One problem has been a pervasive part of the American school system for years. We’ve tried gimmicks, we’ve tried tricks, we’ve tried all sorts of things to try to make this problem disappear, but instead, it just keeps getting worse. I see it every day among my fellow students.

That problem is apathy in students. Students, simply put, don’t care about school. In their eyes, it’s a place to go, do what they’re told, and memorize as much as they can, then go home and finish their homework before doing something that actually interests them.

“Educational games” and “gamification” have attempted to address this problem, as have many other strategies. But the one thing it seems like we haven’t really tried is giving students agency.

Agency: the right to self-determination. Students have more agency every time they make a choice. Today, though, student agency is at a low. In a traditional class, students will hardly ever make a choice about anything besides what option to answer on a test. This isn’t always the teacher’s fault: standardized testing has been forced many teachers toward methods that inherently reduce student agency.

Still, we can give our students more agency. How? It’s simple. Let them choose.

It starts the second they walk into class on Day 1. Let them choose their seats, if that’s possible for you. You could try Smiles and Frowns, a practice developed by teacher Monte Syrie. Smiles and Frowns is simple: everyone in the class gets the option to talk about a ‘smile’ (good thing) and/or a ‘frown’ (bad thing) from their day, or to pass. Smiles and Frowns takes about five minutes a day, and Monte Syrie considers it one of the best time investments he’s made. Either of these practices shows students—right from the get-go—that they are being listened to and given the opportunity to speak. Breaking the feelings of powerlessness is a great way to start class.

Your lesson plan in any subject includes summative assessments—sometimes tests, sometimes creative tasks. My Spanish teacher last year had us write an Instagram post in Spanish. When you’re allowing time for something like that, give students as many options as you can, or let them create options themselves. Rather than just writing an Instagram post, I could have written a short story or poem to demonstrate the same skills in a way that would have been more interesting to me. If you’re a math teacher, maybe let students calculate the measurements for the shed out behind the school, rather than sitting at a desk taking a trigonometry test. Some people will choose the test, others will choose the other options, and it’ll be more interesting and rewarding for all of them. Overall, students know what they need and how they learn best.

Besides a lack of choice, there are many other factors to this student apathy problem, one of those being grades. If students get high grades easily, they won’t bother doing more; if they get low ones, they won’t bother trying because they feel it’s pointless. Either way, they’re not doing their best work. There is another way to do it though.

Instead of grading every piece of work, give it back with no grade, just feedback. Give students a chance to revise their work based on that feedback. Then, when grades must be given, come to them as an agreement between student and teacher, not as a unilateral judgement. This teaches students to advocate for themselves, and also keeps them focused on feedback and improvement throughout the year, regardless of where they currently are. (This website has many resources about how to go gradeless in all sorts of environments, so check out the rest of the website for more details!)

If something isn’t working for students, and you can tell, change it or ask them for guidance. Obviously, there are standards you need to meet in the course, but giving students input into how it’s approached will make them feel acknowledged. Even if they don’t like a given topic, they’ll have a chance to make it their own. 

Students are stakeholders in their own education, and the more ability they have to change the course of it, the happier and more engaged they will be. By employing just one of the strategies I discussed, you can increase engagement and happiness, and the more you do, the better. Agency is the key.

On a larger scale, even more profound changes can be made. At my school, students choose between interdisciplinary classes where they can learn two or more ‘subjects’ at the same time in order to fulfill flexible credit requirements that don’t force any class on anyone. In each class they are given choice at every opportunity, and they can even run classes of their own, provided they’re willing to put in the work. Last year, a junior at our school who is particularly politically engaged ran a class on the history of activism in America, with plenty of preparation time to learn and prepare lessons. Each year, in a school with 120 students, two or three student-led classes usually take place. As a result, our students are engaged in learning to a greater degree than students in other places. Moving in that direction is beyond the powers of one teacher, but I would hope to see a world—rather than just one school—based on that model someday.

The apathy problem is taking over schools across America, but there are solutions. By letting students have control over their own education, they become more invested in outcomes and less apathetic. As plan for next year, ask yourself: Where am I giving students choice? What else can they choose?

Resources to Help You

In many schools, the culture is not with you in this fight. Giving students agency isn’t the norm and isn’t part of practice. This will make it more difficult, but it is not impossible. If you’re willing to make a major shift towards student power (I would suggest doing this through a grade-conference method like I describe in the article) almost any of the articles on Teachers Going Gradeless can help you. But, if you’re just trying to take it step by step - and that’s totally okay too - I have a few more specific articles that might help you.

Feedback on Writing: Providing Strategies for Revision by Koralie Mooney provides strategies for providing feedback on student writing. Bill Velto writes more generally about feedback as a strategy for increasing student engagement in his article Providing Feedback to Promote Student Growth. Rather than going completely gradeless or employing grade conferencing, Bill’s relies more on a ‘grade-delay’ tactic, letting students see feedback on their work before they see grades, which allows them to engage with and revise the work further before it’s seen as ‘finished.’ This is another step worth taking.

Monte Syrie has some smaller scale practices that keep students connected and engaged, which he writes about in his article My Room: Accepting The Mantle Of Classroom Culture. By inviting them into a classroom culture where they are accepted, Monte overcomes student apathy before it can begin.

Andrew Burnett has more details about the first steps to be a gradeless teacher in his article Creating a Gradeless Class in a School that Requires Grades. I’ve tried to summarize the ideas here, but his article goes into much greater detail on the specifics and how-tos.

Outside assessment, there are still more practices that promote agency, as Ross Cooper writes in the article How can educators best promote student agency? This article is good reading for anyone interested in helping their students, although not all of the suggestions are possible in all schools.

This is a small snapshot of what there is out there. I encourage you to do your own research as you seek to give students more agency in their learning.

Madeline Jester is a graduate of a Montessori school. Follow her at @MadelineJester.