All The Marbles: Student-Led Classrooms!

Recently I had the opportunity to listen to Paul Solarz, author of Learn Like a Pirate, on the Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit.

Solarz emphasized that the key to successful student-led classrooms is relationships. He said, “ I need to build relationships with students, but they need to build relationships with each other too.” He identifies the way to get started creating a student-led classroom is to:

● Do marble theory. (I am anxious to purchase his book to learn more about this theory!)

• Get them working collaboratively. 


• Give them “give me five” power. 


• Have them take risks and to make decisions without permission. 


• Let them know they’ll get feedback (and that doesn’t mean we don’t want them to act 
independently if they get negative feedback). 


• Thank them for taking risks. 


Solarz’s view on student’s reactions to grading is so spot on!He said, “Grades caused so much trauma, and for very silly reasons. When they got low grades, they didn’t try to learn what they didn’t know, and when they got high grades, they didn’t see how they could get better.” He emphasizes the importance of feedback. (I’m anxious to read his book to learn more about how he gives frequent feedback!)