Hey Coach,

It can be challenging to meet the needs of all my students at once! What are some go-to strategies to use when trying to personalize learning for my students? 

Sincerely,
Grabbing at Straws

Dear Grabbing at Straws,

Kudos to you for doing what you can to reach all of your students!  We know that each student has unique needs, interests, and goals. As educators, we can use personalized learning to co-plan an equally unique educational experience for each learner. 

If you are new to personalized learning, there are a number of resources you can use to learn more about this paradigm shift and how personalized strategies can be implemented in your classroom to support student learning. A few great places to begin are by reading A Vision for Personalized Learning for Georgia Schools, The Personalized Learning Playbook, and Best Practices in Personalized Learning Implementation.

First and foremost, it is important to consider your students and the content when making decisions about the best pedagogy for each lesson. You can begin to identify how to close learning gaps by answering these questions:

• What have you tried before? What have you not?

• What are your students’ strengths and areas for growth?

• Where does the discrepancy in learning tend to occur?

• What resources can help target this gap in understanding?

• How can the content I share meet the needs of all my learners?

• How can students truly demonstrate what they know in ways they understand?

Once you have considered these questions, personalized learning can begin! A great place to start is with co-planning. Begin co-planning with students by holding student conferences to discuss strengths and areas for growth and to establish individual goals. This will help drive student learning and assist both you and the student to better understand how to personalize the structured content for each learner. To learn more about integrating individual student conferencing into your classroom routine, read our blog post entitled Three Critical Mind Shifts for Successful Student Conferencing.

For more great ideas, take a look at our infographic of strategies to personalize learning. Don’t forget to share your successes with us as you personalize learning in your classroom. Tag us on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook!

All the best,
Coach