Space for Every Learner

In spring of this year, I posted about a plan for personalizing practice in my classroom by creating physical and digital learning zones within the classroom. Well, a lot of physical and curricular changes occurred in my learning environment over the summer. So, I’m ready to start putting that plan into action.

In terms of the curricular space of my learning space, I have 2 collaborators to thank. My co-teacher Andelee Espinosa and I are working to reach all learners in our classroom. The needs of our learners in physics encompasses a broader spectrum than ever before. We teach in a fully inclusive classroom in which over ⅓ of our physics students have an identified learning disability for which they receive accommodations. We firmly hold the belief that all of our learners can do physics. They may not all reach the same endpoint, but we can help all learners make gains in their ability to “do physics”. It is one thing to say that we want to reach all learners, but it takes strategies to do so. Andelee brings these strategies to our classroom. These strategies are useful not simply for personalizing instruction for learners with IEPs, they are perfect for all learners.

The new lesson structure of my learning environment was modeled after the workshop model I saw in the classroom of Angela Patterson and Kate Sommerville. I was able to sit down with Kate over the summer and build our own version of the workshop model. Rather than a mini-lesson to guide the work of each day, we planned mega-lessons that would drive learning in and out of the lab for multiple blocks. So rather than a 1 day workshop session, our workshops will run a few days. Each workshop is centered around a “must do lab” and choice of practice assignments related to the unit content.

Sample Schedule for our First Unit

Day 1	Velocity Workshop	Mega-lesson	Velocity Lab
Day 2		Velocity Lab (continued)	Practice Work
Day 3		Mega-lesson	Practice Work
Day 4		Velocity Lab (finish)	Practice Work
Day 5	Acceleration Workshop	Mega-lesson	Acceleration Lab
Day 6		Acceleration Lab (continued)	Practice Work
Day 7		Mega-lesson	Practice Work
Day 8		Acceleration Lab (finish)	Practice Work
Days 9-11	Summative Assessment

I look forward to discussing summative assessments and additional ways we will tap into personal interests of learners in a future post, but what is this practice work? We hope to build it out but our plan for the first unit is for students to have a couple of options for their practice work: problem sets (online or on paper) or guided explorations.

To help students keep track of their work, we’ve created a checklist for the unit.

The big change that happened to the physical space was thanks to my principal Brett Gruetzmacher and the facilities crew at my school. The front teacher demonstration table was removed from my classroom freeing up loads of space at the “front” of the classroom.

So when looking at the physical space of our classroom, we have different types of activities for or physical space.

We also use Canvas Learning Management System to set up our digital learning space.

This first unit is designed to impart to learners the idea that they have choice in how they can practice. The options are limited in this first unit. We plan to use learner feedback and direct observation to help drive practice formats in our future unit.