Personalized Learning- Not What I Thought It Was!!!

Personalized Learning- Not What I Thought It Was!!!

How Climbing the Mountain led to a deeper understanding and a whole new goal!

by:

Kate Wieczorek 

Nevada Middle School

8/9 Math and Learning Team Coach

Base Camp:

Heading into my research and first coaching conversation this fall, my ICDP goal was to continue to create a personalized learning/self paced math setting in my two new courses. (I moved up from 6th grade into 8th and 9th grade).   I was going to create a unit in Canvas for 8th grade that used videos I personally made and gave the students more voice and choice in how they learn new material and how they demonstrate their knowledge. 

However, the more I researched true personalized learning and the more I participated in the personalized learning book studies, I realized my prior knowledge of what personalized learning is was actually not correct! What I currently do as self paced math is differentiated/individualized learning...and on the path to personalized....but not quite there yet!

I learned there are many steps I should really take to actually prepare students for true personalized learning before I worry about creating units.  My research took me in a totally different direction and I modified my goal for the year.   I stumbled upon a book which is a companion/sequel to the book we were reading in our book study.  I ordered How To Personalize Learning which became my “go to” tool I needed to move forward in my learning.

My main focus/goal turned to really understanding what the book refers to as the PDI chart: the differences between personalization, differentiation, and individualization.  I also planned to learn how to create a Personal Learner Profile and Class Learning Snapshot to implement in my classroom next year.

 The Climb:

I had two big “a-ha” moments during my research.  The first was that voice and choice does not mean the teacher creates a menu and the students pick from it.  In my head, if I was allowing them to pick  a worksheet or a Buzz Math, I was allowing for voice and choice.  This is not the case in actual personalized learning.  It is still teacher centered because I am the one creating the choices. 

The second “a-ha” moment was how much more there is to a Personal Learner Profile.  We tend to place ourselves in categories about how we learn based on traditional learning styles.  For example you will hear people say they are a visual or auditory learner or that they need to physically write things down to remember them.  This may be true..this may be PART of how we learn….in certain situations.  But if we classify ourselves as this “type” we may be selling ourselves short and limiting our capabilities.  What students really need to know about themselves is how they access learning, engage with learning, and express what they learned.  Saying you are a “visual” learner might be only referring to how you access your learning.  Students need to think about all three areas of learning and see a bigger picture.

In the essence of time, since I had changed my goal completely, I decided to not let perfection get in the way of progress!   I wanted to develop a formal Personal Learner Profile similar to the ones I found in the books during my research.  I wanted to have a nice tidy tool to formally administer to the group and develop a Class Learning Snapshot to guide my planning for the rest of the year.

That was not going to happen with time allowed to still integrate this year.  So I decided baby steps were better than quitting! 

I  focused on one section of learners.  This group of students seemed to be struggling the most with the 8th grade material and had the most gaps in proficiency in the 6th and 7th grade math standards.  I wanted to help guide them in study habits/strategies and to help them get to know themselves as learners so they could be more successful in high school courses.

I stepped outside of my teacher centered comfort zone and had them help me design the unit we would be working on for the next few weeks.  We brainstormed “how they learn best” but also broke it down into the categories of access, engage, and express as a Learner Profile would.  I pushed them to dig deep!  We did journals, small group conversations, and one-on-one reflective conversations at the beginning, during, and at the end of the unit.  

It was great to see the self awareness increase.  Engagement levels were much higher when the students felt the ownership of the class.  They asked for things such as smaller groups, more variety in activities, allowing them to research math games/puzzles based on the standards we were working on to create the menu of choices, doing verbal assessments rather than written, and flexible seating/room assignment (since I had a co-teacher and could use two different spaces).  However, I specifically required them to try different settings and methods...not just the one they thought fit them best.

I had students do a “quick check” every Monday where they completed the same problems each week on the three main standards we were working on.  This allowed me to monitor academic growth.  I also had them reflect on how their choices the previous week impacted their learning.  I had students report to me what while they thought they liked learning on the computer and with games best, in reality their quick checks went better if they worked one on one with me and verbally explained their learning.

Almost To The Top:

It was working!  It was a TON of work...but it was working!

This was not the goal I started with.  It was not even fully the new goal I wanted to change to.  But it was progress and I grew!  I could be a “poster child” for the Climbing the Mountain process! 

My next steps are to reach the summit by continuing my research and creating a tool to use next year so my students can write their own Personal Learner Profiles.   I will be presenting my findings and ideas during Nevada PhD in the fall.   I am looking forward to continuing my learning and would be happy to share my ideas with anyone interested! Feel free to contact me at kwieczorek@nevadacubs.org any time!  

Proficiency Scales > Rubrics: My Journey of Climbing the Standards-Based Grading Mountain

Eleven years. One-third of my life. Thousands of students taught. Crazy to think I have been doing this little thing called teaching for so long.  By this time, I have taught both high school and middle school. Language arts, math, and science. I should have this whole thing down by now, right?  I should know how to give effective feedback to help students grow as well as understand what their level of understanding is with ease. Heck, I had been doing Standards Based Grading for more than half of my teaching career and I felt like as a teacher it was now time to share my knowledge with others.

As a coach for my fellow teachers, I felt it was important this year to pilot what standards-based grading might look like as our middle school planned for full SBG implementation in  Fall 2019. Like riding a bike, I thought this was going to be easy. But as I embarked on the adventure of creating solid rubrics for students, parents, and other staff to effectively use to gauge understanding, I quickly was humbled.

I should start by saying that not only am I in a district that highly supports teacher growth, but I am surrounded by colleagues that challenge me to grow.  It was a combination of some trainings and questions from peers, that lead me to believe that while I understood the philosophy of standards-based grading, I had yet to implement it with fidelity within my classroom walls.  I thought the next step in my journey was rubrics; if I know what I am assessing, then it should inform what I should be teaching. Bam, done! However, as I began to learn more, I quickly realized I needed to shift my focus from rubrics to proficiency scales.  If you are not sure of the difference between these two: rubrics are specifically assigned to a task, project, assessment etc. It is about the end product, however, proficiency scales are focused on the standard and identifying what it would look like or sound like if a student grasped the concept. While I am sure educational researchers have far more eloquent definitions, this is how I, Jacki Kooistra, interpreted the information.

This newfound distinction created an eye-opening moment for me; I often talk to my students about what being a scientist might look like or sound like, or what a good teammate may look like and sound like; why not apply this concept to my standards?  This led to a more thorough dissection of my standards. I forgot about the activities or the end results, and just asked myself, “if anyone were to look at this, how will they know if a student was successful?” As a good teacher always does, I reflect and modify my assessments every year, which often changes what my rubrics look like; but by creating the proficiency scales I can apply the levels of understanding to any potential activity in the future.

So how does this work:

·      First, I determined what a level three, or proficient level of understanding, meant for that standard. What should my students know or be able to do if they grasped this concept?

·      Then I determined a level two.  What is the foundation knowledge that students need to know to achieve a level three with more time? This is considered a basic level of understanding.

·      Finally, I determined if a student took this concept to the next level.  If a student knew the concept well, where could they take it next, what could they do with their knowledge?

While this may appear simple, many hours were invested to shift my brain, because naturally, I kept coming back to lessons or labs that I could incorporate.  I had to retrain my brain and how I look at lesson planning. I am happy to say I have created proficiency scales for all of my standards and was able to finish the year reaping the benefits of my labor.  During my last couple of units, I could easily use my proficiency scales to create new assessments and rubrics that directly tied to the levels of understanding I had developed. This allows for my grading to be more focused on feedback that encourages growth by highlighting strengths and weaknesses.  I then work backward from there to find or modify lessons that fit into my end goal.

Next fall my proficiency scales will be made available to the students and parents at any time, so if they were to ever have a question of what students are learning about in 8th-grade science, it is easily accessible and written in kid and parent-friendly language.  This holds myself accountable to providing engaging learning experiences tied to the standards, as well as students accountable to meet the expectations.

I look forward to continuing to work with colleagues to help them grow and implement proficiency scales within their classrooms; while also creating richer opportunities for my own students.

Remember as a teacher, you are growing and learning right along with your students.  When we begin to know more, we do more. Don’t seek perfection, because there is no end destination in growth, it is a lifelong journey.

Jacki Kooistra

Nevada Middle School

8th Grade Science/Learning Team Coach

My Journey With PBL

This year for my ICDP I started to dive into the world of project based learning. I have always implemented projects into my classroom, but I wanted to have the projects be more meaningful to students. This summer I had the opportunity to attend a PBL conference that was put on by the Buck Institute, which is one of the main leaders of PBL. While at the conference I learned a lot of information and began a project to implement in my classroom for this school year. I was able to receive a lot of resources as well as feedback from teachers from across the world.

            

At the conference I came across an article in the Nevada Journal talking about minimum wage and the cost of living in Ames. This sparked the idea for my project that I could implement in Algebra that would also have real world implications for students. After the conference I had a basic outline for my project and spent the rest of the summer doing research and gathering the information that the students would need in order to complete the project.

           

I implemented the project this year in my Algebra 1A classes. Overall, I think the project went well and that the information definitely made students think and apply their knowledge to a real world situation. After seeing the finished products, I knew that there was definitely room for the project to grow. Originally the project was to compare minimum wage to the cost of living, which proved difficult for students to find a comparison. I changed a few of the items on my rubric to make it easier for students to compare working 40 hours a week on minimum wage to the cost of living in Ames, Nevada and Des Moines. I also added a collaboration piece for students to work together to improve their writing. They now have to peer critique a partners proposal and offer feedback. This will help students learn how to work and collaborate together as well as to apply skills that they have learned in language arts into a math classroom.

            

This summer I have two exciting opportunities that I will be a part of with hopes of improving my PBL knowledge. I was accepted to an externship opportunity with Accumold in Ankeny. Through this I am hoping to create a PBL project that will have real world application based on skills that I learned and used at my externship. Then at the end of July, I have the opportunity to travel to Ohio and attend the second level of the PBL conference that I attended last summer. I am hoping to take the project that I implemented this year to receive more critiques and improve the project even more. I am also hoping that I can create a project through my externship to take to the conference as well. I am excited to continue my journey with PBL, and I am hopeful to be able to create projects to implement in all of my classes that have real world applications for students.