Is personalized learning only for certain populations? How can we leverage student strengths to help them take ownership and continue engaging in their learning? Find the answers to these questions and more as Curriculum and Instruction Coaches Britani Magargle and Jim Cooke of Lexington County School District 1 discuss the connections between SPED and personalized learning, inclusion, and equity.
How did you get started on this journey of personalizing learning?
Britani: I started teaching middle school self-contained special education and I quickly realized that something was missing in my daily instructional routines. These students were working significantly below grade level and I was following the standards and curriculum I was expected to use but as a new teacher, I didn’t understand the why behind everything I was doing or how I was closing the gap. So I began signing up for courses and talking to other teachers, interventionists and coaches and finally made my way to personalized, competency-based learning. It opened my eyes to the variety of ways that I could meet students where they are while providing meaningful access to grade level standards. With these changes, my students were more engaged than ever before and their learning actually accelerated.
Jim: For me, I had a shift about 8-9 years ago when I started working in a middle school and I happened to work with Kristen, one of the coaches in the Office of Personalized Learning before she got there. She was our instructional coach. We had begun work in the school that was very eye-opening, and it started changing my thoughts I had towards what I was doing and what my kids were doing. We started exploring learning progressions and student-centered learning experiences. So I gave up leading from the front and started working alongside my students, collaborating with them and helping them develop the goals and achieve the goals they had. I didn't know what it was at the time (that it was foundational work in personalized learning) but when I moved into this position, everything started to click again.
Jim, you discussed the switch to walking alongside students. Can either of you think of anything you did in your classroom that led you to this idea that personalized learning is best for students?
Jim: I just got tired of doing things the way I used to do them, trying to control the behavior in my classroom with my voice and presence. I was showing kids how to do problems and it was taking forever. I’m showing kids how to do problems on the board and they're nodding their heads but it wasn't really moving anywhere. Our school had a great culture around getting to know kids and who they are. That opened my thinking and just taking a dive and trying something different and creating something. I saw their eyes awaken and I was enjoying what I was doing a whole lot more.
Britani: When I started having my students be a part of the IEP process when I was trying to get them to do student-led IEPS, we had to talk about things like, “Why are these your goals? How are you going to meet them? Where are you going towards meeting them?” It made me realize that in order to help the students understand it, we had to connect it and make it meaningful to them.
How do you view personalized learning as a way of meeting the needs of all students?
Britani: Through personalized learning, we are investing in the development of every student, in a way that equips them to make decisions, empowers them, and allows them to thrive in their school setting. So we need to provide innovative, inclusive, and equitable learning environments that are student-centered. Also, we can and should create conditions in the school that address the academic and non-academic needs of our students. We can do this through targeting instruction to the specific needs and learning goals for students. Targeting these individual student needs is the whole point of an IEP, which is why personalized learning makes sense to use when we are trying to meet the needs of all our students.
Jim: I always preach that every kid wants to be valued and feel like they are known. Personalized learning allows you to do that so much better. Kids appreciate the personalized time teachers give them and can spend with them to access and engage in learning opportunities. This is because they want to be known and understood. They want to feel valued by that teacher and that teacher values the learning that is inside and still needs to come out of that kid. Push yourself as a teacher into difficult struggles you have with kids: the reluctant learners, the behavior issues. Those are the kids who want to know how deeply you care about them. They may want to see how deeply you are going to explore who they are, their decisions, their goals, hopes, and dreams. I've made mistakes in the past as a teacher to assume I'm on good terms with everybody because I want to smile, laugh, and be that joyful presence in my room. You have to spend time with each kid. They know when they are valued and when they're not. Keep exploring and dig into those relationships every day with your kids.
A common misconception we hear about personalized learning is some people think personalized learning is only for certain populations. What would be your response to that?
Britani: My response would be that every student deserves access to high quality instruction. Recently in 2017, the Supreme Court's Endrew's decision ruled that IEPs are supposed to be appropriately ambitious and give every child the chance to meet challenging objectives. So we actually have a legal obligation to make sure our students are making adequate progress. Since special education is all about individualizing student needs, personalized learning ties right into this by knowing who our learners are, how they learn, what they need to know, and what their entry points are. We can create learning pathways and environments that allow all students the opportunity to engage in meaningful learning opportunities.
Jim: Like I said before, kids know when they’re being ignored or neglected as a student in a classroom. You know when you can hide; you know when you don't feel like you have to push yourself. So personalized learning to me is more than just personalizing activities for kids. To have personalized learning, it really is about personalizing your relationship with your students on top of all of that. It’s really a reflection of how much you love your kids. It equips them to be able to do more than just what we expect of them. A lot of times we are guilty of having a low bar for students and when I have teachers working with kids in personalized learning, my jaw hits the floor when I see what kids can do. I love watching them lead and go and do something beyond just what I expect.
We work with kids who were disengaged online and more reserved in the classroom. Now they're not only developing into academic leaders in small ways and learning to trust themselves, but they're also social-emotional leaders.
You engaged in our Framework Foundations series and some of the educators you work with engage in it as well. What are some specific strategies you see from that series to support inclusivity and equity for students?
Jim: Last summer we worked with teachers to make personalized learning experiences in a summer camp and get our teachers used to having those experiences and have time to explore, play, and see the joy out of that. I think giving empowerment to those kids to make choices and decisions is hugely important. For example, there was a kid who I thought, “He probably won’t be able to do this based on what I know about him, his scores, and his class placement.” But all of a sudden, he’s giving leadership to everyone else and saying, “Let’s pause here and reflect for a moment.” Now I’m left saying, “Who is this kid?!”
You’ll never see that if you don't give the opportunity for kids to create and make space for their learning. We work with kids who were disengaged online and more reserved in the classroom. Now they're not only developing into academic leaders in small ways and learning to trust themselves, but they're also social-emotional leaders. I think that’s key. We had kids make their own reading and math goals, as they worked independently and collaboratively to work on that. We also did daily celebrations, and I think making sure your kids are involved in how they want to celebrate what they're learning is important. Do that not only privately with them, but publicly as a class as well.
Britani: On the elementary level, I think project-based learning has been an excellent way that many of our special education educators have been able to tie in the practices of personalized learning. Teachers will select a grade level topic and design learning experiences across the content areas that relate to that topic. So students can access the content at their instructional level, work at their own pace, have individualized or small group instruction, and access differentiated ways to demonstrate their mastery. Remember these are our students with more significant learning deficits and it’s really exciting to see them access that. I also see more opportunities for our students with IEPs to receive push-in services within the general education environment and this is happening in elementary and secondary more and more. So this is giving our students access in their least restrictive environment as our general education and special education teachers come together to prioritize standards. They're co-teaching, frontloading, and scaffolding instruction more and more so our students can make progress and have their individual needs met in a more inclusive environment.
Learn more about their journeys with personalizing learning and insights for making students feel valued and empowered in their learning experiences by listening to more of Jim and Britani’s conversation with us here: