Effective classrooms don’t rely on a single routine. They stack three types of routines on top of a clear learning goal:
- Competency routines help students learn the content.
- Disposition routines help students learn how to learn.
- Agency routines help students learn how to lead their learning.
When all three are intentionally layered, students don’t just complete tasks, they take ownership of their progress, their decisions, and their growth.
The Routine Stack for Agency Driven Learning
In today’s complex and fast-paced classrooms, effective instruction goes far beyond delivering content, it’s about creating rich, student-centered experiences that foster deep thinking, transfer of learning, and authentic student ownership. We now know that no single strategy works in isolation, and that intentional layering, or stacking, of routines can transform classrooms into environments where learners think, act, and lead with purpose.
Across the Re-Envisioning Rigor series, from deepening student thinking and transfer to cultivating meaningful project work via PBL, we have always known the focus and next step: student agency is not a buzzword; it is a daily practice shaped by routines that help students take initiative, monitor their progress, make decisions, and lead their learning.
Why Stacking Matters
Just like individual plays on the court or field come together to form a winning game plan, combining routines with intention creates a learning experience that is both strategic and impactful. Each routine is powerful on its own, but when we intentionally stack them, we build classrooms that are:
- Active and reflective
- Conceptually deep and transfer-oriented
- Ownership-driven and learner empowered
This expanded approach centers three interconnected dimensions of powerful learning:
- Competency Routines — Help students build knowledge and skills from surface to deep and transfer learning.
- Dispositional Routines — Cultivate mindsets and behaviors that support effective learning.
- Agency-Focused Routines — Promote initiative, self-monitoring, meaningful collaboration, and decision-making.
Together, these dimensions shape learners who not only understand content, but own their learning.
Agency-Centered Routines Add to the Stack
While traditional routines help students process and apply information, agency-centered routines empower them to lead their own learning journey. These routines bridge the gap between “doing school” and “owning learning” by focusing on four key areas:
- Goal Setting and Self-Direction: Students articulate what success looks like and why it matters, allowing them to plan their own path forward.
- Progress Monitoring and Adjustment: Learners habitually check their own understanding, adjusting their strategies or seeking support when they hit a wall.
- Collaboration and Shared Decision-Making: Students take responsibility for how they work together, communicating, solving problems, and making collective choices.
- Reflection with Purpose: Reflection moves beyond a simple check-in to become a strategic routine where students connect their decisions to specific outcomes and next steps.
These moves make agency a daily, visible habit rather than just an aspirational goal
Stacking for a Routine-Rich, Agency-Focused Experience
To see the full impact of these routines, we must look at how they layer throughout a lesson. Below is a model of what agency-infused stacking looks like in action, moving from foundational clarity to deep and then transfer. This is just one example of many that we support and work with schools and districts to implement. The below example is moving from surface-deep-transfer, however, there are other ways to stack routines such as starting with deep or transfer routines then responding to the needs of learners with surface routine.
| Phase of Learning | Routine Focus | The Learner’s Experience |
| Launch & Clarify | Agency (Goal Setting) | Students define success criteria and set and/or align personal learning intentions. |
| Engage & Build | Competency (Surface) | Students gather essential information and build foundational knowledge. |
| Deepen Understanding | Deep Routines + Collaboration | Students analyze and co-construct meaning through shared decision-making. |
| Choice & Action | Agency (Pathways) | Students choose the tools and pathways they need to solve real-world problems. |
| Reflect & Transfer | Transfer + Self-Monitoring | Students apply learning to new contexts and evaluate their own growth. |
The Stack in Action: Classroom Example
6th Grade Science:
Learning Goal: I can model how a disruption impacts an ecosystem.
Final Thoughts: Moving from Compliance to Ownership
When we intentionally stack routines, the culture of the classroom shifts. Students stop asking, “What do I do next?” and start asking, “How can I make this better?”. That shift, from compliance to authentic ownership, is where the most profound learning happens.
