Top Strategies to Transform Personalized Learning in your Classroom
Image created by Melanie Wiscount using Canva
Top Strategies to Transform Personalized Learning in your Classroom
~ estimated 25-minute read ~
Personalized Learning is more than a buzz phrase in education. It’s a powerhouse type of instructional and learning model that designs and delivers with each student in your classroom mind.
Furthermore, to give personalized learning even more power per ounce, we, teachers, found after virtual learning, that personalized learning really does set students up for higher achievement in their education.
Why are the advantages of personalized learning so
evident and prevalent now after virtual learning?
What I believe is when we were in our physical classrooms, prior to the Pandemic school closings, our physical classroom was the common denominator. This one central and common place where we gathered with all our students to deliver instruction, student learning activities, and assessments, at specific start and stop times, created a commonality of factors and culture that had bigger influences than we realized. Plus, everything in our classrooms, whether it was posters, learning stations, or décor, added to the learning environment. We had a lot of control of everything students heard auditorily as well as seen while they were learning inside our classroom.
After schools closed and students were learning from home, we lost that common denominator, and students were getting our instruction, their learning, and assessments of their learning in their homes, with all the home factors and family culture that came along with it.
And what their homes brought to our “virtual classroom” were other people, internet issues, pets, technology lacks, distractions, family schedule conflicts, noise, sibling commotion, and a high amount of student freedom in their attendance, time, and commitment to our class. If students weren’t good time managers, meeting in virtual places at specific times, as well as meeting due dates on assignments were difficult for many students.
What we found out fast was that we needed to personalize our instruction, student learning, and their assessments, given the home and family factors and situation students were learning inside of during school time hours.
Some personalized learning practices we put into place during virtual learning may have been, different times to learn, more options, supplemental resources, revised assignments, choices, changed expectations, some leniency, and possible exemptions to some parts of our lesson and learning pieces, and assessments.
We also found that staying in touch with parents and guardians during virtual learning, in a more frequent manner than we may have practiced prior Pandemic school closings, was crucial for some of our students to attend our classes, complete our work, and meet learning outcomes.
Now that we are back inside our physical classrooms, and we have our common denominator physical classroom back, can we personalize student learning in different ways that proved to help students learn, understand, apply, and perform with more or the same success as we did during virtual learning?
I will admit, personalized learning is not a quick practice to jump into and make happen overnight. However, taking one step at a time to personalize instruction, student learning, and their assessments will pay off BIG TIME for both students and the teacher.
I’ve collected some sure strategies to help teachers personalize their instruction and learning pathways for students and sharing them here with you. Some are easy, quick, steps and others may take a bit more time to plan, design, and implement.
However, know that the more you personalize learning, and create systems and templates to personalize the learning, the process to plan, design, and deliver personalized learning pathways for and to your students in your physical classroom becomes a more streamlined practice. You’ll get better and better at doing with each personalized learning lesson or unit you create.
Delivering personalized learning instruction, activities, & assessment is one of the. most important teacher responsibilities. Personalized learning is the opposite to "One-Size-Fits-All approach to education. Additionally, personalized learning is not a replacement for Special Education IEP or 504 Plans. Instead, it’s a supporter of the student’s learning, with accommodations interwoven in the student’s personalized learning pathway.
Think about it. In personalized learning,
each student has the student's own unique learning style.
each student is a unique individual with different strengths, skills, needs, desires, talents, interests, hobbies, and family culture.
there are higher student performance results.
students may have learning accommodations that we are responsible to deliver which helps us when personalizing the learning.
personalized learning is less wasteful of student and teacher’s time when students are getting what they specifically need to learn and fill the gaps.
personalized learning is more effective and efficient than a one-size-fits-all learning pathway.
we produce a stronger relationship with our students.
Advantages of Personalized Learning are:
Students have a higher potential to master our content when we personalize their learning.
Students feel capable of the learning.
Students’ connections with teachers happen quicker.
Students' confidence increases in their learning.
Students’ satisfaction increases in our course and classroom.
Communication improves inside a personalized learning experience between each student and teacher.
Personalized learning increases relevance for our students.
Students’ dispositions are more positive in our classroom.
When we personalize learning by soliciting students’ prior knowledge, they feel smart from the very beginning of the personalized learning path.
Students feel seen and heard.
Students feel respected.
What are different ways to personalize learning?
Creating individualized learning journeys for each student.
Adapting scope of learning to each students' strengths & needs.
Students can learn at a pace that supports them as individuals.
Students learn in different ways to meet the standards.
Individual learning plans match the standards and specifics about the student.
Using personalized and customized learning assets are key.
Setting high expectations for all students inside of each personalized learning pathway motivates students to prove their own learning.
Student ownership of their learning is TOP-NOTCH and key in personalized learning!
Personalized learning is a practice, not a product.
Start with the student & keep the student empowered.
Provide students choices inside the instruction, student learning activities, and their assessments.
We may personalize learning according to:
What students know
How students learn best
Students’ best pace to learn
Students’ skills
Students’ interests
Students’ talents
Students’ strengths
Students’ hobbies
Students’ needs
Students’ culture
Students’ desires
Students’ plans of what they want to study in college
Students’ language skills
As you read about these different strategies, make note which ones speak to you and that can support you best on the road to personalizing your instruction, student learning, and their assessments in a faster, less stressful fashion.
Also know, personalizing learning is a process that has a lot of moving parts. Be patient with yourself and add as you go. Watch what works, what doesn’t work, and always be in a safe trial-and-error mode with yourself as well as with your students.
Take what you learn about these personalized learning strategies and create and customize your own plan and templates to personalize learning that is in alignment to your content, instructional style, your grade-level, your students, your expectations, and your physical classroom.
Also, keep in mind those co-teachers, whether they are grade-level, department, or special education teachers. Yes, the “more the merrier” ripples in when it comes to getting input into the planning and designing of personalized learning pathways for your students when you share students, content, or disciplines with other teachers.
The first personalized learning strategy is to not only get to know specifics about your students but make the documentation of the student information happen automatically. A good place to start when personalizing learning is with the student in mind. As stated above, the unique knowledge about each student includes knowing each students’ interests, talents, skills, experiences, strengths, needs, desires, culture, college plans, and language skills. You may collect this data about your students by creating an online Student Input Survey using Google Forms or Microsoft Forms. You’ll get everyone’s distinct information, and the spreadsheet will be automatically prepared by the Forms software. After you collect this data, sort it according to similar student demographics. This sorting can lead you into student grouping according to their similarities they have with their classmates.
The next personalized learning strategy is to find out each of your student’s learning style. There are many student learning style inventory forms online, but my favorite one is The Fleming VARK Questionnaire for Younger People. You will need to pay to use this survey, but the low cost is worth the advantages it gives you as well as the time it saves collecting the data, reporting it in an easy form, and providing analysis. Learn more about the VARK subscription ($37.50 at the time of this blog post) at this link.
After you have individual information about your students as well as their preferred learning style, next would be to group students according to similar prior knowledge about the content, or learning style preferences, or their interests, skills, strengths, talents, needs, hobbies, language, culture, or experiences. I recommend to teachers who are starting to create personalized learning pathways to create those pathways for 3-4 student groups, each group having the group’s own personalized learning pathway.
Now that you have 3-4 student groups, let’s start creating the first personalized pathway. Start with the learning outcomes, which should be the same for all your students, unless they have shown mastery of a learning outcome you are including for other student groups.
Before students begin learning along their personalized learning pathway, I like to get them serious about their pathways by having students set three short-term academic goals and 1-3 long-term academic goals. You may do this easily by having students complete an online student Academic Goal survey, and then meet with each student to discuss and prioritize their academic goals.
You may also group students according to similar academic goals, as another way to create personalized learning paths that specifically match these goals.
When you create your personalized learning pathways, you will choose an authentic assessment end result you want students to submit at the end of each learning pathway as the assessment to measure students’ learning outcomes mastery. Making it an authentic assessment makes it relevant to and real-world for the student. Authentic assessments also have the “openness” to give students leeway in what they create, adding to the personalization of the learning path.
When creating personalized learning pathways, start with UDL, Universal Design of Learning. This type of model works seamlessly with personalized learning. At the link provided, you’ll find UDL Guidelines for Engagement, Representation, and Action & Expression, to create learners who are purposeful and motivated, resourceful, and knowledgeable, and strategic and goal oriented.
Now you want to create a learning pathway template for a lesson with the following flow:
1. Learning Outcome(s)
2. Essential Question(s)
3. Standard(s)
4. Word Wall with Definitions
5. Hook
6. Instruction A
7. Learning Activity A
8. Mini assessment/exit ticket
Below is a possible flow to create a learning pathway template for a 3-lesson unit of study:
1. Learning Outcomes
2. Essential Questions
3. Standards
4. Word Wall with Definitions
5. Hook
6. Instruction A
7. Learning Activity A
8. Mini formative assessment/exit ticket
9. Hook
10. Instruction B
11. Learning Activity B
12. Mini formative assessment/exit ticket
13. Hook
14. Instruction C
15. Learning Activity C
16. Mini formative assessment/exit ticket
17. Group Work – reviews, applies, and prepares for independent work
18. Summative independent Work – End Result
Another way to group students for personalized learning paths is to administer a short pre-assessment quiz to students, that is no more than 3-5 questions, before students begin their personalized learning paths. The student’s score on the pre-assessment quiz determines which group the student is placed.
If I grouped my students according to their prior knowledge and experience of the content in the lesson using a pre-assessment quiz, I begin with Group A, the Accelerated Group Learning Pathway, which may, for example, be the students who have a good amount of prior knowledge and experience about the content. Group A is also a sensible place for your gifted learners. In this learning path, I’ll include an EXTRA assignment at the end of the pathway after the End Result assessment for my early completers.
I then move to Group B, the Beaming Group Learning Pathway, which is my students who know enough to get them to begin learning with confidence. I change all the parts of the lesson or unit of study by aligning to the specifics about the students in Group B that are in the majority. I then offer options to students to lead further personalization inside the group.
If I am creating three or four groups, my next group, Group C, the Caring Learning Pathway. The group are students who need more help from me when learning new concepts. I include direct instruction with this group and add supplemental resources to give them an edge when learning new content.
If I’m creating four groups, my Group D, Diligent Group Learning Pathway, is for students who need their IEP, or 504 Plan accommodations included in their personalized learning pathways. Know that differentiation is NOT personalized learning. But designing personalized learning and incorporating students’ accommodations is a must. Many times, I may have sub-groups inside my Group D due to grouping according to students with parallel accommodations.
Here are two possible group breakdown based on pre-assessment score percentages:
Three-Group Pre-Assessment Score Breakdown:
Group A – 85%-100%
Group B – 70%-84%
Group C – 69% and below
Four-Group Pre-Assessment Score Breakdown:
Group A – 95%-100%
Group B – 80%-94%
Group C – 70%-79%
Group D – 69% and below
You may also give your groups fun group names instead of using group letters to make students feel good about their learning groups. Each group could also have its own logo and mascot.
Now that you have three or four different learning pathway structures, here are ways to personalize the learning even more INSIDE each grouping:
Offer student choice on instruction, learning, and assessment – offer 2-3 choices in at least one part of the lesson.
Offer students choice in voice, communicating their learning to you and their classmates or group mates.
Provide feedback regularly and consistently to each student.
Offer different learning environments, which can be individual, partner, group, learning station, face-to-face, or virtual.
Include different media in different forms (think about those learning styles).
Incorporate self-assessment. This practice teaches students to be more conscientious with their own learning and it also empowers students.
Flip parts of the instruction so students are learning inside the activities and showcasing their knowledge and understanding during class time.
Give incentives for students finishing their learning pathway with the right attitude, pace, and perseverance. Incentives and awards are especially important when you begin to use personalized learning pathways with your students.
How may you help students embrace, be active and disciplined, and successful in their personalized learning pathway?
Provide students a Pacer Pathway Checklist so students can check off when they complete a part along their learning pathway. The checklist also helps students know where they are in their learning and what they need to complete.
Be flexible to help students adapt to this kind of personalized, and many times, independent learning.
Teach students self-advocacy skills so they are their own cheerleader and give them a way to input in the creation of their future personalized learning paths.
Make sure the personalized learning path you give to a student matches the student’s abilities and skills.
Be accessible for support when the student needs it. If you are not delivering direct instruction to a group, you should be accessible on-demand.
Create an academic culture around personalized learning.
Promote an academic community in personalized learning. This is very important since most of the students’ learning may be independent. They need to know that they are an important part of a community of learners.
Add a student reflection step for students to reflect on their personalized learning. Ask for feedback to help you in creating the student’s next personalized learning path.
EdTech strategies to personalize learning are:
Use adaptive learning websites.
Create learning playlists.
Create interactive infographics.
Use mastery paths in LMS platforms.
Create your own instructional videos.
Create a challenge in a personalized learning pathway.
Use online notebooks like OneNote to personalize every part of the learning pathway. OneNote could be the way you deliver your personalized learning pathway. Check out these teacher interactive guides to learn how to create in OneNote.
Use your LMS, Nearpod, or Pear Deck to create your personalized learning pathways.
Use media to supplement and motivate the learning.
Create backchannels where student may ask and answer questions. The backchannel then becomes a source for support. Use Padlet to create a visually appealing backchannel.
Use a social annotation tool like, hypothes.is, for students to socially learn together in their groups.
Create personalized learning paths in Sutori.
To help teachers to create personalized learning pathways, with a lot of resources, during the month of February 2022 in my EdTechEnergy Momentum EdTech Coaching membership, the EdTech assets are about Personalized Learning. The following resources are available to EdTechEnergy Momentum members:
WEEK 1: Personalized Learning EdTech Coaching session in both audio and video formats (28:37 minutes)
17-page Personalized Learning Notes Planner - pdf
Personalized Learning Path Checklist - pdf
WEEK 2: Step-by-Step Guide with screenshots on how to create personalized learning using Microsoft OneNote online notebooks.
WEEK 3: Timesaving templates that provide teachers what they may use when designing personalized learning paths for their students. PLUS, TWO BONUSES!
Online Student Survey
Learning Style Inventory options
Learning Path Blueprint
BONUS: Student Pacing Checklist
BONUS: Smart Academic Goals Planning Form
WEEK 4: Implementation Guidelines and Resources about creating personalized (and customized) learning paths for students and supporting them along their journey. PLUS, THREE BONUSES!
Personalized Learning Implementations and Resources Teacher Guide (PDF)
BONUS: Choice Boards Action Plan template (PDF)
BONUS: LMS Pacer Hero Image for module pages (PPTX)
BONUS: Student Post-Learning Reflection (PDF & DOCX)
If you are interested in joining the EdTechEnergy Momentum EdTech Coaching membership, click on the link below. The cost of membership is $15/month or $144/annually, saving you 20%.
Click here to join: https://edtechenergy.thinkific.com/courses/edtechenergy-momentum
Cancel anytime. Membership ends when the paid subscription time ends.
I created a Personalized Learning Path Checklist for teachers to use as you begin creating your personalized learning pathways for your students.
Grab the checklist at the link at this link: https://engage.edtechenergy.org/personalizedlearningpathchecklist
Start small when you begin to personalize learning and create personalized learning pathways. As your personalized learning creation skills grow, so will your students’ success in their personalized learning pathways.
It is so true; Personalized Learning is the PEOPLE way to teach!
Image created by Melanie Wiscount using Canva