Approaches to teaching 1: Teachers use inquiry, action and reflection to develop natural curiosity in students.
Approaches to teaching 1.4: Teachers encourage student choice in appropriate places in the curriculum.
Student choice is present in all grades, but is a scaffolded process that helps to guide them toward choices which are relevant and manageable for a given project. In grade 6 students design their own Lego set, and have immense freedom to choose the direction of the work, within framework intended to introduce realistic constraints. In this case, they need to justify the existence of their set (before even working on design ideas) based on why the Lego company would produce it. Highlighted student work will be shared in a few weeks, once the project is complete.
Approaches to teaching 1.5: Teachers facilitate student exploration of their personal interests and ideas.
A strong example of student exploration of personal interests is seen in my grade 10 studio project unit. In this unit students may effectively choose any project focus they wish, though in practice they are guided through a process which improves and refines their ideas. At present students have chosen such wide-ranging design projects as a text-based choose-your-own-adventure game, a cat tower, modular magnetic storage, and a guitar accessories storage bag. While they make their broad decisions early in the process, they don't truly 'lock in' a more finalized project until the 2nd assessment (criteria B). This affords time to discuss their ideas, guide them toward appropriate and relevant research, and review whether the concept is realistic for our timeframe.
Students are directly encouraged to choose projects that match their personal interests. This is a whole-semester project, and locking in to something they care about has a dramatic impact on student buy-in and time spent on the work. The unit is not without challenges, and while frequently student-driven, depending on the project they may need considerable assistance from their teacher. The long process of narrowing the focus of their goals does help to guide them toward achievable outcomes, and has dramatically reduced the burden on the teacher as production specialist compared to the previous year.
While we ran a 'Studio Project' unit in 2024-2025, a colleague created the student-facing documents, and I identified many areas to improve. The 2025-2026 unit is entirely new work, retaining only the title and broad concept. While I do make frequent use of AI for assistance with coding and a range of other tasks, the unit is 100% human created. Any issues are my own!