Systems and Supports for Personalized Learning: Daily Flex Time

Our school has made huge strides in continuous improvement. When we reflect on how that growth occurred it has to do with two things: systems and supports. Systems that back effective and responsive teaching must be adopted and supports that remove barriers for professional growth (i.e. time, resources, strategies) must be in place. At South View Middle School in Edina, MN, one system we designed in order personalizing the learning process was initiating a school wide “daily flex” time.

Implementing a daily flex involved a three year evolution of rethinking instructional time for efficiency. The first stage of daily flex was replacing two days of advisory time weekly. Every other Wednesday and Thursday, learners would sign up to see a teacher of their choice. A follow up survey for learners about this change informed us that not only did learners value the time, they wanted more flexible time. Stage two involved creating space in the schedule for a daily “core content” flex time paired with a flex called “WIN (what I need) Time”. WIN involved all teachers and was at the same time every other week (in place of advisory). Daily core flex was a different time for each grade level and was offered every day, every week. Our leadership team determined they would restructure time in order to have a core flex by moving ten minutes of core classes to be a part of a daily flex time. This repurposing of time allowed learners to see core teachers daily, and select time with specialists, as needed, (during WIN) on an every other week basis. Stage two was a step in the right direction, but it created a different schedule for each grade level and the number of teachers available to run a flex was limited. The first two stages led us to where we are today with a daily flex at our middle school.

Current System for Personalized Learning: School Wide Daily Flex

After three years of trying out some variation of flexible time, we feel we have landed on a schedule that maximizes student learning. Each day begins with advisory followed by a 35 min daily flex time for all grade levels right after advisory. This forward thinking schedule encourages teachers to rethink how they use their instructional time, and invites learners to have ownership in identifying and meeting their individual learning needs.

Now, all teachers (core and specialists) offer a flex session that is a continuation of their class every day. Some learners need additional support, some need more time to process or work, and some are ready for rigor and enrichments. A teacher may offer all three pathways (support, extension, and enrichment) in one daily flex or one pathway per day. Teachers offer an instructional response based on daily formative work in order to determine what to offer. The result is relevant learning experiences that meet needs in real time. The key is the LEARNERS CHOOSE how they are going to use their flex time and sign up using our flex schedule. In order to help guide the learners in the process, our teachers all follow the same naming conventions and write a description for a flex offering.

Grade, Pathway, Teacher Name, Title

6, Support, Gardner, Close Reading Strategies

7, Extension, Dahl, Build It Project Work Time  

8, Enrichment, Pettis, Advertisement Tactics

Pathways:

Support - direct instruction on concepts previously taught in class

Extension - process time, next steps, additional application

Enrichment - expanding upon learning on a deeper level

Student view of the flex scheduler

All decisions around flex time are data informed. Teachers guide learners in knowing how to use their daily flex time by providing them with feedback. Formative work serves as FAST (fair, accurate, specific and timely) feedback, and teachers prompt learners to reflect on how the formative work informs them of the next steps needed in the learning process. Learners gather this feedback from their classroom teachers and merge that with the support offered by their advisor. Advisors oversee their advisees’ academic progress and help them navigate how they are using daily flex time.

Again, daily flex time is a system that allows for teachers and learners to be responsive to the learning in order to provide the supports, extensions, or enrichments learners need. After unit summatives or during the formative process, teachers no longer have to navigate finding time to meet learner needs before or after school. Rethinking the organization of time in a school day has allowed teachers to meet needs much more efficiently during the school day.


Benefits of Daily Flex Time

Research says, if a learner’s core instruction focuses below grade level outcomes, then the learner will learn well below grade level. Daily flex allows learners to receive targeted interventions without being pulled out of their grade level classes or electives. Additionally, daily flex provides further enrichment opportunities that invite inquiry and project based learning. For example, South View STREAM, is a daily enrichment option for 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th graders offered during daily FLEX. Learners engage in a learning process where they can continue working on an enrichment for a specific class, or they can design a project based on exploring something of their own passion. Learners have taken advantage of STREAM to conduct a science fair project, continue delving into a History Day project or again, originate and enage in their own passion project.

                                            Another perk of daily flex is the built in opportunity to invite different guest speakers related to various careers and other learner interest areas. Recently, South View has welcomed a Minnehaha Creek expert, a documentary filmmaker, a sports journalist, a clothing designer/business owner, and chemical health counselor. The guest speakers have been well received, and there are plans for future guests. Other ways teachers use daily flex advantageously have been for music ensembles and combined rehearsals, grade level registrations, grade wide learner profile work, interdisciplinary units, student leadership groups and even swimming lessons. Our incredible student support staff also capitalize on daily flex time in order to run small groups around topics such as, stress and worry, new student experiences, high school 101, and organizational skills practice.  

FAQs

We have had over 20 schools come to see personalized learning and daily flex in action. The most common questions about daily flex are outlined below. 

Question: What about the learners who need help in all their classes?

Answer: A teacher may “lock” (schedule in) a student into their flex and other teachers can see that on the flex scheduler. If a teacher sees a learner is 'locked' they know not to pull him or her. Due to the fact that flex is offered daily, learners have multiple opportunities to access time with a variety of different teachers. 

Question: What about the learners who don’t make good choices?

Answer: Teachers guide learners in the process, whether that is locking/scheduling them in or conferencing with them in class and or advisory.  All teachers have an advisory, and as advisors we oversee academic progress for our advisees. When an advisor notices that a learner is struggling, he or she helps the learner determine how to strategically plan out their use of the daily flex time.  

Question: What about learners who just sign up with their friends?

Answer: Learning is social and we don’t necessarily see working with friends as a negative. Still, if a teacher notices learners struggling to self-regulate and be productive in flex time, they intervene just like they do in their classrooms. For many learners it is an advantage to work with others during this time, and it fulfills the social needs and academic needs of learners.

Question: What about learners who don’t sign up at all or who sign up for the ‘wrong’ 
                  class?

Answer: For the first month of the school year, we have a gradual release in order to train the learners how to sign up for daily flex. 6th grade has the slowest release, because they are new to it, and 8th grade has a faster release because they have been using the schedule in previous years. Grade levels use the first week of daily flex to schedule learners in to talk about the purpose of daily flex, as well as how to navigate the time and figure out the logistics of the scheduler.

As additional support, at the start of the year, we have a flex ‘intervention’ in place for teachers to send learners who sign up for the wrong class, show up without being on the roster, or are having any other complication with the system/process. For example, if a 6th grader signs up for an 8th grade basketball flex, the teacher of the 8th grade flex will send the learner to flex intervention. Once there, the learner can meet with a teacher to help him/her understand what happened and how to fix it moving forward. Flex intervention is for any teacher who has an issue with a learner in flex, therefore teachers don’t have to waste flex time helping a learner problem solve and find a new flex to go to. After a month, flex intervention becomes flex ‘detention’. The shift to detention is for learners to have a place to go when they are misusing flex time, not signing up, going to the wrong place, or using flex time to game or distract others. Flex detention is a device free zone and the learners lose a choice in where they want to go. Learners quickly understand that they are being held accountable for how they use daily flex and the teachers want them to take full advantage of this time.  

Data Collection          

In a recent survey, learners and staff were asked if they find daily flex to be beneficial. 50.7% of learners reported daily flex “always” beneficial, 29.5% said often, 14.3% said sometimes, and only 5.6% said rarely or never. The staff feedback around daily flex was also positive. 51.2% of staff reported they “strongly agree” that daily flex has had a significant positive impact on student learning, 41.5% said “agree”, and only 7.3% said “disagree”. Almost all grade levels saw improvements in MAP scores in reading and Math from December 2017 to December 2018. All grade levels saw growth against NWEA grade level targets. 
We believe the improvement in scores is in large part due to learners having the time to relearn, spend more time, or extend their learning during daily flex time. The system of daily flex has teachers thinking about how to give FAST feedback, what learning pathways are needed both in class and for flex time, how to use learner reflection (or learner profile) to guide instruction, and how to better support creating opportunities for rigor and enrichment. Daily flex time plays a vital role in forging multiple pathways and personalizing learning for all.