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.
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment