Learners Taking the Lead on Design

What?
Yesterday in LH3 we decided to trial having the learners design their own day.  We gave them a sheet of paper that was broken up into three sections, one for each block, then we went over the day's workshops.  The learners then had to schedule in the workshops they needed to attend and then work the weekly must do's around them.  I had tried this last week on Thursday when half of the habitat were out at NYLD and it had worked really well.  The learners who were here did a really good job of planning their time and sticking to it.  I found that they were really on task and motivated.

So What?
The day went with varying success.  Some learners really enjoyed it and followed their plans down to the minute (they had to write their timing on it and make it really specific) while others used the time to talk with their friends and did not achieve anything.
I would really like to persist with this way of planning because I think it will prepare our learners for OJC and OSC well and because I really do believe that if they've had a hand in designing the work that they do they're more likely to do it and enjoy it.  I wonder if the types of activities on the must do's would change things also, are the tasks too specific and could they be broader to allow more space for diversity and creativity?

Now What?
I think for next week it would be a good idea to give more support to those learners who need it.  I think our inner circle (in our circle of independence) will need their day designed for them or with them, we could spend time doing that first thing on Monday morning.  The inbetweeners might need a small amount of guidance, for example the subject that they are doing but they can choose what they do for that subject (e.g. Literacy = read to self).  The outer circle are more than capable of planning their day on their own so they could do that before the day starts on Monday to allow them a greater amount of learning time.

My Thoughts
I'm still excited by this approach and I do think that it went well for the first time we've done it as a whole habitat. I wonder if it worked better on Thursday purely because there were smaller numbers of learners.  I would really love to be able to add Fridays into the mix and by term 4 have most of our learners in the outer circle planning their own day all of the time.  It's a lofty goal but I think it's totally possible!