West Valley SD - Yakima, Washington CASE STUDY on Implementation of Personalized Learning done by AIR

Everyone - In December, 2019, West Valley SD - Yakima, WA, had a researcher from the American Institute of Research spend three days interviewing teachers, students, administrators, and parents on the West Valley Implementation of Personalized Learning. This was an outstanding opportunity for West Valley - SD to showcase their work done so far in Personalized Learning. The report is finished - Enjoy!

Personalized Learning Spotlight

What Is Personalized Learning?

Personalized learning has several definitions in the education world. The American Institutes for Research (AIR) defines personalized learning as an educational approach that ·    is student-centered, offering varied and flexible learning opportunities, modalities, and supports designed to meet the unique strengths, needs, and backgrounds of each student; ·    promotes agency by harnessing student interests and enabling students to exercise responsibility, self-management, and decision making as they help drive their own learning; ·    is competency-based, setting a high bar for learning, offering flexible place and pace for reaching goals, and awarding credit only when mastery has been successfully demonstrated; and ·    promotes deeper learning by offering students content-rich, challenging, applied, and collaborative learning experiences as well as meaningful feedback and reflection as they build the broad knowledge and transferable skills they will need to continuously learn, adapt, and thrive in the 21st century. Learn more: https://www.air.org/resource/spotlight-personalized-learning

West Valley School District, Yakima, Washington

Challenge: How can school districts build on existing initiatives to implement a sustainable vision for personalized learning that meets the needs of all students?

Introduction

COVID-19 school building closures had, and will continue to have, a staggering impact on K–12 education in the United States. The rapid shift to remote teaching threw existing inequities into sharp relief, as millions of students around the country lack access to broadband connectivity, devices, and high-quality digital learning content. As educators, state and district leaders, communities, and families look beyond emergency remote teaching to envision what comes next, they will face significant challenges in addressing loss of learning and student social and emotional health, and ensuring that all students are ready for the next school year. However, the COVID-19 emergency also provides schools and districts with an unprecedented opportunity to reimagine K–12 education and underscores the need for learning environments that are flexible, student-centered, and personalized to address the wide variability of student needs.

In this Personalized Learning Spotlight featuring West Valley School District (WVSD) in Yakima, Washington, district leaders collaborated with the community to implement a personalized learning plan districtwide to meet students where they are and move them along the continuum of learning. As districts plan for the next school year, AIR hopes that this Spotlight will provide other district and school leaders with beneficial insights to support new opportunities to reimagine teaching and learning in the COVID-19 era.

[“In less than 48 hours, our staff was engaged in virtual instruction to our students, and since, we have gone 1:1 K-4, and have 100% connectivity through a virtual learning grant. Amazing work by an amazing team.”

Unifying District Initiatives to Create a Culture of Innovation and Personalized Learning

WVSD is a small suburban public school district in Yakima, Washington, serving more than 5,600 students with six elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Led by Superintendent Michael Brophy, WVSD is in its second year of a gradual transition to personalized learning.

American Association of School Administrators (AASA) AASA members advance the goals of public education and champion children’s causes in their districts and nationwide. As school system leaders, AASA members set the pace for academic achievement. They help shape policy, oversee its implementation, and represent school districts to the public at large. (https://aasa.org)

In 2018, Superintendent Brophy attended an American Association of School Administrators (AASA) meeting on the topic of personalized learning and returned afire with new ideas. The district had existing initiatives in place focused on blended learning and a 15-year history of competency-based education,[1] as well as elements of student-centered instruction in various programs throughout the district. Brophy and the district leadership team saw the opportunity to build on the foundation of these initiatives to cultivate personalized learning practices and build a shared vision for teaching and learning that leads to sustainable change. 

Learn how WVSD leadership built on their existing blended learning and competency-based practices to cultivate a shared vision of personalized learning across the district. The WVSD team shares challenges and lessons learned during their implementation process and offers recommendations for other districts considering a shift to more personalized instruction.

West Valley School District 5,611 students •   60% White •   33% Hispanic •   45% low income •   8% English language learners 306 teachers 8 schools •   6 elementary schools •   1 middle school •   1 high school

Setting the Stage for Transformation

Beginning in fall 2018, the district leadership team launched a gradual implementation of personalized learning strategies with a focus on instruction that is

·       paced to learning needs,

·       tailored to learning preferences, and

·       customized to the specific interests of different learners.[2]

Recognizing that sustainable transformation requires significant effort, district leaders are focused on supporting gradual implementation with both educator- and community-based scaffolding.

Community-Based Supports

·       The school board engages in study sessions open to the public to bring them up to speed on the latest personalized learning work in the district.

·       The Superintendent’s Blog shares readings, information, and snapshots of district practice with parents, administrators, teachers, and other interested stakeholders (http://wvsdsupblog.blogspot.com/).

Educator-Based Supports

·       Educators across the school district participate in an annual professional development summer institute that includes an entire strand of sessions focused on building instructional capacity for personalized learning.

·       Throughout the school year, instructional coaches work side by side with teachers to support the integration of personalized learning teaching strategies.

·       The district’s induction program welcomes all teachers who are new to the district (not just first-time teachers) with a 2-year one-on-one mentor and orientation to West Valley.

This two-pronged approach to engaging with and building support among internal and external stakeholders in the district has helped cultivate teacher- and community-level support for personalized learning, as well as create the structures necessary for long-lasting change. Personalized learning is becoming systemic through district structures like response to intervention (RTI), assessment and data use, and professional development and coaching for teachers. And personalized learning is permeating the community through leadership enthusiasm, open communication, and building buy-in. These efforts reap benefits for the district. Parents are intrigued—not all are convinced it’s working yet, but they are willing to let the superintendent and the teachers try. The local community college and several area businesses—including Microsoft, Boeing, a local winery, and fabricator Magic Metals—are actively partnering with the district. A WVSD school board member summed up the community reaction: “We get lots of questions, lots of things raised up—personalized learning is not one of them. It sells itself.” And, finally, teachers feel supported by their leadership and the wider community to innovate and try new things.

Building a Culture of Innovation

Superintendent Brophy shared a desire to see the West Valley school system “transformed so that even if the leadership changes, teachers realize, ‘This is the way I need to teach, and this is the way kids need to learn.’ I really believe that it’s going to be the advent of the future, not only for West Valley, but for others.”

Some of the programs that are now receiving attention as part of the WVSD personalized learning efforts have been around for years. The high school’s advanced classes and Futures CTE pathways and apprenticeship program predate it, as do many of the longer term projects that incorporate student choice and interests. One elementary school teacher said, “Our principals are telling us, ‘You’re already doing this.’ And we are, but we never called it personalized learning. It was, ‘that’s how you reach all kids.’ We just didn't give it that name.”

New or not, teachers at all levels noted that a culture of innovation in their schools allows teachers to experiment with new approaches. The permission to try and to remain flexible is key. “Our administrators, to their credit, are very supportive. So, if we go to them and say, ‘Hey, we want to try this,’ they let us do things,” said an elementary teacher. 

The balance between autonomy and structure that personalized learning requires can be tricky, and although some teachers are ready to dive in headfirst, others are taking baby steps. Principals agreed that creating a culture in which teachers feel safe to try, not necessarily succeeding the first time, is key. “Knowing they have the flexibility to fail and just to take it in their own time is huge.” This flexibility and autonomy empowers teachers to identify what isn’t working for them or their students and to make changes that fit their contexts. For example, many teachers noted that students become overwhelmed by too much choice. “That’s some of the feedback I got from students, was this was almost too overwhelming because it was so wide open,” one high school teacher said. “And so, I’ve just tried to be a lot more intentional about the design that I have going in and then also getting that student feedback has been very critical.” A Wide Hollow Elementary teacher echoed the importance of flexible planning in personalized learning: “This whole personalized learning thing is so different from the elementary level to the high school level. No one-size-fits-all thing can fit the whole spectrum.”

BADGE BOOKS: The “badge books” in Ferguson’s class are a kindergarten version of personalized learning, but the focus is carried out at each building in the district in a variety of ways. Teachers work to maximize student “voice and choice” from West Valley’s prekindergarten programs through high school, where students can engage in nine different career pathways through the Futures program and take courses that offer college credit.

Personalized Learning in Practice: Giving Students and Teachers Freedom to Explore

It makes sense that an approach whose foundational assumption is that instruction should be tailored to the unique needs, preferences, and interests of learners would look so different across schools and grade levels. In various ways, WVSD’s principals and teachers are working to meet the developmental and learning needs of students at all grade levels.

Teachers create learning opportunities with badge books (see sidebar) in kindergarten, flexible seating for first graders, “playlists” in upper elementary, station rotation, project-based learning choices, and pathways in middle and high schools. Teachers engage students in the process by engaging with their own data as part of the personalized learning journey. “I share my data with my kids now,” one fourth-grade teacher said. “Over the last couple of years, I have been working on that and it makes such a huge difference in their ownership over their learning. Having them see their scores really helps them to make that connection.”

Just as personalized learning provides students the freedom to explore their interests at their own level, teachers have the opportunity to explore the implementation of personalized learning in their own classrooms, at their own pace. An idea that was introduced to the district from the top is now growing organically from the grassroots.

Teachers are engaging with the approach in significant ways. Some, like Cottonwood Elementary teachers, are working together with teams or coteachers to pilot new ideas, leading professional development with their colleagues and refining their implementation in planned cycles. Others are trying new, smaller reforms to their existing approaches—giving students “playlists” of resources to explore or topic choices within projects.

Addressing Challenges in the Path to Implementation

Shifting to a completely student-centered approach is not without difficulties and may not always be the most effective educational option for every learning situation. West Valley is navigating their way through some challenges as they expand and refine their approach.

Many teachers indicated the breadth of potential personalized learning strategies and definitions had been the most challenging part of implementation. The district started the 2018–19 school year with a focus on blended learning, an educational program in which a student learns at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, or pace.[3] As personalized learning was rolled out, many teachers became confused about the difference. One instructional coach who is also on the district’s Digital Learning Team summed it up: “Okay, here’s personalized learning. Well, what does that mean? What does it look like? We've had conversations around how technology can be personalizing learning that is not in and of itself personalized learning. How does something that a teacher’s doing in the classroom—an activity, process, or routine—either support personalized learning or not?”  

Words like structure, intentional, guided, planning, and directed emerged over and over as teachers talked about how they make personalized learning strategies work in their classrooms. One middle school teacher noted, “There are a lot of things that you have to think about in advance, and I think that’s the part that takes the most time. Like to try and think through, ‘How do I do that?’”

The levels of uncertainty involved can be disconcerting, but the district’s instructional coaches are there to help. “There’s times where it still needs to be guided by the instructor because it’s information students need to learn, but you can scaffold it in such a way that the student has some choice on how they go about accomplishing that task,” one said.

Effective personalized learning engages students where they are and uses their preferences and interests to make them want to make the stretch that learning requires. District leaders and teachers already had an established understanding of the learning standards and classroom differentiation techniques, which meant they were ready and able to take on the new focus. “There was a readiness to benefit, I think, with personalized learning because all the good work that had been in place prior,” Brophy said. “We already had the foundation of 15 years of competency-based learning, because if you went from no competencies to personalized learning, you’d have utter chaos. So, the competency-based foundation had already been laid, which really is what made this transition possible.”

Lessons Learned From Gradual Implementation

Teachers can explore the personalized learning strategies in their own classrooms, at their own pace. 

·       Just as personalized learning strategies allow students to explore interests within individual learning styles, teachers too can explore strategies in their own classrooms, at their own pace. 

Students are clear on the expectations for personalized learning tasks and provided with opportunities to practice.

·       Students of all ages can develop skills to be autonomous in their learning: “We’ve spent the first 6 weeks of school practicing our routines and expectations so that students can be self-managers.” (instructional coach)

District leaders encourage principals and teachers to foster cultures of innovation and
risk-taking to improve learning outcomes for all students.

·       District and school administrators balance structure and autonomy supporting teachers’ new approaches for personalized learning, as well as teachers’ taking baby steps.

School leaders and teachers receive support through professional development and
job-embedded coaching.

·       West Valley’s instructional coaches provide real-time support such as collaborating with teachers to scaffold instruction and identifying choices for students to accomplish a learning task. 

District leaders communicate the vision and raise awareness throughout the school community.

·       School board study sessions focus on providing community members with information about the latest personalized learning practices.

·       The Superintendent’s Blog shares research, information, and snapshots of district practice (http://wvsdsupblog.blogspot.com/)

Recommendations for Districts Considering Personalized Learning

In their journey toward personalized learning, WVSD has navigated some challenges to encourage innovation and sustained growth. As personalized learning grows in WVSD, the emerging lessons may be beneficial to other districts considering embarking on the personalized learning journey.

·       Encourage principals and teachers to take risks to improve learning outcomes for all students.

·       Be intentional when providing direction, structure, and guidance for personalized learning across schools.

·       Schedule designated professional learning throughout the year to support principals and teachers to analyze data and quantify the impact of personalized learning.

·       Provide designated time throughout the year for teachers’ consistent and ongoing collaboration with colleagues.

·       Create model classrooms and provide coverage for teachers to observe model teachers and personalized learning instructional strategies in action.

·       Provide opportunities for teachers to coteach with model teachers.

Conclusion

WVSD has created a culture in which teachers and leaders feel comfortable and encouraged to take risks and try new approaches for engaging students in personalized learning. Within the schools and in the district administration, staff were open to sharing the challenges of introducing personalized learning components within instruction. The lessons learned from the first year of gradual implementation provide additional understanding of what structures, resources, and supports teachers need to move forward to expand personalized learning opportunities across the district. AIR hopes that this story of West Valley’s journey provides other district and school leaders with insights beneficial to their personalized learning efforts.

AIR would like to thank Superintendent Michael Brophy, his leadership team, and the principals, teachers, students, and instructional coaches who generously gave their time to share their stories. AIR has extensive expertise in designing and implementing personalized learning approaches, including supporting leadership teams in making systemic changes, aligning new efforts with local priorities and context, and developing strategic communications and outreach. For more information, please contact us at www.air.org

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[1] Competency-based education (CBE) supports personalized learning by removing time in the classroom as a measurement of learning and emphasizes student progression through academic work toward demonstrated mastery of defined competencies. CBE is often referred to as proficiency-based, or mastery learning, and can be associated with standards-based education, which defines the skills and knowledge students are expected to achieve.

[2] U.S. Department of Education, paraphrased in McClaskey, K., & Bray, B. (2013). A step by step guide to personalize learning. Arlington, VA: International Society for Technology in Education. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1015153.pdf

[3] https://www.blendedlearning.org/what-blended-learning-is-and-isnt/

WVMS Winter Celebration

West Valley Team - I was invited to join in on the fun at the West Valley Middle School Winter Celebration this afternoon. I had invitations from Rylan Sali, Betsaida Larios, and Johnny Bolles to join in the fun at the 400 Pack at WVMS. I had a great time going around to the different displays on Winter Celebrations Around the World. Teachers Ms. Olden and Ms. Schmidt were outstanding as they organized the kids into different themes from different countries. And, of course, there was even food from the countries on display! Here are some of the highlights from the event:

 These girls are displaying Three Kings Day along with refreshments.

 This is the display on Christmas - celebrated in the United States and Canada.

 These guys shared a display on Diwali, as well as having some donut-like snacks.

These girls shared a display on Posadas, which is celebrated in Mexico.

Regardless of how you celebrate, I want each and every one of you on the West Valley School District Team to have an outstanding Winter Break! Have a wonderful Holiday Season, and tremendous New Year! It is amazing to think that it will be 2020 when we return in January! I know that with our team, 2020 will be just as awesome as 2019 has been! Enjoy! Mike

Opportunities for Choice - A Key Ingredient for Personalized Learning

Opportunities for Choice: The Learning Path to Advocacy and Innovation

 Changing teaching and learning can be daunting. The idea of meeting all students where they are means redesigning the system and how we teach. That also means understanding and meeting our students where they are. It is about changing the concept of being a “teacher” to becoming more of a researcher, designer, diagnostician and expert facilitator of constructive learning experiences. [CompetencyWorks 2018]

After reading the paper from iNACOL, “Meeting All Students Where They Are,” I realized I needed to bring in new concepts to address choice. It is not a continuum of choice. It is about providing opportunities for choice at different levels. It depends on where the learners are around tackling a task if the environment provides multiple opportunities, and how empowered students are to take responsibility for the choices they make.

Teachers may only know what they know or learned as students themselves. Many teachers believe that providing a set of pre-planned choices from a computer program or a list of options was enough to give students opportunities for choice. I see so many teachers working way too hard to create opportunities for students to choose the best way to learn. The idea of developing opportunities for choice is to start turning over the learning so students learn best by being the ones working harder than the teachers.

I believe that any learner any age can have opportunities for choice inside and outside of school. Educators reached out to me to let me know they were concerned about choice being on a continuum. They mentioned that some learners were ready to advocate around something they were passionate about, and, at the same time, were also at the participant level when preparing for a test or taking notes.

Participant

At the Participant level, students of any age may be more comfortable following instructions, step-by-step directions, or a pacing guide. Students as participants comply with what is required to pass assignments, get grades, or to prepare for graduation. Yet, learners of any age can be at the participant level when they may be uncomfortable or not confident in what they know, how they feel about themselves, or what they can or cannot do.

This is where teachers can refer to Lev Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) as the More Knowledgeable Other (MKO). Vygotsky believed that mental tools extend our mental abilities enabling us to solve problems and create solutions in the real world. This means that to successfully function in school and beyond, children need to learn more than a set of facts and skills. They need to master a set of mental tools—tools of the mind to be able to choose the most appropriate tools, resources, and strategies that support their learning.

Teachers can do this by providing a menu of options for students and empathy as students take risks and make mistakes with the choices they make. These opportunities for choice can be in the form of images, videos, text-based resources, audio, hands-on activities, or interactions with peers. The choices available can also provide opportunities to showcase what they know from writing a paper to creating a performance.

Designer

At the Designer level, students are starting to make some meaningful choices about their learning. The teacher provides learning opportunities and then gets out of the way for students to go on their own journey (via Jackie Gerstein).  The teacher invites input from students to decide on topics based on interests or questions around content areas they are studying. The teacher collaborates with students to brainstorm ideas for lesson design, assessment strategies, and types of tools and resources to use with the activities. The teacher and students review and collaborate on how to give more choices as they learn. The teacher is also inviting their input on the redesign of the learning environment so they can select seating based on the activity. Students then choose and demonstrate evidence of learning with the teacher.

 Advocate

At the Advocate level, students are beginning to be validated as “learners” who believe they can own and drive their learning. This is where students as learners identify challenges or problems that they want to address, research, and tackle. When they identify and take on a challenge or problem, they then own an authentic voice with a clear purpose for the choices they will make to advocate for what they believe. They are empowered to develop strategies to solve the problem and may even build a network with others who want to solve the challenge or problem with them. Learners choose different spaces for learning and collaborating. They reach out to experts and others in and outside of school to support their research. Learners may work strategically individually or with a group to develop an action plan to shape the change. They do the research and find the appropriate evidence to support the action plan. When learners experience advocacy working toward something they believe in, they begin to understand their part in how they can make change happen.

 Innovator

At the Innovator level, learners use their strengths and interests to explore what could be their passion for learning. When they find their passion, they can then discover their purpose for learning and life.  Learners can then choose their learning path based on that purpose. Being at the Innovator level can happen at any age and learners can realize that their passion and purpose may change often throughout their lives. They may want to learn a new language, create a product, solve a problem, or design something new.

Learners can be part of a pathways program to guide the design of their learning. They can find an advisor or mentor who can guide them as they explore their interests, talents, and passions to discover their purpose. They can choose extended learning opportunities such as internships or apprenticeship to take their aspirations to another level. Learners can also be innovators by doing a “Capstone” or “Passion” Project that they work on throughout the year and then present as a culminating activity. As part of the project, they select evidence of learning for their portfolio and final presentation. Being an innovator includes attributes of an entrepreneur as someone who creates new ideas or ways of doing things.

The goal of providing more choice is to move from being participants of learning to become self-directed, independent learners with agency. It is about teachers and learners changing mindsets and having “can do” attitudes. This takes time and a process for both teachers and learners. When you acquire the skills needed for advocacy and innovation, learners automatically take more responsibility for their learning. The more choices learners make on their own will give them the skills to advocate for what they are passionate about and become more innovative about how they discover their purpose for learning.

Levels of Engagement - Critical for Personalized Learning

Levels of Engagement: Balancing Challenges and Skills

The Levels of Engagement design was created by Barbara Bray using some of the original content by Bray and Kathleen McClaskey with graphics by Sylvia Duckworth. Updated content and design is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License

 The original Continuum of Engagement focused on the teacher’s role in engaging students. After reading more about engagement with the “Flow” theory and the differences between engagement and empowerment, I believed it needed to be clearer that engagement is about how much any learner is engaged in a task or activity and the balance between the challenge before them and the skills they have to meet that challenge. Empowerment is what the learner or someone else can do to encourage engagement. The levels are more about how the learner is engaged in learning, not about the teacher or the learning environment. Yet, teachers are learners, too and they can create experiences and environments that are compassionate, creative and innovative. This idea of levels of engagement can pertain to any of us who are defining who we are as a learner.

 Defining Engagement

Engagement is the affective side of learning and has been found to be a robust predictor of learner performance and behavior in the classroom. (Martin-Kniep, 2012) Engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that learners show when they are learning. So this may mean “engagement” is about how much we learn in the classroom or anywhere we learn. I needed to explore this more so checked out the 2016 Gallup Poll.

Measuring hope and engagement, the Gallup Student Poll helps educators gauge school success beyond test scores and grades. With nearly 5 million since 2009, the 2016 survey helps educators provide a more positive school culture — one that builds engagement, creates hope for the future, fosters talent and prepares students to meaningfully participate in the economy. Gallup Student Poll measures are linked to desirable learning outcomes, including self-reported grades, the perception of school success and self-reported absenteeism.

Download the 2016 snapshot report to learn more about how to empower hope and engagement in school. From the results, it is apparent in the Gallup Study that engagement decreased over the years in school.  Yet, learning can happen anywhere and at any time especially now with content available at our fingertips. Some questions for you to consider when discussing engagement:

• Do we only measure learning that happens in a school?
• Are teachers or a school responsible for engaging the learners?
• Can teachers empower learners to want to be more engaged in learning?
• Have you noticed some learners more engaged than others?
• Could it be who the learners are that impacts their level of engagement?
• How does the environment impact the learning?
• What might keep some learners from being engaged in the learning process?
• How much does the system have to do with stopping curiosity, creativity, and engagement?
• What can we do to transform the system so learners are more curious, creative, and engaged in learning?

 Flow Theory

When learners have a voice and choice in what and how they are learning especially if it is about something they are passionate about or interested in, they jump in and can get lost in the task or project. This is called “flow.” When learners are in the flow, you can notice, see and hear the engagement. Sometimes flow is quiet.

[Source: Adapted from Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow:
The Psychology of Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row]

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is best known as the architect of the theory of flow. Flow is when a person is fully immersed in what they are doing and there is a balance between the challenge of the task and the skill of the learner. Flow cannot occur if the task is too easy or too difficult. Csíkszentmihályi published the graph above that depicts the relationship between the challenges of a task and skills. Flow only occurs when the activity is a higher-than-average challenge and requires above-average skills. Both skill level and challenge level must be matched and high; if skill and challenge are low and matched, then apathy results. (Csíkszentmihályi, 1990)

In Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Invention and Discover (2013), Csíkszentmihályi explains why creativity is so fascinating that when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of our lives. The examples and stories in the book help the reader understand how we change when we are immersed in an activity we are passionate about.

 Levels of Engagement

 Compliant

In the Compliant level, learners may appear to be bored or anxious. Some may just give up on learning and follow whatever the teacher or school requires them to do. They may be good “students” who know how to “do” school. Their grades may be good but they are not empowered to do more than they have to do for a grade.  There are others that have a fixed mindset and just give up because they were not empowered to learn or do not have a voice in what and how they learn. The school system might be focusing on test scores, worksheets, and homework that are probably not relevant or meaningful for the disengaged learner. The teacher may feel they are the only one responsible and accountable for all the learning in their classroom. Sometimes learners who are compliant have other issues at home that keep them from being engaged in learning.

 Commit

In the Commit level, learners are starting to take on more responsibility for their learning. The teacher is building the relationships with the learners by guiding the process for them to understand how they learn best. At this level, the teacher may still be laying the groundwork for learning and determining prior knowledge but learners may be demonstrating that they are more involved in what and how they learn. The commit level is where the learners find their voice to help become better learners. When they understand why they may be anxious about learning something, they discuss this with the teacher to help them through their anxiety. Learners are also reaching out to others to help them build the skills they will need to perform a task. They commit even more to want to learn when they have time to explore what interests them. This level is where learning is personal and the student finds out more about themselves and who they are as a learner. This is also the level where the teacher realizes that some children need more time or may have other issues keeping them from learning. The teacher-student relationship is so crucial at this level for all learners to help find their voice.

 Connect

In the Connect level, learners realize now that learning is social. They can expand on what they learned in the commit level by connecting with others who are at the same level or have the same interests. They are more in control of their learning but realize they can learn much more if they collaborate with others who can work together to build on their ideas. At this level, the learners are doing more of the talking than the teacher. This is where learners enjoy learning from each other and even teaching their peers. Learners are more engaged at this level when connected to real-world problems that are relevant to them. Today, learners connect with smart devices before and after school. Teachers and schools can make this level more effective if these smart devices are allowed during school hours. This is where “trust” and “letting go” of control can be so important. Our learners are using these devices and need to know the appropriate use so they can connect globally in an effective and safe way. This is the level where you notice it is getting a little noisier in some parts of the classroom.

 Flow

In the Flow level, many call it “messy learning” because it may seem chaotic to some people. Learners are curious, creative, and innovative. There is no one way to capture what it might look like. A few learners might be in the hall, another on a smartphone contacting a mentor, two sitting together animated on the floor in the back of the room, a small group brainstorming in the corner, and someone presenting evidence of learning to others for critical feedback. Some learners are working quietly immersed in the task at hand where others are reaching out to others to collaborate on solving a problem. This is when learners have the skills to pursue their interests and are curious by seeking what they are passionate about. They want to challenge themselves to investigate and solve solutions to real-world problems where they can make a difference. You can hear it in their voices and actions. They want to share what they learn. The teacher is more of a mentor and coach as they guide the process. This level is when learners self-advocate for what they need or want to learn and when they have agency.

What I did notice about engagement is that sometimes we are in the flow because of the activity or task at hand. Other times we may not be engaged because of the activity. We may be at different levels at home or at school or in other learning environments. The engagement level can be high in a makerspace and low in a classroom depending on the activities.

Several teachers have said to me that when their kids are in the flow, “they never want to go back to the traditional way of teaching.”  Some questions for you to think about and reflect on:

Have you experienced flow?

How much flow did you experience in school?

Where are you in the Levels of Engagement?

What about your learners in your classroom?

Do you notice different levels of engagement with different activities?

5 Reasons to Personalize Learning

5 Reasons to Personalize Learning

Personalizing learning means different things to different people. The idea I want to share behind personalized learning is to empower learners including you as a learner to own and drive learning. That’s not easy especially when teachers have so much on their plates. It could be easier to continue with the status quo. But the teachers I know want the best for all of their learners. This post is to provide a few reasons to consider when you personalize learning.

1. No one is average.

In Dr. Todd Rose’s book, The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World the Values Sameness, he explains why we came to embrace the scientifically flawed idea that averages can be used to understand individuals. Rose offers a powerful alternative with three principles of individuality: the jaggedness principle (talent is never one-dimensional), the context principle (traits are a myth), and the pathways principle (we all walk the road less traveled). He explains that we are all unique and can take full advantage of individuality to gain an edge in life.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? I believe each of us is unique and all of us are learners. When I read Dr. Rose’s book, he explained about variability and why education has to change to meet the needs of each individual learner.

“Why is there no average learner?”

2. The Myth of Learning Styles.

We are all unique as Dr. Rose mentioned in his book, End of Average. Because of who we are and how we all learn in different ways, learners have preferences about how they learn. According to the authors [Riener and Willingham, 2014], whether we call it talent, ability, or intelligence, people vary in their capacity to learn different areas of content, differ in their background knowledge, and, intertwined with ability, they differ in their interests. When we identify a learner as one learning style over another, it does not follow the research about how the brain works. We use all of the modalities because that is how our brain works.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? I’ve seen so many learners labeled visual or kinesthetic so teachers differentiated instruction based on one or two labels. All of us have multiple dimensions that make us who we are. Most of us are visual learners unless we cannot see. Even blind people visualize in their heads what they are seeing. I will be writing more about this, but I hope schools rethink why they should not use learning styles to label a child.

“Why are learning styles debunked?”

3. How our Brain Learns.

Learning is a neurobiological process indicated by the growth and strengthening of connections between neurons. The brain is constantly changing which is called neuroplasticity. This means the brain can be improved and continues to adapt and learn through life even into our old age. The human potential for learning is limitless at any age. When you learn something new, your brain makes new connections. Your brain is even active when you reflect on your learning. You learn when your brain is active especially when learners ask questions, investigate, create, or reflect on their learning. Passive exposure or listening to a lecture does not necessarily lead to learning.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? Our brain is constantly changing as we learn. When a school or parent believes that a child is born with certain traits or talents, this can cause the child to believe that’s all they are. This happened to me. I was told I wasn’t very smart. I believed that during most of my school. My parents always believed in me and fought for me. And, on my own, I read and was hungry to learn. So I did. I was lucky to have parents who believed in me and a teacher who believed in my writing. I finally realized that I could learn anything if I put my mind to it. So now I write, share, and learn something new every day. I know that every child can learn because their brain is growing and learning every day. All children can learn if we give them opportunities and the support they need.

“How does the brain work?”

4. Universal Design for Learning® as the Framework

David Rose and Ann Meyers from The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) founded Universal Design for Learning® (UDL)  based on decades of brain research and the neuroscience of individual differences, human variability, and how we learn. UDL is about reducing or eliminating the barriers to learning and optimizing levels of support to meet the needs and interests of all learners in the classroom. They realized that the curriculum, not the learner, was the problem. UDL provides a blueprint for creating instructional methods, materials, and assessments that can be customized and adjusted for individual needs.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? We need to put more energy into finding out how children learn best. Universal Design for Learning does that. The three principles, Multiple Means of Engagement, Multiple Means of Representation, and Multiple Means of  Action and Expression, pave the way. All three of the principles work together, but when you start with the “Why” of what engages you to want to learn, nothing can stop you. It is about encouraging curiosity and wonder. That passion to learn is what is so exciting about personalized learning.

“How can we reduce barriers to learning?”

5. Accountability vs. Responsibility

The word “responsibility” tends to be interchangeable with the word “accountability.” In many cases, teachers feel they are the ones responsible for students to learn. The reason is that the system seems to hold them and the school accountable for what students learn. “Accountability” refers to making, keeping, and managing agreements and expectations where “responsibility” is the feeling of ownership. So this means that each learner needs to be held accountable for what they learn by taking responsibility for their own learning.

So why is this one of my reasons to personalize learning? If the teacher is the hardest person working in the classroom, then who are the people really learning? Learning is not about passively receiving information. When the teacher is the one held accountable for what kids learn, then learning becomes work, not fun for both the teacher and learners. When our kids have a voice and choice in what and how they learn, they want to learn. They are motivated to learn. When they realize learning is for them not for a grade or for the teacher, they own it and develop agency.

“Who owns the learning?”

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All learners can learn. It is our job as educators to provide the environment and support system so learners have a voice and choice in their learning. These are just a few reasons for you to consider if you go on the journey to personalize learning for all of your learners. Barbara Bray.