Success with Personalized Learning

“If we hope to help all learners find success, we need a new approach--one that taps the potential of the most underutilized resource in most traditional classrooms: the learners themselves.” (Rickabaugh)

Those words out of James Rickabaugh’s, Tapping the Power of Personalized Learning:  A Roadmap for School Leaders stopped us in our tracks.  Further reading out of Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey’s, Make Learning Personal:  The What, Who, WOW, Where, and Why, helped us spring into action.  We hold ourselves accountable to “best practice” as educators.  Our passion to instill personalization throughout our work has grown immensely.

We dove into personalized learning with our first unit of study.  Over the summer our learners were asked to read one of three given titles.  Traditionally we start off the year with everyone writing a thesis driven essay based on the book they chose to read over the summer.  Most of these essays need to be revised, as it is difficult to jump into this type of writing right off the bat.  This school year we decided to offer more voice and choice for the assignment and let learners choose how they would demonstrate their growth.  The results exceeded our expectations and validated everything we've read thus far in our quest to personalize learning.   

We begin every unit with the standards.  The Minnesota State Standards we address with the summer reading novels are:

9.4.10.10 By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature and other texts...

a. Self-select texts for personal enjoyment, interest, and academic tasks. b. Read widely to understand multiple perspectives and pluralistic viewpoints.

9.9.6.6 Adapt speech to a variety of contexts, audiences, tasks, and feedback from self and others, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

In our class we guide learners through formative (practice) work that prepares them for a summative (final assessment), where they demonstrate their mastery of a standard.  We intentionally plan formative work that generates different ways to access, engage, and express information.  For our first unit we carefully planned formative work where learners could experience working independently, in collaborative groups and engage in a teacher seminar (direct instruction from a teacher).  We asked individuals to be thinking about which experience they preferred as a learner while they focused on their work.  By the end of the formative work learners had done some, question storming, research, written analysis (defend/refute/or qualify), discussion of information, all solidified in some form with self-reflection.  Our goal was to help learners have a recent experience around different learning situations they could reference, in order to craft a personal learner profile.

The summative asked them to address the following essential question, “How does reading create an experience that allows one to grow?”  Students were instructed to answer this question figuratively or literally for their final assessment.  As learners began to demonstrate their growth, Rickabaugh’s words rang true.   Our learners became the most valuable sources of new learning for themselves and each other.    

Learners wrote essays, reviews, journals, interviews, letters, poems, children’s books and fictional stories.  They made many different types of connections, applied concepts from Government Class, created storyboards, drew and painted illustrations, produced book trailers, invented slogans, and flip books and dug deeper into characterization through analysis.  One individual took her pencil drawing storyboard, downloaded an app that allowed her to upload her images, add color and make them digital (Click here to see her project, it blew us away).  She became an immediate resource by showing another learner, who was looking to enhance his drawing around symbolism, how to use the app she found.  Another individual learned how to voice record for his book trailer and became the class expert for anyone else that wanted to do some voice recording. We had the pleasure to see what one young man learned when he created a RAP BATTLE and we eagerly await the finished product of a learner who chose to design and make her own shirt where the colors used will be symbolic and speak to how she grew.  Almost EVERY single learner turned in an assignment!  We would argue EVERY learner was engaged, and EVERY one of them learned something.  We have never started the year off with almost 100% participation and completion of the first summative assignment.  

One of our struggles is to find a way to make Personalized Learning work within the grading system. In order to truly capture their learning each person reflected on what they did to express how they met the standards.  In this unit our learners weren’t the only ones inspired.  As the mentors in the room we were quite moved.  We are ecstatic with the results of our first unit and are preparing for quite a ride with these inventive learners.

Learner volunteering to read his poem

Setting the Foundation

“Don’t smile until Christmas” is an outdated phrase I actually heard my first years teaching.  While that would never be our personalities, the sentiment was you had to start your class off with the tone that would establish the type of environment you wanted to have for the year.  Being that many of our learners have not experienced a personalized learning environment, we take the first three full blocks to establish a foundation from which to build on.  Day one is about getting to know our stories, day two is focused on mindset, and day three ideal self and ideal classroom.

Part of moving from a group to a team begins with learning one another’s stories.  This is an ongoing process but one of our goals is to broaden our learners’ perspectives and help establish a deeper empathy for others.  Hearing one another’s story is one way to achieve this goal.  Learners begin the year completing a survey that will later help those individuals develop a learner profile (stayed tuned for a learner profile blog entry).  After introductions, learners quiz each other to demonstrate the value of listening vs hearing.  Finally, we end the first day by sharing our stories (Tricia’s story, Kaela’s story).  We emphasize how our culture has shaped us and our passions have driven us.  Then we talk about how becoming mothers made us better teachers.  We observe how unique each of our own children are and how different they approach life and learning.  We could never parent each of our children the same, so why should we expect all learners to learn in the same way?        

Reading the book Mindset by Carol S. Dweck, changed the language we use not only with our students but also with our children.  Our feedback is always focused on the effort and development vs the end result.  Anytime a student utters a phrase like, “I can’t write thesis statements” or “I am not a good writer” we point out that is an example of a fixed mindset and ask them to rephrase with “I am still working on knowing how to write a good thesis” and “I need to develop my writing skills.”  To lay this foundation in our class we begin by having learners test their mindsets, than discuss the difference between a fixed and growth mindset.  The results reflect messages they have received both explicit and implicit.  For example, “You are not much of an artist...” or not seeing your artwork hung up by the teacher, may result in a fixed mindset for child regarding art. We ask learners to reflect on areas where they have a fixed mindset so they approach it differently, by allowing for more time and referring to resources for extra help when needed. Then we draw our attention to what it means to have a growth mindset and how that creates a love of learning.  You can view Kaela explaining growth mindset to learners by clicking here. 



exit card student responses to essential question

We transition the importance of having a growth mindset to illustrating how standards based instruction lends itself to personalize learning.  To simulate the need for personalized learning we have students view a young boy playing the ukulele and ask them to reflect on whether or not he is below, meets or exceeds the standard of “Be able to play the ukulele while singing a song in tune, using correct words and have a positive stage presence.”   

See the ukulele video here and our conversation that followed:  View Tricia’s class discussion

To the left, is the visual we share with learners to explain how they will all meet the standards, but how they get there may look different.  If they already are meeting the standard they need to be challenged.  Challenge does not mean "more" it means more in depth.  

These pictures summarize our third and final day of setting the foundation where learners create ideal self trees and set class norms. 
Links:  Ideal-Self Tree Template and Learner Example 

ideal-self exercise with students

quotes students choose to represent their idea self

student sign the board after writing class norms

Stay tuned for a blog post on how we are using culturally responsive strategies to engage, motivate, and validate learners as well as how we help each of them create "personal learning profiles".  Please comment to share how you establish a foundation of learning in your work with kids.

Planting the Seed

Tricia & Kaela

We are soul mates, best friends, inseparable companions, twins by heart and sisters by blood.  Most people who meet us for the first time assume I (Kaela) am the oldest because of my slightly “louder” presence.  In truth, Tricia is the older sister by a brief 13 months.  Our sharing started at a very young age and the fact that we work better together has always been intuitive.  Throughout life we’ve been able to communicate in a manner where completing one another’s thoughts is routine and many times no words are exchanged, yet we know what the other is thinking.  In college we had an idea.  We wanted to share a teaching job and help each other raise our children.  At the time we had no idea how this would happen, we just planted the seed and believed our dream would come to fruition.

1-11 Cousins

The writing was on the wall when Tricia left a district only to land a job in my district.  Two years later, with support from administration in Edina Public Schools, we were granted a job share.  We work at a middle school in Edina, MN.  Our schedule has been a dream as far as a job share is concerned.  We teach 9th grade English every other day.  When we aren’t teaching we run a family daycare.  In 2008 we started with five children at daycare.  My brother and his wife are teachers also.  My sister-in-law watched the babies in the family as she worked on her degree.  When she completed her schooling we took over the daycare and finally watched the seed we planted several years earlier bloom.  All in all there are 11 children between the three of us.  Over the years we have been able to love and adore this beautiful bunch of cousins, while we pursued our passion in our professional lives to educate youth and make an impact on today's learners.

For years we called our learners “students” but our motto has changed.  Four years ago our district eliminated levels in 9th and 10th grade English.  The leaders of this change felt each and every student should have access to rigor and as professionals we should be able to educate ALL our learners regardless of a “course label”.  Thus began our first steps on an enlightening path to understand personalized learning.  Our hope is that other teachers can be inspired and energized by reading about our journey.  As we started to re-write our course, and in reality our personal philosophies in education, we encountered many challenges.  An innate fear of change and intimidation from people who simply didn’t understand our intent could have hindered us.  But neither did because from day one we have practiced a Growth Mindset. Now we move forward in our work feeling empowered by a mindset that is frankly contagious and unstoppable.  

English Teaching Siblings

Our Family Daycare Cousins

Rethinking our Space

With our commitment to personal learning we will continue to analyze our space and ask ourselves, “How does the space reflect the experience we want learners to have?” 

One of the most exhausting parts of going back to school is agonizing over getting one's classroom ready.  In the last few years we have been rethinking our classroom to make the space reflect the experience we want learners to have and it has proven to be less stressful.   

First, we got rid of our oversized, heavy, teacher desk and filing cabinets. We replaced the traditional teacher desk with a circular table that would allow for conferencing with small groups of students. Next, we got rid of our “traditional student” desks (that haven't changed that much since the 1800's) and replaced them with tables and chairs.  We would have loved to do a combination of high desk tables, "Node Chairs", and other innovative classroom furniture but it was not in the budget.  We were happy to settle for tables with wheels and chairs that allow for many variations of collaborative groups.  

Think of Walls as Canvas for Learning

"I notice...wonder...what if"

Canvas Wall

Last year we reconsidered our wall space and bulletin boards, after hearing and reading more about personalized learning.  Pernille Ripp talks about classrooms being cognitively distracting, affirming our thinking that less is more.  The book, The Third Teacher, gave us the idea to think of walls as a canvas.  As a result, we removed a bulletin board and some posters from an entire wall so that space became a canvas for learners to draft, question, collaborate, brainstorm, share, draw or whatever else the learning lends itself toward.  We still kept our "ideal self" tree and the signature board our learners sign after drafting class norms to create our class culture(see pics below).  And while we keep a photo of our families by our computer, we want the learners to see the class is a collective space for all and not just Mrs. Loo's/Mrs. Pettis' classroom, so we keep our knick-knacks at home. 

Once The Year Got Started

Another freeing aspect of personalized learning was getting rid of seating charts.  Allowing for learners to sit where they choose encourages natural collaboration.  If a learner struggles with focusing in their chosen seat, we step in as teachers and help them monitor their choices to ensure learning.  Each day we set up the tables so they are conducive to the day's learning targets.  Most days, our tables are set up in sections that included teacher seminar (half circle at the front for direct instruction), collaborative groups (grouped in pods), and tables lined along the wall for independent work.  During formative work time, learners would choose to sit in the section that allowed them to access and engage with the information at hand. 





Kristin Hogan, a personalized learning coach at Westside in Omaha, Nebraska, poses the following question and suggested layouts.  The possibilities are numerous even without fancy furniture. 

 

Kristin was a Math teacher before she became a coach.  In her classroom she had the desks set up in pods, numbered with a dry erase markers.  Learners would move about the pods based on learning targets for the day.  It also allowed for some pods to be working collaboratively, independently or with the teacher. 

For each unit the essential question in posted on this board.

     

Learner's answers to our first essential question on "Growth Mindset"

Funky Team Signature Board

Learners add signatures after drafting class norms together.

Our "Ideal Self" Tree Bulletin Board

Learners wrote growth mindset quotes to make leaves for our "Ideal Self" tree

Part of our Learner Profile for goal setting