Personalized Reading

My district, like many around me are on a personalized reading kick. In theory, I agree that personalizing education makes sense and today's technology provides many platforms through which to manage this concept. When I grew up in the 70s there was an idea of contract learning that some of my teachers embraced. My fifth grade teacher had the entire language arts curriculum broken down into segments (for example, there-their-they're words or capitalize proper nouns). Each segment or contract had at least two learning activities (i.e. worksheets) and one quiz. Each student was to complete the learning activities, turn them in, complete a quiz and move on- with a reteach worksheet. If they needed to redo something, it was returned with either "redo" or "see me" emblazoned across the top. The teacher ran mini-lessons with individual students who needed them at his desk. Over the course of the year we were supposed to complete a minimum of at least 125 contracts. I raced through the activities and completed the most extra contract, not because I was particularly gifted, but because I was highly competitive. Many papers were returned for me to redo. This system is made easier with technology because you can have video lessons on each section, automatic grading, and games. I know why my teacher used this system- he had put the energy into creating it and he was not going to redo it. Front loaded planning and individualized pacing. Our current incantation of personalized learning captures this idea but takes it step beyond the crate of manila folders of my childhood.

Personalized Learning- Digital Strategies and Tools to Support All Learners by Michele Haiken with L. Robert Furman explores modern platforms to implement personalized learning. Instead of merely adjusting the pace, modern personalized learning talks about changing the content and product as well. Through the book the authors discuss different types of readers and activities to differentiate the classroom activity to meet their individual needs. They rely on the concept of self-direction as a method to motivate students and keep them on task. I am sure that this idea works for many. Choice is a powerful motivator. One of my problems, however, is that I know that not all students care about reading, even when empowered to read what they want, at a level that is accessible to them.

One of the tools that they recommend are a variety of choice boards. This tool has been around for a long time. I remember reading about them in the 90s. Oddly they never caught on. One reason for that, I believe, is that however hard it is to develop challenging and interesting assignments, it is harder to develop multiple ones that explore the same standards. One example that I found on the web about characterization is found here. It has five types of showing what you know/graphic organizers on which students are asked to answer questions about characterization and then they are asked to Frame It!

1. Source – Where did you get this information?(Green) 
2. So What! - What do you now understand about these characters and why is it important?   (Red)
3. POV – is this the author’s POV, the character’s , yours, or all. (Blue) .

This only slightly personalizes the activity. Clearly the whole class is reading the same book. The ultimate goal is a characterization paragraph. The students get to select their graphic organizer alone. The authors envision a much more diverse set of activities going on in a classroom. Teachers would need to have much more time to explore activities and develop tasks.

The authors do present a large number of websites that can be used. One that appealed to me is view now do now. This site's activities presents pictures for students to view carefully and then write a response about. It gets critically looking at images and writing and is good for reluctant and struggling readers and students learning English.

The format of the text is very readable. Each chapter starts with an overview of a type of reader and then moves into digital tools that can be leveraged to meet their needs. They include examples of activities developed for a classroom. The end of each chapter is an "As you go forward" section and a summary of the tools discussed in the chapter. Perhaps a bit Pollyannish in concept- get students to leverage their own learning- but perhaps an admirable goal.