Personalized Learning during COVID

What is personalized instruction or personalized learning? According to the U. S. Department of Education, personalized learning refers to instruction in which the pace of learning and the instructional approach are optimized for the needs of each learner. Learning objectives, instructional approaches, and instructional content (and its sequencing) all may vary based on learner needs. In addition, learning activities are meaningful and relevant to learners, driven by their interests, and often self-initiated. Although not all of these may be possible in a traditional school setting, now with COVID situation and hybrid or virtual learning happening in many schools around the world, there is more need for personalized instruction.

In personalized instruction, students learn at their own pace and learning is relevant, interesting, as well as skill-based and has connections to the real world. It has been shown by multiple studies that students learn best when they see learning connected to their daily world situation, scaffolded to the ZPD (zone of proximal development) where it is not too easy or too hard but just right, and takes into consideration students’ interest, ability as well as skills levels.

In a perfect world, every student will be motivated to learn to their best abilities and will have teachers who care about each student and know their learning styles as well as interest to make learning personalized as well as individualized for each student! This may not happen with the traditional setting of 30 or more kids in a classroom and bell schedule with an hour or so for each subject. But the good news is that with the novel Corona virus, we have novel ways of learning and teaching too.

Right now most schools are giving students the option to chose from virtual learning or face to face learning, and many many students are now learning remotely. So how can personalized instruction be helpful in today’s world situation and how can it be done? Read on about 6 ways to personalize learning!

1. Building Relationships

Building relationship is key element in having a successful learning experience in school. All teachers around the world would agree that getting to know your students the first couple of weeks of school are important steps in building a classroom environments where high expectations for academics as well as behavior are set and visited regularly. Students are respectful, kind, and caring for others and the world they live in.
It is still possible in virtual or hybrid learning to do this! Teachers have gotten creative and have used various interactive tech tools to get to learn to know about each other.

2. Giving a choice

All students thrive when they feel they have a choice in their learning process. Choice menus and using differentiated instruction is a great way to engage and motivate students, who may not be successful in a traditional classroom setting. The varied ways to either present the product or the process both can help students take more ownership of their own learning.
In today’s learning environment instead of one shoe fits all, students are given choice in how they want to show their learning. Their end product for a unit or concept can be oral, written or tech driven. When students get a choice, they pick the best way they learn and show their learning in creative ways!

3. Differentiation

Differentiation is meeting all students needs at their individual levels. We have students who are advanced, on- level and some who may need more support. Differentiation may help all students get motivated and interested as the new learning is done at their zone of comfort, and they learn best when content is understandable and applicable in their mind.

Right now teachers are using different ways to present information and students can learn at their own pace from their virtual setting. It has to be remembered that students have to be willing to embrace new ways of learning and comfortable in reaching out to teachers for any help they may need.

4. Flexibility and being open

To make personalized learning possible teachers as well as students should be willing to be flexible and try out different ways before something may work the best. Practically, not every student can get individual assignments but with tiering and grouping, and use of data teachers are able to reach students and help them reach their full potential.

Flexibility may look different for submission dates and times, deadlines, pacing as well as students work in form of their products or portfolios. Being open about what may or may not work is critical if all students need to be successful.

5. Data driven

Data driven instruction or DDI has always been important but it is more so for today’s COVID world. Tracking student learning is pivotal if we want students to show progress over time. Always begin with the end in mind, and use starting data as a base point to adapt teaching as well as learning. Students can do independent research on topics that interests them, and use them as learning platforms.

Students can be asked to keep their own data binder and know what their are learning and how they are learning best. They can research and collect their own data for classroom learning concepts as well

6. Project based learning

Many schools around the world are moving away from paper-pencil, textbook, isolated content learning inside the 4 walls of a classroom to project based learning where students work on multiple projects through the semester or year and show their products as a cumulative unit learning experience. Project can be cross-curricular or inter-disciplinary which may involve different content area planning and putting a project together for students who will them complete them by getting feedback from each of the classroom teachers. Projects have to be open ended, and students should be given a voice and choice, if we want them to get the most learning experience out of it. Project based learning work products give students ideas and creativity, and helps them present their learning in individualized ways!

In today’s situation, most schools are embedding projects or competency based learning, where student can showcase their products in creative ways while goes into application and analyzing information instead of just knowing and comprehending topics.

What to get from this

In conclusion, personalized instruction is a need of the hour (or this year) where students have learning goals that they can work on in their own pace. Learning style, skills, abilities as well as interests are the main criteria which puts the students in focus, and helps them take ownership of their learning.

For more education tips for parents, read 10 back to school tips for online learning, 25+ free online education sites, and 15 awesome free summer programs for your teens. If you are an educator or want to learn more about learning in classrooms, you may read my posts on social emotional learning, culturally responsive teaching, and equity in classroom. New teachers can explore guide for new teachers and new teacher nook.

We would love to hear from you. If you are a parent and have a great school experience, please do share what worked for your students. You may comment below or send an email to nishtha@dawnandhope.com!