{"id":14615,"date":"2018-02-12T10:33:14","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T14:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/?p=14615"},"modified":"2018-02-13T14:06:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T18:06:28","slug":"student-consultants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tiie.w3.uvm.edu\/blog\/student-consultants\/","title":{"rendered":"The 8th grade consultants shaping education at Burke Town School"},"content":{"rendered":"

The power of the student consult<\/h1>\n

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If you’re wondering what engages, excites and motivates students, the answer is easy: ask them.<\/p>\n

Creating opportunities for students to give feedback on plans, projects, assessments and activities builds a collaborative learning community, and creates leadership and student voice opportunities.<\/p>\n

Here’s how one school gave student consultants a shot.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How it worked at Burke<\/h2>\n
\"student
A pair of Burke Town School students serve as consultants in a small group with educators. Small group work can encourage greater candidness around tricky topics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Burke Town School, in West Burke VT, educators wanted to get student input on several development initiatives. These included the 8th grade PBL unit, a 6th grade integrated PBL unit, how PLPs are working, and ideas for advisory.<\/p>\n

The process<\/h2>\n

Before the consult:<\/h3>\n

Burke educators picked a class period that would be turned over to this process of student consultations. Next they prepped by designing a protocol for how to structure the consultations. They chose to meet with students in small groups, where each group would tackle one particular issue facing the school.<\/p>\n

Then the educators spent some time considering what questions it would be useful to ask. They decided to share summaries of what they were trying to achieve, and designed open-ended questions. They also decided to focus on trying not to “speak teacher”.<\/p>\n

During the consult:<\/h3>\n
\"student
Students at Burke Town School gather to provide input on lessons under development in this structured student consult period.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the class period, small groups of students rotated to each teacher team and spent fifteen minutes tackling a particular issue. Laptops were open to provide resources to consider together, and both educators and students remained very present and focused on the flow of communication. Students had the chance to consult with each of the teams of teachers, thus consulting on each issue on the table.<\/p>\n

After the consult:<\/h3>\n

The whole faculty took fifteen minutes to share amongst themselves what they had learned, and how the students’ feedback could impact their plans.<\/p>\n

While this was happening, I was on hand (hello!) to meet with the students and hear their reflections on the experience.<\/p>\n

Finally, the teacher teams gathered to revise their plans based on the input from students and their own reflections, as well as those from the students.<\/p>\n

Results:<\/h3>\n

We did this process twice with each half of the 8th grade at Burke. There was a strong interest from the teachers in wanting to have students at other grade levels provide consultation as well later in the year.<\/p>\n

\"student
Both educators and students practiced focused, committed listening during the consulting period.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Feedback from Burke’s teachers<\/h3>\n

After the consult, Burke Town teachers reflected that:<\/p>\n