend an Ivy League college, and get a high-paying job. What seemed like a deal breaker for that future—a C in American literature— was actually a blessing. That was not my dream.

Instead, I earned average grades in school, found time to follow my passions, and sought learning experiences that would feed those passions.

When I became a teacher, I found myself repeating the same lines that adults had fed to me as a student: get good grades and get into a good college. I quickly realized, however, that the students who sat in front of me would follow their own paths. They do not all share the same desires, passions, interests, or wants.

They all find meaning in different ways. Simply sitting down with a group of students will show anyone just how different they are. I am glad the world has diverse interests, passions, and talents. About three months into my teaching career, I came to realize that my job was not to teach science facts that students need to get high scores on tests. It was about giving them opportunities to develop the mindsets and skill sets that make people successful at whatever they choose to do. My science units needed to become opportunities for students to practice those skills that will set them apart from others. That is when I began discovering 7

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The Framework for Building Agency

8

MINDSETS AND SKILL SETS FOR LEARNING

how to construct learning opportunities that develop a person’s sense of control over life. That is what led to the framework for building agency.

In this chapter, I will present the framework for building agency and discuss the importance of providing students the opportunity to demonstrate their learning through active means.

How do I structure my classroom and the learning opportunities I provide so that I follow the assigned curriculum and also allow the learners to make decisions and reflect on their outcomes to determine whether they made the right choices?

Students who have a sense of belonging and purpose, who can work well with classmates and peers to solve problems, who can plan and set goals, and who can persevere through challenges—in addition to being literate, numerate, and versed in scientific concepts and ideas— are more likely to maximize their opportunities and reach their full potential. (p. 4)

What Is Agency, and Why Is It Important?

Setting goals, creating a plan to reach those goals, working with others to find the information to solve the problem, and overcoming obstacles to reach the desired outcome will give learners the power of hope by building their sense of agency.

Despite all the discussion and debate about what will ensure learners are ready for life and work— more testing or less testing, whole-language or phonics, discovery learning or a return to basics, personalized learning or whole-group instruction, proficiency-based report cards or letter grades, learning management systems or gradebooks—the critical reform in education is not a specific grading system, or a piece of technology, or flexible pacing. All of these change the method of learning, but not the outcome.

For true change, educators need to intentionally create learning opportunities that put students in situations of desirable difficulty and allow them to use the mindsets and skill sets of agency to make decisions, solve problems, and explain their thinking. The outcomes of learning opportunities designed to build agency achieve the desired result of helping students better understand themselves as learners. What did they do to get around the obstacles they encountered on their pathway to understanding the topics being studied?

What did they do when they first discovered they did not know something? Were they tempted to give up? What strategies did they use to keep themselves going? What support did they need and get from others to help understand the issues and find a solution?

These are the skills and mindsets they will need—in addition to reading, writing, and numeracy skills—as

As explained in the introduction (page 1), agency includes both mindset and skill set. It is something that people must develop within themselves; teachers

Agency—as defined for the purpose of this book— is the perceived ability of the individual, based on his or her capacity, to shape his or her life. This requires someone to make choices, reflect on the outcomes of those choices, and determine what needs to happen next to continue making progress on the chosen pathway toward the intended goal. In schools, this can look like a kindergartener deciding how a character should be represented in his story even if it seems unconventional. A third grader creating and following a standard operating procedure instead of always needing the teacher to tell her when and how to perform certain routines. The middle school student who decides he needs to work on the skill of organization, so he begins tracking his behavior with a chart and reporting his progress to himself and the teacher. A high school student choosing to take a six-week learning opportunity that focuses on historical fiction of the American Revolution and analyzing how the work represents the time frame. These types of learning experiences will lead to adults who know how to set goals, plot pathways from their current selves to desired future selves, and feel secure in their mindsets and skill sets to overcome obstacles.

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QUESTION TO PONDER

they maintain control of their lives. Stephanie M. Jones and Jennifer Kahn (2017), who coauthored the Aspen Institute’s report The Evidence Base for How We Learn, stated:

The Framework for Building Agency

cannot grant agency to students. So, how do educators create the conditions to make student agency a reality in schools? While it may be simpler to separate information into litanies of discrete facts and place them into silos for safe storage, teachers need to connect information across disciplines to build knowledge and engage the whole learner. Jones and Kahn (2017) continued their argument for the structure of learning:

Educators cannot teach content separate from the act of processing the information to build understanding. Students cannot learn social-emotional skills detached from thinking. Students need to actively think with others and pay attention to how they feel and how their actions make others feel. This reflection needs to take place while they are engaged in a problem with desirable difficulty. Distinct courses or separate curricula for each topic or skill students should know simply pile more on top of what teachers already have difficulties covering in the time available.

Learning is a process that, if practiced, will get stronger. The learner can practice effectively by critically analyzing actions he or she has chosen, which prompts reflection (Ericsson & Pool, 2016). This analysis allows the learner to build better and stronger learning processes to then use them to better predict future outcomes. Reflecting on decisions and how those decisions helped learners reach their goals is a crucial component to what educators do too. Reflection and hindsight give outcomes context.

If practice—the process of learning—is what enhances the mind, how do educators balance that with the need to eventually arrive at the right answer?

That is the crucial question behind all educational endeavors. If teachers only test students for the correct answers at the end of the learning process, the students do not receive feedback on the process they used

to reach right answers, and they do not adjust their thinking as a result of feedback on incorrect responses.

This dichotomous, right-or-wrong assessment removes opportunities to build stronger and more accurate conceptual understanding. As a beginning teacher, I would return unit tests and mark learners’ incorrect responses.

I would then move on to new learning. If the information was needed in future study, I was surprised when students still did not know it. I wrongly assumed students would go back and see why the answer they put was wrong, even though I certainly did not take this step as a student. However, when I started requiring the students to review their incorrect answers, explain why they were wrong, and examine what the correct answers were, more of them had the knowledge needed in subsequent units. Providing midcourse opportunities for students to reflect and use feedback to adjust their actions improves their mental models and schemas (the patterns of thought or behavior that organize information), thereby enhancing their ability to think.

Roger Schank (2011), a longtime professor turned college redesign advocate, argued that schools need to focus on cognitive abilities and not scholarly subjects. Certainly, the ability to solve complex problems is better preparation for life and work than a memorized list of facts. Learners need practice diagnosing problems and applying knowledge gained through research, discussion, and experimentation to generate possible solutions. Schank posited that departments of motor vehicles are better at teaching than schools because they use a test of applied knowledge. Having future drivers learn by actually doing the act of driving opens the door for learners to reflect on what they did, how well they did, and also why they did it. Those reflective questions will be the cornerstones of a school centered on developing cognitive abilities.

Schank (2011) went on to say: When we look at people who are knowledgeable and confuse that with people who can think well, we totally miss the point about education.

Education ought not be focused on imparting facts any more than athletic training ought to be focused on weightlifting. You learn to hit a ball by hitting one, and you learn to think clearly by thinking. (p. 81)

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Decades of research in human development, cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, and educational practice and policy, as well as other fields, have illuminated that major domains of human development— social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, academic—are deeply intertwined in the brain and in behavior. All are central to learning. (p. 4)

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MINDSETS AND SKILL SETS FOR LEARNING

We need to provide our learners with opportunities to practice thinking. With awareness of their past successes, the learners’ perceived ability to handle future challenges—their sense of agency—will increase.

TEACHER PERSPECTIVE

—Mr. Wironen, middle school mathematics and science July 11, 2020

What Is the Framework for Building Agency?

The framework for building agency provides educators with a tool to design learning opportunities that intentionally foster agency development. The framework consists of the following five components.

1. A classroom culture designed to encourage agency development

3. Well-defined learning targets 4. An application of the knowledge 5. Reflection before, during, and after the learning opportunity While the framework delineates the five components for building agency, how a teacher deliberately combines and executes these components is determined by the unit’s purpose. The framework provides guidance on how to account for actions that will lessen the teacher’s need to control the pace of instruction during the unit. Using the framework, the teacher contemplates these possible moves prior to beginning the unit. The following sections provide a brief overview of each component. Forthcoming chapters will explore each component in greater detail.

Classroom Culture The culture of the classroom needs to be one where the teacher is the director and not the compliance officer. To build agency, students need opportunities to practice independence. They need opportunities to figure out what to do next without always having to clarify everything with the teacher.

The classroom culture should also make all students feel they belong. A sense of belonging is key to being in the right mindset to learn. Without the feeling of comfort brought on by being a member of the group, team, or crew, students will worry about their safety and survival and have nothing left to attend to their learning (Rock, 2010). Abraham Maslow (1962) argued in his hierarchy of needs that belonging was foundational to esteem and self-actualization, the products of education and a sense of agency. Students will work to satisfy that need to feel part of the class before looking to work on the next level of the hierarchy, the feeling of accomplishment that learning a concept can cause.

There are processes and strategies teachers can use to establish the classroom routines and rules that will help students develop agency. Creating shared visions and codes of cooperation with students gives students voice and ownership in the culture of the classroom. Having students create standard operating

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What I liked best was the sense of community the students showed and the sense of empowerment they experienced. I did not become super focused on their academic performance; if it was low, I did not freak out. In the past, I could see they were struggling with mathematics. I would bang my head against the wall and wonder, Why aren’t they getting it? But then, as I shifted my focus on what was important— their sense of agency—I knew that if they were academically low scoring, but were engaged in how to learn and knew how to teach themselves, they were going to be OK as adults. That was a good touchstone to keep returning to, to help me remember why I was putting in the work was to develop the whole person. I knew they were working hard and it might take them longer but they would get it. We are trying to create people who can function in the modern economy that will require them to work with other people, know how to learn, and learn on their own. If they can do those things, they will be successful.

2. An inquiry starter (an introductory activity designed to cause wonder)

The Framework for Building Agency

procedures (SOPs) for common routines like leaving the classroom, turning in work, or attending to lunch count emphasizes independence rather than reliance on the teacher. These activities give the students tools to meet the needs of the group and transfer the responsibility for adhering to them and realizing the outcomes of those decisions.

An inquiry starter is an activity designed to put the mind into a state of curiosity and cause wonder. It should illuminate the gap between what the learners already know and what they now must know to demonstrate they understand a new concept or to revise a previously held understanding in light of new information. For example, when introducing the scientific concept of force, I might ask students, “Which object will fall to the ground faster, a feather or a marble? And is that true in all circumstances?” We might even drop the two objects ourselves to confirm that the marble reaches the ground faster. I would then show them a video of the objects falling inside a vacuum and ask them how it is possible that the objects hit the ground simultaneously.

An inquiry starter might also cause a shift in how a learner executes a skill fluently—for example, showing students a faster process to calculate a number using more advanced mathematical algorithms. Curiosity drives learners to seek resolution. When they want to know something, they are more likely to work until they find the answer.

Well-Defined Learning Targets The intended outcome of learning must be transparent to the learners. Teachers need to clearly define what they want students to understand or be able to execute without error as a result of each unit and lesson. They should also communicate a clear progression of how to move from not knowing to knowing to demonstrating understanding. The best way teachers can do this is to unpack ambiguous and redundant sets of standards and form a sequence of content for each topic. The individual statements of content are known in this book as learning targets. While there is not a specific set of recommendations for how many learning targets to have in a unit, teachers need to make sure they are not overloading the learning opportunity.

Learners should be given enough time to practice, receive feedback on how they can improve their performance, and try again using the suggestions. I have found that two to three learning targets per three-week unit allow for this recursive learning process. Too many more and you simply cannot provide time to practice, receive feedback, practice while implementing suggested improvements, receive more feedback, and so on. The set of learning targets expresses the progression of learning from less complex to more complex. The learning targets of a unit therefore bring clarity to the learners for how to improve.

In addition to academic learning targets, educators should prepare and use learning targets to help students practice the mindsets and skill sets of agency.

These topics relate to mindset.

• Growth: A belief that I can accomplish my goal, just not yet • Perseverance: An understanding that effort pays off • Emotional intelligence: An awareness of myself, my feelings, and my social relationships and how to properly manage them • Creativity: An inclination to seek many ways to solve problems • Wonder: A sense of awe Skill set topics include the following.

• Goal setting: The ability to envision a future version of myself • Reading with understanding: The ability to obtain and analyze information (written, spoken, and quantitative) to make decisions • Effective oral and written communication: The skill to share information, persuade, or ask for and receive what I need or want through essay and speech • Problem solving: The process of using resources to find ways around obstacles that appear on the pathway to my future self • Collaboration: The ability to work with others to move from my current state to the desired state as represented in the vision of my future self

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Inquiry Starter

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MINDSETS AND SKILL SETS FOR LEARNING

These topics amount to the mindsets and skill sets of agency. Making these topics explicit through learning targets is key to supporting students’ development of agency.

Application of Knowledge

TEACHER PERSPECTIVE Once I started using the framework, my students liked coming to school. I had very few students who did not end up engaging in school. Every student was very engaged in education. I woke up in the mornings excited to get to school because I knew the students were excited to come and learn— even the ones who were seriously at risk prior to entering my classroom. Learners who had anxiety issues blossomed when they worked within the framework. Some students would not have made it [to graduation] without this style of learning. I would never teach any other way. It was a tremendous amount of work to coordinate all of the pieces, but worth it when I knew I was helping students think, which would set them up for success.

—Ms. Belolan, middle school English language arts and social studies July 15, 2020

For learners to grow in their belief that they can overcome obstacles and reach a desired outcome, they must use the power of reflection and plan, monitor, and evaluate the pathway and the decisions to complete tasks. The skill of reflection requires modeling and practice—the teacher must demonstrate this skill and give students chances to try and improve. To assume students know how to reflect means passing up an opportunity for them to grow in a skill necessary for continuous improvement. As discussed previously, people move from not knowing to knowing to being able to demonstrate understanding through deliberate practice. Experts are not simply more talented than other people; they are good at deliberate practice. Deliberately practicing the skill of reflection, as discussed further in chapter 6 (page 99), requires knowing what one wishes to accomplish, choosing an appropriate strategy to get there, and then evaluating how it helped or did not help in achieving the goal.

How Do I Plan Units That Build Agency?

Proper, deliberate planning is required for a unit that motivates learners to attend to a problem and discover a solution. The agency unit planner is a tool designed to guide a teacher through deliberately deciding how to implement the four instructional components of the framework for building agency (inquiry starter, learning targets, application of knowledge, and reflection) so he or she can ensure a well-coordinated learning experience that benefits students’ development of agency. Note that the first component of the framework, classroom culture, is not part of unit planning, as it needs to happen every day in the classroom.

The agency unit planner helps teachers create coherent, relevant, and comprehensible learning experiences.

A coherent learning opportunity is one that proceeds logically and stays focused. A learning experience without a deliberate plan can meander and get off track quickly, emphasizing learning targets unrelated to the unit. It will leave learners with unintended gaps, omissions, and errors in thinking. A poorly planned learning opportunity may also repeat material without extending the thinking to deeper levels, wasting

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Thad A. Polk (2018), professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, wrote that learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or changing behavior brought on by experience. To simply test whether students have retained information shared by the teacher does not get at what they have truly learned. Without giving students the opportunity to use knowledge for some purpose, to do something beyond simply recalling it, one cannot say students have learned.

Without having students experience trial and error as they attempt to apply knowledge and find a path forward, one cannot say students have learned. Students need to connect separate pieces of information to construct knowledge, and they must further process and use knowledge in a demonstration of understanding.

Reflection

The Framework for Building Agency

A relevant learning opportunity has a close connection to what the learners find interesting, or to real-world issues, aspirations, or goals. Mark B. Moss (2018), a professor and chairman in the department of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University, said, “Attention is the gateway to the mind. If you do not have their attention, you do not have their mind.” The easiest way to lose learners’ attention is to begin discussing something that has no relevance or connection to the reality they are currently facing. David A. Sousa (2017), science teacher turned neuroscientist, pointed out a discrepancy in how teachers plan lessons for their learners. He found that teachers can spend up to 95 percent of their planning time ensuring a particular lesson is clear for the students. This leaves only 5 percent of an educator’s planning time to make the lesson relevant to the learners’ lives. Without relevance, a learner will disengage and lose focus. Besides making the learning experience dry and unmotivating, the overemphasis on clarity smooths over the “bumps” in the pathway to understanding. Learners need to have these bumps in their learning to ensure they experience desirable difficulty. Teachers can intentionally leave the bumps in by letting students make decisions and choices on how to answer the driving question or explain the inquiry starter experience. Learning experiences disinfected of all confusion will not allow students to find a path around the bumps but instead will cause them to simply follow the one laid out by the teacher.

A comprehensible learning opportunity is one that the learners are able to understand. Are they able to grasp the information that teachers and other sources input into their minds? According to Robert J. Marzano (2017), the process of chunking content, breaking it down into “small, understandable increments” (p. 56), helps students learn new information. Students can

only hold up to seven bits of distinct information in their working memories at one time (Sousa, 2017).

If there are too many chunks, or if the chunks are so large as not to be digestible, the learner will become overwhelmed. Proper planning will ensure appropriate chunking to cover the needed foundational knowledge and make the concepts in the unit comprehensible so that students can then apply that knowledge.

All the sections of the agency unit planner align with the four major components—inquiry starter, learning targets, application of knowledge, and reflection.

Specifically, the sections of the agency unit planner are as follows.

• Inquiry starter: Plan an activity that triggers wonder and link it to your initial ideas about the culminating project.

• Learning targets: Identify the learning targets and essential knowledge that form the foundation of the unit.

• Mindsets and skill sets of agency: Select cognitive and metacognitive skills that will be an explicit part of the unit.

• Application of knowledge: List foundational knowledge, how students will learn it, how they will provide evidence that they know it, and how to apply it to demonstrate they understand the concept or can execute the skill without error.

• Assessment plan: Plan specific assessments for foundational knowledge and the targeted understanding or skill.

• Culminating project: Design an authentic assignment that requires students to apply their learning.

• Reflection: Prepare for student reflection before, during, and after the learning experience.

The planner also includes a project calendar for drafting a schedule for when you will introduce new foundational knowledge and when you will assess.

Note that you will need to adjust to students’ needs throughout the unit. The project calendar is more of a guideline than a script.

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valuable learning time. To be clear, this is not to say that learning should never stray from the targets explicitly defined as part of the learning opportunity. Other topics arise as student interest, logical connections, or current events dictate. Discovery can happen along the way, and teachers should encourage those connections, but the learning targets that teachers will spend the majority of their time assessing, instructing, and remediating or extending need to be transparent from the beginning (as emphasized by the component of well-defined learning targets; see chapter 4, page 53).

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In order to complete the planner, you cannot merely follow a top-down approach. In other words, completing the planner is not an entirely linear process. As you make a decision in one section, it might affect a decision in another section or cause you to adjust a decision already made. You, the teacher, need to stay flexible as the learning opportunity takes shape.

For instance, you might decide on a driving question as an inquiry starter, but then adjust it based on the assessment prompts created for the application of knowledge. Or, while you are identifying the foundational knowledge for a learning target, you might decide a debate is a better demonstration of understanding than an essay. Because you must be deliberate in your consideration of the components when completing the agency unit planner, you will have created an outline for a learning experience that gives learners the chance to make decisions and reflect on those decisions’ outcomes to see whether they effectively moved toward the learning target or if they could have made a better choice.

The agency unit planner emphasizes that teachers need to move away from day-to-day lesson planning and instead plan multiweek units. Doing so will allow teachers flexibility to meet the students where they are each day and adjust as needed to help them grow.

Instead of planning that every student will be in the same place on, say, October 14, educators should prepare lessons to support the truth that some students take longer with some material while others need less time with other concepts or skills.

STUDENT PERSPECTIVE I like having the time to work on questions I am interested in figuring out instead of always having to answer the question the teacher wants. I also like that I get to work with a few friends and move about the classroom when I need to go get something to help us answer questions. I am talking and moving but also not being disruptive because I am doing things that do not break our code of conduct.

I have heard people say that this type of learning is not good for students that struggle with learning or being able to pay attention. I am one of those students, and I am doing so much better in school now. I actually like school now.

—Elementary school student May 9, 2016

Conclusion This chapter provided an overview of how a teacher can structure the classroom and learning opportunities to follow the assigned curriculum while also allowing learners to make decisions, reflect on those decisions’ outcomes, and see the skills they developed as a result. Students need agency to control the lives they choose. Schools can provide the opportunity to practice the mindsets and skill sets of agency.

By deliberately planning learning opportunities that involve the components of the framework for building agency (as represented in the agency unit planner), teachers ensure learners go beyond the acquisition of knowledge used to pass tests. Instead, learners will use knowledge to make decisions, solve problems, debate ideas, and practice the skill sets and mindsets of learning and cultivate their agency. In the next few chapters, I will review each component separately, discuss its importance, and present strategies to help teachers implement it effectively. We begin with the learner-centered classroom as it is a constant throughout all units of learning.

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As you progress through the chapters, you will discover each section of the agency unit planner in turn.

Complete blank and example unit planners appear in the appendix (page 117). Each planner section describes decisions you need to make as you plan the unit. For instance, when choosing learning targets, you also must consider what foundational knowledge learners need so they will be able to adequately apply the knowledge gained in the unit to demonstrate an understanding of the learning targets.

for learning

framework for what student agency is and how to achieve it . . . leveraging his considerable experiences as an educator and coach to bring simplicity to complexity. Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning is a book that will last the test of time, inspiring educators with clarity and direction as they prepare

A Framework for Building

Principal, Proviso East High School, Maywood, Illinois “This book helps us to right the balance of instruction in the classroom and invites us to look at the larger purpose of education: how to grapple with questions and how to find joy and affirmation in the struggle of learning.”

—Brenda Whi t a ker Principal, Edgewood Primary School, Bloomington, Indiana

• Explore the framework for building agency and understand the importance of developing agency in students • Receive detailed explanations of all components of the framework, including end-of-chapter assignments that ask readers to apply their understanding of the components • Utilize an agency unit planner to design learning experiences that develop learner agency • Investigate what agency looks and sounds like in the classroom while utilizing research-based tools and strategies

A Framework for Building Student Agency

ISBN 978-1-943360-35-2 90000

9 781943 360352

ZIMA

Visit MarzanoResources.com/reproducibles to download the free reproducibles in this book.

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for learning

the purpose of teaching our students

Re ad e r s w i l l :

• Gain firsthand perspectives from teachers and students who have transformed learning with the framework for building agency

MINDSETS SKILL SETS

A Framework for Building Student Agency

When educators hear the term student agency, many are left wondering, What does that truly mean, and how do I make it happen? In Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning: A Framework for Building Student Agency, author Bill Zima provides definitive answers. With a research-backed conception of agency as the foundation, Zima introduces a framework that K–12 teachers can use to organize their instructional practice to create the conditions that give learners control over their thinking. This framework allows teachers to shift from simply delivering content to deliberately planning lessons and opportunities that encourage students to become active participants in their learning. By reading Mindsets and Skill Sets for Learning, educators will support and cultivate students’ ability to build agency within themselves.

—Pat ri ck Ha rdy

for learning

Student Agency

students for a rewarding future.”

MINDSETS SKILL S ETS

MINDSETS SKILL SETS

“Bill Zima provides a unifying

Bill Zima