CCIRA Professional Development Blog

Respond to the Creativity Crisis by Teaching Fantasy Writing

By Carl Anderson

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

–Albert Einstein (1929)

Creativity is as important as literacy and we should afford it the same status.

–Ken Robinson (2006)

In my new book, Teaching Fantasy Writing: Lessons that Inspire Student Engagement and Creativity K-6, I explore why it makes sense to include a study of fantasy writing in elementary and middle school writing curriculums. Children are permitted to write “real or imagined stories” (emphasis added) to meet narrative standards in many U.S. states. Since writing fantasy is extraordinarily engaging, it accelerates children’s learning about writing, and, almost like magic, helps them acquire powerful writing skills. And fantasy also is a genre that offers children a unique creative space in which to write about issues of great personal significance, such as making friends, dealing with bullies, gaining confidence and fighting injustice. In this, they follow in the footsteps of beloved and influential fantasy writers, such as J.R. Tolkien and Robert Jordan, whose stories reflected their respective experiences during World War I and the Vietnam War, and J.K. Rowling, whose writing helped her to work through grief and depression (Livingston, 2022; Pugh 2020).

Fantasy also gives teachers the opportunity to help students develop their creative skills. This is important because children in grades K-12 are experiencing a decades-long “creativity crisis” (Bronson and Merryman, 2010). Educational scholar and creativity researcher Kyung Hee Kim (2016) points out that scores on the most reliable measure of children’s creativity—the Torrance Test—indicate that 85 percent of children today are less creative than children in the 1980’s.

What accounts for this creativity crisis? One significant reason is that, since the 1990’s, school curriculums have become increasingly more standardized, a change driven to a large degree by the pressures of testing. As curriculums has become more standardized, play-centered activities have been squeezed out of the school day. This is a problem because play is “one of the driving engines of child development” and “encourages flexible, imaginative out-of-the-box thinking” (Straus, 2019).

That students are less creative has profound implications for their lives, and the world. More and more, the successful futures we want for children depend on their moving into adulthood with imaginative and creative skills. In his books, The Global Achievement Gap (2008), and Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World (2012), Tony Wagner names and describes seven 21^st Century “survival skills” that students need to succeed in today’s innovation economy and to be social disruptors who can tackle today’s problems. One of these skills is “curiosity and imagination,” which Wagner says students develop when their childhoods are filled with creative play.

How should schools respond to the creativity crisis? They need to engage children in play-centered activities that exercise their creativity and imagination—such as writing fantasy stories in an ELA class.

What? Children writing about the adventures of wizards and unicorns can be part of the answer to the creativity crisis? Yes! When children write fantasy, students create what psychologists call paracosms, or detailed imaginary worlds. The term used when someone creates a paracosm is worldplay (emphasis added).

Yes, play can be academic. Writing can be play.

If you’ve read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Patterson, you may remember that one of the main characters, Leslie Burke, creates the imaginary kingdom of Terebithia. She and her friend, Jesse Aarons, enter Terabithia by swinging on a rope across a creek behind Leslie’s house. Once there, they pretend they’re the king and queen of the kingdom. The world of Terabithia is Leslie’s paracosm, which she shares with Jesse.

Psychologists have discovered that nearly one in five children create paracosms on their own, usually in middle childhood (Taylor et al., 2018). Research has shown links between this childhood worldplay and adult artistic success, as well as creative success in the sciences and social sciences. Many notable people created paracosms as children, including Amadeus Mozart, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, and Friedric Nietzsche and C.S. Lewis, among others. A study of one group of highly creative people, the MacArthur fellows, all winners of the award colloquially known as the “genius grant,” showed that 25 percent of them had paracosms as children, and that their worldplay often continued into adulthood as part of their creative process (Gopnik, 2018; Root-Bernstein, 2009).

When fantasy is included in a writing curriculum, every child in the classroom, with their teacher’s guidance, gets to engage in worldplay and create paracosms.

For example, as part of learning how to write fantasy, Alyssa, a fifth grader, created the intricate imaginary world of Budgielyn. Alyssa populated Budgielyn with all sorts of “budgie creatures,” such as budgie fairies and budgiecorns, as well as a variety of evil budgie creatures. (To create Budgielyn, Alyssa drew upon her deep love of her pet budgies as inspiration).

Having built her Budgielyn world, Alyssa wrote “Grace’s Journey,” a story of a brave and plucky girl who goes on a dangerous quest to fight evil and bring balance to Budgielyn. As she makes her world a better place, Grace develops new confidence in herself – and helps readers imagine they could do the same. Throughout the story, readers encounter the fantastical magical creatures and wondrous settings that sprung from Alyssa’s imagination as she created her fantasy world.

As part of the research for Teaching Fantasy Writing, I studied the ways that experienced fantasy writers created imaginary worlds, and adapted their strategies for children in primary, upper elementary and middle school grades.

In the upper grades, we can teach students a multi-step process for creating fantasy worlds. Students will enjoy—even love—this aspect of fantasy writing, since it invites them to use their imagination in exciting, creative ways. The best way for teachers to teach these steps is for them to first go through the steps themselves, and then show their work to students as a model:

First, have students sketch a physical world — which can be an island, a coastal area, a large landform, or (if the student wants to write science fiction) a planet, including geographical features such as forests, mountains, lakes, rivers, deserts, etc.
Next, have students populate the world with beings and creatures, as well as the towns, castles, caves, and forts where they live. The sky is the limit here—students can choose humans, witches and wizards, elves, unicorns, fairies, dragons, aliens – any kind of fantasy characters!
Then have students do some writing about the “magic system” of the world. What magical powers will the beings and creatures in the world have? Which latent powers can they develop, and under what conditions?
It’s also important for students to do some writing about how the different groups of beings and creatures in their fantasy worlds get along. Is one group in power, or trying to gain power? Which groups are in conflict? Which groups are allied with each other, or work together?
Finally, have students create a main character from one of the groups of beings and creatures. This character will be the protagonist of the story they will tell. Also have students create a secondary character. As the main character meets the central challenge of the story, the secondary character will function as their ally or obstacle, their sidekick or their nemesis.

After students have completed their worldplay – a process they will love, and one that will boost their writing skills and their imaginations — it’s time for them to write stories set in their fantasy worlds. As they write, teachers show them mentor texts to teach them about the craft techniques experienced fantasy writers use, techniques students then try out in their own stories.

In the primary grades, I’ve learned that young children, rather than engage in worldplay as a separate step prior to writing their fantasy stories, do both at the same time. Since their composing process usually includes a combination of drawing illustrations and writing text, they create their imaginary worlds as they draw their illustrations. To help them with this process, we can teach them to ask these questions before they start writing a story:

First, what kind of fantasy story do you want to write? A fairy tale? A science fiction story? A magical adventure story (like Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are)?
What kind of setting is usually in the kind of story you want to write (a castle in a fairy tale, outer space in a science fiction story, etc.)?
What kind of beings and creatures are usually in this kind of story (a royal family and their attendants, and dragons in fairy tales; humans and magical creatures in a magical adventure story; etc.)

How will children have the knowledge of fantasy stories necessary to navigate the steps of worldbuilding? While some already have an extensive knowledge of fantasy, developed through read-alouds at home, their own independent reading, and/or by watching TV shows and movies, some aren’t as familiar with fantasy. As teachers, we can help all students learn about the genres of fantasy and their characteristics by immersing them in a variety of subgenres – such as fairy tales and science fiction – at the beginning of the unit. (In the book, I provide recommended lists of fantasy mentor texts for fantasy units for grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-6.)

Over the past several years, in fantasy writing residencies in K-8 classrooms all over the United States, I’ve taught lessons on how to create imaginary worlds and craft fantasy stories, both in whole and small-group lessons, and in 1:1 writing conferences. The students I’ve had the privilege of teaching have shown higher levels of excitement and engagement than I have seen in many years. These young writers have flabbergasted me and their teachers with their creativity and narrative writing skill.

So, how do we solve the creativity crisis plaguing our children, and diminishing their prospects for the future? Including fantasy in our writing curriculums is one of the answers!

WORKS CITED

Bronson, Po and Ashley Merryman. “The Creativity Crisis.” Newsweek, July 10, 2010.

Einstein, Albert. 1929. Quoted in, “What Life Means to Einstein: An Interview by George Sylvester Viereck.” The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929, p. 117.

Gopnik, Alison. “Imaginary Worlds of Childhood.” The Wall Street Journal. September 20, 2018.

Kim, Kyung Hee. 2016. The Creativity Challenge: How We Can Recapture American Innovation. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books.

Livingston, Michael. 2022. Origins of the Wheel of Time: The Legends and Mythologies that Inspired Robert Jordan. New York: Tor.

Patterson, Katherine. 1977. Bridge to Terebithia. New York: HarperCollins.

Pugh, Tison. 2020. Harry Potter and Beyond. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press.

Robinson, K. (2006). Do schools kill creativity? [Video]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?language=en

Root-Bernstein, Michele. 2009. “Imaginary Worldplay as an Indicator of Creative Giftedness.” Chapter 29 in International Handbook on Giftedness, edited by L.V. Shavinina. New York: Springer.

Sendak, Maurice. 1963. Where the Wild Things Are. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Straus, Valerie. 2019. “Should we worry that American children are becoming less creative?” The Washington Post, December 9, 2019.

Taylor, Marjorie, and Candice M. Mottweiler, Naomi R. Aguiar, Emilee R. Naylor, and Jacob G. Levernier. 2018. “Paracosms: The Imaginary Worlds of Middle Childhood.” Child Development, Volume 91, Issue 1, pp. e164 – e178.

Wagner, Tony. 2012. Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. New York: Scribner.

_____. 2008. The Global Achievement Gap. New York: Basic Books.

Carl Anderson is an internationally recognized expert in writing instruction for grades K-8, and consults for schools and districts around the world. A regular presenter at national and international conferences, Carl is the author of many professional books for educators, including Teaching Fantasy Writing: Lessons that Inspire Student Engagement and Creativity and How to Become a Better Writing Teacher (with Matt Glover). Carl began his career in education as an elementary and middle school teacher. And since Carl was a boy, he has loved visiting fantasy worlds in epic fantasy novels and movies.

Reading Identity Matters: A Broad View of Foundational Skills

By Hannah Schneewind and Dr. Jennifer Scoggin

Recently, we sat next to a kindergartener as she read a book about all the animals that a boy sees in a pond. At the beginning of the book, she giggled and whispered, “I hope he finds an alligator.” After reading each page, she said, “And next, he will find an alligator.”

Alas, the boy never did find an alligator. Disappointed, but undeterred, this kindergarten reader announced, “I’m going to write my own book called Alligator Man.” She jumped up, grabbed some writing paper and got to work. In her finished book, the last page reads, “Then he sees an alligator. AAAAAA!!!”

We all dream of and cherish these moments when everything a student is learning comes together so beautifully and with this level of independence. These moments are within every students’ reach. How can we intentionally prepare to make these moments a regular occurrence for all students?

Teaching reading and readers is a constant juggling act. The research on the positive impact of instruction in the areas of fluency, decoding, phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension is well established (Young, Paige & Rasinski, 2022) . As former first grade teachers, we know this from experience.

The research on the positive impact of agency, motivation, engagement and metacognition on reading success is equally well established (Afflerbach, 2021, Fisher et al, 2017, Guthrie et al, 1996). However, this second set of foundational skills does not garner an equal amount of attention in curriculum or in the national conversation around best practices. Again, as former first grade teachers, we know this from experience too. We remember well students who could proficiently decode multisyllabic words, and yet did not regularly show high levels of engagement in the classroom reading community. For these students, turning toward these more affective foundational skills was the key to unlocking their potential.

Can you picture students in your classroom who possess strong cognitive skills, yet might lack the confidence or motivation to put them into action?

We invite you to embrace a broad view of foundational skills that encompasses both the cognitive (phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension and fluency) and affective (agency, motivation, engagement and metacognition) aspects of long term reading success. Below we offer a quick definition of each affective foundational skill mentioned here.

Affective Foundational Skills At A Glance

Skills	What it is	Why it matters
Agency	A student’s ability to take strategic self-directed action in pursuit of self-established goals.	Students with a strong sense of agency are more likely to take ownership of their own learning. Agentive readers comprehend texts more deeply and are more likely to be engaged, independent, and confident.
Motivation	A student’s drive to read, including their purpose for reading.	Students are more likely to choose to read, have a variety of reasons for reading, and persevere through challenges. Motivated readers are more engaged.
Engagement	A student’s ability to immerse themselves in reading, including their level of cognitive effort, behavior and interest.	Students are more likely to reap the full emotional and academic benefits of reading, enjoy reading more and read with greater frequency. Engaged students are more motivated.
Metacognition	A student’s awareness of the cognitive skills readers use and their ability to put these skills into action.	Students who are metacognitive will stop reading when meaning breaks down, can flexibly use a variety of strategies, and are aware of their own strengths and next steps.

Having this broad understanding of what is “foundational” frees us to include both the teaching of reading and the teaching of readers. Of course, we need to support children as they begin to decode words, determine the main idea or discuss character traits; however, we also need to teach students to find books that they love, to be able to read for extended periods of time, to know when they no longer understand what is happening in a book and to decide which strategy to use to rediscover the plot. These two sets of skills go hand in hand.

One way to get started thinking about how cognitive and affective foundational skills work together is to turn to the concept of student reading identity. Prioritize getting to know students in this more holistic way by conducting a Discovery Conference. You can do this while you give other 1:1 assessments or anytime you are with an individual student while reading. For more on this, please see our earlier CCIRA blog post, Reflection and Discovery: The Power of Reading Identity in Independent Reading.

Now let’s consider how we might respond to this new broad understanding of students’ strengths and opportunities for growth. There are already a wealth of resources and instructional moves upon which you can rely to respond to students’ specific needs in the cognitive foundational skills. We find there are fewer such resources that explore concrete ways for teachers to respond to students’ affective needs. Here we offer moves that work to highlight and strengthen the affective foundational skills of your readers.

The good news is that you do not need to purchase any new materials or make more time in your day. Instead, you can be intentional about your language. All approaches to reading instruction include feedback. Regardless of your schools’ approach to reading instruction, we decide what to say to students and how to receive and act on the feedback they provide us. Explore the following tips about ways to intentionally teach affective foundational skills, considering which might be most impactful in your classroom:

Notice and clearly name agency, motivation, engagement and metacognition as strengths. Strengths based feedback is a powerful teaching tool that calls students’ attention to the work they are already doing, validating it as worthy of attention and working to build confidence. Highlight affective skills alongside cognitive skills to bring students’ attention to the wide range of their abilities. Here are some examples of what that feedback might sound like:
- “I noticed that you read for all of reading time today. That is important because reading a lot and for a long time is how we grow as readers. You are the kind of reader who is really motivated to keep reading, even when there are a lot of distractions.”
- “You read and reread that book so many times because you love it so much, and you recommended it to other readers in the class. Every time you reread a book, you learn something new. You are a very engaged reader.”
- “You thought a lot about what strategy you could use to figure out that really long word. You knew that you could try different strategies when one did not work. Trying different strategies is something that you can always do when you read.”
Use prompts that encourage student agency.

The types of questions we use when engaging students as readers can encourage increased agency and emphasize your belief in their ability to work through obstacles independently. When working alongside readers, encourage them to tackle obstacles by relying upon their own strengths. When students encounter challenges, rely on agentive prompts such as:

“What can you do?”
“How did that go?”
“What else can you try?”
“Did that work?”
“How do you know?”

Use prompts that highlight students’ metacognitive knowledge and use. We tend to focus on outcomes: was a student able to successfully sound out a word or not? Instead, highlight a student’s process, which increases and allows you insight into their metacognitive ability. Rely on feedback and prompts such as:
- Naming the strategy you observed the student using: “I saw that you read the word once, and then you reread the word to make sure that it made sense.”
- Ask students to reflect on their own process: “What did you do when you (name the obstacle)?”

Provide students choice whenever possible. Choice invites increased engagement and provides students with the opportunity to act agentively, making meaningful decisions about their own learning. Teach into these types of meaningful choices by naming why they are important to readers. For example, you might highlight that choosing a purpose, or why we read, is important to how we stay engaged in and make meaning from text. Consider integrating these high impact choices when possible:
- Choice of text, genre and/or author
- Choice of purpose for reading
- Choice of where to read
- Choice of with whom to read

There is no magical, best way to teach reading and readers. The effective teaching of reading relies upon expert teachers making in-the-moment decisions to meet the needs of their students. The following formula works to guide those decisions:

Cognitive Foundational Skills + Affective Foundational Skills=

Lasting Academic Success

We started this post by sharing a story of a kindergartener’s enthusiastic response to reading. While it may seem the result of a magical day when everything just clicked, in reality, this moment was a result of the careful creation of a classroom in which students’ cognitive and affective skills are intentionally and consistently nurtured.

Educators live in the world of “and.” We are teachers of reading and we are teachers of readers. We are experts in cognitive foundational skills that unlock texts and we are attune to the affective foundational skills that nurture confidence and purpose. When we embrace a broad view of these essential foundational skills, we open the door for all students to be capable and confident readers.

Citations:

Afflerbach, Peter (2021). Teaching readers (Not reading): Moving beyond skills and strategies to reader-focused instruction. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Fisher, F., Frey, N., Quaglia, R., Smith, D., & Lande, L.L. (2017). Engagement bydesign: Creating learning environments where students thrive. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Guthrie, J.T., Meter, V., McCann, A.D., Wigfield, A., Bennett, L., Poundstone, C.C., Rice, M.E., Faisbisch, F.M., Hunt, B., & Mitchell, A.M. (1996). Growth of literacy engagement:Changes in motivations and strategies during concept oriented reading instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, (31)3, p-306-332.

Young, C., Paige, D., & Rasinski, T.V. (2022). Artfully teaching the science of reading,1st edition. New York, NY: Routledge.

Hannah Schneewind partners with teachers to design literacy opportunities that center students. She began her career as a teacher in Brooklyn, NY; she then worked as a staff developer for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project. Hannah is the co-author of Trusting Readers: Powerful Practices for Independent Reading (Heinemann).

Dr. Jennifer Scoggin collaborates with teachers to create engaging literacy opportunities for children in elementary classrooms. Jen began her career teaching first and second grades in Harlem, NY. She holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from Teachers College, Columbia University and has previously published two books about literacy instruction and classroom life.. Jen is the co-author of Trusting Readers: Powerful Practices for Independent Reading (Heinemann) and is the co-founder of Trusting Readers LLC.

Jen and Hannah are currently collaborating on a new book focused on reading identity to be published by Stenhouse in 2026.

Conferring With Young Writers

By Ralph Fletcher, 2025 Conference Presenter

Many teachers are intimidated by the idea of conferring with students on their writing. It feels like a BIG challenge. It’s true that whole books (Carl Anderson, Patrick Allen, and others) have been written on this subject. But it doesn’t have to be a big deal. Here are a few tips for conferring with young writers.

*Start by listening. Attention is the most precious commodity for any child. Strive to be present for your student. Your body language should tell the student that you’re there for them. Your body language should tell the rest of the class: I’m talking with this student. Don’t distract or interrupt me.

*Be a reader before you’re a teacher. If you want to affect a young writer, let them see that their writing impacts you. That means reacting in a human way. Laugh if the piece is funny. If it’s sad, let the student know you feel their sadness.

*Build on praise. You can build strong writers if you do nothing more than listen to their writing and highlight something positive. Even if the overall piece isn’t strong, you can always find a line—even a word—that you can celebrate.

*Keep writing conferences short. 3-5 minutes. A long leisurely conference is a luxury you can’t afford when you’re trying to respond to a classroom of kids.

*Invite students to self-evaluate. “How do you think this piece is coming along?” Or: “Is there any part you’re having trouble with?”

In doing this, you’re teaching students to skillfully reread what they have written. If you anticipate that your students will find this kind of self-evaluation challenging, introduce this idea during a whole class mini-lesson. You can model this process with a piece of your own writing. I often tell students: “I can be a problem-solver in your writing, but it would be helpful if you’re a problem-finder. Read it over and ask yourself: Where does it work well? Where does it need work?”

*Don’t force students to revise. Writing workshop embraces student choice of topic. In a similar way, students should be empowered to decide whether or not they want to revise. Students only have a certain amount of “juice” for any one piece of writing. If a student seems done, don’t belabor it. Let them move on to another piece of writing.

*Refer to familiar texts. Once student know a particular book, you can refer to that book in a writing conference: “Remember when we read Owl Moon? Remember how the author described the forest at night? I wonder if you could do this in your piece…describing your grandfather’s workshop.”

*Help students think globally. Writing teachers should always be trying to add to their students’ toolbox. The conference is our opportunity to show students that a particular strategy is not simply good for this piece of writing; it’s something they might use in all their writing.

*Tell the story of your reading. Sometimes when I’m conferring with a young writer I find myself at a loss for words. I don’t know what to say. When that happens I find it helpful to tell the student the story of my reading. It’s important for students to know what impact their writing has on another reader. Telling the story of my reading might sound something like this:

“I was intrigued by your topic—I used to do a lot of fishing when I was younger. The first few paragraphs grabbed me—all the gear you loaded onto the boat. I could feel a sense of anticipation and excitement. In the middle there was a part where I got lost. All these people came onto the boat. You give us a long list of names. Some of them were your relatives, but I didn’t understand who these others were…”

When you tell the story of your reading, you’re not telling the student what to do. You are, however, giving them important information about what they might do next with their writing.

Writing conferences may seem intimidating, but they don’t have to be. A writing conference is a chance for precious one-to-one dialogue with a student. You want to connect with students so they look forward to future conferences.

Remember that writers break easily. I try to remember something I learned from a gifted teacher: “Be gentle. Tenderness is more important than technique.”

Ralph Fletcher has published fifty books for writing teachers and young readers. His professional books include Joy Write, What a Writer Needs, Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide, and Focus Lessons: How Photography Enhances the Teaching of Writing. He’s currently working on a book about how kids come to see themselves as writers. Ralph visits schools and speaks at educational conferences around the world, helping teachers find wiser ways of teaching writing. www.ralphfletcherbooks.com

Student Agency: Strategies to Build a Strengths-Based Classroom

By Dr. Towanda Harris, 2025 CCIRA Conference Speaker

Paulo Freire once said, “The teacher is, of course, an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile and shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.” As a little girl, I vividly remember the spaces where I experienced the most joy. I was the youngest of eight children by seven years. My childhood experience sometimes felt like I was an only child. My parents worked hard to surround me with adults and spaces that would help foster my growth and confidence in who I was. The Boys and Girls Club became my space and taught me two valuable life lessons:

Lesson #1: If learning doesn’t apply to students’ world, it becomes a compliance experience that stays within the building walls.

Lesson #2: Resources mean nothing if the adults aren’t willing to adjust and modify to meet students’ needs and help them reach their goals.

These life lessons have stayed with me throughout my years as an educator. Thinking back to my first year of teaching, I remember the excitement of setting up the classroom, arranging my desks, and organizing my reading nook. I was a third-grade teacher filled with excitement, anxiety, joy, and uncertainty. Needless to say, my emotions were all over the place. For context, my grade was a testing grade, and this was the first year that the state decided that it was a great idea to use the state’s standardized test scores as the sole indicator that determined their fate of progressing to the next grade. No pressure! My teacher preparation program didn’t prepare me for this internal tug of fostering a love of learning while weaving in hours of test prep sessions. My school went all out. We bought the latest and most comprehensive test prep booklets for all subjects. We were winning. Right? Well, it depends on who defines winning. My students’ smiles and motivation began to decline, and their learning experience was minimized to their performance in the test booklet at the end of each lesson. At that time, I remembered Life Lesson #1: If learning doesn’t apply to students’ world, it becomes a compliance experience that stays within the building walls.

In my twenty-plus years of experience in education, I have noticed a strong dependency on quantitative (standardized tests, unit assessments, benchmarks, etc.) and less of an emphasis on qualitative data (informal observation, student discussions, journaling, etc.). All too often, I have visited weekly data meetings that prioritize students’ quantitative performance, leading to their qualitative performance struggling to make it into the data meeting discussion. To see the full picture, we must have a healthy balance of various data points to support students’ overall growth as learners.

Let’s return to the story that I shared earlier about my students. After the realization that student motivation was being negatively impacted, I revisited the next lesson, Life Lesson #2: Resources mean nothing if the adults aren’t willing to adjust and modify to meet students’ needs and help them reach their goals. As a classroom teacher, I needed to keep the big picture in mind. At the end of the day, I wanted my students to have agency and own their learning journey. I thought of various ways a resource could be used in whole group, small group, and individually. I used two tools from my book, The Right Tools, to help me with my next steps. First, I used the Resource Inventory Checklist. For me to fully support my learners, I needed to know all the materials and resources I had at my fingertips and be ok with changing the purpose of its usage.

(Harris, 2019)

What helped to breathe life back into my classroom? The next step was to invite the students into the conversation. To invite students into the discussion, I used the next tool, the Goal Setting: Tracking Achievements form. I remember our weekly class meetings that took place after lunch and recess. One Friday, upon our return to class, I motioned for everyone to make their way to the carpet. I was honest with them and let them know that the skill and drill method for test prep didn’t provide the full realm of their learning journey, limiting my responsiveness as a teacher. I paused and then asked them the following questions:

1. Why do goals matter?

2. What motivations help you achieve your goal?

3. What tools do you need to be successful?

(Harris, 2019)

In my book, I discuss the value of using assessment responsibly and share strategies to invite students into the data conversation. Once I began having these types of conversations with my students, I noticed an improvement in their agency and how it could support their personal learning journey. Using the goal tracker helped them to reflect and identify areas of growth and celebrate their accomplishments. Over the weeks, I noticed that students’ confidence improved, and I got more clarity around my role as their teacher. These goal-setting discussions prioritized the students and their needs. It also welcomed the conversation about multiple measures of success to set, modify, or change.

Think about ways that these strategies or approaches can support learners within your school or classroom. As an educator, on your journey to improve students’ agency, consider these key components that create opportunities for you to values all aspects of a student’s life.

Think about…	Try this…
Student check-ins	Meet with 2-3 students a day, to check on their progress as a learner. Allow them to lead the conversation and ask them how you can support them. This will build confidence, trust, and strengthen agency.
Student Support Team meetings	Bring students’ goal setting sheets to grade level team, student support, or IEP meetings. This data can be used as an additional data point that is student-driven.
Family Conferences	Always brainstorm ways to encourage students to identify ways their families or communities can help them accomplish their learning goals. Encourage collaboration and let families and communities know that their input is valuable.

Reference:

Harris, T. (2019). The Right Tools: A Guide to Selecting, Evaluating, and Implementing Classroom Resources and Practices. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

Dr. Towanda Harris has been a teacher, instructional coach, and staff developer. Currently a national speaker and Assistant Professor at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, she brings over twenty years of experience to the education world. Towanda is the author of The Right Tools: A Guide to Selecting, Evaluating, and Implementing Classroom Resources and Practices. Towanda’s work offers tools and guidance that help educators lay out a path to make informed decisions about resources and equitable practices that support all learners and strengthen agency. Learn more about Dr. Harris on her website: TowandaHarris.com or on Instagram @HarrisInnovationcg.