You Make the Choice

This image reminds us of Robert Frost's famous poem. We make choices all the time, maybe not in the woods, but at the traffic lights every day for sure. Should I slow down and wait, or should I speed up and charge through? In life and in school, our students and ourselves--there is no difference in making choices per se. The difference, though, is in the kinds of choices we make and the extent to which we take self-responsibility as a consequence.

Skip Downing, the creator of the On Course approach to student success, advocates a more direct method to make our students become aware of the choices successful students make versus those struggling students make. If we as educators teach not just what is in the syllabus but what fundamentally counts in the future (enduring attitudes, likes and dislikes, etc.), such collateral learning will lead to more wise choices on the part of our students. We can then hope to make a real difference, not the least of which is the retention of our students, because they have now become active and responsible learners.

Here is a handout that you can adapt to explicitly teach about making choices for success in school.