Encourage Student Self-advocacy

Overview

Overtly encouraging all students to seek support and ask questions creates a safe space for risk-taking and skill development. Fostering an environment for self-advocacy helps students to take ownership of their own learning needs.

Use It in the Classroom

Watch as this fourth grade teacher practices using the Question Formulation Technique with her class. Students use their Social Awareness & Relationship Skills as they gather together in a group to use the protocol to generate questions. Explicitly teaching strategies for generating questions helps create an environment where all students are expected to and feel confident asking questions.

When students practice advocating for themselves, they develop their Metacognition and Self-regulation skills. To support students in developing these skills, teachers can point out when peers ask questions to clear up misconceptions or for tools they need. By naming what the student specifically did, the teacher provides models for all of the students.

Design It into Your Product

Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.

Learn how products like GoSoapBox use anonymity to help students feel comfortable asking questions or for help. Students experience fewer barriers to showing that they do not understand something when they can ask questions in a more private manner.

Providing a help option to access more information or instructions is a way of creating a virtual environment that invites help-seeking behaviors. In addition, providing ample opportunities for learners to digitally ask questions to their teachers also promotes continual question-asking behaviors.

View References

Resources

Below are additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.

Asking for Help Isn't Easy for Some

Article about a study showing differences in help-seeking for students from working-class families

Building Self-advocates

Video on helping students become strong self-advocates

I'm Determined

Free resources to empower students' self-determination

Importance of Self-advocacy

Article from Understood.org on the benefits of self-advocacy and how to build it

Learning Communities

Subtopic that includes research on communities of learners on Digital Promise's Research Map

Let Students get 'Stuck' and 'Unstuck'

Article with prompts students can refer to when they need help from a peer or teacher

Teaching for Collaboration & Creativity

Subtopic that includes research on instructional approaches to encourage collective problem-solving on Digital Promise's Research Map

Factors Supported by this Strategy

Literacy

Cognition

Metacognition

Student Background

More Teacher Modeling & Support Strategies

Accessible Syntax

Teachers can support language development by using and providing Syntax that is appropriately leveled (e.g., short, simple structure for young students).

Accessible Vocabulary

Teachers support language development by using and providing Vocabulary that is appropriately leveled (e.g., using [word wall][1] words).

Brief Instruction Steps

Content that is provided in clear, short chunks can support students' Working Memory.

Discussing Emotions

Teaching students how to label, identify, and manage emotions helps them learn Inhibition & Self-Regulation skills.

Feedback on Writing

Providing constructive feedback supports students' writing development by letting them know how to improve their writing.

Foster Growth Mindset

Teachers can help students understand that learning involves effort, mistakes, and reflection by teaching them about their malleable brain and modeling their own learning process.

Growth Mindset Feedback

Attributing results to controllable aspects (strategy and effort) fosters students' beliefs in self.

Incorporate Students' Cultural Practices

Learning about students' cultures and connecting them to instructional practices helps all students feel like valued members of the community, which improves Motivation.

Model Positive Connections to Literacy

By sharing their own reading and writing, teachers can create a literacy community that supports students in finding meaning in their own work.

Model the Assignment or Skill

By talking through their thinking at each step of a process, teachers can model what learning looks like.

Predictability: Environment & Structure

Maintaining consistent classroom routines and schedules ensures that students are able to trust and predict what will happen next.

Read-alouds

Reading aloud regularly exposes students to new and familiar Vocabulary and texts.

Read-alouds: Deliberate Topics

Reading aloud books about skills children are learning provides another model for their development.

Student Choice

Providing students a voice in their learning is critical for making learning meaningful.

Wait Time

Wait time, or think time, of three or more seconds after posing a question increases how many students volunteer and the length and accuracy of their responses.

Encourage Student Self-advocacy

Overview

Use It in the Classroom

Design It into Your Product

Resources

Factors Supported by this Strategy

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