Personalized Learning the Focus of Eric Sheninger's Latest Book with Nicki Slaugh

Personalize:  Meeting the Needs of ALL Learners by Eric Sheninger and Nicki Slaugh is a fitting follow up to Sheninger's excellent 2021 book, Disruptive Thinking in Our Classrooms.  Disruptive Thinking in Our Classrooms dedicates Chapter Five to the topic, which introduces a model based on student voice, choice, path, pace, and place.  Personalize builds on Sheninger's experience working with teachers in thousands of classrooms around the world and Slaugh's innovative leadership as a secondary principal and award-winning teacher in Utah to move from theory to action and provide teachers with practical strategies to support them in making the shift from traditional instruction to true personalized learning.

To this superintendent, Personalize is a welcome resource.  For years educators have talked about personalizing learning for students, but in far too many classrooms across the country, this is not the reality.  In my doctoral studies as far back as 2002, I can recall a guest presenter stating that No Child Left Behind was, at least in theory, the start of a movement toward an IEP for all students.  Carol Tomlinson's groundbreaking work on differentiated instruction, How to Differentiate in a Mixed Ability Classroom, dates back to 1995.

The concept of personalized learning is not new, but, as the needs of children are becoming increasingly complex, teachers are struggling even more with how to make personalized learning a reality in their classrooms.  With this in mind, Personalize couldn't come at a better time.  I have always preferred the term personalized learning to differentiated instruction for two main reasons.  The first is that differentiated instruction focuses on the teacher, while with personalized learning, the focus is on the student.  The second is that many teachers struggled with Tomlinson's model because it seemed unrealistic in their minds to implement the concepts with fidelity.  To these teachers, differentiated instruction became one of those dirty little educational buzzwords.  It is very difficult to argue with the need to personalize learning for students.  Sheninger and Slaugh reference differentiated instruction in their book for all of two pages.  The beauty of Personalize is how accessible its concepts are for teachers.

Personalize includes seven chapters:  The Importance of Culture, Unveiling of Personalization, Empowering Students through Agency, Proof of Learning, Meeting Diverse Needs, Relationships above All Else, and Embrace the Journey.  Encouraging teachers to move to action, each of the first six chapters ends with a section called Bold Moves that includes reflective questions that help teachers identify the extent to which they are personalizing learning and help them identify areas of focus in their instructional practice.

The book begins with an emphasis on the importance of culture and concludes five appendices with online resources for support in the areas of digital tools, K-12 examples of high agency practices, K-12 rubric examples, grade level and content area station rotation examples, and high definition images of the visuals found throughout the book.  This bookend works perfectly.  Culture is examined through the lens of high levels of teacher collaboration and references the Professional Learning Communities model, of which I am a strong advocate.  Strategies without a true belief that all students can learn is meaningless.  However, with that in place, the specific strategies and resources found in the appendices can be truly impactful.

In addition to the Appendices and Bold Moves features of Personalize, highlights for me include the book's emphasis on the importance assessment, particularly formative assessment, and utilizing multiple forms of evidence of student learning to personalize learning.  Also, the authors are very clear that the goal is effective Tier I instruction and assessment practices.  Technology supports personalization.  In the section on co-teaching, I was very happy to see the authors use the phrase "Effective" Co-Teaching Models.  Too often, people assume that multiple adults in a room automatically translates into increased student growth, which is not the case.

The flow of information works well.  In addition to the example cited above (beginning with culture/concluding with resources), the second chapter of the book introduces the Relevant Thinking Framework, which assists in evaluating the combination of higher order thinking and application of knowledge present in the student learning experiences, teacher instructional practices, and district curriculum.  The framework combines the six components of Bloom's Taxonomy (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating) on the vertical access with five levels of application of knowledge (Knowledge in one discipline, Apply in discipline, Apply across discipline, Apply real-world predictable situations, Apply to real-world unpredictable situations) on the horizontal axis.  Chapter Six, Relationships above All Else, revisits the model.

                                                                 (Used with permission)

This visual conveys that relationships are the glue that holds personalized learning together.

Personalize is a valuable resource for teachers and a useful guide for districts that are committed to personalizing learning.  The material itself is strong, but what makes the book particularly attractive for educators, in my opinion, is that its concepts are accessible and practitioner friendly.  It is a natural outgrowth of Disruptive Thinking in Our Classrooms, and I strongly recommend it.  With that said, I want to be transparent with the reader that I have worked with Eric on multiple occasions in the past, and I admire his work and contributions to the profession.