Sometimes, for art projects, I let the students choose whether they’d like to use markers, pencil crayons, crayons, or some combination thereof. A choice as simple as this can really increase engagement with the project. 

I offer choice during our Daily 5 literacy block. Students choose whether to read independently, read with a buddy, or write. Then, they choose where to sit, which books to read, and which topic they would like to write about. My students this past year loved reading in the cubbies, and I trusted them to do so, even though they were out of my direct line of vision.  The reason this works is that we spend a lot of time at the beginning of the year learning about expectations, modelling expected and unexpected behaviour, practicing the routines, and building stamina (starting with just one minute).

 There are also times when I do assign students particular books—for example, I have them read levelled decodable readers during our small group reading lessons (which happen simultaneously with Daily 5). And I teach a writing lesson almost every day during which they are assigned a topic to write about. So our literacy program, like all aspects of the classroom programming, includes a balance of prescription and choice. 

We democratically vote on some class decisions. For example, students might brainstorm ideas for a class party, then vote on their favourite idea. I remember one student several years ago who was lit up with pride when her classmates voted for the idea she'd suggested: a class pyjama and stuffy party. More recently, my current Grade 2/3s voted to name our class "The Amazing Class" (less militaristic than "Division 6"!). (Note that I do NOT offer opportunities to vote when it could turn into a popularity contest, e.g., "Let's vote for this week's line leader" or similar.) 

Students can choose the order in which they complete their assigned tasks. For example, when I taught Kindergarten, I had the students work on weekly math booklets, each of which asked them to compose the number of the week using five different kinds of materials: beads on pipe cleaners (e.g., one red bead plus four blue beads equals five beads altogether); unifix cubes; integer chips (“shake and spill”); bingo daubers; and stickers. The first week, when we worked on the number five, I had the whole class do the beads on Monday, unifix cubes on Tuesday, etc. The following week, for the number six, I had the students rotate through centers over the course of the week according to their table group. Then, for the next month as we worked through numbers seven through ten, I let students make their own choice each day as to which activity they would like to complete in that week’s booklet. They knew that they were responsible for completing all five pages in the booklet by the end of the week. This worked because of the scaffolded approach; by the time I’d built up to offering more choice, students knew how to complete each of the tasks independently. 

Some teachers take a “genius hour” approach, having students in their classroom work on self-directed projects. If I taught older grades, I might be open to this. To be honest, though, just the thought of having all 22 of my six- to eight-year-old students work on individual genius hour projects gives me a headache!

An alternative I’ve found that has worked well for Primary is having each student come up with an idea for something they would like to make. I think that putting it in these terms—what would you like to make, as opposed to what would you like to learn about—helps the students come up with concrete, achievable ideas. Then, once a week, we devote about 60 to 80 minutes to each student’s idea, so that the whole class works on each person’s project.

This does not necessarily mean that you’ll need to do one project each week for 22 weeks. Sometimes, several students in the class come up with the same idea, like when quite a few kids in my Kinder class a few years ago wanted to make lollipops! Other times, you can combine several projects into one lesson. For example, one student in my Grade 2 class wanted to make a model of the Eiffel Tower, while another wanted to make a model of the Empire State Building, so we combined both projects into a lesson about models of famous landmarks around the world—which also happened to connect well to our Social Studies global communities inquiry! 

I’ve found that almost any idea the students come up with will hold learning opportunities. By making chocolate chip cookies, they’ll learn about measurement; making a grass head (another idea from one of my Grade 2s) connects to the curricular life cycle inquiry; making bracelets can be an opportunity to explore patterning. Not only is it way more manageable to have the whole class work on the same project on the same day, it also provides an opportunity for students to get out of their own comfort zones and see what great ideas their classmates have!