Plan for Implementing Personalized Learning Template

Competency-Based Learning

Brittany Troutman

1. Your Classroom

In my classroom, I teach all content areas to about 18-22 kindergarten students. I have a paraprofessional in my class that assists
my students and myself when needed. She works with students to accommodate their specific need and monitors the room when I
am working with students. My students are very diverse and are from all social economic statues. My class normally has between 5-
8 ELL learners, 2-3 African American, 1-2 other nationalities, and the rest are Caucasian students. Due to having a diverse class
make-up, I am constantly thinking about the vocabulary I use and what topic may come up when having discussions. At my school,
we are a technology school and we are fortunate to be one-to-one with every student having a Chromebook. This allows our
students to learn not only from their teacher and peers, but with their technology device as well. We also have class sets of iPads
that are available for check out.

2. Strategies

What is CBL?

When looking at CBL classroom and a traditional practice classroom, they are going to look very different. A traditional practice of
teaching they are constantly moving, never stopping or slowing down to fill in the learning gaps. This issue is allowing learning gaps
to become bigger as students go from grade level to grade level. In a traditional practice of teaching, the students may never
achieve the skills they need to use for their job. Competency-Based Learning goal is to close the learning gaps students have while
keeping each student at the center. Students are working on their individual learning targets while in a traditional practice everyone
has the same learning target. In a CBL classroom, plans are based around each individual student and their strengths, weaknesses,
and interests. In this week’s video “Competency Education and Personalized Learning”, it talked about how students in a CBL
classroom become critical thinkers, problem solvers, effective communicators, and team players. (KnowledgeWorks, 2018) These
traits allow students to carry and use them in college or job once they graduate.
Competencies & Standards to Focus on

SSKH2 Identify the following American symbols:

a. The national and state flags (United States and Georgia flags)
b. Pledge of Allegiance
c. Star Spangled Banner (identify as the national anthem)
d. The bald eagle
e. The Statue of Liberty
f. Lincoln Memorial (identify image and associate with Abraham Lincoln and Presidents Day)
g. Washington Monument (identify image and associate with George Washington and Presidents Day)
h. White House (identify image and associate with Presidents Day and the current president)

CBL Strategies

Components Your Strategies Rationale

Strengths & Weaknesses

Multimodal Visual- On my Canvas page, I provide images of
Content Delivery the symbol that we are studying that day. This is
how I introduce the symbol and then proceed to
watch a video that helps our next set of learners.
Auditory- Each American Symbol, I will have a
video or a virtual fieldtrip that talks about the
symbol from BrainPop or PebbleGo. During
these videos, we have mini discussions about the
symbols and talk in partners or whole group.
Written and print- During our story time, I will
read aloud a nonfiction story about the American
symbol we are studying that day. During this
time, I try to compare and contrast the video to
the story we are reading. We also use both story
and video to write about the symbol we are
studying.
Kinaesthetic- After learning about each
Strengths- I believe one of the strengths for this unit is
by being able to teach the same content to all types of
learners without having to be on a time restriction. All
students are learning and engaged collaborating with
their peers and the teacher when needed. Another
strength is having one-to-one device to allow students
to watch videos and listen to stories read aloud.
Weakness- One area I noticed is a weakness is
allowing more individual learning rather than whole
group and breaking off into groups. I do realize
Kindergarten students can learn independently, but I
feel students need modeling to help with thinking what
an important detail.
 American symbol, students will create a craft of
that American symbol to go in their American
Symbols book.
Learning During this unit, students will create a nonfiction
Activities book about the American symbols. In this book,
students will create a craft of the symbol using
different materials provided by the teacher. This
also helps students with their fine motor skills.
Formative To assess my students, they will create a
Assessment presentation about a symbol of their choice. I
would invite the parents in to watch and the other
kindergarten students and teachers as well.
Alternative An alternative assessment I would assign for this
Assessment unit is matching the symbol to the name. I would
provide this assignment in two forms: through
Canvas or a paper copy.
Remedy One way that I would alter the curriculum and
Procedures assessments is by adding more videos and peer
collaboration. I would also change up the
assessment requirements to creating a
presentation on their Google Drive rather than
creating props and reading information on an
iPad.
Learning As students begin learning the American
Targets Symbols, the first target it to identify and name
each symbol. Once students are able to identify
Strength- This is a great resource to use for student
record and helps students to retain the information.
Weakness- One area that I could improve in this area
is by allowing them to type their book on their Google
Drive.
Strength- This allows students to feel that what they
are learning is meaningful and keeps them engaging.
Students are using their Chromebook and iPads to
display their learning.
Weakness- Students do not have ability to choose
how they want to present their findings.
Strength- Allowing students to have multiple options
to show mastery is beneficial to students and teachers.
Another way is giving the same test in two different
formats.
Weakness- Trouble shooting technology issues when
students mess up the formatting on their computer.
Example deleting pictures or boxes.
Strength- Allowing students to go and fix the mistakes
and retake the assessment allow students to fill in
those gaps. Giving students other option that better
fits their style makes learning easier.
Weakness- Technology is limited for Kindergarten
students, so there are only so many ways students
can learn content and produce it independently.
Strengths- These targets are student paced and allow
each student the time and work pace they need to
master each target. Having multiple technology
 the symbols, the next target is to discuss and talk
about each symbol. The last target students are
working toward is creating a presentation about
their symbol they created.
choices is an advantage to learn the material taught.
Students have iPads, Chromebooks, and listening
stations with audio books.
Weakness- One area of weakness is not having more
of a personalized learning goal for each student.

Student For this unit, I would create a rubric that states Strength- Students are working on multiple standards
Records what goals students are working on to show and skills to show mastery. They are able to see
mastery. In this unit, I would include: areas they need excelled in and needs improve from
Writing- Students can write multiple sentences the rubric.
about each American Symbol.
Social Studies- Students can identify all the Weakness- The area of weakness is not having a
American symbols and match their picture to the digital form to keep the students record. Although
names. Kindergarten does not use a grade based report card,
Social/Emotional- Students can work we are on a continuum using GKIDS platform.
independently and with peers to create a project
about an American symbol.
Creativity- Students can create a product using a
productivity tool of choice to present their
information about the American symbol they
chose.

Georgia PSC Standards of Personalized Learning

Prioritized Executive Function: The candidate explicitly teaches students the skills of executive function (self-regulation, emotional
responsibility, task completion, working memory, cognitive flexibility, time management, reflection, etc.), teaches practices of
metacognition, and prepares the learning environment to promote learner agency.
The candidate will:
(i) prepare learners to take responsibility for their learning through the acquisition and practice of executive function;
(ii) design and transform curricula that supports learner acquisition and practice of executive function by considering the
cognitive development of the learner; and
(iii) Measure and report growth in learner executive function to coach learners towards independence.

During this unit, I taught and modeled how to take information given and choose what is important. We talked about going back and
listening to the story or video again, stopping to think about what the author is telling us, and how when we reread or listen to
something again we learn new things. While modeling how to pick information out of a text or video, I provided and modeled
examples of how to take notes for writing their nonfiction book. During this lesson, I revisited the lesson on parts of a sentence, how
to write a sentence. Students would collaborate with peers and I would write the sentence on the board for students to see and
agree or disagree.
Learner Agency: The candidate teaches and encourages learners to advocate for their needs, preferences, and interests to plan
and drive their learning.
The candidate will:
(i) support learners in identifying and advocating for their preferred modalities, talents, and interests when co-planning
experiences that support mastery;
(ii) (ii) create a flexible or innovative learning environment that supports learner agency; and
(iii) (iii) ensure learning experiences reflect preferred modalities, talents, and interests when co-planning experiences that
support mastery

While students are working independently watching videos and listening to their books, I am walking around encouraging and
supporting students. One way that I could see helping my students is talking with them, noting what they like, and thoughts on how
they would like to present their findings. I would also use this time to follow up with students to see if they were able to master those
targets they were working on. Since in Kindergarten we have paraprofessionals, I would have her doing the same thing, but would I
would also have her working with my ELL students trying to make those connections with their native country. This would be very
beneficial when we come back whole group to talk. This also give my ELL students the time to share and expose their peers to their
native country, compare, and contrast our countries.

Growth and Mastery Mindset: The candidate defines learning as an ongoing progression by embracing a growth and mastery
mindset, rejecting the binary of success and failure.
The candidate will:
(i) prepare learners to monitor their own pace and progress and persevere towards mastery, embracing mistakes as learning
opportunities; 505-3-.108 Page 3
(ii) identify causes of learner struggles, prescribe solutions, and co-plan with learners to set short and long-term goals for
growth; and
 (iii) design and implement adaptive tools, strategies and learning experiences to support growth towards mastery for all
learners. Learner Agency: when learners advocate for their own needs, preferences, and interests to plan and drive their
learning.
While having personal sessions with my students, I would also talk about how they feel they are doing with this project. I try to instill
in my students that failure is a part of learning, and if you do not fail then you cannot learn. In these sessions, I am the observer and
listen to what my students are telling me. I also work at guiding my students to become an advocate for their learning. Since I am
their first teacher in elementary school, it is imperative for me as their teacher to help guide them to become self-advocates.

Life-Long Professional Learning: The candidate perceives his/her own learning as a lifelong pursuit.
The candidate will:
(i) value and participate in professional learning communities and networks for ongoing growth in personalized learning;
(ii) keep abreast of innovative strategies and technologies that hold potential to support personalized learning; and
(iii) seek and create opportunities as a teacher leader, mentor, coach or content expert within the school, district or state to
promote personalized learning.

In this unit, students are collaborating and working with their peers to teach and talk about the American symbols. Students
are also using their peers to mentor and better understand the symbols and work on their writing skills. Students are also
using their knowledge to teach their parents and peers about the symbol of choice.

3. Technology Tools of Your Choice

1. Canvas
Strength- Canvas allows students the individual pace and needs they need to succeed, whether it’s being read to aloud,
watching a video about the topic, or even watching someone create the craft before creating it themselves. While students are using
Canvas they are researching and collaborating with their peers through Flipgrid and taking notes from videos.
Weakness- One weakness for Canvas is that students are only permitted to use the resources that the teacher puts on their
Canvas page. It doesn’t allow student the ability to choose the what resource they wanted to use.

2. Paper and Pencils

Strengths- Students use these resources to create their American symbols book. Having students write their research and
thoughts down first helps students retain the information they are researching.
 Weakness- The weakness of students using paper and pencil are students not being able to keep and keep up with their work
for student records.

3. Google Drives-
Strengths- When students are creating their projects; they have the opportunity to use their Google Drive to create their
presentation. Students can use PowerPoint or Word to display their findings.
Weakness- Using Google Drive limits them in what they can do to present their findings.

Name & URL Strengths & Weaknesses Your Plan

Functions

Multimodal Canvas, Canvas Students will use these sights daily to

Content Delivery BrainPopJr, Strength- Canvas allows read and learn about the American
https://jr.brainpop.com/ students the individual pace and symbols. They will take what they have
Pebble Go learned to create the activity and project.
needs they need to succeed, whether
https://site.pebblego.co Students will also you the content they
m/modules it’s being read to aloud, watching a have learned and use it to create their
Virtual Fieldtrip video about the topic, or even assessment or presentation.
https:// watching someone create the craft
www.youvisit.com/ before creating it themselves. While
tour/aid.depoy students are using Canvas they are
researching and collaborating with
their peers through Flipgrid and taking
notes from videos.
Weakness- One weakness for
Canvas is that students are only
permitted to use the resources that the
teacher puts on their Canvas page. It
doesn’t allow student the ability to
choose the what resource they wanted
to use.
PebbleGo- this tool has many valuable
video and students love the pictures
 and the video reads the content to the
student. The weakness for this tool is
that teachers have to have a login or
subscription to use.

I will have a video of Although there is not advanced Students will work on their fine motor
Performing myself talking to the technology tools being used to create skills by cutting paper, coloring, gluing,
Activities/Projects students about how the activity, it is still engaging and and tearing paper to be glue together to
they will create the craft students love creating. A weakness of form a picture.
and then we will create not using technology is not allowing
it whole group, so my students the time to create pictures
paraprofessional and I using different programs offered by the
can assist students county.
when needed.

Formative Google Drive A strength for using Google Drive is Students will use their Google Drive to
Assessment that students can work on this project create a presentation to read off while
at home and it automatically saves presenting their presentation.
their work for them.

Alternative Google Drive on Allowing multiple ways for students to Students who do not want to present
Assessment Canvas and Flip show mastery gives students a choice their project, but will help their peers
(known as Flipgrid) of what they feel most comfortable when they present can take an
https://info.flip.com/ when testing. A weakness though I alternative assessment to prove their
feel is the assessments are not on the mastery.
level of assessing.

Remedy Students will use the Giving students multiple times to If I see a student or students struggling,
Procedures same information used watch, listen, and collaborate with my paraprofessional and I would pull
originally but I would peers and teachers will help retaining them over and do mini lessons to help
add some new videos the information and keep students catch them up.
from Youtube. engaged.

Learning All learning targets are Students are able to see the learning Students will state their learning target
Targets posted on the board. targets anywhere in the room. The every day before starting to work, that
only weakness is they do not have way they know and understand what they
 access to it on their Chromebook. are working towards to mastery.

Student None at this time. It is While my students do not have a
Records all paper/pen portfolio or a digital area for records,
having a rubric for students to
reference to, parents to look at, and
teachers to grade from helps keep
mastery simple and parents
understands what their child is
learning.
While students are working through this
unit, I will walk around with my clipboard
marking off when students have
mastered simple tasks like collaborating
with peers, can students write a complete
sentence, can the student create a craft
independently and correct.

1. References

Georgia Department of Education, (2016, June 9). Social Studies Georgia Standard of Excellence. The Foundations of
America. https://lor2.gadoe.org/gadoe/file/1a65ce1a-8aa8-4c03-a57d-defc3df2cbf1/1/Social-Studies-Kindergarten-Georgia-
Standards.pdf
Knowledgeworks, (2018, February 7). YouTube. Competency Education and Personalized Learning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhXy-P1oYME