Overarching Standards to Drive Personalization

Sometimes I feel that there is a great misunderstanding when it comes to personalizing learning in the classroom.  The idea that in a personalized learning environment students are free to do whatever they wish. That they are creating their learning experience from scratch.  In a PL environment the learner’s strengths, challenges, and interests are essential to recognize. But like any learning environment we are familiar with, standards and outcomes are just as essential to learning in a PL environment.

When I began looking at outcomes in my classroom years ago, I was focused on outcomes specific to a unit. So once an outcome was mastered, it wasn’t revisited. I had heard of other districts that were looking at overarching outcomes that were not unit specific and were practiced across multiple units of instruction. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea.  How would I be able to keep track of content proficiency if I only tracked overarching outcomes?

As in most cases, it took a major conceptual shift for me to start wrapping my head around prioritizing these overarching outcomes. I had to face the fact that at the end of the day I’m teaching learners about science practices not only content understandings.  When learners leave the course, they should be able to apply those skills to novel situations. The are learning the process of application not simply the resulting facts about physics.

Our realignment process has introduced me to a set of overarching science practices outlined by the Next Generation Science Standards. It’s theses overarching practices that will guide learning in the classroom. These practices may not be addressed in every unit of instruction, but each unit will require the learner to apply multiple practices to the ideas specific to that unit. To give you an idea of what these practices are, I’ve listed them below:

1. Asking questions and defining problems

2. Developing and using models

3. Planning and carrying out investigations

4. Analyzing and interpreting data

5. Using mathematics and computational thinking

6. Constructing explanations and designing solutions

7. Engaging in argument from evidence

8. Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information

So, this school year (less than a month away) I plan to implement this overarching standards/outcome model. This may get a little specific to my course, but I hope you can see how the design I’m shifting to may fit into your classroom. Over the course of the year, I want learners to get opportunities to apply these practices to different situations. Their ability to master these practices will be reflected in their ability to apply it to new content.

For example, one of our science practices is Analyzing and Interpreting Data.  I’ve built a proficiency scale around it.

4	3	2	1
Evaluate the impact of new data on a working explanation or model of a proposed process.	Analyze data and consider limitations of data analysis when analyzing and interpreting data.	Analyze data and compare and contrast various types of data sets to examine consistency of measurements and observations	Analyze data using tools in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution

This is a skill we’ll be practicing in just about every unit of the course. But the data they will be analyzing will change as far as the variables being measured and the relationships the data will uncover. The learner and I will be able to look at growth related to the specific practice over time. Their ability to perform this skill successfully within each unit will require them to work through content specific to that unit. Through practicing the skill, learners will uncover content knowledge.

How does this lead to personalizing learning in the classroom? As learners move through the course, the goal is to allow learners to increase the weight learner preferences to bear in the work they do.  The table below represents what may be a structure for unit 1 in the class related to the science practice of Analyzing and Interpreting Data.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data Unit 1 Linear Motion

	4	3	2	1
NGSS Wording	Evaluate the impact of new data on a working explanation or model of a proposed process.	Analyze data and consider limitations of data analysis when analyzing and interpreting data.	Analyze data and compare and contrast various types of data sets to examine consistency of measurements and observations	Analyze data using tools in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution
Student Friendly Language	Incorporate new data to look at conclusions.	Analyze data to draw conclusions and look at limitations.	Analyze multiple data sets to draw conclusions.	Analyze data to draw conclusions.
Performance Tasks	-Sphero Motion Coding -Little Bits Car Construction -Rubber Band Car Construction	-Free Fall Lab	-Constant Motion Car -Free Fall Lab -Motion Man	-Constant Motion Car -Free Fall Lab -Motion Man

The first row is the formal wording of each level of the scale.  In the next row, I’ve simplified it a little to be more learner friendly. (The wording in both rows is still a work in progress. Applying this in the classroom will help me iterate better versions.) The final row represents performance tasks to demonstrate and practice skills.  The tasks in bold would be done by all students.  The other tasks would offer learners choice.  

Later in the year, the unit scale may look like this:

Analyzing and Interpreting Data Unit 6 Circuits

	4	3	2	1
NGSS Wording	Evaluate the impact of new data on a working explanation or model of a proposed process.	Analyze data and consider limitations of data analysis when analyzing and interpreting data.	Analyze data and compare and contrast various types of data sets to examine consistency of measurements and observations	Analyze data using tools in order to make valid and reliable scientific claims or determine an optimal design solution
Student Friendly Language	Incorporate new data to look at conclusions.	Analyze data to draw conclusions and look at limitations.	Analyze multiple data sets to draw conclusions.	Analyze data to draw conclusions.
Performance Tasks			Ohm’s Law Lab Series vs. Parallel Circuit Lab	Ohm’s Law Lab Series vs. Parallel Circuit Lab

While we may still do some common labs to introduce content at the start of the unit, it will be up to learners to take the lead in determining how they could look at more complex situations that connect to their personal interests to explore.

Over time, the goal is for learners to become more comfortable with what each practice requires. That is when I’ll be able to allow learners more freedom in offering their own ideas in how they will choose to demonstrate that outcome related to the unit of study.  It is no longer about learning what defines the practice but how to apply the practice to new situations. They’ll be able to play within the fences of the desired outcome with topics they are interested in or curious about.

These overarching outcomes are what I want students to leave the classroom having mastered. As learners see the practices can be applied to many different contexts to deepen understanding, they will hopefully see these are the basis of the discipline - not just the relationships that they uncover.

Now, this is still an idea I have yet to put into practice.  That will happen in less than a month.  But, I am getting a clear idea of how this will do what I want for my learners in terms of

• Prioritizing content skills over content knowledge
• Giving learners an opportunity to explore interests and ask their own questions
• Creating learners who can apply skills to new contexts

With the rise of skill based standards such as Common Core and NGSS, I have found it easier to see the skills related to my discipline.

What skills are key to your discipline that learners would be asked to apply to multiple units of study?