Setting Our Purpose
"Miss... no offense, but why are we doing this?"
Sometimes students are afraid to ask this question because they're worried that they'll offend me and my planning, but this is such a wonderful question to be asked. From this question I know they're not just blindly following the leader, but want to see the connections between their learning and their lives. What more can I ask for?!
Understanding why we are doing something is not only valuable for their understanding, but so important for student motivation. If we look towards Self Determination Theory (SDT), understanding the why supports a students' motivational need for autonomy in their work. It creates a connection between what they are being asked to do, and their own personal needs.
In year 9 ESL, students are being especially challenged. We've moved beyond the basic grammar and texts, and are looking outwards. In Sweden, these students will move on to high school (which in Sweden is not mandatory and in which students need to take much more responsibility), so they are working on tougher assignments while growing independence in their learning.
To tackle this topic with my students, I do the following:
Introduce the basics of the unit. What are the assignments? What will they do.
Conduct a Think Pair Share with the following prompt: Why are we doing these activities or this unit?
Students share their ideas with each other and then I call on them "randomly" to share what they discussed. The majority of the time, they hit on every "why" that I would have shared with them on my own. But now I know that they have actually thought about it, and they also feel that they came to their own conclusions on this (another way of promoting ownership). I write the list on the board so everyone can see.
I create a poster with "Our Why" and leave it up in the classroom for the entirety of the unit.
We revisit our "Why" about every other week during the unit - either as a class discussion, a TPS, or a warm up.
Here is an example of what my students came up with for our most recent unit on English Speaking Countries:
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