MANAGING AUTONOMY

CREATING A YEAR 13 PROGRAMME BASED AROUND

CHOICE

Outline
The Concept
How is it structured?
How we manage assessment blocks
Questions/discussion

THE INITIAL IDEA

Students choose what assessment they
want to do, when they want to do it and how
they want to be assessed.

WHY?
So that students can play to their strengths (internal/external, oral,

visual etc)
To promote student engagement
Students will opt in rather than opt out of assessment
Gives students a sense of control over their course
Responds to research indicating students prefer direct links

between contexts and assessment - the instant gratification factor.

Prepare the students for independent decision making akin to
tertiary study structures.

Things We Considered...
How students make informed decisions
How to allow them to track their own progress in terms of
standards but also credit counting, endorsement opportunities,
school exams, prize giving demands, and other school wide
pinch points)
How to administer several standards at once
How we would be monitor their progress

GOOGLE DOCS
Our system relies on the collaborative nature of Google
Docs, and the ability for Google Docs to be able to speak
to each other.
Without that, I think our ability to keep the course dynamic
would be hindered.
But lets look at the calendar

INTRODUCTION VIDEOS
In order to allow students to start making informed decisions
about what theyd be doing throughout the year (and without
having to fully introduce each standard to the whole class),
we made use of our departments YouTube Channel to create
and post video introductions to each standard.
During the first week or so in the year, we booked out
computer room spaces (or used BYOD) to allow students to
make a copy of the calendar, watch the videos, and begin to
populate it.

COMPILING AND
COMMENTING
Once we had initial pictures of what students planned to do, we were able to offer
feedback, using the Google Doc comment feature - we talked a lot about workload,
endorsement opportunities, when certain internals should be started, and how
internal assessments might combine, e.g. Oral Presentation/Close Viewing
We put all of the calendars in a single folder so that we could peruse with students
in class.
Perhaps the most valuable thing weve produced though, is a live tracking
document that compiles all their choices and self updates as students change their
minds, or adjust their calendars.
This thing

WGC4ME AT WORK
WGC4ME has been invaluable as a complementary space
for a lot of our supporting documents.
Its allowed us to post the introductory videos themselves,
add in our assessment/standard/task introduction
slideshows, and use the forums to create a Frequently
Asked Questions space, to help students be more
autonomous in their behaviour.
For example

HAND INS
Last year we allowed students to push deadlines out to
suit their programme of study. This year we have been a
little more strict.
Students still dictate when their hand in is but this year
they must stick to that date or they will receive a NA.

Results
andReflection
Reflections
Results and
Our results from the first year of this programme were really
promising.

L3 Endorsement
No Me Ex
ne rit cel
le
nc
e
20
12

47. 28. 23.

3
9
8

20
13

62. 21. 16.

3
1
6

20
14

38. 34. 27.

3
6
2

Explanation of Results
Students bought in to the idea of independent choice and
playing to their strengths and interests
Nature of co-teaching allows text choice as well
Direct link between content and assessment
Able to chose their internal/external balance. Also ability to
plan around other subject internals
Going forward: work to be done around student reflection on
their personal strengths and time management. L2 course restructured for more autonomy as a stepping stone