Do you ever feel like you are the hardest working person in the classroom? I felt like this quite a bit when I was teaching through direct instruction every day. I did my very best to be engaging. I sang, I danced, I used humor, funny memes on the slides, etc. But, that effort made me the hardest working person in the room! Students were ‘sitting and gettting’ as they say. Relaxing in their chairs and hopefully soaking in those meaningful lessons I was working so hard for in the front of that room. When the kids ‘sit and get’ as they say, I feel like I am up in front of the room begging for their attention while they are passive in their learning. Don’t get me wrong, I am not advocating for direct instruction to be thrown out of your teacher tool bag. But, I may have found a better way through personalizing learning.
Years ago, many now, the teacher was the deliverer of knowledge. Students learned because the teacher could deliver the information they needed. We used to judge a person’s intellect by the wealth of knowledge they could store in their memory. The person who knew the most facts, dates, times, historical events, etc. was considered ‘smart.’ With technology and the wealth of factual knowledge it contains, these statements are no longer true. As teachers, our role has changed. We don’t need to be the all-knowing deliverer of knowledge, we need to teach students how to access what is already there for them, and perhaps more critically, teach them how to analyze it.
So, how can we, as the title suggests become a ‘guide on the side’ instead of the ‘sage on the stage?’ We do this by putting the onus of learning on the students. There are many steps in the process of doing this successfully, especially when students are not used to a personalized learning environment. The steps below layout the process I took to learn more about and finally implement personalized learning in my classroom.
Learn more about what personalized learning is… and what it is not.
I have a series of blog posts that will get you started as you learn more about what personalizing learning in your classroom looks like. Check out these blog posts below for more information:
So, You Have Been Asked To Personalize Learning- What Now?
What Personalized Learning IS- and What it IS NOT
The Critical Components of Personalized Learning
Planning a Personalized Learning Unit- A How To Guide
Training the Students
We can’t just step off that stage. We can’t suddenly change the way we teach and expect students to understand their new role. This requires training. I am working on a new post, coming soon, about this process. That said, here are a few basics:
I start with growth mindset lessons.
We have conversations about how learning is a process not a outcome. I explain that I care far more about their ‘learning journey’ than I do the assessment they complete.
We take surveys so students can determine what type of learner they are. I ask them to reflect on what works for their learning.
How do they learn best?
With direct instruction?
Small group instruction?
Working collaboratively with others?
Working individually?
Working in a noisy place or a quiet place?
Working at a desk or working on a comfy sofa?
With technology or with books from the library?
What type of technology do they prefer to work with - and why?
Do they prefer to be creative with a project - or write an analytical essay?
When we start these questionnaires, my students become excited to know more about the process. They want to understand how their choices can actually play a role in their learning. They begin to question- “will I be able to choose how I learn something?” “Will I be able to choose how I show you I know something?” And, I excitedly answer, yes! You will get a voice and you will get a choice!
I introduce this personalized learning model to my students in a lesson. We cover all of the basic components of personalized learning (click here for a blog post about these 6 critical components to personalized learning.) I explain that they will be in charge of their own learning journey. I will provide an optional path to meeting the standards, but they can also create their own path. I will provide direct instruction and small group instruction, but they are in charge of learning the material in the way that works for their learning. I will suggest an assessment that will help them meet the success criteria for the given standards, but they can also create their own assessment to show-what-they-know.
Students will have questions. Many, many questions. Some students will panic. Some students will be ecstatic. The first time we implement these personalized learning methods in the class, I choose a small lesson, not an entire unit. Then, I scaffold, scaffold, scaffold. I have a blog post in the works about this first lesson! Stay tuned!
Planning a Unit
Determine the standards and the success criteria.
What standards will students be meeting throughout the unit?
How will you measure success with each standard? In a personalized learning unit, the specific assessment is left unmentioned (because they can choose their own- more on this later), and instead, the rubric should state the skills students master. The image on the right is an example of my allegory standards for my 9th graders. In years past, I used direct instruction to teach allegory. Then, we read The Lord of the Flies together as a class to discuss the many allegories in this text. Students would then write an essay that I outlined for them. Now, I ask students to meet the standard. I still provide this learning path (with The Lord of the Flies,) but I also allow students to find another path. I have had students select short stories to read; I have had students read other allegorical novels. Students have chosen to write an essay, but others created a variety of projects to show their understandings of the standards. In all cases, students were truly engaged in their learning. They knew what they needed for their learning and they knew what they needed to do to meet the standard.
Plan the teaching sessions you will offer. This can be through the traditional direct instruction approach (see, there is still a place for direct instruction), and/ or small group instruction. These are the lessons you would have taught in a traditional setting. The only difference here is that you are taking out the required assessments, and opening this up for students as optional assessments. This blog post on planning a personalized learning unit will explain more about how I plan the teaching lessons and learning journeys for students. Planning a Personalized Learning Unit- A How To Guide. This post will also show you how I structure the unit. Students really do get to decide HOW they learn the material. I will have students (usually those that were panicking in the introduction to personalized learning session) take the direct instruction lessons, and follow the learning journey I propose to the letter. This learning journey I suggest is, for the most part, what I would have taught in years prior. BUT, some students will want to take a different path. This is how I support those students…
Teaching the Unit
The first, and often only required, direction instruction lesson is the ‘Unpacking the Standard’ seminar (direct instruction lesson). Within this session, I put the standard on the projector/screen. Then we begin to unpack this standard. What does it mean? What is the standard asking students to demonstrate? What knowledge will they need to be able to show mastery of this standard? What will they need to be able to show as evidence of mastery?
Then, I will share with students the learning path that I suggest. For example, when I taught analyzing rhetoric in years past, I would start with direct instruction lessons on rhetorical appeals and logical fallacies. We would follow with direct instruction lessons on how to fully analyze rhetoric. Then, as an assessment, I would ask students to go back and reread (because we had already fully read the novel) Atticus Finch’s closing arguments in To Kill a Mockingbird. The best part about personalizing learning is that I STILL USE ALL OF THESE LESSONS! Woohoo! I will share with students this optional learning journey and the lessons I will provide to get them to that standard. Here is where it gets different…
We brainstorm. We brainstorm other ways to show mastery of this standard. The first time I tried this I was terrified. I share more about this first experience in my blog post on Offering Voice and Choice in Assessments – A Guide for Letting Go. This post will also walk you through that brainstorming session. As students create their own assessments, they begin to create their own learning journey. They might attend my seminar sessions on rhetorical appeals and logical fallacies, they might use my Google Slides lesson to teach themselves the material in a quiet work area. They might use the internet or other resources to teach themselves the material, and then just attend a small group workshop with me to make sure they understand all of the elements of a rhetorical analysis. They might collaborate in a small group to craft a truly unique project that fully demonstrates their rhetorical analysis. The point here is that students are driving their learning. They are doing the work. They are going home exhausted, while you - the coach- are leaving full of energy and excitement for the learning you hear taking place in your room.
Getting started is the hardest part. Model with students your own journey in this. Show them that you - their teacher - can make mistakes and learn from them. The will begin to see that they too can make mistakes and learn from them. They may make a mistake and believe they don’t need a direct instruction seminar, but after they score low on the assessment, they may wish to take this option. (More on how to structure these varied options coming soon!) They will begin to understand how they learn. They will see what they need for their learning and understand the process by which they can meet their learning goals. This process is JUST as important as the content itself. But, it is a process. One with plenty of trial and error! You can dip your toes in the water by offering voice and choice in assessments (see the post above) or jump - all in- with the personalized learning lesson I offer below.
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