Personalized Learning: The Vision to The Reality

By: Carrie Edwards

As we begin another promising school year here in Henry County Schools, there is a new level of excitement and energy, encouraged by our continued progress towards becoming a personalized learning district.   We welcome 9 new schools into our personalized learning cohort this year.  This new cohort will join the already 23 personalized learning schools who have gone before them to make the shift from school being a place where students sit passively, being largely receivers of knowledge, to a dynamic learning environment where students become drivers of their own learning.  Here in Henry County Schools, we pride ourselves in creating a learning environment where we do school “with” students.  We are often asked, “So, what does that actually mean?”  There are many definitions of personalized learning floating around the educational world.  Our definition of personalized learning in Henry County is uniquely ours, intentional, researched, and multi-faceted.  

Our personalized learning approach is based on 5 tenets which we will explore in detail, but we must first point out that these five tenets are strongly founded upon student agency.  This idea of student agency is first and foremost, the ultimate goal of a HCS personalized learning environment.  We want our students to understand themselves as learners, to know their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as how they learn best.  Goal setting based on data is one example of student agency in the classroom.  For years in education data driven instruction has been the buzz, but the teachers have been the ones doing all of the data work.  In schools all around the country teachers sit with data notebooks, in data rooms, discussing this data and that data, but the sense of urgency is never translated to students, except maybe as stress right before that big standardized test.  Here in HCS we realize the importance for our students to become data literate.  This means that students understand the meaning of mastery, the end goal, and they are able to examine their own data to identify where they are in relation to mastery.  Students, alongside the teacher, will set goals, co-plan a path for learning that is best for them, and persevere to meet their goal, supported by feedback and encouraged by reflection along the way.  Students in our personalized learning schools are able to articulate where they are, where they are going, and how they will get there.  They are deciding when they are ready and how they will demonstrate mastery.  Students feel empowered, confident, and are developing a self awareness that will support their growth in becoming independent, lifelong learners.  We have seen tremendous progress towards student agency in our schools.  To see a child as young as kindergarten explain his or her goals, strengths, weaknesses, and what he or she needs as a learner is truly amazing, but the real excitement comes with the thought of the types of students these kindergartners will be when they are ready to leave HCS as graduating seniors, having a spirit of grit and self awareness to help them take on the world!  Student agency is our “why”, and it is carried out by the powerful educational environment created through the implementation of the five tenets.

First, we have our Learner Profile.  This platform, designed for HCS from the ground up, will allow our students to take dispositions and habits of mind surveys to provide information about how they learn best.  It will also house student goals, both short term and long term, and provide a space for students to upload artifacts as demonstrations of mastery, an online portfolio so to speak.  This learner profile will be accessible to parents, students, and teachers who will also be able to provide well rounded support and feedback throughout the educational career of the student.

Next, we have authentic learning.  Authentic learning is an important component of 21st century learning.  Authentic learning clan include project based learning and service learning, but most importantly it means that learning is made relevant for our students.  We want teachers to consider current events, community issues/needs, as well as students’ interests when designing the learning experiences.  In this tech-age world in which we currently exist, information is literally at our fingertips.  Even our youngest students know that Alexa or Siri can help them answer almost any content based question that comes their way.  We want to not only increase the rigor for our students, moving beyond basic knowledge and application, but we also want our students to develop 21st Century Skills, which happens to be the third tenet.  These skills are defined as collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. Authentic learning means that our students will understand the relevance of what they are learning as they apply interdisciplinary content to real world tasks/problems.  Feedback, critique, reflection, and revision, all important components of authentic learning, will help our students to develop perseverance and a growth mindset. Authentic learning experiences and the development of 21st Century Skills will prepare our students for the college and career world that they will encounter when they leave HCS.

A tech-enabled learning environment, our fourth tenet, will support all facets of the learning process.  We are proudly transitioning to a 1-1 district this school year, through the support of SPLOST.  Each student in Henry County Schools will receive a computing device to support his or her learning.  While technology is definitely a wonderful tool, we also realize that technology is not what promotes the engagement of students. Our personalized learning model is not about students consuming information through a computer or tablet.  Technology is a resource.  We want our students to develop a fluid awareness of resources, technology resources included, that will help to support their progress and development.  Technology tools provide opportunities for collaboration, feedback, creation, and communication beyond the walls of our classrooms.  As we prepare our students for the workforce in the 21st century, technology is an essential component of learning.  

Lastly, we have our competency based learning tenet. Competency based learning differs from traditional learning in that school and learning have, for decades, been largely based on age and seat time.  Students have been bound by predetermined time frames for learning as we move them through grade level content based on their age and the 180 day school calendar.  In HCS we believe that our students are unique in many ways, including the pace at which they learn.  We believe that student learning should be based on mastery of knowledge and skill, as opposed to seat time.  We also believe that there are certain important skills and applications that students should possess as they leave our schools and enter the “real world,” beyond just the basic facts and applications required in the standards.  Teachers and leaders in HCS have worked hard to closely examine the state standards and identify the most important knowledge and skills that our students will need to become successful graduates.  This work has translated into the competencies, which can be found on our HCS website.  Largely focused on critical thinking and the application of knowledge, these competencies will allow our students to experience rigorous and relevant learning.  

Here in HCS we are proud of our vision for transforming the educational experience for our students, but even more so of the results we are already seeing in the classrooms.  Our students are becoming critical thinkers, wonderful collaborators, exceptional communicators, and are using creativity to solve real world problems.  These skills and experiences go beyond what can be seen in standardized test scores.  Many of the jobs our students will hold have not yet been invented!  We know that for our students to be prepared for the world in which they will reside as adults we have to equip them with skills beyond basic content. Our dedicated teachers, leaders, parents, and community are committed to working together to provide an educational experience that empowers students and puts them at the center.  Personalized Learning in HCS is no longer just a vision, it is a growing, invigorating reality in 32 of our schools.  We are excited about the future of personalized learning in HCS and will continually strive to improve the educational experience and environment for our students.  Our students are our purpose and our future!  In the words of Sir Ken Robinson, “The aims of education are to enable students to understand the world around them and the talents within them so that they can become fulfilled individuals and active, compassionate citizens.”  Our students in Henry County deserve nothing less!  

For more information please visit www.henry.k12.ga.us/ and click the Personalized Learning Tab.