The old adage is true – time flies! As the year continues, you might be like me in that you want to take some time to reflect, particularly for classroom practices and course content from the start of the school year until now. Not just for the sake of it but to implement changes for the rest of the course using student voice in the classroom.
Enter the STOP-START-CONTINUE option. Use this approach almost any time but it’s ideal at midterm and/or where a natural break in the class schedule. This approach provides solid feedback almost like a course review but while there’s still time to implement the feedback from the review! In this way student voice can influence student choice and teacher planning as the course continues!
Providing opportunity for student voice
Introduce students to the concept of feedback based on a model of stop-start-continue.
Clearly provide students with the parameters for their feedback. Make clear that some things cannot be stopped – aka writing and reading – but they can always be tweaked. Changes can be made to the approach in how it’s taught, how time might be divided, etc.
There are a few ways that to deliver this to students:
- 3 pieces of paper in red, green, and yellow to represent the stop-start-continue by mimicking a traffic signal.
- Using a digital or printable handout with three sections labelled stop-start-continue. Check out this ready-made resources to save you time and effort. Print and go or assign online!
- A Google Form so students can enter the info and the teacher can export as a Google Sheet and then sort for quick reference.
- Chart paper on the walls to provide some movement. I provide students with sticky notes to apply to the chart paper. That way students reflect before they see exactly what everyone else has written and you end up with the same things on repeat. Omit names or initials, just put feedback on a sticky note and add it to the labelled piece of chart paper (a great time to bust out those smelly markers that are a teacher’s best friend!).
What to do with the stop-start-continue feedback?
Go through the feedback and group like ideas together within the three categories.
- What do students want to STOP?
- What do students want to CONTINUE?
- What do students want to START?
Consider what students are proposing and how this might work for the class as a whole. Not everything students suggest needs to be implemented but keep an open-mind so that their voices are heard!
I ask a few key questions:
- Does this request seem reasonable? (If it’s going to increase my workload exponentially that’s not reasonable to me!)
- Does this serve the best interest of the students of the class? (If it’s something that makes activities inaccessible to any student then it’s not a viable whole-class option but could possibly become a choice.)
- Can I still meet curriculum requirements in the time left in the course?
Then figure out what could work, perhaps with a tweak or two. Keep reading for some examples from when I’ve done this activity in my high school English classes. (Though keep in mind this activity can work for ANY class, it’s NOT English-specific!)
Here are some examples of stop-start-continue suggestions I’ve had from students with ways to implement that might not match exactly what students first proposed but, with a tweak or two, can work for the classroom.
Student Request: Example 1
Play music in class during work periods.
Teacher Tweak
Make an option for playlists in class. Crowd-source for song suggestions. You can even use this music playlist activity to add some additional skills practice into class! Then either play music as a class or provide students with a link if they want to listen in class on a device.
Student Follow-up request at next check-in
More options for the playlists.
Teacher Tweak 2
That feedback means I now specifically ask students to send me musical selections throughout the course rather than just collecting options once and done.
An easy solution is to set up a Google Form so students can submit choices. Then update playlists after vetting the music for content/lyrics. I love being able to create custom playlists on Spotify since it’s easy to update or to add new lists. Then I can embed the playlists into my learning management system (LMS) or just share the link with students.
Student Request: Example 2
Consistent silent reading just for the sake of reading.
Teacher Tweak
Reading for pleasure was often haphazard in class and often applied more to students when they finished their work, which meant that some students were never given time to just read. For different courses this meant either 10 minutes per class or maybe 30 minutes on a Friday. What this also means is that it’s just reading time – no journals or logs, no questions to answer except to sometimes share what they’re reading with me or the class with an “I recommend” note about their book – entirely optional!
Student Request: Example 3
Firm due dates.
Teacher Tweak
I am usually quite flexible with due dates but one class found this difficult. A majority indicated they knew they could always have more time and so they would leave their work until later and then felt like they were scrambling or not putting a lot of effort in because they knew they could ask for more time.
I appreciated this honesty and self-awareness!
What I thought was helpful was more stressful for most of the group so we compromised and discussed and agreed on deadlines when work was first assigned. (But to be honest, I still let people be flexible with handing things in because life happens!)
To make this happen in your classroom check out this stop-start-continue resource. It’s no prep so you can print and go OR upload to your LMS and go! It includes a printable option as a PDF, and digital in PowerPoint, Google Slides, AND a Google Form!
Related Articles:
- Check out this post about how I reflect throughout the year by scheduling letters to my future self.
- Promoting Student Voice in Your Classroom from Edutopia.
- 8 Ways to Empower Student Voice in Your Classroom from ISTE.
