An ASCD Study Guide for Teaching to Empower: Taking Action to Foster Student Agency, Self-Confidence, and Collaboration

Most of the questions contained in this study guide are ones you can think about on your own, but you might consider pairing with a colleague or forming a study group with others who have read (or are reading) Teaching to Empower.

Chapter 1. What Does an Empowered Student Look Like?

1. Describe some of the key differences and similarities between an empowered learner in the 1800s and in contemporary education. Which of the terms fit under your personal definition of an empowered student?
2. What role does awareness of diversity play in a teacher's efforts to empower, and what are the four conditions that are needed for it to occur?
3. What role does social responsibility toward others play in being an empowered learner?
4. Describe some of ways in which empowered learners demonstrate social responsibility.
5. In what ways is adaptability a hallmark of empowerment? How has this played out in your own life?

Chapter 2. Starting with Ourselves

1. What first inspired you to become an educator? Describe two or three ways that this initial inspiration shaped your beliefs about classroom practice.
2. Do you agree that teaching is a voyage of self and collaborative discovery toward personal growth? Why or why not? What individual and collaborate skills have you built over the years, and what experiences would you say were most important in that development?
3. Given the cultural diversity if your students, how do you—or might you—foster the sense that all students and families you work with are valued and respected for the skills, competence, and unique perspectives they bring to the classroom and school community?
4. What are some specific ways that educators can serve as models of collaboration, being diversity attuned, being socially responsible? What opportunities to do this do you find in your practice? What resources would you need to do this more often?
5. What are some specific ways that educators can model being adaptive and resilient, and how do you think this affects student empowerment?
6. What are some self-care strategies you have used to sustain your motivation to teach in the face of challenges?

Chapter 3. Creating a Physical Environment That Supports Empowerment

1. Describe ways in which a classroom's design can reflect a collective culture where students have agency and initiative.
2. What are some strategies teachers might use to determine if their current classroom design (i.e., the placement of tables, chairs, desks, displays, learning stations, open spaces) is working for all students?
3. Do students in your school have creative decision-making authority in the design of their classroom or other shared spaces? List some examples of the decisions they've made and reflect on the outcomes of these decisions.
4. In what ways can the classroom design be responsive to students' diverse identities and learning differences?
5. What might a learning studio model for mutual empowerment look like in your school?
6. Review the list of tech-related design suggestions on pages 58–59. Choose two and reflect on how you might employ them in your school setting.

Chapter 4. Self-Directed Learning and Positive Interdependence

1. Describe a few ways that emerging brain science has shaped your teaching practice.
2. Think of recent positive learning experience you had that led you to a new understanding or helped you master a new skill. How does this experience align with James E. Zull's description of the role of practice and emotion in learning?
3. Think of a time when you worked hard to help students see the relevance of a piece of required content. Did you employ a big-picture perspective? If so, describe the steps you took. If not, reflect on how you might try that approach the next time you teach this material.
4. What role does a "flow state" play in student learning, and how does it influence the way in which you work with students?
5. Do all your students have the space and tools they need to practice the academic and emotional skills that will help them succeed as individuals and as members of a collaborative group? Why or why not? What actions might you take to help ensure they do?
6. Come up with a collaborative learning activity that will foster students' expectation of a positive outcome, unconditional acceptance, and interdependence. Do you have the resources necessary to carry out such an activity? What would you need that you do not currently have?

Chapter 5. Student Self-Reflection

1. With an upcoming lesson in mind, think of ways you might revise it to better connect specific learning objectives with your students' personal, social, cultural, linguistic, and real-world identities and experiences.
2. Describe ways in which you might call attention to an error you made to model a mistake-safe culture of learning.
3. Do all your students think of themselves and their peers as confident, capable learners? What experiences might have influenced their self-perceptions and their attitudes toward their peers? Describe two or three ways you might encourage your students to do each of the following: listen to others, have empathy for others, express their feelings, and reflect on their academic and social-emotional growth.
4. Do you now or have you ever used reflective journal writing to carry on sustained interactive dialogue with students and focus them on their own learning? What kinds of prompts did you use? What kinds of results did you get? If you have not tried this approach, how might you get started?
5. Do you now or have you ever used student-led conferences as a way to increase students' ownership over their learning or strengthen partnerships with families? What results did you get? Share successful strategies or reflect on and revise past strategies if the results you got were underwhelming.

Chapter 6. The Skills of Collaboration

1. What are some ways you might reframe conflict during partner or group work as constructive opportunities for growth? Try thinking of specific examples in your classroom and how you and your students might approach them in a more positive way.
2. Describe some ways that teachers can guide students working in collaborative settings to ask more questions of one another and positively acknowledge peer contributions.
3. Describe some of the key differences between the process and task elements of collaborative learning. Do you address both in your classroom? Which elements deserve more focus, and how might you increase attention to them?
4. Review the list of the foundational skills of collaboration that require explicit instructional attention (see p. 114). Select two from the list and describe a lesson that you might teach to support students' engagement in collaborative learning.

Chapter 7. Self-Advocacy

1. Over the course of a typical day, what kinds of ideas, needs, and desires do your students express? Make a list and consider how each example might be an expression of self-advocacy.
2. Brainstorm a list of strategies or techniques you might use to foster both students' assertiveness and their sensitivity to others.
3. Review the list of response types on pages 130–131. Select one or two and then think of ways you might work then into your instruction to support students' listening skills, build their empathy toward others, and promote positive interaction.
4. Review the series of question types and strategies for strengthening students' self-advocacy skills. Choose two examples you could imagine applying in your practice and identify specific lessons where they could be employed. Try them out and reflect on the outcomes.
5. Reread Larry Ferlazzo's example of student empowerment. Identify possible avenues through which your students might advocate for local change. What support would you need to set this up? What support would they need to take effective action?

Chapter 8. Extending Voice to Families and Communities

1. What are four key reasons for educators to expand, broaden and transform family-school partnerships?
2. Review Figure 8.1's suggested meeting topics to build family partnerships. Which of these make the most sense for your students? How would the information gleaned from these meetings support your goals?
3. What would you need to do to launch student-led conferences, and what support would your students' families need to participate?
4. How would implementing a family dialogue journals help to empower your students?
5. Review the four categories of classroom-based events for student empowerment on page 154 and generate examples of each that would be feasible for your practice. What support or resources would you need to launch these events?
6. What kind of opportunities are available for school-community partnerships that will help to foster student agency, self-confident, and collaboration? What support or resources would you need to pursue these partnerships?

Teaching to Empower: Taking Action to Support Student Agency, Self-Confidence, and Collaboration was written by Debbie Zacarian and Michael Silverstone. This 178-page, 7" x 9" book (Stock #120006; ISBN-13: 978-1-4166-2854-5) is available from ASCD. Copyright © 2020 by ASCD. To order a copy, visit ASCD's Online Store at https://shop.ascd.org.