Don't Lose the Person in "Person"alized Learning

You here the buzz a lot.  What's the next big thing in education?  According to major initiatives and funding sources, it's personalized learning, but what does that mean?

Here's what personalized learning looks like in Lindbergh.

1)  Relationships with students:  Relationships where we know our students as learners, leaders, and humans.

2)  Engaging learning:  Engaging students through authentic learning that gives them the opportunity to create and design in relationship to priority standards.

3)  Differentiated instruction:  Differentiation is personalization, providing student choice, remediation, and enrichment through individual, small group and computer-based instruction.

As personalized learning continues to be pa hrase thrown out in the educational world, it's important to note there are a multitude of definitions and implementation structures applied to it.  And, you'll hear both advocates and opponents to those various definitions.  Like most things in education, it's our task to find the balance of meeting student needs and retaining high expectations for universal learning for all students.

A Peek into Elementary Classrooms

Getting comfortable in our work environment

Math workshop station

Differentiated small group instruction in math workshop

Processing whole group learning opportunities

Real leadership defined

Collaborating independently during math workshop

Math workshop station directions

Student routines and directions for learning centers 

Differentiated small group instruction in math workshop

Inspired by Katniss Everdeen

Engaging the Secondary Student

This weekend, I attended a block party and ending up talking about my favorite subject...teaching!  One poor neighbor (a teacher from a different district) had the misfortune of sharing with me his opinion on structured engagement techniques for high school students, and we had a little "discussion"...yep, I'm that fun at a party!

Here's the truth...I was that student in your high school class.  The one who always looked to be paying attention, nodding and smiling at all the right times, cramming just before the test so that I could show mastery of what you taught, writing well enough to bypass real understanding while appearing knowledgeable, silently hiding behind that student who was bound to earn a 36 on their ACT and willing to participate in class.  Ask how much of that learning I retained...at least one of my AP tests revealed the truth.

Requiring engagement from every student in the classroom is necessary.  It's necessary in order...

• to build individual accountability
• to build social skills
• to ensure every student understands
• to expand perspectives

The list can go on and on, but check out how we engage our secondary students, and reflect on your student engagement practices.

Students take turns doing the work while their partner praises and coaches using the technique "Rally Coach."

Make students move!  Having students physically move to another location in the room for a demonstration or mini-lesson before they apply their learning resets their brains and prepares them for their next task. 

In small groups, students work to solve problems, creating solutions that apply their learning.  

Use space differently - sometimes the novel is engaging.  Writing on the desk or using vertical space gives student a new perspective.

Peer practice - students take turns practicing their student-led conference and get feedback from their partner.

Group sharing - after students reflect individually, give them a chance to share to expand their thinking.

In teams, students become the nucleus, racing to various parts of the room to learn about mitochondria and DNA structures to complete their puzzles.  (I might have messed up the details of this - sorry Mr. Edwards!  One could suspect that science was one of those subjects where I "hid" as a high schooler.)

Students rotate through stations with specific individual and group tasks.  In this station, students research various types of faults and instruct their team.

While students work in stations, teachers can pull students for small group instruction that allows for formative assessment of understanding.

Getting Oxygen, Not Carbon Dioxide

When we breathe our own air, it's not only stale, it's also unhealthy.  We know we have great instruction in Lindbergh, but sometimes we need to breathe fresh life into our practices, exploring the diverse schools within our area to identify ideas that will expand our thinking and engage our students.

The people:  3rd year teachers and C and I

The locations:  Maplewood Richmond Heights, New City School, and MICDS

The task:  Learn from the culture and innovative practices

New City School:  New City prides itself on the use of multiple intelligences within their curriculum.  Throughout the building, there is evidence of the diversity of learning methods and individualized strengths of students.

This PK-6 school sends students to Lindbergh.

Every student is represented in the halls with a personal philosophy/message to share

Problem-Based Learning:  The Delmar Divide -- this provides an authentic and relevant problem for student exploration and problem-solving

Students learn the multi-faceted skills needed for life, including dialogue and personal reflection

Integrating mathematical standards into the interdisciplinary study

Delving deep into the context as students build their understanding of the issue

Moving between the right and left brain as students grapple with a topic that is both factual and emotional

Kindergarten students learn Spanish in this multicultural environment

Purposeful integration:  As students learn about senses in their kindergarten class, the topic expands to their Spanish instruction

Maplewood Richmond Heights High School:  MRH creates a seamless approach to learning with the concept of 15% beyond the classroom.  There's a clear direction in providing students authentic learning opportunities.

Their cornerstones:  leadership, scholarship, stewardship, citizenship

The purposeful focus on these cornerstones are paired with examples of students exhibiting them.

Analyzing Napolean's impact in an integrated history class where 6 themes provide focus for every learning experience:  nationalism, imperialism, civil rights, revolution, economics, and social change

Inviting comfort and collaboration with snacks in the library

Emphasizing the importance of global experiences

Illustrating the district mission

Working with Washington University, students analyze data from their year-long science investigation

Science Investigations:  a year-long class where students select their topic and delve deep, collaborating with community members and presenting their work.

Not only does the student analyze the data, but she's created the device to capture it...by hand.

Literature review:  The entire process reminds me of my dissertation as the student delved into the literature prior to developing an hypothesis.

Analyzing messages:  Yes, this is a science investigation, but the student goes deeper analyzing the company's website for content only to find misspellings.  Those errors make her question the effectiveness of the product.

Her presentation shows the path of her learning, analyzing the effectiveness of air purifiers

The emphasis on skill over content

Sharing the purpose and expectation with the student work

A culture of learning

Setting the tone for the future

Reinforcing growth mindset

Maplewood-Richmond Heights Elementary:  At MRHE, the focus is on "School as a Museum", where students are challenged to synthesize their learning by creating artifacts, displays, and exhibits.  The school community is committed to authentic student learning experiences by allowing students opportunities to "show what they know" frequently.  

 At MRHE, once a quarter, students synthesize their learning by creating a grade level exhibit for parent, students, and community to view.  Students create artifacts that showcase the "big ideas" in their learning.    

 Every display at MRHE was student-created.  Displays are meant to be used for learning and for display of learning.  They don't always look perfect but they increase learning.

 During math workshop, students utilize the inquiry model to problem-solve with partners.  Asking questions, digging for information, and coming up with possible answers are the key.

 In this culminating exhibit, students focused on building a growth mindset.  They spent time looking at literature that supported a growth mindset and feature those texts in their exhibit.  

 One component of many exhibits that caught our eye was the interactive piece.  Students are encouraged to interact with the displays, making it a learning opportunity for all.

 Sharing what they've learned in math and writing.  More interactive components as well.

 A culminating event for 5th graders is a trip out of town, looking at various historic places.  

MICDS: Students demonstrate ownership of their space and their learning in the upper school.

 Math and science teachers fill this workroom when they're not teaching. Students can stop by anytime, check the teaching schedule on the wall, and seek out an instructor who teaches the content in which they need support.

Students use these collaborative study rooms to work with peers before and after school or during free periods.

Student sculpture and artwork decorate common spaces atop library shelves.

Students practice math on their personal devices while the teacher monitors their learning in real-time from her own device in a shared online learning platform.