Counselor Up!
  • Blog
  • About
  • Speaker
  • Author
    • Book Summary
    • Book Discussion Guide
  • Things I Love
  • TPT Store

Student Voice Group

3/23/2019

3 Comments

 
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but students outnumber teachers in your building. By a lot. Yet, especially in elementary school, we don’t always allow students to take leadership roles and express their voice in the way that school works. I recently had the honor to be invited to a Student Voice team. I love this! It would also be a great club if your school has them.
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but students outnumber teachers in your building. By a lot. Yet, especially in elementary school, we don’t always allow students to take leadership roles and express their voice in the way that school works. I recently had the honor to be invited to a Student Voice team. I love this! It would also be a great club if your school has them.

What is Student Voice Team?    ​

The team includes staff and students who will have conversations about inclusion and acceptance, especially in your building. The team encourages students to share their experiences and ideas about how to make the school a place that everyone can love and learn. Students will learn how to use their voice to work with others in identifying areas of growth, talking about solutions, setting goals, and making changes.

Selecting Students

Selecting students will depend on how your team is organized, when it will meet and how many students you can accommodate. I strongly recommend having your team during the school day so that all students have the opportunity to participate. Our team meets for 40 minutes with 4th-5th graders. Some of the students miss a small portion of their instructional time but most of the 40 minutes overlaps lunches and specials. To apply, students can use their voice to inspire others by writing a speech, making a video, or creating a presentation. Mostly, this is about wanting students who are inspired by the opportunity and are going to take it seriously.

Team Meetings

Each meeting has a similar flow that allows for some learning by students and ample opportunity for them to talk and share. Before the meeting, students are given an article related to the topic of each meeting. In our first meeting, we read the article: Lives Turned Upside Down: Homeless Children in Their Own Words and Photographs

Here is an example agenda:
  • Introduction/Greetings
  • Warm Up Activity
  • Team Norms
  • Discussion: What were your thoughts or feelings about the article? ​
    • Brian says that he lives in a house with his family but has no electricity. How do you think this affects Brian?
    • What do you think some of Brian’s biggest worries or struggles would  be?
    • If Brian was a friend of yours, what questions would you want to ask him?
    • What do you think would help Brian feel comfortable and relaxed at school?
    • If Brian was a student at our school, would he be successful here?
  • ​Ideas for action: How can we take what we've learned and make our school more inclusive for all students?
​
It's been such a pleasure to see the conversations that students have! Other topics to include: Disability, Race, and Bullying. 

Next Steps

Next, I'd like to think more about how we can leave time and intention for action. We fill our entire time together with discussion and I'd like to add sessions for action or activities between meetings. Have you ever led a Student Voice Group? What topics did you discuss? I'd love to hear all about it!
Picture
Not sure if you’ve noticed, but students outnumber teachers in your building. By a lot. Yet, especially in elementary school, we don’t always allow students to take leadership roles and express their voice in the way that school works. I recently had the honor to be invited to a Student Voice team. I love this! It would also be a great club if your school has them.
3 Comments
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Rebecca Atkins

    Welcome to my blog where I talk about all things school counselor and encourage others to Counselor Up!

     Subscribe in a reader

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
    Picture

    Interrupting Racism: Equity and Social Justice in School Counseling

    Links may be affiliate links. If you link and purchase, I may receive compensation at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support of Counselor Up.

    Categories

    All
    ASCA National Model
    Behavior
    Counseling Career
    Equity
    Freebies
    Groups
    IMO
    Individual Counseling
    Just A Little Thing
    Lessons
    Office
    Organization
    Parent Book Club
    Parent Communication
    Professional Development
    #tbt
    Technology

    Archives

    July 2021
    June 2021
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014