I didn’t learn to ride a bike until I was 8. My whole crew was riding already. My parents had put
me through every tiny teaching point that related to this skill: pushing pedals one at a time, pushing
up the kickstand, looking forward instead of down, holding my hands and arms steady on the
handlebars. Eventually, they essentially gave up on facilitating my learning. There was nothing left to
teach me, only the reckoning that I needed to go through as a learner to master a new skill. We lived
across the street from an empty parking lot. Day in, day out, I walked my bike to the parking lot to
continue my practice.
me through every tiny teaching point that related to this skill: pushing pedals one at a time, pushing
up the kickstand, looking forward instead of down, holding my hands and arms steady on the
handlebars. Eventually, they essentially gave up on facilitating my learning. There was nothing left to
teach me, only the reckoning that I needed to go through as a learner to master a new skill. We lived
across the street from an empty parking lot. Day in, day out, I walked my bike to the parking lot to
continue my practice.
Don’t even get me started on my obstacles: a lazy eye, near-sightedness corrected by coke bottle
glasses, perpetually scabbed over knees from my many walking-related injuries, and difficulty sustaining
attention on one task. Nevermind the social stigma of my peers riding ten-speeds and me pushing
around a tiny fixed-gear. There’s a reason why it took me as long as it did to learn. But one thing I never
doubted: That I was a learner, and at the right time, I would master this critically important skill.
Who owns the learning in your school? Who feels the daily drive to try and try until a skill is learned,
internalized, felt like a heartbeat? If our answer to that question is not, “The learner,” we have work to
do. But aren’t we all engaged in an ongoing process of shifting the learner’s experience from the teacher
to the learner? Aren’t we ourselves learning how to do this?
internalized, felt like a heartbeat? If our answer to that question is not, “The learner,” we have work to
do. But aren’t we all engaged in an ongoing process of shifting the learner’s experience from the teacher
to the learner? Aren’t we ourselves learning how to do this?
A cohort of teachers at Blair is engaged in collaborative inquiry around how to build our students’
agency in the learning process. We know that students need to be invested in setting goals for their
learning, demonstrating mastery of their learning, having a say in the process and product. What
does this look like for a 5th grader? A kindergartener? A language learner? We don’t know yet, but
we’re finding out. Check out our goal-setting gallery in kindergarten, pictured below.
Who owns the learning in this classroom, and who goes home to brag to their caregivers about a
new way they can count? On the way home from school, who reclines in the backseat, looks out
the window, and mentally rehearses a number word sequence… over and over again… until it is as
automatic as breathing, as regular as the rain?
agency in the learning process. We know that students need to be invested in setting goals for their
learning, demonstrating mastery of their learning, having a say in the process and product. What
does this look like for a 5th grader? A kindergartener? A language learner? We don’t know yet, but
we’re finding out. Check out our goal-setting gallery in kindergarten, pictured below.
Who owns the learning in this classroom, and who goes home to brag to their caregivers about a
new way they can count? On the way home from school, who reclines in the backseat, looks out
the window, and mentally rehearses a number word sequence… over and over again… until it is as
automatic as breathing, as regular as the rain?
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