What is the role of personalized learning and competency-based learning in education today?
Personalized learning and competency-based learning play in integral part in education today. In the excerpt from “Digital Citizenship in Schools” by Mike Ribble, he discussed that it is just as important to teach students how to navigate in the digital world as it is to teach them the rules of society. As our world becomes more tech driven, I could not agree more with this statement. Ribble talked about the importance of using technology in the classroom, especially for students who may not have access to technology at home. Teaching with technology is vital and necessary because we are currently preparing our students for jobs that do not even exist yet. In “Teaching in a Competency-Based Education Environment” by Katie Varatta it was made clear that personalized learning does not mean the teacher plans lessons for each student. Instead, the students and the teacher work together to determine their learning goals and the best way to show their mastery over their learning. This was an encouraging article to read, because the idea of thirty-four individual lessons is overwhelming. It feels more approachable to present a standard to the students, teach lessons with different activities to support that standard, and then let students have freedom over how they will demonstrate their learning in this area. This also means being very clear and organized in teaching students how to choose different models to present with. Given your students’ grade level and the subject matter you teach, consider how and whether you can incorporate competency-based learning and/or personalized learning into your practice. As a fourth grade teacher, I can definitely incorporate competency-based learning and personalized learning into my practice. In the video, “Personalized Learning: What is it?” from Education Week, a clear overview of personalized learning was presented. It consists of giving students more choice over what they learn and when they learn it, allowing students to move forward if they are ready, and get help support them if they are behind, and allowing students to choose content that interests them and can show what they know in different ways. The two pieces of advice the video ended with were to define the concept, and to be patient. The idea of giving my students more choice over what they are learning about is something I know my students would all benefit from. In the KQED Mind Shift article entitled: “How to Help Kids Manage Sleep, Schoolwork, and Screens” it was discussed how parents approach the conversation about getting the required amount of sleep with their teens. Dell’Antonia stated that parents should not focus on the negative consequences of sleep deprivation, but to instead look at the positive benefits of sleeping the required amount of time. I agree with this concept in the classroom. Instead of focusing on teaching a concept just for the sake of learning it, instead focus on how learning this information will benefit them in their lives. For example, students will be more inclined to care about fractions if the lesson includes learning how to properly divide the pieces of a Hershey’s bar. Teaching students that what they are learning will benefit them individually, especially through technology, will help increase their motivation to learn and grow. Please provide at least 3 specific examples on how you might use/are using personalized learning/competency based learning in your practice, and discuss what role educational technology might play in these two areas. One way I am using personalized learning is in Language Arts. In the article, “Teaching in a Competency-Based Education Environment” by Katie Varatta she discussed the concept teaching a lesson followed by workshop time. The teacher can create a lesson that is for the entire class, but then move into a “workshop model” where the students work toward the focus standard in teacher-led small groups with focused mini lessons, or even one-on-one conferences with the teacher. This concept is used by our district’s Language Arts curriculum “Benchmark Universe.” After a whole group lesson, the time after is designed for students to break apart into homogenous small groups. During this time I can provide intervention support, grade-level support, or enrichment. Educational technology is used to help support the students who I am not meeting with in small group time. These students can use the Benchmark Universe software to interact with the text by digitally annotating, or enjoy e-books that support the skills being taught that week. I know I can grow in this area by providing more meaningful tech time for the groups I am not meeting with. The second area that I will commit to is providing students with more options to demonstrate what they have learned. I will start with “Google Slides.” This is something my students are familiar with, but not proficient in. This has not been an option for them to use in the past to demonstrate their learning. I think this would be a good start for me to allow students to use as a method to show what they learned. This will mean first giving clear guidelines to what I expect from a google slides presentation (i.e. how many slides, how to cite pictures/information used in the slides, a timeframe to complete the project in, etc.). After this, the students can then demonstrate their learning in this new method. A third area I can commit to using competency based learning into my practice is in the area of digital citizenship. In the article “What Your Students Really Need to Know About Digital Citizenship” by Vicki Davis she discusses the importance of teaching students how to effectively and safely use digital tools. We are currently halfway through the year, and I know all of my students could benefit from a refresher in digital citizenship, and this article had a great list to go through with students. One important area this article brought up was making sure students know how to cite the information they use. This in particular is definitely something I need to review with my students.
4 Comments
Jona Sandau
1/26/2019 04:55:34 pm
Jennifer, great blog! I love your ideas about teaching your fourth graders to use Google Slides to demonstrate their learning. Two birds (or more?), one stone. As they learn this new tech skill, they can then use it in so many creative ways to show what they have learned. This tool will definitely come into play as they head into middle and high school.
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Brandon DeJesus
1/26/2019 09:35:35 pm
I really like all of your ideas for integrating elements of personalized learning into your classes. They seem like practical ways to diversify student experience and teach digital fluency to students at the same time.
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Scott Marsden
1/27/2019 09:06:25 am
Jennifer,
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Tess Giner
1/27/2019 07:48:42 pm
Hi, Jennifer!
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