This week we’re finishing up week 12 of the 2017-18 school year! And most importantly we’ve made it to November! All teachers have heard the line, “if you can make it through October, you can make it through the year” and it’s so true!
A great post came out the other day on Education Elements blog titled, “Six Examples of What Personalized Learning Looks Like” and it really got me thinking. In the post, author Janice Vargo reminds readers of EE’s four core elements for personalized learning:
- Targeted instruction
- Data-driven decisions
- Flexible content
- Student reflection and ownership
And so I began reflecting. I feel like I’m doing a good job with elements 1-3, but have completely been forgetting element 4: Student reflection and ownership. Her post included pictures of how other classrooms encourage student reflection and ownership and it really got me thinking about how I can adapt this for my classroom.
At my previous high school in California I taught the HMH program, Math 180, which makes personalized learning pretty effortless. In order to encourage student reflection and ownership with that program I had students track their online progress on an Incentive Chart for everyone to see (public accountability does wonders for high school motivation!). Why haven’t I done this with my practice this year?! I needed this blog as a nudge to remind me!
I plan on purchasing the incentive charts and filling it out with the online assignments across the top and names down the side. Each time a student completes a task I’ll have them post a sticker on the chart (my colleagues at ESUHSD had great buy in with emoji stickers so I’ll have to give them a try!). The incentive charts help with the student ownership, but I still need to work on the reflection piece. Stay tuned for updates!
