June 9, 2021 4:01 pm

Combining Virtual Learning and Hands-On Experience

When Keith Marsh, Executive Director of Indiana Agriculture & Technology School, launched a charter school in 2018–2019, he was looking to combine virtual learning and hands-on experience.

“The key thing that makes it work is engagement,” said Keith Marsh, Executive Director of Indiana Agriculture & Technology School. “Every student here has an individual plan,” he said. “That’s why our kids do so well.”

When Marsh launched a charter school in 2018–2019, he was looking to develop a school that combined virtual learning and hands-on experience. Focused on agriculture and technology sciences, the school is designed to offer career pathways through partnerships with agribusiness and corporations, leading to promising career opportunities after graduation.

Indiana Agriculture utilizes Edgenuity Instructional Services as its core curriculum and pairs it with enrichment experiences on a local farm. Through carefully cultivated partnerships designed to prepare students for college and career, students can choose from a variety of specialized courses such as robotics and welding. Students also have the opportunity to earn certifications through the IATS Agriculture Pathways or Drone Certification Program offered at the school.

student does assignment on handheld device

“The key thing that makes our program work is student engagement. They’re not just online by themselves.”

Keith Marsh

Executive Director

Maximizing Distance Learning

Indiana Agriculture also got creative by integrating virtual learning and hands-on experience by livestreaming activities on the farm. This method proved successful throughout the pandemic, and they plan to continue to use video to scale up their capacity and build a curriculum archive.

For routine procedures like inoculating livestock, their teachers can record the video and make it available to students for review. Unique and often unpredictable teaching moments like the birth of an animal can also be recorded and incorporated into the curriculum, regardless of when a student takes the course.

“The goal was always to grow slowly and deliberately to ensure our students are getting the best experience possible,” said Marsh. And now, he and his team are realizing that a video archive gives them the scalability needed to provide consistent, engaging experiences to more students. This also opens up the possibilities of satellite campuses across the state, which could focus on other areas of agribusiness such as greenhouse production and goat farming.

Setting the Standard

“The key thing that makes our program work is student engagement. They’re not just online by themselves. They’re engaging with Edgenuity teachers, watching livestreams, attending Zoom classes with our teachers, and visiting the campus when appropriate,” said Marsh. “When people talk about kids losing learning because they’re on a virtual platform, it’s not because of the platform, it’s because the student is not engaged.”

He emphasized the importance of the teacher–student relationship and noted how their students have open communication with the teachers and each other.

Through its evolving partnership with Edgenuity, Indiana Agriculture has also amplified the resources available to students with special needs. “We don’t give up on kids,” said Marsh, who added that if a student is willing to put in the work, “we stick with them and give them the tools to succeed.”

“We want to set the standard for this type of program,” said Marsh. “Virtual learning is going to continue to grow across school communities, and students can be successful in this platform if we engage and support them appropriately.”

June 1, 2021 8:00 am

Rethinking the Future of Digital Learning

COVID-19 forced a revolution in digital education — and opened a path to a more connected future.

It has been just over a year since schools across the globe were forced to shift to digital learning environments and new ways of teaching and learning. The experience was disastrous for some, imperfect for many, and preferable for others.

There’s no denying the past 12 months represent a revolution in education that will fundamentally impact how educators, students and parents think about learning going forward.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic massively disrupted learning and left a host of challenges in its wake, it also catalyzed a breakthrough in digital learning that has been decades in the making.

As we close out this school year and plan for the next, the education community has critical decisions to make, knowing there’s no going back to the “way things were” before the pandemic. Our collective focus must be on taking everything we’ve learned from this year — the good and the bad — to build a more connected, collaborative, data-led future for education.

A Decade of Advancement in Just 12 Months

Before the pandemic, personalized and adaptive learning experiences were widely available, but not widely adopted. A shortage of devices for K-12 students and a widespread belief that the technology was better suited for supplemental learning prevented most students from benefiting from a truly connected digital learning experience.

The past year has seen an explosion in digital learning in North America and around the world. By mid-April 2020, UNESCO estimates that around 1.6 billion students around the globe were learning fully remotely. To accommodate this sudden shift, districts across the country ramped up their device distribution. In March of this year, Education Week reported 90% of middle and high schools are providing one device for every student. In contrast to a 2018 EdWeek Market Brief report, where only 40% of district IT directors said they had a 1:1 student to computer ratio.

By mid-April 2020, around 1.6 billion students around the globe were learning fully remotely.

Nearly every teacher in America has been experimenting with new technology, and we have more data than ever before on how that technology can best support teachers and students and enable learning breakthroughs. Beyond these insights, many districts and schools now have a much more robust infrastructure for online learning.

In a non-pandemic world, it would have taken years or even decades to reach this level of adoption, device distribution, and real-world data. All of these developments have created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine learning.

Real Challenges to Learn From

As with any sudden, widespread adoption of technology, there were plenty of growing pains. Through our work partnering with over 5,000 school districts and supporting over 10 million students across the country, we shared a front row seat to many of those challenges.

COVID disruptions exposed and exacerbated the digital divide and inequities of our education system. Initial studies suggest millions of students were without access to the internet, the right devices, and family support — falling further behind.

A recent study we conducted with Oliver Wyman (2020) reported that educators from across the country suggests that more than 50% of their students are performing below grade level. This staggering reality is compounded by millions of students who must be supported to catch up academically, address their social and emotional well-being and even process trauma, something that educators say will take several years.

Despite the heroic efforts of educators, many students, parents, and teachers have come away from this experience with varied views of the benefits of digital learning. What we know for sure is that technology cannot replace teachers. Teachers are the center of student learning. And when paired with the right resources and support, students feel more supported, and achieve higher levels of learning and overall growth.

The True Value of Digital Learning

Even in the face of challenges, everyone involved in education has seen enough to realize the potential value of digital learning.

When utilized effectively, digital learning solutions can dramatically improve the learning process. They can help support the relationship between student and teacher and drive learning breakthroughs, in part by:

Managing time-intensive tasks like practice and assessment
Providing actionable, real-time data on student progress, and
Creating personalized learning paths that allow students to work at their own pace

Used as designed, digital learning technology frees up teachers to thoughtfully plan lessons, focus on social and emotional needs, and develop deeper relationships with their students. The goal is to let the technology do what it does best, so our teachers can do more of what they do best.

“In a non-pandemic world, it would have taken years or even decades to reach this level of adoption, device distribution, and real-world data. All of these developments have created a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reimagine learning.”

Sari Factor

A Better Vision for the Future

For the vast majority of students who will be returning to in-classroom learning, we expect digital learning to remain a fundamental part of their education. Many districts have seen enough value that, according to a recent RAND Corporation survey, nearly 20% of districts across the country are at least considering a virtual school offering for the coming year — and many years beyond.

We’ve seen how purposefully integrated digital learning tools can complement classroom learning and ignite breakthroughs for students.

So the question before us is not if but how best to integrate digital learning into the classroom?

As U.S. Education Secretary Dr. Miguel Cardona recently asked “What do we want our system to look like?” Rather than going back to the pre-pandemic status quo, we imagine a collaborative, connected, data-led future for learning in which teachers, curricula, and technology work together to ignite learning breakthroughs for students.

Here’s how we can do it:

1. Embrace Personalized Learning.

Each student is on their own individual learning journey, and instruction should be personalized and differentiated for them. A 2019 study by The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) showed that educational software can effectively overcome traditional classroom challenges like “large class sizes with a wide range of learning levels,” which can “make it hard for teachers to personalize instruction.” Just as products like Waze design a route for drivers in real time — accounting for traffic and other roadblocks and delivering the driver to their destination as efficiently as possible — teachers should be able to pick students up wherever they are in their learning journey and take them where they need to go. While the destination may be the same (3rd grade reading proficiency or the successful completion of Algebra 1), each path will be different depending on the learner and her environment. Personalized and adaptive technology empowers teachers to identify and overcome those roadblocks without losing precious instructional time. Teachers can then scaffold up in areas where a student needs assistance or provide more rigorous material that encourages her to stretch, building confidence and enabling her to perform at her maximum potential.

2. Reimagine Assessment.

We must rethink our approach to assessment, which has long been used to sort and label kids in unproductive ways. An overwhelming majority of teachers (81%) believe students spend too much time taking district- and/or state-mandated tests. (Center of Education Policy) Adaptive technology can improve the efficiency and fairness of formative assessments by reducing bias and freeing up valuable instructional time. And this type of assessment enables more personalized learning: when teachers have real-time data on which students need specialized attention and instruction, they can better tailor content to each students’ unique educational journey.

3. Address Unfinished Learning.

To address unfinished learning, districts from Los Angeles to Atlanta are considering adding summer sessions, lengthening the school day or even the school year. But after a particularly draining year, some parents are pushing back on plans to adjust the academic calendar. And for those students who were already behind, we simply can’t make up all the time that has been lost. We must consider the essential skills that are prerequisites for grade-level learning — prioritizing the most important literacy and mathematics skills to succeed. Digital learning companies, together with teachers and administrators, need to collaborate to create plans that help students get to grade level and beyond. Rather than focusing on acceleration — which doesn’t make sense for students who may already be several grade levels behind — we should be coming together to develop on-ramps to help students reach their potential.

Nearly 20% of districts across the country are at least considering a virtual school offering for the coming year and may years beyond.

Implementing this technology in the classroom with fidelity requires leadership and continued professional learning opportunities for educators and district leaders. And the digital learning industry needs to be true partners in making that happen.

When it comes to digital learning, there isn’t just a light at the end of the tunnel of a truly difficult year — there’s a very bright future for our students and our educators. I hope we have the courage to embrace it and collaboratively create new learning experiences that enable every student to grow and thrive.

About the Author – Sari Factor

Vice Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, Imagine Learning

Sari began her career as a mathematics teacher but soon thought of much bigger ways to impact students. Recognizing that technology could greatly transform the way students learn, she made a career move into education technology and has been working to leverage technology to help students, teachers, schools, and districts ever since.

Sari joined Imagine Learning in 2011 and has held leadership positions at successful educational publishing and learning technology companies, including Kaplan, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, and Everyday Learning Corporation. “I knew that I could fulfill my vision to combine technology with research on learning to make education truly student-centered.”

May 5, 2021 8:00 am

Teachers Deserve Our Appreciation — and So Much More

This Teacher Appreciation Week — and every week — it’s more important than ever to recognize the selfless and critical work that teachers do for students, families, and communities.

With all the stories this week about how teachers went above and beyond this year, it’s tempting to see teachers as superheroes. But it’s important to remember that they’re not superhuman. Teachers need acknowledgment, gratitude, and, most importantly, support every single week of the year, so they can continue to do their critical work for our students and our communities.

When Stephany Hume arrived at the hospital for emergency surgery in December, she wasn’t thinking about herself. She was thinking about her fifth-grade students, and the book they had yet to finish. “I thought ‘I can’t leave these poor kids hanging,’” she told reporters, after her 11-day stint teaching from a hospital bed caught the attention of the media and warmed the hearts of a pandemic-weary public.

Her story is inspiring — and unsurprising to anyone who knows teachers.

Teacher is assisting a student, both are wearing masks

If there’s one good thing to come out of this incredibly difficult year, it’s the renewed appreciation we have for the heroic work that our teachers do every day. As the often invisible frontline worker, teachers have persevered through unpredictable schedules, ever-changing guidelines, and unimaginable trauma to provide hope, stability, and support to their students.

This Teacher Appreciation Week, it’s more important than ever to recognize the selfless and critical work that teachers do for students, families, and communities. But appreciation is not enough—we must also listen to and learn from the teachers in our lives, and do everything we can to make the noblest profession as rewarding and empowering as possible.

“There is a very strong sense of social solidarity at the moment; people recognising how we all depend on each other.”

Professor Tony Gallagher

Queen’s University Belfast

Learn from teachers’ resilience

Teachers are the greatest driving force behind learning. And they have taught us all a lot this year.

As a digital learning company, we had a front-row seat to many of the ways teachers used technology to meet students where they are and embrace and celebrate their differences. From teaching tactile concepts in a digital environment to orienting children to COVID safety protocols in fun and age-appropriate ways, teachers were masters of innovation and resilience. They found new ways to engage students who learn at different speeds and struggled to adjust to unsettling circumstances and new environments. “Instead of being so focused on making sure all the kids get the same thing,” said Amanda Brooks, Virtual Support Specialist Counselor at AVA in Georgia, “Individual kids get what they need.”

A recent study by the University of Texas at Austin on Trauma, Teacher Stress, and COVID-19 found day-to-day student connections are a big part of why teachers teach. And when schools went remote last spring, they really missed that connection. But teachers adapted quickly, using technology to scale their time with students and offer safe, consistent, individual support. “Our teachers are always in beta mode. So they’re never done,” said Lesley Clifton, Director of Online Learning at Classical Academy in California. “They’re always learning, trying, growing.”

While educators are increasingly confident that we won’t have to return to an all-remote model, teachers have seen firsthand how different kinds of students shine in different environments—and they’re adjusting their approach accordingly. “We’re learning that some students just need to learn a little bit differently than everyone around them,” said Jamie Max, Director of District 308 in Illinois.

“When we talk about teachers and teaching, it’s not just the students they’re impacting, they’re engaging and impacting families and — by extension — whole communities.”

Kimberlin Rivers

Vice President, Imagine Learning

Uplift teachers as pillars of the community

While teachers are known for juggling increasingly difficult circumstances with magnificent grace, teaching is still undervalued.

An Ipsos/USA Today poll found that nearly three-quarters of Americans said that a teacher had a significant, positive impact on their life, and a majority believed teachers are not fairly compensated for their work. And their belief is borne out in the data, which shows that teachers in many parts of the country earn less than the family living wage. “The profession isn’t as respected as it used to be, when teachers were pillars of the community,” said Kimberlin Rivers, Vice President, Instruction at Weld North Education.

But the pandemic has introduced a shift in the public narrative around essential workers, and teachers are no exception. “During a crisis, assumptions start to fall apart a little bit and people start to question things they had previously accepted and taken for granted,” Queen’s University Belfast Professor Tony Gallagher, who tracked the shifting public perceptions of teachers during COVID, said. “There is a very strong sense of social solidarity at the moment; people recognising how we all depend on each other.”

We’ve always known that teachers have influence extending far beyond their stated role. The numerous roles teachers play for students and the community—mentor, coach, counselor, social worker—were brought into sharper focus this past year as the pandemic underscored many systemic issues in American education.

“When we talk about teachers and teaching, it’s not just the students they’re impacting,” Rivers said. “They’re engaging and impacting families and—by extension—whole communities.”

Advocate for a more supportive, flexible future for the profession

While professionals in other fields benefit from pandemic-induced workplace flexibility, teachers will likely return to a more rigid schedule as they head back into the classroom. But schools can and should learn from this experience and find ways to use technology to create efficiencies and flexibility for their teachers.

In a piece titled “Why Schools Should Embrace Flexibility and Innovation Beyond COVID-19,” the Urban Institute argued that making flexible school options permanent could benefit many students, including the significant portion of students who work while attending school.

The same argument could be made for teachers, who are already dealing with enormous amounts of stress and burnout. According to the 2019 PDK Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, half of public-school teachers were considering quitting their jobs before COVID. And the stress of the pandemic has only intensified the crisis. Retirements are up, morale is down, and schools are scrambling to fill open positions as their teachers decide not to return to the classroom in the fall. If we want to keep teachers in the profession, we need to find ways to embrace flexibility and give teachers more, not fewer, options for when and how they connect with their students.

March 31, 2021 8:00 am

Motivating English Learners

Read one Texas teacher’s creative strategies for keeping English-learning students energized and motivated.

Teachers across the country are finding innovative ways to engage English learners (EL) in the classroom and online.

In Austin, Texas, Webb Middle School has been incorporating Imagine Language & Literacy curriculum in their classrooms for over four years to help students learn and practice the English language.

Genoveva Zamarron, who herself was an English learner, now leads the English Language Development Academy (ELDA) for Webb Middle School. In recognition of her excellence, Genoveva was awarded the Top Imagine Language & Literacy usage teacher in February 2021!

We sat down with Genoveva to learn how she inspires and motivates her students to achieve their academic goals.

“I didn’t speak English when I was little and now, I teach English. My experience helps me motivate them. I want [students] to be a success story because I consider myself a success story!”

Genoveva Zamarron

Literacy and Language in the Classroom

For EL students at Webb Middle School, a typical day includes three to four hours working in the ELDA program before moving onto their elective or additional core classes.

In the ELDA program, Genoveva incorporates Imagine Learning content and in-person lessons so students further develop their English skills.

And in her classroom, Genoveva pairs students who speak Spanish with others who speak Arabic to encourage them to learn outside of their comfort zones and build confidence in speaking English.

To ensure that the platform is accessible to students and families who speak and read in another language, Genoveva provides instructions in various languages so students can get started on their work right away.

Additionally, students are taught how to monitor their progress and grades to drive self-discipline and accountability for their own success. Genoveva explains that “the confidence of the student is powerful,” because they need to see how their efforts directly affect their progress and grades.

As part of the curriculum, students record themselves completing oral assignments to practice their English. Genoveva has adopted the practice of sitting down with struggling students to listen to the recordings together.

This helps students understand how they are being graded on oral assignments — for comprehension, fluency, phonics, etc. — and hear the improvements in their English.

Students sitting on the floor listening to a story

Keeping Students Motivated

Genoveva reflects a lot on what it was like for her to grow up in the United States as an English learner, and shares these experiences with her students to help inspire them to become proficient English speakers.

Some of her students would be the first English speaker in their family and the first to attend schooling in the United States, so it’s important to keep them motivated and confident in their education.

One of the amazing ways students stay energized in the ELDA program is with the Imagine Learning wall (pictured above). Students note each day’s progress — including completions and successes — on activity cards, which they then add to the wall.

Seeing their progress and successes allows for some healthy competition between students, and further motivates them to work hard to reach their goals.

This is also a great way to get students active and out of their seats as they work on their online schoolwork.

Another special experience students can earn is the opportunity to attend field trips outside of the classroom.

As many of her students are new to the United States, Genoveva rewards them with short trips to practice and experience their new English skills in the outside world. Just this month, the students with the highest number of active minutes got to go to the theater to see a movie in English!

Getting Parents and Guardians On Board

We asked Genoveva what advice she would give to fellow educators, and she confirmed that building relationships with students and their families is how you can best drive success.

From day one, she expresses the importance of building those relationships so students feel supported and motivated in and out of the classroom.

She also holds her students to the same standards as her son, and expects them all to do their best.

Genoveva also sometimes shares pictures of the student’s homework so parents and guardians can help them continue working on their skills at home. This provides families with the tools they need to provide their students with that additional one-on-one support they receive in the classroom.

By building relationships with families and empowering students in and out of the classroom, Genoveva’s program has given English learners the confidence to reach their goals and set them up for success outside of the classroom.

Motivate Your English Learners

Discover how Imagine Language & Literacy can deliver targeted support to students acquiring English.

Learn More

June 10, 2020 8:00 am

Understanding the Mindset of a Struggling Student

When we see failures and frustrations as opportunities, and reinforce the principles of self-efficacy, we can better support our struggling students.

Working with struggling students requires mounds of patience and a steady course of perseverance and sometimes creativity. Most learning isn’t easy; it’s hard, messy work, and as educators, we deal with the downsides and difficulties of learning every day, especially now. But we also see our student’s failures and frustrations as opportunities, and we can help by understanding the mindset of a struggling student, and by reinforcing the principles of self-efficacy.

What is self-efficacy? The definition is straightforward: “a person’s perception that he or she has the skill and capability to undertake a particular task.” If students believe they can succeed, they can. Yet, many students come to our classes lacking this belief, and with no growth mindset. Retired Penn State Professor Dr. Mary Ellen Weimer has several ideas to keep in mind when working with struggling learners.

Understanding the Mindset of a Struggling Student

They lack confidence. A student’s self-esteem has a direct effect on their academic performance. Students who struggle with confidence may believe there is no point in trying, and that where they are now is where they will always be. When asked to write a paper or work through a challenging math concept, they are often convinced they’ll do poorly before they even begin. When teachers ask if they need help with a difficult assignment, they may say no, or not respond at all. We can help these students by praising small steps in the right direction. Let them know what you like about their work in specific terms: “You’re on the right track with that equation. You got this.” And try to show them tangible proof of their growth by comparing early classwork to what they are doing now, which can help build self-efficacy in a concrete way.

They fear failure. When given a rigorous task, students can be too afraid of making a mistake to try. They can take failure personally, lacking the understanding that failure is a part of the learning process. Creating autonomy with these students is still possible, though; take, for example, The University of Montana’s Best Fail Ever campaign. The University aimed to “increase students’ resilience and convey the message that it is okay to fail sometimes.” Here, students became more comfortable with acknowledging their self-efficacy by sharing their own “best fail ever” stories publicly across campus. Programs like this demonstrate to students that failure can be a path to growth. When teachers find ways to alleviate students’ anxiety of failure, students are more likely to focus on learning.

They are easily distracted. Life is always distracting, and students (and adults) are dealing with more distractions than ever now. Often, students struggle with separating their study time from their lives, and that became more difficult as schools closed, forcing learning to take place at home. According to Dr. Weimer, “these students are easily distracted by their work, their friends, their social life, and even perhaps responsibilities at home. They respond to what’s pressing at the moment, and that’s often not studying, which can be done at the last minute with the phone on and with text messages coming in.” However, research has continually demonstrated that doing too much at once can be overstimulating for the brain. According to John Sweller’s cognitive load theory, “working memory has a very limited capacity. When too much information is presented at once, we feel overwhelmed, and much of that information is lost.” As educators, we can help redirect our student’s cognitive capacity to the right place by providing students with proactive tips on how to be productive when doing school work.

They’re in the course to get the grade, and learning is not the primary objective. Often, students will choose to do the minimum. They are often satisfied with less than their best—if the course is a requirement, and the content is not interesting to them, they see no reason to put forth much effort. They may view assignments as things to complete as quickly as possible. They can prefer easy learning. According to Dr. Weimer, “they don’t want courses or assignments that tax their ‘mental muscles’ too much.” These students prefer specific directions with little room for interpretation or critical thinking. They would rather work on worksheets than answer open-ended questions, and they steer clear of assignments where they could be wrong and it might be their fault.

As educators, we often have to find unconventional ways to reach kids that lack a desire to learn and may not see the potential for their future that comes with authentic learning. If we focus on showing students how achievements can benefit their lives, we can instill hope.
teacher icon

How Can Teachers Help Students Become Better Learners?

By understanding the mindset of a struggling student, educators can become more aware of how to help all students become better learners. The tips below offer a good starting point for all educators:

Help students develop metacognitive awareness (or being aware of how you learn/creating autonomy).
Cultivate your love of learning by sharing past experiences and values with your students.
Strive to make the material relevant to applicable real-world scenarios.
Provide regular, ongoing in-class review and teacher feedback.
Expect failure and frustration, be prepared with plenty of patience.

School psychologist Dr. Allen Mendler wrote, “hope must precede responsibility because kids who lack hope have no reason to act in responsible kinds of ways. There’s no reason to be motivated unless [the student] is hopeful that this particular class is somehow going to improve [his or her] life; that coming to this school is better than not coming.” As educators, it is our job to help give students—especially struggling students and especially now—this hope that learning is the key to a better future. And giving that hope starts with understanding the mindset of a struggling student.

Sources

Bartimote-Augglick, K., Bridegmen, a., Walker, R., Sharma, M., & Smith, L. (2016). The Study Evaluation and Improvement of University Student Self-efficacy. Studies in Higher Education, 14(11), 1918–1942.

Brooks, a. (2019, February 25). 7 Tips to Create the Perfect Study Environment for You. Rasmussen College Life Blog. Source

John Sweller’s Cognitive Load Theory. (2019, January 14). Exploring Your Mind. Source

Mendler, a. (N.d.). Motivating Students Who Don’t Care. Ascd. Source

Ni, C. (2019). Designing for Learning Growth: Encouraging Metacognitive Practice to Support Growth Mindsets in Students [unpublished Master’s Thesis]. Carnegie Mellon University School of Design. Source

Saks, N. (2016, October 4). ‘Best Fail Ever’ Asks Student to Talk Failure and Resilience. Montana Public Radio. Source

Shore, K. (N.d.). Classroom Problem Solver: the Student With Low Self Esteem. Education World. Source

Weimer, M. (2018). What Are Five Methods to Help Students Become More Effective Learners? Source

March 24, 2020 8:00 am

Setting Online Learning Goals with Students

Figuring out learning goals can help to both offer internal motivation to students and show students the value of learning (because who hasn’t heard the question, “When am I ever going to use this?”).

Happy student on laptop listening on headphones

Regardless of how a student learns — in a traditional setting, online, by doing—a great first step for ensuring success is setting learning goals.

Because everyone is different, figuring out learning goals can help to both offer internal motivation to students and show students the value of learning (because who hasn’t heard the question, “When am I ever going to use this?”).

When learning is self-directed, setting goals is even more important because students have to rely more on themselves to ensure they’re learning.

For every student who chunks out the work involved in a semester-long project, 10 more students wait until the week before the project is due to start it. (Guilty!)

And because online learning is often more self-directed, setting online learning goals can be critical to student success.

How to help students set good goals for their online learning?

It’s not that different than it is for traditional learning. It starts with offering guidance, monitoring progress, reflecting, and celebrating achievements.

To start, make sure students know what a goal is and what it means to have one (or more).

This is particularly important for younger students.

If a student doesn’t understand what a goal is, they’ll struggle to work toward meeting it and being successful.

Fortunately, goal-setting is a skill, which means it can be taught, so start by teaching your students about goals, the same way you might teach reading or math.

No matter their age, your students will have already met some goals, so look for examples from their own lives that you can use to explain goals and goal-setting.

Next, teach students how to set good goals.

There’s a world of difference between easy, “gimme” goals and impossible-to-achieve goals, so make sure students understand this. Students should be setting online learning goals that offer some degree of challenge, but aren’t impossible to meet.

One way to help ensure students are setting good goals is to have one main end goal with several progress-related goals that they’ll meet throughout the process of meeting the main one.

And consider teaching students about SMART goals, which can help them create clear and reasonable goals.

Once goals are set, monitor and document the process of meeting them.

It’s possible goals will need to change after students have begun working toward meeting them, so it’s best for both student and teacher to monitor progress.

This way, goal adjustments can be made if needed so students can still be successful even if something has changed.

If students are not meeting goals, reflect on possible reasons for that.

This could be happening for a number of reasons. Maybe the student is struggling to understand a concept and can’t move forward without assistance.

Or they don’t understand the expectations placed on them for online learning.

Whatever the case may be, there’s a reason why they’re not meeting their goals, so do some digging to figure that out.

And as students meet goals, celebrate!

Though most experts would agree that the feeling of accomplishment is more valuable than a tangible reward, there’s nothing wrong with strategically rewarding students with praise and/or goods.

This can be especially useful for younger students, and when larger goals are met.

Utilizing classroom webpages and social media accounts, you can create a tracking system, like a chart with stickers, so that students can see their progress. And since celebrating achievements virtually requires some creativity, we’ve shared some tips for doing so.

At the end of the day, it’s most important that students understand why and how to set goals, as well as how to monitor progress toward achieving those goals.

Making progress toward meeting goals is really important, so if goals aren’t met, make sure students understand that they have not failed, and that making progress is its own goal.

To start, make sure students know what a goal is and what it means to have one (or more).

This is particularly important for younger students. If a student doesn’t understand what a goal is, they’ll struggle to work toward meeting it and being successful. Fortunately, goal-setting is a skill, which means it can be taught, so start by teaching your students about goals, the same way you might teach reading or math.

No matter their age, your students will have already met some goals, so look for examples from their own lives that you can use to explain goals and goal-setting.

February 18, 2020 8:00 am

Why Student Agency Matters

Agency is both a skill and a mindset that involves goal setting and self-reflection. As teachers, we can build agency through our interactions and relationships with our students.

Student in classroom resting on a stack of books

Student agency — what is it?

Surprisingly, there is no one definition for this term, but we can liken student agency to students having the “it factor”: they have “it,” they know how to be successful, and they go after “it.”

In essence;

Student agency requires students to take responsibility for their learning. Although not a new concept, the term is evolving simply because students and the learning process are also always evolving. Students with agency know how to work hard and focus.

They take an interest in learning, work through any difficulties along the way, and in the end, do not give up.

As educators, we often measure our success by watching our students leave school with the ability to accomplish their goals and be successful in life. We aspire for all our students to be successful, but we also know that some students are easier to work with than others.

These particular students often have an ingrained sense of agency and can work through difficulties on their own. Sometimes we even see ourselves in these students. They can mimic our feelings (as teachers) about learning and achievement.

But what about meeting the needs of our struggling students?

Research suggests that agency is such a fundamental human desire that people only lose agency when they’re unable to make relevant connections to the activity, task, person, etc.

In other words:

Agency, in the most literal sense, is about relationships with others. We already know the importance of making connections in the classroom to pique student interest, but isn’t it more than that?

An in-depth study of the psychology of coping researched stress and resilience during adolescence and children’s ability to self-regulate. This study discovered that a child’s ways of dealing with challenges fit into one of the following categories:

problem-solving
support seeking
distraction
escape
opposition
withdrawal

In simple terms, this means that some students handle their issues better than others. As educators, we need to remember that students who lack agency can doubt themselves and their abilities, and that behavioral responses such as withdrawing, appearing apathetic, and even acting out are coping mechanisms to regulate emotions.

In school, these students are often slumped over in the back of the classroom, refusing to participate and unable to concentrate.

Sadly, they often also participate in self-talk in which they reinforce their feelings of incompetence.

How Can I Help Increase Student Agency?

There is hope for students like this. As teachers, we can build agency through our interactions and relationships with our students. One way to do this is with conversation.

A few well-placed words can work wonders on a student’s self-esteem, and lead to increased agency. For tips on how to do this with ease, check out this list of 101 ways to say good job.

Another way to build agency is to teach students how to reflect using metacognition.

Reflecting on experiences (whether behavioral or academic) helps students move forward from a setback and furthers their growth toward student agency. Encourage students to reflect on their learning experience by simply asking the question, “What did I learn from this?” after completing each lesson, unit, and project.

Doing this will help students start to gain a sense of awareness so they can make appropriate changes in their lives and learning to achieve better outcomes.

Additionally:

There are lots of questions you can ask your students to help in building agency, including the following:

How did you figure that out?
What problems did you come across today?
How are you planning to go about this?
Which part are you sure about?
Which part are you not sure about?

Agency is both a skill and a mindset that involves goal setting and self-reflection.

By understanding our students better, we can help them build a growth mindset and, in turn, build their confidence. When students believe they can succeed, they are less likely to feel helpless in times of struggle.

As educators, we can help our students develop these lifelong skills that will propel them into successful futures

SOURCES

101 WAYS TO SAY “GOOD JOB.” CORNELL COOPERATIVE EXTENSION PUTNAM COUNTY. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://PUTNAM.CCE.CORNELL.EDU/RESOURCES/101-WAYS-TO-SAY-GOOD-JOB

BROOKMAN-BYRNE, A. (2018, JUNE 22). THINKING ABOUT THINKING: WHAT IS METACOGNITION AND HOW CAN IT HELP STUDENTS LEARN? BOLD. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://BOLD.EXPERT/THINKING-ABOUT-THINKING/

DARLING-HAMMOND, L., AUSTIN, K., CHEUNG, M., & MARTIN, D (N.D.). ACTIVITIES FOR METACOGNITION. DEPAUL TEACHING COMMONS. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://RESOURCES.DEPAUL.EDU/TEACHING-COMMONS/TEACHING-GUIDES/LEARNING-ACTIVITIES/PAGES/ACTIVITIES-FOR-METACOGNITION.ASPX

JOHNSTON, P. H. (2004). CHOICE WORDS: HOW OUR LANGUAGE AFFECTS CHILDREN’S LEARNING. PORTLAND, ME: STENHOUSE PUBLISHERS. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://WWW.STENHOUSE.COM/CONTENT/CHOICE-WORDS

SKINNER, E. A., & ZIMMER-GEMBECK, M. J. (2007). THE DEVELOPMENT OF COPING (PP. 120–144). PORTLAND, OR: PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://WWW.ANNUALREVIEWS.ORG/DOI/ABS/10.1146/ANNUREV.PSYCH.58.110405.085705

November 20, 2019 8:00 am

Teaching Students to Persevere

How can we encourage students to “stick to it” when they are in a world full of more interesting distractions?

Whether they learn in a virtual or traditional classroom, students have to actively choose to work toward the long-term goal of building knowledge instead of playing or watching TV, both of which can be more appealing than schoolwork. And knowing the long-term benefits of completing an activity is not always enough for children (or adults) to make the right choice.

That’s why teaching students to persevere is so important, and one way to do that is to teach them about self-distancing. This technique encourages students to take an outsider’s perspective of the task at hand. Encouraging students to think about their situation differently helps to remove the emotional connection to the decision-making and situation. So instead of making a decision based on what looks to be more fun and exciting, students can make a decision based on what their favorite character, hero, role model, etc. would do.

Student cheering themselves on their achievement

Teaching Students to Persevere with Self-Distancing

1. Start by teaching students to take an outsider’s perspective.

Younger students, in particular, benefit by imagining themselves as their favorite hard-working character or superhero. Because younger children already love to pretend and role-play, doing this is pretty natural and fun for them. Another way to refer to this is the Batman Effect—to remember what self-distancing is, just ask yourself, “How would Batman solve this problem?”

Older students find it helpful to talk to themselves in the third person. Instead of using personal pronouns like I, you, and me, switch to using first names or third-person pronouns. Instead of, “I am so bored by Algebra class,” try, “Is Ashley focused and working hard?” This strategy is often referred to as self-talk; you can even try it for yourself!

2. Have students pretend they are giving advice to a friend.

Ask students to think about what they would say to a friend in the same situation. If their friend was struggling to complete their homework, would you encourage them to browse social media instead? Probably not!

3. Ask students to think about how they would feel about the situation in the future.

Choose a time frame that makes sense for the situation, and ask students to consider how they might feel about the decisions they are making tomorrow, next week, a month from now, etc. Sometimes remembering that the negative emotions we are experiencing now are not permanent helps to put things into perspective. Using one of these simple shifts in language is often powerful enough to help students see challenging situations as conquerable instead of threatening or insurmountable.

Self-Distancing in Action

Why Teach Students Self-Distancing Techniques?

Students who can self-distance are better able to focus on long-term goals and resist distractions when working to reach those goals. This is true not just for their school lives; it helps in their personal lives, too. By distancing themselves from the emotional implications of a situation, students learn to cope with negative reactions in a much more productive way.

This technique allows students to better understand their own reactions and decisions, and being able to exhibit self-control in situations helps to build both perseverance and self-esteem. Encouraging students to practice self-distancing also helps them to understand their emotions without letting the emotions take over. That’s why teaching students to persevere by practicing self-distancing is a great way to shape students into people who can be counted on by others.

SOURCES

EVA, A. L. (2017, SEPTEMBER 12). FOUR WAYS TO GAIN PERSPECTIVE ON NEGATIVE EVENTS. GREATER GOOD MAGAZINE. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://GREATERGOOD.BERKELEY.EDU/ARTICLE/ITEM/FOUR_WAYS_TO_GAIN_PERSPECTIVE_ON_NEGATIVE_EVENTS

HARRIS, S., ABDULLAH, M., & WHALEN, K. (2019, AUGUST). HOW TO NURTURE STICK-TO-ITIVENESS IN KIDS. GREATER GOOD MAGAZINE. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://GREATERGOOD.BERKELEY.EDU/VIDEO/ITEM/HOW_TO_NURTURE_RELIABILITY_IN_KIDS

WHITE, R. E., PRAGER, E. O., SCHAEFER, C., KROSS, E., DUCKWORTH, A. L., & CARLSON, S. M. (2017). THE “BATMAN EFFECT”: IMPROVING PERSEVERANCE IN YOUNG CHILDREN. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 88(5), 1563–1571. RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://SELFCONTROL.PSYCH.LSA.UMICH.EDU/WP-CONTENT/UPLOADS/2016/12/CDEV12695.PDF_JSESSIONID9A14126FF0E062AD942DD3C3CEE26155.F04T03.PDF

September 26, 2019 8:00 am

Defining Personalized, Differentiated, and Individualized Instruction

Each of these terms has been in the education lexicon for a while now, but what do they mean? More importantly, why do they matter to educators?

Personalized, differentiated, and individualized learning — each of these terms has been in the education lexicon for a while now, but what do they mean? Are they three different ways of saying the same thing? If not, how do they differ? In this What’s Up With piece, we go over these three terms, and why they matter to educators and students.

3 students and a teacher engaged in a lesson in a classroom

Differentiated Learning

Perhaps, the oldest concept of the three, differentiated learning involves “address[ing] the needs of all students, who may be at varying levels, within a single classroom,” according to eSchool News. This can be done by grouping students by their level of understanding or ability, and then providing each group of students with a lesson that has been adapted to meet their skill level.

Personalized Learning

According to iNACOL, when educators personalize learning, they are “tailoring learning for each student’s strengths, needs, and interests — including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when, and where they learn — to provide flexibility and supports to ensure mastery of the highest standards possible.”

Put simply, personalized learning takes a student’s needs, skills, and preferred learning style into consideration, and gives them more control over and say in their learning.

Individualized Learning

Individualized learning is exactly what it sounds like — instruction that is built to an individual student’s specific needs. A good example of individualized learning is extra help in the form of tutoring. Typically delivered one-to-one, tutoring is highly customized to address a student’s specific questions, some of which may result from their ability or skill level. Another common way educators and students experience individualized learning is with IEPs (individualized education programs).

How Are They Similar?

Personalized, differentiated, and individualized learning are all ways of customizing learning to better meet student needs. They all take into account that students are different and have varying levels of skill and ability, and aim to alter instruction and the learning experience to better cater to students.

How Do Personalized, Differentiated, and Individualized Learning Differ?

The biggest difference between each of these terms is the degree to which instruction is customized for the individual student.

Think of it as an upside-down pyramid. Differentiated instruction would be at the top, with the least amount of customization. Next would be personalized instruction, with more customization. Finally, at the bottom would be individualized instruction, which is highly customized to the individual student.

Another difference between these concepts is in how much involvement the student has in directing their learning. With both differentiation and individualization, the student is more of a participant in their learning than a leader, whereas in true personalization, the student works together with the instructor to design a learning system and path that works specifically for them, their interests, and their abilities.

How Can You Incorporate Personalized, Differentiated, and Individualized Learning into Your Teaching?

In a perfect world, every student would get one-to-one, highly individualized instruction from an excellent teacher. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world, so innovative and creative educators have found ways to customize instruction, both with and without the use of technology.

The first step in differentiating, personalizing, and individualizing instruction is to determine your students’ individual skill levels and abilities, as well as if they need any special accommodations to promote and support their learning. Once you’ve been able to determine that, you can then group students together by ability or skill level (differentiation), adjust your lesson plans and the way instruction is delivered to better align with student needs and learning styles (personalization), and highly customize both the content and your instruction as students need (individualize).

Being able to use technology to identify where students are thriving and struggling, group students together, monitor their progress, and formatively assess them can make personalizing, differentiating, and individualizing instruction not only possible, but easy.

SOURCES

ABEL, N. (2016, FEBRUARY 17). WHAT IS PERSONALIZED LEARNING? INACOL. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://WWW.INACOL.ORG/NEWS/WHAT-IS-PERSONALIZED-LEARNING/

BASYE, D. (2018, JANUARY 24). PERSONALIZED VS. DIFFERENTIATED VS. INDIVIDUALIZED LEARNING. ISTE BLOG. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://WWW.ISTE.ORG/EXPLORE/EDUCATION-LEADERSHIP/PERSONALIZED-VS.-DIFFERENTIATED-VS.-INDIVIDUALIZED-LEARNING

FREELAND FISHER, J. (2017, APRIL 25). WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BLENDED AND PERSONALIZED LEARNING? CHRISTENSEN INSTITUTE. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://WWW.CHRISTENSENINSTITUTE.ORG/BLOG/WHATS-DIFFERENCE-BLENDED-PERSONALIZED-LEARNING/

STEDKE, A. (2017, AUGUST 1). DIFFERENTIATION, INDIVIDUALIZATION AND PERSONALIZATION: WHAT THEY MEAN, AND WHERE THEY’RE HEADED. ESCHOOL NEWS. RETRIEVED FROM HTTPS://WWW.ESCHOOLNEWS.COM/2017/08/01/DIFFERENTIATION-INDIVIDUALIZATION/?ALL

September 11, 2019 12:00 am

Implementing Personalized Learning in a Virtual School

Read how Caddo School District is reaching more students and helping them achieve success by personalizing a virtual school model.

Educator sits in front of a laptop with a pen in hand

Faced with declining graduation rates, Southwood High School in Louisiana enlisted its then Assistant Principal Tyron Lacy to create an online credit recovery program that would allow students to recover credits so they could graduate on time.

As a result, Southwood’s graduation rates went “through the roof,” says Lacy, who later facilitated the district-wide expansion of the program.

That program has now been up and running for over 10 years, and has expanded to offer initial credit and summer school options for Caddo School District students. After seeing how online courses can help students, Lacy decided to offer more options for Louisiana students, and in the summer of 2016, he opened the Caddo Virtual Academy (CVA).

By implementing personalized learning in a virtual school model, Caddo School District is reaching more students, and helping them achieve success.

Strategic Design

Now, barely three years after CVA was founded, it’s an A+ school and was recently given the Top Gains Honoree Award. But this success wasn’t by accident.

Lacy, now the principal of CVA, emphasizes the strategic, data-driven decisions he and his team made to create this powerful learning environment.

“We were purposeful in the things that we did. We didn’t just throw it in the air and hope it worked,” Lacy said.

They used strategic hiring practices to ensure students have quality instructors, and fostered relationships with local universities to provide students access to dual-enrollment courses, as well as AP^® classes and SAT^®/ACT^® prep courses.

This level of care and attention to detail contributes to the success of the independent high school, which functions exactly like any other school in the district. And unlike other virtual schools across the country that act as alternative programs within traditional high schools, CVA has its own campus, extracurricular activities, and even PTA, which helped get some of the first parents on board with this new program.

“All students learn differently, and every environment is not good for every student. [But] with proper support, students can achieve at their own rate.”

Tyron Lacy

Personalized Learning in a Virtual School

When students first enroll in CVA, they go through a series of questions to set up an individualized graduation plan based on their specific needs.

In fact, “We make it personal!” is the school’s motto, emblazoned on their website and at the core of all they do.

“All students learn differently, and every environment is not good for every student,” says Lacy, who believes that, “with proper support, all students can achieve at their own rate.”

Furthermore:

Teachers customize their courses to match the Louisiana Department of Education’s requirements while also pushing the students to think critically and not just blow through their assignments.

With students ranging from those who are academically gifted and looking for a challenge to those needing asynchronous schedules due to demanding extracurricular activities to those who have been traditionally homeschooled, CVA’s unique hybrid format provides support, structure, and plenty of student-teacher interaction.

Unique Format

“Even though we’re an online school, the majority of our students come to school every day,” says Lacy. “I think it’s the personal touch.”

Unlike some online schools where students receive minimal personal interaction, CVA students get support immediately from their teachers as they complete their coursework.

This feedback is available online through messaging or video streaming, and teachers are also available for office hours.

This personalized learning in a virtual school helps students to “see the passion behind our educators,” which in turn “builds a culture of excellence that students want to be around,” says Lacy.

Additionally, students are required to attend weekly live lectures from their teachers either virtually or in person.

“It’s just like a normal class,” Lacy says. “Teachers take roll, ask interactive questions, break students into groups,” and present the topics students will cover that week.

Then, students have the rest of the week to complete their coursework in Edgenuity^® at their own pace. “No student is left behind, but no student has to wait either,” says Lacy, and he points out that the coursework is rigorous enough that no one is ever significantly ahead of the teacher.

Looking Ahead

As word spreads of their unique model, support structures, and student success, enrollment at CVA has tripled. Seniors have been awarded millions in scholarships and are earning college credit, and students who had previously struggled are now graduating on time.

The district is taking notice of their success, and considering ways to provide additional space and support for the increasing number of students electing to enroll.

“I’m excited about what we’re able to do for families and students,” says Lacy, as he continues to dream of bigger and better ways to enable student success through the use of technology.