Personalization: 13-15

Units 1-5!

Just a reminder that I am in the process of creating packs to supplement the College Board unit design. Units 1-5 are posted! Unit 6 is available for early release.

I'm going to start by being very frank. These have not been good weeks. 

Fortunately, it has nothing (as usual) to do with class or the students. Instead, it's been days and days of frustration with what I perceive as a toxic attitude sweeping across teaching at the moment. I don't want to dig into this too deep right now, but my frustration has really been draining me: keeping me up at night, leading to poor choices, and just creating a heavy metaphoric burden.

That said, I am happy to talk about class. Always. :)
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Personalization Tip #6

When it comes to intervention, get creative.

Classroom management in a personalized learning environment is something that frightens a lot of teachers away. The thought of leaving students to make their own choices and manage themselves is impossible in some classrooms. While I would argue that personalized learning is possible in any context, self-pacing is one aspect that doesn't suit a class that has high classroom management needs. If possible, however, self-pacing can transform your class.

I'm going to acknowledge the obvious: My position as an Advanced Placement teacher may suggest that the kids I have aren't going to be the ones to create problems, and for the most part, that is correct. However, if you are a teacher of students in advanced classes, I am sure we could share war stories about clever cheating methods, off task behavior, and argumentative questions.

What I'm getting at here is that every classroom has management issues that can be exacerbated by some aspects of personalized learning. Honestly, I feel this is the biggest objection to personalized learning that I hear. Self-pacing (which, I remind you, is just one method of personalization) frightens people away because as we all know... teenagers aren't great at managing their time.

Today, I'd like to share some of the ways I keep students on pace and intervene when needed. Just like I try to give them options and adapt to their learning needs, I do the same with intervention. Some things will work on some students. The same ideas will likely fail on another.

Here are some things I've done in the last weeks...

• Negotiations: I have a group of three boys in my second class that prefer to work out in the hallway in our FTLAs (flexible learning areas). To be completely honest, I know they aren't working all that hard out there, especially when students on an alternate schedule fill the halls. On occasion, I'll float out there to remind them to be on task, but for the most part, I trust that they are working. That said, a couple weeks ago, I found out they were all pretty behind when I checked in. Knowing these three value the freedom to be out in the hall, I struck a deal with them that if they met the next suggested deadline, they could continue to sit in the hall. If not, they would have to stay in the room. Two out of the three met the deadline, and the third (after some friendly heckling from the other two) got caught up within 24 hours. 
• Required Time: Our school offers some flexible time in the schedule that I often use as an intervention tool. In class, I will announce a weekly expectation to define who will or won't be required to come to me during that time. This week, I announced the day before our flexible periods (Wednesday) that if they did not submit an item in 24 hours, they would come and do it with me during the flexible time. While I know not everyone has that option, a similar intervention could be before or after school. If students don't come to these required times, I email their parents (which for teenagers is seemingly the ultimate punishment).
• Pinky Swears: Yes. I mean holding up my pinky finger and making students promise to complete something. Last week, I had required a few a couple girls for that flexible time, but they had other obligations they wanted to complete during that time. Each of them promised to get something finished that evening, so I made them pinky swear they were going to follow through. They both did. Furthermore, one of them asked me the following day if she could work in the hallway, and when I asked if she was going to be productive, she immediately put her pinky up. Pinky swears still go a long way with 16-17 year olds, I guess.
• Proximity: I have a group of girls in my last class of the day that consistently distract one another, sit on their phones, and talk too much. In their own words, they've been "in the doghouse" with me. Because there were a couple other pockets of off task behavior, I put together a seating chart for that class. However, as soon as learning time started, they have the choice to move around and the same people gravitated back to one another. Because I didn't want to go back on my word about my expectations for learning time, I simply moved to an empty seat nearby and occasionally reminded them about being focused. I'd give them one look, and they'd immediately defend what they were working on. 

So as you can see, different kids respond to different interventions. As the year goes on, I'll see more and more what is going to work and what won't. I know there is validity in consistency - (I mean, I've had my CHAMPS training like the best of them) - but absolute rules and expectations are just plain unreasonable. I do have clear set expectations for when I am lecturing, reading time, or for it we are doing something together, but beyond that, everything is determined by the individual student and situation.

If you walk away from this post with anything, I hope it is the belief that self-pacing is possible and that some flexibility and creativity with your intervention practices can go a long way. The bottom line is simple: different kids need different things. And that includes different classroom management strategies.


I hope this post finds you well and... honestly, surviving. We do this work because it is important. Know that your impact on kids is worth the tough days (or weeks, in my case). Be well!

sincerely, Cwik