Case Study: Poetry Residency

High School for Medical Professions: unearthing student voice

Staff at HSMP took on one question with Spark House: how to make student voice part of every school day.

At a glance

The guiding question

What would it take to unearth student voice as a daily practice?

Success criteria

What success looks like

Communicating productively

Sharing ideas, listening actively and contributing to conversations in ways that move learning forward: asking questions, building on someone else’s idea, and disagreeing respectfully.

Taking risks

Stepping outside your comfort zone to learn and contribute: sharing an idea that is not fully formed, being honest in reflection, or engaging in a challenging conversation.

Working persistently

Staying engaged when the work becomes challenging or uncomfortable: staying focused, revisiting and refining ideas, and working through disagreement.

Grounding reading

Students must see themselves in their learning

Staff read an excerpt from Cultivating Genius: An Equity Framework of Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Gholdy Muhammad:

“The universal question is ‘How will my instruction help students to learn something about themselves and/or about others?’ To be responsive, we have to know students deeply.”

Then they responded to three prompts: how the excerpt made them feel, which sentence challenged them, and what it inspired them to do.

We look back to look ahead

Three statements staff reflected on

I intentionally create opportunities for students to see themselves, their experiences and their perspectives reflected in learning.

The structures and expectations in our school support relationship-centered teaching and learning.

As a school community, we cultivate a culture where student voice is valued, welcomed and acted upon.

School culture

A culture to unearth student voice

Staff left with a student engagement strategies toolkit to use in their classrooms.

Read the BASE case study, or see all case studies.