Designing Personalized Learning for Every Student

Today’s students are more diverse than ever before--in cultural backgrounds, learning styles and interests, social and economic classes, and abilities and disabilities. How can schools accommodate these differences while also dealing with all the other pressing demands for change, including the push for tougher standards and the call for more discipline in the classroom? This book offers answers and challenge schools to reinvent themselves as more flexible, creative learning communities responsive to the widest range of human diversity, including students officially designated as disabled. The authors propose a systemic framework that will support change efforts at district, school, and classroom levels. Their approach rests on three main ideas: (1) Locate decisions with groups of teachers, (2) Create new roles for teachers, and (3) Redesign individualized education plans. Using these ideas as a starting point, the authors present strategies teachers can use to design personalized curriculum and instruction that factors in the kinds of support, assistance, and opportunity each student needs to succeed. The book provides a variety of practical tools for developing long-term curriculum plans, planning lessons, and tailoring learning experiences. It also includes sample forms and templates to help teachers Gather information about student interests and family learning priorities. Create classroom-based assessment and reporting systems that capture and communicate real learning gains that might on register on state benchmark exams. Reflect on teaching practice. Designing Personalized Learning for Every Student is the outcome of 15 years of collaboration. The authors believe its synthesis of learning and professional development finally undoes the separation of general and special education and accomplishes the real purpose of schooling--helping all students become active, valued members of their community.