Personalized learning seems to be coming more and more important in today’s classroom. As described in Katie Varatta’s article “Students co-determine with the teacher what learning targets they need to accomplish and how they could show evidence of their learning.” The problem is that there are many different interpretations of what personalized learning actually is; some districts are ploughing ahead and implementing it in their schools, whilst others are just waiting to see how things progress before they actually go about incorporating it into their classrooms.
Personalized learning is really where students have more choice in their learning and are able to work more at their own pace, moving ahead when they are ready or getting help when they need it. Students can choose content that interests them and are able to present what they know in a variety of ways. Teachers need to plan carefully however and define the content carefully, which takes time. Often students are not so good at managing their own time, so will have to be monitored. There needs to be some kind of built in framework, so that students aren’t able to fall between the cracks. I teach foreign language – both French and Spanish - to high school students (grades 9-12). There are some apps out there that help with language learning, but the selection is quite limited. In the articles I read, it seems that there may be more personalized programs specifically available for Math which define what a student needs to work on and so can help them plan a series of lessons. In French and Spanish I have used the Quizlet app before with my students which certainly does give them more freedom to work at their own pace and choose the kinds of activities they would like to complete. Each class has a page where I load the vocabulary, so that each member can see it. I like to work this way because I can make the vocabulary specific to the chapter that we are working on in the book. Students can then choose from a series of activities; they can just review the flashcards, or they can play the matching game. There is also a way for them to be tested on the new vocabulary that they are trying to learn. I paid for teacher status on Quizlet so that I can see records of how much the students have played the games and what their success has been in learning the vocabulary. This application also allows the class to play the game Quizlet Live. This is where students are put into teams and then they all work together to define the vocabulary words given. Each student has specific answers. I have used personalized learning in other ways in my class too. For example, my Spanish 4 students completed projects about music/bands that they were interested in. They were told that they had to make a presentation about a Hispanic band/musician, and that they had to include some kind of a history, examples of songs/music, influences on the musician/band, and a comparison with a US musician/band that they were familiar with. They could choose how they wanted to make the presentation, and this was how the use of Educational Technology came in. They could use google slides, PowerPoint or Prezi and present to the class; they could make a video of their presentation to the class, or they could pretend to be the musician themselves and talk about their music/history in front of the class playing examples of the music. In my French 1 class students had to make a presentation in pairs about a famous person they admired. They had to give five basic facts about that person in complete sentences in French. They needed to plan a short description but could choose their presentation medium. They could interview their partner in front of the class, with one person pretending to be the famous person, they could make a PowerPoint/Prezi/google slides presentation for the class or they could make a video either of them presenting information, or interviewing their partner. In this way students were given many choices to make – the person they wanted to describe and how they would go about meeting their learning goals. The personalized learning that I have done in my classes has been successful and students seem to really enjoy being able to make their own choices about their learning styles and how they will present the knowledge that they have learned. I am really excited to learn about other modes of personalized learning that may be out there for foreign language learners.
4 Comments
Scott Marsden
1/28/2019 08:15:11 pm
Natasha,
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1/30/2019 02:19:52 pm
Thanks for your comments! When I've looked at things duolingo and Busuu before, they seem to just focus on grammar points or specific vocabulary and when you are working with a textbook, most of the time it doesn't really line up. You find there are only basic words included, and many words you need are missing so I have tended to steer away from those. The thing with Quizlet is that you can streamline it to exactly what you need - as the teacher I type the vocabulary lists and publish them in the class so I know we have everything we need covered. Maybe I should go and revisit some of these apps.
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JP
1/28/2019 10:39:39 pm
The examples I am reading about in everyone's posts are very interesting to me. Rather than just some mundane tests, teachers in other subjects are having students demonstrate learning by creating presentations and in groups or pairs on top of that. Since I teach an obviously very visual class, it is like they are doing presentations all the time. So again, I am having trouble drawing the line at where I could do things differently. It probably my lack of teaching experience. I'm sure I will get there... someday.
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1/30/2019 02:22:03 pm
Hi JP
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AuthorI am a French & Spanish teacher at Justin-Siena High School wanting to get new ideas to motivate my students. Archives
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