Academic and Cognitive Skills

Personalized Learning and Differentiation

In 1956 Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues created a taxonomy that categorized academic goals based on cognitive levels of learners (Armstrong, 2016).  Since then the taxonomy, that has inspired decades of research into how students learn, has been revised.  In 2001 a group of cognitive scientists,  researchers, curriculum creators, and specialists in assessment added a dynamic twist to the original version by making the tiers of the taxonomy actions, verbs (Armstrong, 2016).  Below is the revised taxonomy.

For students to climb this taxonomy, two major cognitive and academic principles are essential.  In this section we will explore these two pillars of academic success.  These two principles are: 

• Personalized Learning

• Differentiation

Personalized Learning

Check out this video about personalized learning:

In the most broad of terms personalized learning is customizing learning for each student using their background and experiences, preferences, abilities, and unique skills (Herold, 2019).  In order to accomplish this grandiose goal we can use the LEAP Learning Framework for Personalized Learning (2019).  The framework lays out standards for integrating personalized learning in four components.

1. Learner Focused

2. Learner Led

3. Learner Demonstrated

4. Learner connected

Check out the standards from the framework below.

Check out these personalized learning links and tools:

• Take a Personalized Learning Survey - Please answer the questions in each section to assess your level of preparedness to use personalized learning strategies in your classroom.

Learner Focused

• Error Analysis Worksheet - A worksheet for students to recognize errors and correct them.

• Strengths and Weaknesses Worksheet - A worksheet for students to point out strengths and weaknesses in their work.

• The Ladder of Feedback - Peer Assessment Tool by Brooke & Andrade (2013).

Learner Led

• K-W-L-H Chart - Graphic organizer for students to show what they know and want to learn.

• Goal Setting Worksheet - Based on SMART Goals (Connell, 2016).

• Voice and Choice: Using Interactive Playlists and Choice Boards in a Blended Learning Environment - Presentation about using choice boards by Stephen Morris (2017).

• Worldwide Report on Student Led Learning - Google’s report on worldwide learning trends.

Learner Demonstrated

• What Are Rubrics and Why Are They Important? - By Susan M. Brookhart (2013).

• Check out Project Based Learning (PBL) - Use projects for learners to show what they have learned.

• 100 Things Students Can Create To Demonstrate What They Know

Learner Connected

• Social Justice Projects in the Classroom by Michael Hernandez (2016).

• Try AIDET Communication - framework for parent and family communication.

• 6 Design Principles Of Connected Learning by Terry Heick (2020)

Differentiation

In order to create successful classrooms and students content must be differentiated.  Carol Ann Tomlinson (2017) a powerhouse in differentiation research defines it like this:

At its most basic level, differentiating instruction means "shaking up" what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn. In other words, a differentiated classroom provides different avenues to acquiring content, to processing or making sense of ideas, and to developing products so that each student can learn effectively (para. 2).

Tomlinson (2017) also gives us some framework of what differentiation is and is not. She says that

Differentiated Instruction is NOT 

• Individualized instruction.

• Chaotic.

• Just another way to provide homogeneous grouping.

• Just "tailoring the same suit of clothes."

• Just for outliers (paras. 5-15).

Differentiated Instruction IS

• Proactive. 

• More qualitative than quantitative.

• Rooted in assessment.

• Taking multiple approaches to content, process, and product.

• Student centered.

• A blend of whole-class, group, and individual instruction.

• Organic and dynamic (paras. 16-28).

Following these guidelines will allow us as educators to differentiate our classroom for all students including culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), Learners with disabilities, and gifted Learners.

Check out this chart of key elements for differentiation from Tomlinson and Moon’s 2013 book Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom.

Check out these links on how to use assessment and instruction for all learners including culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), Learners with disabilities, and gifted Learners.

• Creative testing - 11 examples of differentiated assessment by Lucie Renard & Saskia Vandeputte (2018)

• From Differentiated Instruction to Differentiated Assessment by Douglas Reeves (2011).

• Assessment and Differentiation: A Framework for Understanding by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Tonya R. Moon (2013b)

• Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners in the Regular Classroom: Vision or Delusion? By Carol Ann Tomlinson (2020)

References

All Learners Learning Every Day (ALLED). (2017, March 12). K-W-L-H Chart. Retrieved from http://www.alled.org/useful-resources/literacy-resources/pre-reading-strategies/k-w-l-h-chart/

Armstrong, P. (2016). [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

Brooke, G., & Andrade, H. (2013, April). Student Centered Assessment: Peer Assessment. Students at the Center. Retrieved from https://studentsatthecenterhub.org/wp-content/legacyimg/2_SATC_AssessTools_PeerAssessment_042913.pdf

Brookhart, S. M. (2013). Chapter 1: What are rubrics and why are they important? In How to create and use rubrics for formative assessment and grading. Alexandria, VA: ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/112001/chapters/What-Are-Rubrics-and-Why-Are-They-Important%C2%A2.aspx

Connell, G. (2016).  Setting (almost) SMART goals with my students. Scholastic. Retrieved from https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/genia-connell/setting-almost-smart-goals-my-students/

Education Week. (2019, November 6). Personalized Learning in K-12 Schools, Explained [video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd22P4RDmtg

Google for Education. (n.d.). Student-led Learning. Retrieved from https://edu.google.com/latest-news/future-of-the-classroom/student-led-learning/?modal_active=none

Heick, T. (2020, May 11). 6 Design Principles Of Connected Learning. TeacherThought. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/6-design-principles-connected-learning/

Hernandez, M. (2016, June 24). Social Justice Projects in the Classroom. Edutopia. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-justice-projects-in-classroom-michael-hernandez

Herold, B. (2019, November 5). What Is Personalized Learning? Education Week. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2019/11/06/what-is-personalized-learning.html

LEAP Innovations. (2019). LEAP learning framework. Retrieved from https://www.leapinnovations.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Leap-Framework-Update-10-24-19-FINAL.pdf

Morris, S. (2017). Voice and Choice: Using Interactive Playlists and Choice Boards in a Blended Learning Environment. Lecture presented at Personalized Learning Summit, San Francisco. Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pXWSrHFZxGo_JamS5LcxNG4xXrxODRJKSNz_ch2DeiU/edit#slide=id.g1c3d2d0c9d_0_17

PBLWorks. (n.d.). Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements. Retrieved from https://www.pblworks.org/what-is-pbl/gold-standard-project-design

Reeves, D. (2011). From Differentiated Instruction to Differentiated Assessment. ASCD Express. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/620-reeves.aspx

Renard, L., & Vandeputte, S. (2018, October 10). Creative testing - 11 examples of differentiated assessment [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2018/10/creative-testing-11-examples-of-differentiated-assessment

Studer Group. (n.d.). AIDET Patient Communication. Retrieved from https://www.studergroup.com/aidet

TeachThought Staff. (2020, May 15). 100 Things Students Can Create To Demonstrate What They Know. TeachThought. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/learning/60-things-students-can-create-to-demonstrate-what-they-know/

Tomlinson, C. A., & Moon, T. R. (2013). Chapter 1. Differentiation: An Overview. In Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom. ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108028/chapters/Differentiation@-An-Overview.aspx

Tomlinson, C. A., & Moon, T. R. (2013). Chapter 2. Assessment and Differentiation: A Framework for Understanding. In Assessment and Student Success in a Differentiated Classroom. ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108028/chapters/Differentiation@-An-Overview.aspx

Tomlinson, C. A. (2017). Chapter 1. What Differentiated Instruction Is—and Isn't. In How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms (3rd ed.). ASCD. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/117032/chapters/What-Differentiated-Instruction-Is—and-Isn't.aspx

Tomlinson, Carol. (2020). Meeting the Needs of Gifted Learners in the Regular Classroom: Vision or Delusion?. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265188668_Meeting_the_Needs_of_Gifted_Learners_in_the_Regular_Classroom_Vision_or_Delusion

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