Dear Educator,

How often do you hear a cool idea or story where you're left thinking, "I would love to do that, but...

• I have no idea where to start;
• I don't have the time; and
• I don't have the resources."

If your answer is "every day," you're not alone. This is the nature of being a driven human being who just wants to do good things for their community.

Today, Liz Perry, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Learner-Centered Collaborative, is going to share one of her favorite learner-centered strategies that helps amplify student voice, engage students in authentic learning, and utilize performance-based assessment.

The best part? You can implement this strategy with the time and resources you have right now! Let's check it out.

Hierarchy of Audience as presented by Ron Berger in Leaders of their Own Learning

As a Project-Based Learning educator, instructional coach, and district leader, Liz regularly used the Hierarchy of Audience—a graphic showing various levels of audience with which students might share their learning. When learners have a real purpose and audience for their work, engagement and motivation follow.

Here are three ways Liz has offered different opportunities for her learners:

1. To Present to Parents

Learners in Liz's 10th-grade Humanities class examined the ways in which animals are used in literature to teach morals and ethics. They wrote an anthology of parables and dystopian stories around an ethical or moral issue of their choice and hosted a “fireside” reading/chat for parents.

2. To Present to a Public Audience Beyond the School

In another example, Liz and a colleague led a group of learners in creating a hydroponic garden for a local community center. During the reveal of the new garden, students prepared family recipes to share with the community.

3. To Be of Service in the World

Going all the way to the top of the Hierarchy of Audience, learners in Liz’s class engaged with topics of importance to them and voters, proposed how they would redesign the election experience for a new generation of voters, and exhibited original works of photographic art, accompanied by an artist statement, to reflect key issues in the upcoming election.

Cast Your Vote

Of course, there are many details left out of these short summaries, so now it's your turn to vote!

Which story would you like to hear more details about? The winning vote will inspire the next blog post Liz writes in the new year!

1. Parables

2. Hydroponic Garden

3. Democracy Project

Thanks for voting and see you tomorrow,
The Learner-Centered Collaborative Team

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