Category Archives: Personalized Learning

This category is dedicated to content involving student-centered learning.

Strengths First

Posted on by Standard Respond

One majorly important thing my Mentor Teacher taught me was to facilitate personalized learning as best you can. The kids will love you for it. You’ll get to know them better, and you’ll (typically) grade their best work instead of their garbage. Another important piece of information he gave me was to offer students multiple ways to complete an assignment.

I had a student who excelled in film and media, but he was struggling immensely during the research unit. He was having trouble deciding on a topic to research and couldn’t seem to make the words flow in spite of being an exquisite writer. So, my MT allowed him to research something that was relevant to some of the other things he was studying and developing projects for. He is in the MAC academy at Berkmar, and his main area of study is film. My MT allowed for him to write a research paper on film editing. More specifically, he was researching the best approaches to helping a writer edit something for film. This student was not only relieved by this alteration, but he was ecstatic! This was a great learning opportunity for me when it comes to meeting the individual needs of my students.

I had a student who was far ahead of his class in terms of writing and editing skills. Not only that, but he was also very artistic. To get his classmates up to speed while also helping him grow as a writer, my MT allowed him to be the editor for this research project they were working on. He had to write a research paper too, but the word cap was reduced and he could research any topic. We knew we could trust him with this creative agency, and it worked out beautifully. When he wasn’t helping his classmates, he was working on turning his research into a comic book.

Both of these examples show how I was taught to facilitate a personalized, student-centered learning environment. It’s sometimes difficult to tap into our students’ values and interests, but it is a worthy battle.

And they’ll never forget you…

Pale Blue Dot

Posted on by Standard Respond

I think that when we look closely at our planet, it’s impossible not to be filled with gratitude. What a gift it is to live in this space fairing civilization. With this gift comes a great burden—we MUST take steps to healing our planet so that it will always be this pleasant to live here. I think Carl Sagan’s speech on “the pale blue dot” sends a powerful message. But WAIT!!! HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS CLASSROOM? Well, again, at Berkmar, we have the wonderful academy lenses through which our instruction must reflect.  Even though Carl Sagan’s speech is focused on planetary, social, political, and religious issues, his ability to efficiently convey an idea is conducted through his linguistic skills. Because of his speaking skills, he is able to deliver a speech that unites all people of the world to bind together and save the planet—and uniting the nations of the world was no easy task then or now. Whether you’re an astronomer, a doctor, an office clerk, or architect, communication skills will ALWAYS be useful.

I think it’s very important for teachers to find a positive hook for every lesson. I think showing inspirational videos like this can divulge important info while it motivates students for the next assignment.

Also, zenpencils.com is one of the best resources a teacher can use in the classroom. It’s a website with illustrations of various poems, stories, speeches, etc. They also make videos with these illustrations, and I’m including Carl Sagan’s “The Pale Blue Dot” in this post. It is especially helpful for ESOL students because they can see the words as they are being spoken. I strongly recommend zenpencils for any teacher looking to engage her students in literature.

We Are All Scientists

Posted on by Standard Respond

As I’ve mentioned in a previous blogs, Berkmar High Schools provides an “academy” lens to the course subjects a student takes. If a student chooses the Media, Arts, and Communication (MAC) academy, then the electives will be focused on things like film, music, broadcasting, etc. If a student chooses the Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) academy, then the students will most likely have an interest and strength with numbers. All teachers are assigned to an academy and must teach their subject through the academy lens. So, if I’m an English teacher in the Architecture and Construction academy, then I might have students build something that reflects the structure of a narrative. I might lead a discussion about the various “tools” that writers use to enhance their writing pieces.

 

I am very excited to work with the academies at Berkmar, although I am not yet aware of what academy I’ll be placed in. So right now, I’m just writing down all ideas I have for lessons that adhere to the various academies. Below is a link I think I would like to show during the first week of class. I believe it would inspire students to be curious and to explore their talents within the classroom context.

 

Parents always ask me, “What advice can I give to my kid to get them interested in science?” I have one piece of advice. Get out of their way. Kids are born curious. Period.

Masque of the Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher Lesson Success!

Posted on by Standard Respond

Berkmar High School places each of its students on a career path that allows them to study each subject with a skills lens of their choosing. The teachers are put in teams whose instruction is guided by one of the following lenses: STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), MAC (media arts and communications), Architecture and Construction, Entrepreneurship and Leadership, and Health and Human Sciences.

My Mentor Teacher at Berkmar was the MAC academy lead, and so his instruction was heavily student centered. All major summative grades had a creative approach side where students could focus or present the project in a way that allowed them to experiment with media, arts, and/or communication.

I read Edgar Allen Poe’s “Masque of the Red Death” with my CP students, and read “The Fall of the House of Usher” with my Honors/Gifted classes.

In an activity to test students’ reading comprehension of Masque of the Red Death and to evaluate their ability to understand mood, I first split them up into the same 7 colored categories (violet, purple, orange, blue, green, white, black) as the rooms in the story. Students picked a color and were required to design a room based on that color and in a way that implies a certain mood. Students were also encouraged to use textual evidence to support why they may have chosen a theme. There could not be much textual evidence provided for any of the rooms except for the black one because that’s the only one that doesn’t get much descriptive detail or has any symbolic meaning in the story. So, the students in the black group were guided just a little more than the other groups. The other groups will were required to focus more on the mood of the actual story and were given a little more room to experiment with creating mood in their own way. That allowed students to experiment with narrative writing in a very natural, unforced way. However, they were required to share their work with the class, so the incentive to produce solid work was certainly there.

I received some of my best writing samples from that lesson. Students that had not spoken at all that semester were active participants in the class discussion, and many of the kids who never take anything seriously were engaged in designing these imaginary rooms. Students who were heavily involved in theater or the arts were specifically interested in this lesson.

A way that I could have stretched this lesson segment is by developing a summative assignment for it that required students to create a mood based on a color. They can create the mood using any type of creative approach they choose, but their attempt needs to be justified and relevant to the story.

For my Honors/Gifted students, I requested they assign each group member a role (set designer, casting director, costume designer, stage manager) and they had to design a play for “The Fall of the House of Usher.” This allowed them to basically design a play based on a story they read and discussed as a class. This allowed them to make decisions based on their knowledge of the text.

The results for this one were just plain fun. The students got into their roles and just kind of went all out with it.

A discussion I had with my class learning styles and student choice (in reference to Shaver’s Differentiated Instruction) inspired to reflect upon these lessons.