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It is not a one size fits all model. Instead children get a choice in how they want to learn and the pace in which they will learn.

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PL platforms like IXL allow teachers to easily gather  and analyze data.

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I would like to use our resources to offer quick, personalized feedback to each student. I think it will take time on the part of the teacher to teach students how to receive, understand and improve their work based on the feedback that they are given.

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Teacher standing in front, teaching whole group.

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Personalized learning is similar to differentiated instruction with a great emphasis on technology. Students are given choice in their learning.

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Technology can be utilized to support individual pacing of student learning

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Technology can be utilized to support individual pacing of student learning

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Giving students "a voice and a choice."

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I would like to explore the idea of kids setting their own learning goals although that might be more for older grades.

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Teaching to middle, lack of individualization and no technology! Chalkboards!

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IXL is tailored skills to students needs 

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IXL is tailored skills to students needs 

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ELA/guided reading time would be a great time to personalize lessons for each learner so they aren't doing generic busy work

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ELA/guided reading time would be a great time to personalize lessons for each learner so they aren't doing generic busy work

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Personalized learning is similar in that in the ENL classroom, learning is tailored to student need, based on student LEP.

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Students are not sitting and getting content. They are actively involved in the process.

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Personalized learning has similarities to differentiated instruction with a great emphasis on technology and choice.

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Personal learning is the ability to connect to students using technology and allowing students to make their own choices about their learning. It takes time as an educator to understand the process and become proficient at it. It involves independent learning and allowing students to complete activities in any order they choose.

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Tailoring instruction, expression of learning and assessments to each students unique needs. This method teaching takes time to implement. It also uses technology to meet individual needs.

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Teachers are still considered a valued piece of this type of personalized learning even though computer, tablets, and smart phones are ubiquitous. In case you are unsure, ubiquitous means “everywhere”.

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We are already using systems that personalize and meet the students where they are. I'm thinking about apps like Freckle (Front Row), IXL, RAZ Kids, MyOn, etc. All of these require students to take an adaptive assessment to provide students with resource that are more personalized to their level.

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Technology plays a big part in the success of this approach because it allows the differentiation of instruction, assessment and expression of learning as well as the collection of student data.

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Give students personalized feedback. This should be specific, positive, actionable feedback to students. Also using a preferred method of communication will motivated them to act on this feedback.

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Personalized learning is NOT just using technology in the classroom.

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Know your students needs and find the technology that meets that. Not the other way around.

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Personalized learning is using technology to help differentiate. Using tech to have students work on skills at their level. Having data inform instustion and
progression of skills.

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I feel personalized learning currently occurs in my room during daily 5 time and genius hour. During daily 5 students get to choose what they want to work on first or what is priority to them. During genius hour students create research question and research something of interest to them.

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Similar in that outcomes for students are differentiated.

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It can be daunting to try so many types of technology and risk time on ones that don’t work. Planning as a team has been so helpful in wading through technology that does work for students and others that may not be as successful and sharing those through the year. It also allows for sharing of technology that we have never found on our own.

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When we get kids to ask questions, Research, and demonstrate their learning on summarize assessments we are giving a personalized education.

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Personalized learning is the purposeful design of blended instruction to combine face-to-face teaching, technology-assisted instruction and student-to-student collaboration to leverage each student’s learning style and interests for deeper learning. When done right, it leads to a more rigorous, challenging, engaging and thought-provoking curriculum.

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Learning is tailored to each student’s current ability and preferences, often through the use of 1 to 1 technology and flipped lessons.

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Take a journey through the internet...

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Article 4 - Getting Started

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According to education thought leaders Kathleen McClaskey and Barbara Bray, personalized learning occurs when learners take charge of and actively participate in the design of their own learning.

"Learners who own their learning are intrinsically motivated to learn and succeed," state the founders of Personalize Learning on their website. The pair, who developed a chart comparing personalization to differentation and individualization, also believe that "personalizing learning is the key design element to transform education."

If you've been thinking about transforming your own classroom in this manner, we've provided 10 quick personalized learning examples to get you started.

1. Give students a voice and choice regarding what they want to learn, and how they want to show what they know. This personalized learning example may mean rather than requiring all students to submit written assignments, give them the option to submit a video, drawing, song or other evidence of learning.

2. Give specific, positive, actionable feedback to students using their preferred method of communication (video, audio or text). They will appreciate the individual attention and will be more motivated to act on your suggestions.
3. Use beginning big questions or exit slips to gauge student understanding either before or after a lesson to ensure you address specific needs during the coming lesson.

4. Identify students who are struggling to meet learning objectives and assign personalized learning activities for reinforcement. If your learning platform has learning objectives reports and a recommendation engine to assign activities, most of this process can be automated (with the teacher approving all activities assigned, of course).

5. Work with students to create Individualized Learning Plans (ILP's) for tracking personal growth or senior projects. Plans can include skills, goals, task tracking, reflections and feedback from mentors. If your learning platform allows, progress can be automatically communicated to students, teachers, parents and mentors via their dashboard.

6. Allow students to use e-portfolios and blogs to reflect, take ownership and foster a lifelong love of learning.

7. This personalized learning example puts the student in control! Encourage students to create rather than just consume by empowering them to develop portions of a lesson, surveys, or even a test! Research shows that students who create their own tests score higher than those who do not ( Dylan Wiliam, Cambridge Assessment Network Keynote, 2006).

8. Help familiarize students with productivity tools such as the personal dashboard in their learning platform. Task blocks that pull in aggregated lists of student tasks, assignments, due dates and status can keep them on track. Options to personalize their dashboard's look and feel with graphical themes, or add/remove blocks such as course listings and Individual Learning Platform progress can further encourage students to manage their own learning.

9. Encourage peer-to-peer assessment through the use of discussion boards, or pre-flight checklists where one student evaluates another's project using a set of defined criteria.

10. Personalize who has access to which assignments based on student needs by using groups and permissions in your learning platform. For example, you may want to assign advanced students a different set of assessment questions or assignments than you would for students who need extra help in grasping basic concepts.

We hope these personalized learning activities and suggestions help you to foster a more engaged classroom with your students!

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10 Personalized Learning Tips Using an LMS | itslearning US

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According to education thought leaders Kathleen McClaskey and Barbara Bray, personalized learning occurs when learners take charge of and actively participate in the design of their own learning. "Learners who own their learning are intrinsically motivated to learn and succeed," state the founders of Personalize Learning on their website.

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Article 3 - Pros and Cons

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In today's technology-driven world, teachers may no longer be the sole keepers of knowledge in the classroom. The introduction of one-to-one initiatives, online classrooms, blended-learning models, and the overall rise of technology in classrooms allow for students to have far more access to constant information than past generations. Personalized learning thrives in this technology-rich environment, but is insufficient on its own to revolutionize a student's classroom experience.

Teachers, on the other hand, are more important than ever in preparing students for an ever-changing world with infinite access to all types of information. Teachers can be the guides that shape educational experiences for their students, helping them engage with learning tools that will enrich and support deeper learning, including different types of technology. Teachers also can use technology platforms to support data-driven learning like never before, personalizing learning to students' interests, passions, strengths, and needs.

At KnowledgeWorks, we believe that the way to best prepare today's students for the future is by personalizing learning to fit their needs, interests and passions. KnowledgeWorks is a national nonprofit organization committed to providing all students with meaningful personalized learning experiences by delivering innovative education approaches and helping align local, state, and federal policies.

In pursuit of a transformed system that reflects this vision, KnowledgeWorks has conducted multiple studies investigating how to successfully implement personalized learning. Through in-depth interviews with district, state, and classroom leaders, we have identified overall trends and conditions necessary to create a system of learning that benefits students through personalization. We have learned that robust personalized learning systems share the following features.

Instruction is aligned to rigorous college- and career-ready standards as well as the social and emotional skills students need to be successful in college and career.

Instruction is customized, allowing each student to design learning experiences aligned to his or her interests.

The pace of instruction is varied based on individual student needs, allowing students to accelerate or take additional time based on their level of mastery.

Educators use data from formative assessments and student feedback in real time to differentiate instruction and provide robust supports and interventions so that every student remains on track to graduation.

Students and parents have access to clear, transferable learning objectives and assessment results so they understand what is expected for mastery and advancement.

While KnowledgeWorks' definition of personalized learning is learner-centric, we recognize that creative, empowered teachers bring personalized learning systems to life. Consistent with a recent recommendation by the RAND Corporation that districts "provide teachers with time and resources to collaborate on developing curriculum," we believe that it is not technology itself, but how technology is cultivated by teachers in a learning environment, that leads to success. Thoughtfully utilizing technology helps educators align their work to the system outlined above. We have found that technology can deepen the education experience for learners and teachers in a personalized setting. Specifically, this occurs when district, school, and classroom leaders prioritize and invest in using technology as a tool to deepen learning and engagement between students and teachers in a dynamic classroom setting, rather than simply developing the capabilities of students to use the technology itself.

During interviews with teachers as part of qualitative work conducted by KnowledgeWorks and the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (now merged with Learning Forward), teachers noted that personalization would be difficult without technology, confirming our past research that showed thoughtful technology policy is one of 10 necessary conditions for developing a personalized learning system. These policies, when implemented well, can extend the benefits of a great teacher by allowing for easier implementation of new approaches to teaching and learning, including tracking student progress and meeting students where they are with instructional supports. For these schools and districts, technology did not replace teaching, but rather enhanced it by encouraging its creative use for project-based learning, interdisciplinary learning, formative assessments, and reviewing student data, among others. Critical to the application of these policies was trust and support from administration in the form of professional development.

Some teachers we interviewed pursued a shift to personalized learning because their schools had already implemented a "one-to-one" technology policy. One-to-one refers to policies or initiatives in schools that issue a digital device, usually a tablet or computer, to every student to access the internet, digital textbooks, and other digital course material. These one-to-one policies can stand alone, bringing the technology into the classroom without also revising teaching and learning methods. However, teachers also noted that those standalone policies do not automatically lead to personalized learning, and should be paired with robust personalized learning methods to transform students' experiences in the classroom. For instance, teachers in Howard-Suamico School District in Wisconsin highlighted that while technology is important, the devices are tools that work best when supporting a strong, innovative curriculum and aligned instruction. Students today are already familiar with the tools themselves. Computers, tablets, and smart phones are ubiquitous. Learning can truly thrive when educators are given the agency to help students use these tools in new, creative, customized ways to support their educational experience.

In addition to using technology in the everyday learning of students, technology is also a vital tool for teachers to be able to use to collect formative data on student progress. Realistically, limitations in infrastructure often act as a barrier for many schools and districts that wish to implement this type of technology use in a personalized learning system. For instance, as we talked with teachers in Marysville, Ohio, they noted substantial challenges with technology because their learning platform doesn't currently complement personalized learning. Boston Day and Evening Academy, an alternative public charter school, faced a similar challenge and navigated it by creating its own software that helps track student knowledge and skills. This innovation exemplifies how teachers were able to be creative in the development process to get the exact data that they needed to appropriately track continued progress of each of their students. This type of barrier can lead to systemic equity issues if left unattended, so it is vital that teachers' voices are elevated, as in the Boston Day and Evening Academy example.

Our research has demonstrated that technology is important. Yet, the true power of technology lies in the development of, and agency for, teachers to cultivate the tools to meet the ever-changing needs of their students. Simply providing access to new types of technology is not synonymous to cultivating transformational change to the traditional, industrial model of teaching and learning that values standardizing inputs and outputs for students. Instead, thoughtfully cultivating the use of technology in the classroom by empowering teachers to utilize the tool in ways that support their learners is critical in the transition to a personalized learning environment.

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Personalized learning: The importance of teachers in a technology-driven world

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In today's technology-driven world, teachers may no longer be the sole keepers of knowledge in the classroom. The introduction of one-to-one initiatives, online classrooms, blended-learning models, and the overall rise of technology in classrooms allow for students to have far more access to constant information than past generations.

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Article 2 - Overview

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In today's technology-driven world, teachers may no longer be the sole keepers of knowledge in the classroom. The introduction of one-to-one initiatives, online classrooms, blended-learning models, and the overall rise of technology in classrooms allow for students to have far more access to constant information than past generations. Personalized learning thrives in this technology-rich environment, but is insufficient on its own to revolutionize a student's classroom experience.

Teachers, on the other hand, are more important than ever in preparing students for an ever-changing world with infinite access to all types of information. Teachers can be the guides that shape educational experiences for their students, helping them engage with learning tools that will enrich and support deeper learning, including different types of technology. Teachers also can use technology platforms to support data-driven learning like never before, personalizing learning to students' interests, passions, strengths, and needs.

At KnowledgeWorks, we believe that the way to best prepare today's students for the future is by personalizing learning to fit their needs, interests and passions. KnowledgeWorks is a national nonprofit organization committed to providing all students with meaningful personalized learning experiences by delivering innovative education approaches and helping align local, state, and federal policies.

In pursuit of a transformed system that reflects this vision, KnowledgeWorks has conducted multiple studies investigating how to successfully implement personalized learning. Through in-depth interviews with district, state, and classroom leaders, we have identified overall trends and conditions necessary to create a system of learning that benefits students through personalization. We have learned that robust personalized learning systems share the following features.

Instruction is aligned to rigorous college- and career-ready standards as well as the social and emotional skills students need to be successful in college and career.

Instruction is customized, allowing each student to design learning experiences aligned to his or her interests.

The pace of instruction is varied based on individual student needs, allowing students to accelerate or take additional time based on their level of mastery.

Educators use data from formative assessments and student feedback in real time to differentiate instruction and provide robust supports and interventions so that every student remains on track to graduation.

Students and parents have access to clear, transferable learning objectives and assessment results so they understand what is expected for mastery and advancement.

While KnowledgeWorks' definition of personalized learning is learner-centric, we recognize that creative, empowered teachers bring personalized learning systems to life. Consistent with a recent recommendation by the RAND Corporation that districts "provide teachers with time and resources to collaborate on developing curriculum," we believe that it is not technology itself, but how technology is cultivated by teachers in a learning environment, that leads to success. Thoughtfully utilizing technology helps educators align their work to the system outlined above. We have found that technology can deepen the education experience for learners and teachers in a personalized setting. Specifically, this occurs when district, school, and classroom leaders prioritize and invest in using technology as a tool to deepen learning and engagement between students and teachers in a dynamic classroom setting, rather than simply developing the capabilities of students to use the technology itself.

During interviews with teachers as part of qualitative work conducted by KnowledgeWorks and the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (now merged with Learning Forward), teachers noted that personalization would be difficult without technology, confirming our past research that showed thoughtful technology policy is one of 10 necessary conditions for developing a personalized learning system. These policies, when implemented well, can extend the benefits of a great teacher by allowing for easier implementation of new approaches to teaching and learning, including tracking student progress and meeting students where they are with instructional supports. For these schools and districts, technology did not replace teaching, but rather enhanced it by encouraging its creative use for project-based learning, interdisciplinary learning, formative assessments, and reviewing student data, among others. Critical to the application of these policies was trust and support from administration in the form of professional development.

Some teachers we interviewed pursued a shift to personalized learning because their schools had already implemented a "one-to-one" technology policy. One-to-one refers to policies or initiatives in schools that issue a digital device, usually a tablet or computer, to every student to access the internet, digital textbooks, and other digital course material. These one-to-one policies can stand alone, bringing the technology into the classroom without also revising teaching and learning methods. However, teachers also noted that those standalone policies do not automatically lead to personalized learning, and should be paired with robust personalized learning methods to transform students' experiences in the classroom. For instance, teachers in Howard-Suamico School District in Wisconsin highlighted that while technology is important, the devices are tools that work best when supporting a strong, innovative curriculum and aligned instruction. Students today are already familiar with the tools themselves. Computers, tablets, and smart phones are ubiquitous. Learning can truly thrive when educators are given the agency to help students use these tools in new, creative, customized ways to support their educational experience.

In addition to using technology in the everyday learning of students, technology is also a vital tool for teachers to be able to use to collect formative data on student progress. Realistically, limitations in infrastructure often act as a barrier for many schools and districts that wish to implement this type of technology use in a personalized learning system. For instance, as we talked with teachers in Marysville, Ohio, they noted substantial challenges with technology because their learning platform doesn't currently complement personalized learning. Boston Day and Evening Academy, an alternative public charter school, faced a similar challenge and navigated it by creating its own software that helps track student knowledge and skills. This innovation exemplifies how teachers were able to be creative in the development process to get the exact data that they needed to appropriately track continued progress of each of their students. This type of barrier can lead to systemic equity issues if left unattended, so it is vital that teachers' voices are elevated, as in the Boston Day and Evening Academy example.

Our research has demonstrated that technology is important. Yet, the true power of technology lies in the development of, and agency for, teachers to cultivate the tools to meet the ever-changing needs of their students. Simply providing access to new types of technology is not synonymous to cultivating transformational change to the traditional, industrial model of teaching and learning that values standardizing inputs and outputs for students. Instead, thoughtfully cultivating the use of technology in the classroom by empowering teachers to utilize the tool in ways that support their learners is critical in the transition to a personalized learning environment.

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Personalized learning: The importance of teachers in a technology-driven world

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In today's technology-driven world, teachers may no longer be the sole keepers of knowledge in the classroom. The introduction of one-to-one initiatives, online classrooms, blended-learning models, and the overall rise of technology in classrooms allow for students to have far more access to constant information than past generations.

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Article 1 - Overview

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By now you've probably heard of personalized learning, which tailors instruction, expression of learning and assessment to each student's unique needs and preferences. While one-on-one instruction geared toward the strengths and challenges of each student has always been an ideal, only in recent years have technological advances allowed it to become a reality in public education.

Personalized learning capitalizes on students' almost instinctual ability to use technology, but it is so much more than technology and algorithms. It is the purposeful design of blended instruction to combine face-to-face teaching, technology-assisted instruction and student-to-student collaboration to leverage each student's interests for deeper learning. When done right, it meets several of the ISTE Standards for Students and ISTE Standards for Educators while leading to a more rigorous, challenging, engaging and thought-provoking curriculum.

Over the last four years, I have transformed my traditional classroom into a blended-learning environment that provides a more personalized learning experience for each one of my students. It hasn't been easy. It's taken a lot of research, trial and error, and adjustments. But the results have definitely been worth it.

Here are five lessons I've learned that have helped me take my classroom from a traditional sage-on-the-stage affair to a tech-assisted personalized learning haven.

1. Learn from others.

I won't lie. The journey from old school to new learning paradigm was bumpy at first. I tried blended lessons that took less time than planned, had technology failures, chose the wrong method of delivery for various types of content or skills, and generally made every mistake you can imagine. But I didn't give up, and eventually I had more successes than failures. My students' input and further pedagogical study helped me refine my lesson planning until I got it right.

I started by researching personalized and blended learning as a member of the Rodel Teacher Council (RTC) to create the Blueprint for Personalized Learning in Delaware. I was also a member of the BRINC Consortium, a group formed to implement blended learning in several Delaware districts.

Being able to work with other teachers also implementing blended learning was key to my continued growth. We worked with Modern Teacher to understand the shifts in pedagogy necessary to transition to blended learning. I heard Caitlin Tucker at a BRINC training and have used her books to guide my continued development.

All of these experiences helped me find more effective ways to lead my students while empowering them to take responsibility for their own learning. On top of that, learning from and collaborating with others is a hallmark of the new ISTE Standards for Educators, which advise us to "dedicate time to collaborate with both colleagues and students to improve practice, discover and share resources and ideas, and solve problems."

2. Use the technology you have.

Although it is not the focus of a student-centered classroom, technology plays a big part in the success of this approach because it allows the differentiation of instruction, assessment and expression of learning as well as the collection of student data.

We don't have a 1:1 environment at this time, but the students - who are my co-learners and teachers - have helped me adapt to whatever tools are available. The standard hardware in core content classrooms throughout my district includes a set of 15 iPads, a projector and a document camera.

Students are allowed to use their cell phones for educational purposes. We use Schoology as a learning management system. I use Google Classroom and curriculum sites such as CommonLit | Free Fiction & Nonfiction Literacy Resources to embed high-quality digital content within our LMS. Much to my surprise, technology itself plays the smallest role in providing personalized learning for my students.

3. Let students make choices.

When I first embarked on this mission, I decided to "release" one piece of the assignment at a time in an effort to control student's' pathway through the material. Since then, I have learned to take a more personalized approach to assignments, which also aligns to the ISTE Standard for Educators that advise us to "foster a culture where students take ownership of their learning goals and outcomes in both independent and group settings."

Class often starts with a mini-lesson, which then flows into students making choices about what they need to do next to meet specific learning targets aligned to the standards.

My units in Schoology offer guidance to the students while allowing them to choose their own learning pathways and complete the activities in the order that makes the most sense to them.

For instance, while reading a short story, they can choose between just reading or reading along as they listen to a story. They can also decide whether to annotate online or on a printed copy. They can take notes on paper or record their thoughts verbally as they analyze the story.

While my students are still required to write traditional essays on many assignments, they also get the chance to show their learning in a variety of other ways. When appropriate, they can submit their analysis by writing a traditional essay, creating a website, creating infographics, writing a script for a video that they then record or via a communication tool they suggest.

4. Choose the best content delivery method.

I had another a-ha moment when I finally understood how to choose the right delivery method for various types of content. My first few attempts included finding a video on each topic to provide background information or delivering a face-to-face lecture on a new concept, followed by an online quiz. My inaugural online lesson consisted of a folder with a page for my essential question, a copy of my PowerPoint and a link for students to submit their notes.

But I was simply using technology in place of my normal face-to-face teaching. When asked to explain the "why" behind my choices during professional learning sessions, I realized there was more to creating blended lessons than simply adding technology.

Today, I carefully construct my units with specific learning goals that drive the method of delivery and learning activities. When deciding how to structure my lessons, I look at the learning activities I've used in the past to decide which were successful and which need to be refined or replaced. As a result, instead of lecturing to students and showing them a PowerPoint during class time, I often give them screencasts or videos to watch at home.

The screencasts, which I create with Zaption, Screencast-o-matic and Video Ant, are better than PowerPoints because students can hear my voice instead of clicking through a silent slide deck. And videos are better than face-to-face lectures because they can skip forward, pause or rewind as needed until they get the lesson. They still get a chance to ask questions during our class time or online.

This flipped learning setup frees up my students to use class time to practice their skills. For instance, they might annotate a short story or poem in Google Docs or take part in a Socratic seminar. During our unit on research into social justice issues, students receive a digital review of the research process and choose their learning activities based on their needs. Some may meet with me to review how to embed quotes while other groups start planning their presentations and still others work independently on gathering valid research.

5. Assess as you go.

Instead of just giving a final exam at the end of each unit, I try to use formative assessment to enable me to give my students guidance and assistance when they need it. I use a variety of methods for this. For instance, my video lectures often include interactive questions to assess their understanding of the material. Playposit and TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing are my go-to tools for this type of assessment. And our classroom is often noisy and active as we play a round of Kahoot, which gives me instant, actionable feedback on what we need to do next, who needs to be pulled into a small group for reteaching and who would be better off in a group that pursues extended learning while I reteach the rest of the class.

I also gather formative assessment data through:

Discussion threads.

Self-grading quizzes, which give students immediate and actionable feedback on their proficiency in specific skills.

Monitoring of students works in progress on Google Docs.

Exit tickets, which assess the class' comfort level with new concepts.

I use all of this data to inform adjustments to learning activities as well as selection of resources to help students meet the standards addressed in the unit. When the assessments show a student has mastered a skill, I can provide them with instruction to go deeper or learn new skills.

6. Pull it all together.

My original objective was to transform my classroom into a blended learning model that would give my students the best access to rigorous, engaging, personalized learning experiences.

Going into my fifth year, I am pleased with the progress we've made toward this goal and excited to implement new ideas including more flexibility in seating and groups as well as a better use of formative data.

My classroom today is a vastly different place than it was five years ago. Instead of showing up to class to hear me deliver all the content and teach the skills they need to meet the standards for our curriculum, my students are now the masters of their own learning destinies.

Instead of relying on notes they take during one-time lectures, they can access and even return to my videos and screencasts and other resources when they need them most, as they are working on an assignment or reviewing for a test.

My role used to be standing in front of the room lecturing about the research process, modeling various components and monitoring students' progress toward a final, correctly formatted research paper.

Recently I began partnering with the Human Ecology Foundation to expose my students to a range of real-world issues. The students then form groups and choose one to research and propose a solution or way to make an impact. Not only are they learning to do authentic research, they will be volunteering and learning about the issue through first-hand experience. Students can even win a scholarship for their research and projects!

I am available to assist students, conduct check-ins, and assess their individual responsibilities and group outcomes throughout the project. But most of the time I just stay out of the way while they learn how to effectively research, collaborate and create presentations together.

The biggest compliment I have received since all this started came from a student in my AP Language and Composition class. He told me, "Your class is easy. I don't mean simple - I mean it is easy for me to learn because I can pick assignments that let me do my best work."

I strive to make my classes that kind of "easy" for every student I teach. Across the board, my students acknowledge that they feel better prepared for college or jobs because of our use of collaborative technology. I've had students who are now in college tell me that our use of digital content made it easier for them to adjust to college.
Robyn Howton is English Department Chair and the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) coordinator at Mount Pleasant High School in Wilmington, Delaware. She is a member of the Rodel Teacher Council, which created the Blueprint for Personalized Learning in Delaware, and a member of the original cohort of the BRINC consortium. This is an updated version of an article that originally published on May 19, 2015.

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Turn your classroom into a personalized learning environment

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By now you've probably heard of personalized learning, which tailors instruction, expression of learning and assessment to each student's unique needs and preferences. While one-on-one instruction geared toward the strengths and challenges of each student has always been an ideal, only in recent years have technological advances allowed it to become a reality in public education.

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What is NOT personalized learning?

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How does technology ease the planning of Personalized Learning - what subjects, competencies, learning activities do you see eased by PL?

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How/where could you add/enhance personalized learning?

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What is Personalized Learning?

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How is personalized learning similar to what currently happens in your classroom?

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For a reference, if needed.

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Cite this guide: Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/.

Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy? | Further Information

The above graphic is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license. You're free to share, reproduce, or otherwise use it, as long as you attribute it to the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. For a higher resolution version, visit our Flickr account and look for the "Download this photo" icon.

Background Information

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl published a framework for categorizing educational goals: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Familiarly known as Bloom's Taxonomy, this framework has been applied by generations of K-12 teachers and college instructors in their teaching.

The framework elaborated by Bloom and his collaborators consisted of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. The categories after Knowledge were presented as "skills and abilities," with the understanding that knowledge was the necessary precondition for putting these skills and abilities into practice.

While each category contained subcategories, all lying along a continuum from simple to complex and concrete to abstract, the taxonomy is popularly remembered according to the six main categories.

The Original Taxonomy (1956)

Here are the authors' brief explanations of these main categories in from the appendix of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives ( Handbook One, pp. 201-207):

Knowledge "involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting."

Comprehension "refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications."

Application refers to the "use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations."

Analysis represents the "breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit."

Synthesis involves the "putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole."

Evaluation engenders "judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes."

The 1984 edition of Handbook One is available in the CFT Library in Calhoun 116. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

Barbara Gross Davis, in the "Asking Questions" chapter of Tools for Teaching, also provides examples of questions corresponding to the six categories. This chapter is not available in the online version of the book, but Tools for Teaching is available in the CFT Library. See its ACORN record for call number and availability.

The Revised Taxonomy (2001)

A group of cognitive psychologists, curriculum theorists and instructional researchers, and testing and assessment specialists published in 2001 a revision of Bloom's Taxonomy with the title A Taxonomy for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. This title draws attention away from the somewhat static notion of "educational objectives" (in Bloom's original title) and points to a more dynamic conception of classification.

The authors of the revised taxonomy underscore this dynamism, using verbs and gerunds to label their categories and subcategories (rather than the nouns of the original taxonomy). These "action words" describe the cognitive processes by which thinkers encounter and work with knowledge:

Remember

Understand

Interpreting

Exemplifying

Classifying

Summarizing

Inferring

Comparing

Explaining

Apply

Analyze

Differentiating

Organizing

Attributing

Evaluate

Create

In the revised taxonomy, knowledge is at the basis of these six cognitive processes, but its authors created a separate taxonomy of the types of knowledge used in cognition:

Factual Knowledge

Knowledge of terminology

Knowledge of specific details and elements

Conceptual Knowledge

Knowledge of classifications and categories

Knowledge of principles and generalizations

Knowledge of theories, models, and structures

Procedural Knowledge

Knowledge of subject-specific skills and algorithms

Knowledge of subject-specific techniques and methods

Knowledge of criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures

Metacognitive Knowledge

Strategic Knowledge

Knowledge about cognitive tasks, including appropriate contextual and conditional knowledge

Self-knowledge

Mary Forehand from the University of Georgia provides a guide to the revised version giving a brief summary of the revised taxonomy and a helpful table of the six cognitive processes and four types of knowledge.

Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy?

The authors of the revised taxonomy suggest a multi-layered answer to this question, to which the author of this teaching guide has added some clarifying points:

1. Objectives (learning goals) are important to establish in a pedagogical interchange so that teachers and students alike understand the purpose of that interchange.

2. Organizing objectives helps to clarify objectives for themselves and for students.

3. Having an organized set of objectives helps teachers to:

"plan and deliver appropriate instruction";

"design valid assessment tasks and strategies";and

"ensure that instruction and assessment are aligned with the objectives."

Citations are from A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

Further Information

Section III of A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, entitled "The Taxonomy in Use," provides over 150 pages of examples of applications of the taxonomy. Although these examples are from the K-12 setting, they are easily adaptable to the university setting.

Section IV, "The Taxonomy in Perspective," provides information about 19 alternative frameworks to Bloom's Taxonomy, and discusses the relationship of these alternative frameworks to the revised Bloom's Taxonomy.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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by Patricia Armstrong Print Version Cite this guide: Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom's Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/. Background Information | The Original Taxonomy | The Revised Taxonomy | Why Use Bloom's Taxonomy? | Further Information The above graphic is released under a Creative Commons Attribution license.