Personalized learning is “an approach to learning and instruction that is designed around individual learner readiness, strengths, needs, and interests. Learners are active participants in setting goals, planning learning paths, tracking progress, and determining how learning will be demonstrated. At any given time, learning objectives, content, methods, and pacing are likely to vary from learner to learner as they pursue proficiency aligned to established standards. A fully personalizes environment moves beyond both differentiation and individualization.”
– James Rickabaugh
Tapping the Power of Personalized Learning- A Roadmap for School Leaders
Modeling after Kath Murdoch‘s iTime, from the The Power of Inquiry, this time for personal inquiry will rotate in 3-week cycles, for an hour-block a week. Murdoch cautions not to choose Friday or the end of day for the inquiry, if at all possible, since it gives the kind of message that iTime might be not as important as other subject areas. I chose Wednesday, and thankfully, it works beautifully in our schedule. Students will have 2 iTime sessions to work on an inquiry of their choice. If students need more time, the plan is to encourage them to continue to work on it as part of home learning, but this is not required. At the end of the 3-week cycle, students will share their work with each other in a gallery format (my students are used to “Math Congress“es, an instructional practice I learned attending Math In the City at CUNY under Catherine Fosnot), provide quick feedback, and then consider their proposal for the next cycle.
To prepare, we have:
- Viewed video clips showcasing young people’s passions,
- Took an inventory of our interests by using sentence starters to reflect on our strengths, passions, and interests,
- Brainstormed a list of inquiry examples to get motivated,
- Reviewed key elements for successful personal inquiry, and
- Reflected on our “learning assets”- thinking about what we do well, what we find challenging, and what we could strengthen as a researcher, collaborator, thinker, self-manager and communicator.
As this is an ongoing project, I am sure there are going to be plenty of opportunities to reflect on the process and make tweaks as we go along.
Student proposals are rolling in…
mpowerEDU 
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