Personalized Learning Notes
January 2021
New This Month--A Variety Club!
Starting on Jan. 26th, third graders will have the option to attend a Variety Club on Tuesday afternoons while their teachers have their prep time. Each week will have a different instructor and a different topic, beginning with Origami, Music Composition, and a STEAM challenge. The Variety Club is in response to student requests for more time to interact with their peers. The schedule and format will adjust as necessary when students return to the building.
9 Meaningful MLK Jr. Activities for the Classroom
Digital Poetry
The Power of Visual Thinking in Virtual Learning
Mystery Hunt with Another Classroom
This could be a morning meeting activity, or a culminating activity at the end of unit.
Empowered at a Distance: How to Build Student Self-Direction Into Remote and Hybrid Learning
ENGAGEMENT
- "The lack of student engagement is often a lack of self-direction...The issue is less about engagement and more about empowerment...Ultimately, students have to take the initiative to own their learning when the teacher isn't physically present...We can create systems and structures that empower students to own the learning process."
- "We can redefine success. Instead of focusing on external outcomes, we can define success as humbly admitting what didn't work and choosing to grow."
- A focus on engagement needs to first focus on the issues of access and equity
Phillip Schlechty framework for engagement:
- Rebellion--diverted attention and no commitment
- Retreatism--no attention and low commitment
- Ritual Compliance--low attention and low commitment
- Strategic Compliance--high attention to the task, low commitment
- Engagement--high attention and high commitment
Helping Students to Self-Manage
- Teach students to self-select their scaffolds (how to find the learning supports that are universally accessible to your entire class)
- Create opportunities for ownership in virtual meetings
- Provide choice and flexibility in online assignments
- Tap into student interests
- Empower students to own the inquiry process (Give frequent opportunities for them to ask clarifying questions, to do research, gather data, and share their answers with an audience)
- Empower students to own the creative process
- Empower students with collaborative learning
- Empower students to own the assessment process (self-assessments, peer assessments)
- Take a gradual release of responsibility approach to student ownership
Empowered learners develop the soft skills need to thrive as lifelong learners and to become makers and problem-solvers we know they can be.
Transform Rather than Convert
"When you focus on converting instruction, there is a tendency to see the limitations and miss the opportunities. You take a great in-person activity and then you try to do your best to substitute it with digital tools. But this will always lead to a deficit mindset in which you remain fixed on all the things you cannot do online that you were once able to do in person. What if we asked, "How do I transform my course?' rather than 'How do I convert it?' With transformation, you can leverage the creative and connective capacity of technology." We need to think bigger than technology tools and ask ourselves, "What can my students do remotely that I cannot do in a physical classroom?
"As an educator, you will always be more than a content delivery machine."
- You are a curator.....finding new course materials.
- You are an architect.....designing structures and systems that facilitate learning
- You are an artist working on the craft of teaching
- You are a scientist...experimenting with new strategies and gathering data
- You become an innovator seeking out the overlap between best practices and next practices
- You are a community builder...building relationships
- You are a mentor...listening and providing guidance
"These relational aspects might be even more important remotely, where the lack of physical space increases the necessity of relational engagement."
"Embrace a culture of joy--joyful environments can help facilitate community and build relationships." (such as, joke of the day)
"By every metric imaginable, students learn less and perform worse when they aren't connecting with others."
Being an Adaptor
With an adaptive approach, you aren't tying your entire identity to the success of a lesson. You can admit that something was an epic fail without feeling like you are an epic failure as an educator.Giving Students a Voice
Spencer advocates for the power of student check-ins/pulse checks, but also suggests polling students for the ideal check-in process. Asking such questions as:
- "What type of feedback do you prefer on your work? Video feedback? Audio feedback? Comments that are typed?"
- "What is something that former teachers have done that helped you feel known and appreciated?"
- "What is something that former teachers have done that helped you stay on track in your course?"
REPHRASE "HELP" or "TUTORING" to "OFFERING FEEDBACK"
Personalized Learning at STRIDE
Personalized Learning (PL):
Develops self-reflective learners who actively participate in:
Setting learning goals
Designing learning paths
Deciding how to demonstrate learning and growth
Ruth Thom, Personalized Learning Coordinator