Independent Learning Plans 2014

Over the past four weeks I've been using independent learning plans with my year 4 class. I've decided to call them independent learning plans, rather than personalised learning plans because I don't believe quality personalised learning is happening... yet! 

I came back after the Edchatnz Conference buzzing with ideas, but decided independent learning plans have huge potential (even in a single cell class) so have decided to focus on those for now. The first thing we did as a class was have a discussion in our campfire space. We talked about what independent learners do, how the independent learning plans could work in our class, what learning spaces we could choose to learn in (based around caves, campfires, watering holes and sandpit spaces), what activities we do are whole class activities, group activities and independent activities. Children came up and scribbled their ideas onto the whiteboard. 

It wasn't long before the whiteboard was covered in ideas. I loved their initial ideas around what independent learners do: 

* They would know if they needed to sit in a cave space or a watering hole. 

* They are responsible.

* They stay on task. 

* They are organised. 

* They have good time management skills. 

* They be the best that they can be. 

Hopefully their ideas will grow and develop as the year continues. 

One idea that Hobsonville Point Primary School (HPPS) teachers shared that I really liked was having a learning wall. Our class learning wall includes examples of our weekly menu (timetable) and smorgasbord (check list of must do and can do activities), our Adventure Island map for Adventure Learning (based on Google 20% Time), examples of student reflections, step-by-step instructions that the children have put together to share how they plan their day, as well as photos of different learning spaces e.g. caves, campfires and watering holes. The posters also include photo examples of where you can find these learning spaces in our room and what each space is used for. 

Sitting on the table is a plastic container that the children keep their planning/reflection books in. Each week they stick their new menu and smorgasbord into the front of their book. The back of the book is used for daily reflections and their independent activity log. The independent activity log is where they record what they did for their Daily 5 activities e.g. if it was buddy reading they will record who they buddy read with and the book. The activity log is also used for recording what they've used the iPads for e.g. I used Educreations on iPad 20 to show a maths strategy. It ensures they're being accountable and at a quick glance I can see what they've been using that time for, without there having to be a lot of writing in a book. 

Below is an example of what a weekly menu in our class may look like. However; each children's menu will look different. Each menu is made up of whole class activities, group workshops, independent activities and opt in workshops. Opt in workshops is an area I would like to further involve, but for now includes things like the Kidsedchatnz chats on Thursdays and the Traveling Rhino Project. I want to start creating more opt in workshops around maths and literacy as well. This is where it would be great to have another teacher to work alongside. The day is broken into fifteen minute slots in the morning blocks. We trialed half hour slots, but have found the fifteen minute slots work better for us. This doesn't mean that the children have to change their activity every fifteen minutes, but has removed some of the barriers we had as a class with being able to read the time. This is another area we are working on together. 

These two photos below are of children planning their learning before school, by choice!! We use a class Google site so that everything is easily accessible for the children. The Google site is projected onto the whiteboard in the morning, but there are also QR codes around the class. The children are allowed to get the iPads out before school to scan the QR code and start planning before the bell goes. Room 8 know they have to book in their group workshops first and then can choose from their independent activity 'must do' list. Any class workshops are already blocked in.  After that they book any devices they made need during the day e.g. an iPad or laptop. This is all done on our Google site. 

The first half hour of the day is allocated for planning and class notices. Early finishers help someone else who may need a bit of extra support to get completed in time. After planning their learning for a few more weeks I think I will be able to reduce the time needed to plan. We plan day by day for a couple of reasons. One of the reasons is because it's more manageable for my year 4 children. The other is because I only fully plan for the first couple of the days in the week and have the rest skeleton planned. My groupings are quite fluid and so things can easily change. 

Most children write their reflections in their book, but a couple of children also use Audio Boo to record themselves instead. 

The first two reflections are children who have read them straight from their written reflections. Josiah prefers to record himself each day. This prevents the writing being a barrier and enables the focus to stay on reflecting on his learning. 

listen to ‘William's Reflection’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Amia's Reflection’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Josiah's week 6 reflection’ on Audioboo

Introducing Individual Learning Plans to my Year 4 Class

What I'm about to share with you is how I introduced individual learning plans to my year 4 class, what's worked well, challenges we've come across and where we might go to next. 

We spent the first week going back and reflecting on what successful learners and learning looks like. Early on in the week I gave the children a group activity to complete. Their job was to decide who had ownership of different things in our classroom e.g. who decides when we do reading? Who decides what you do for Adventure Learning? Who decides what practise activities you do for maths? They could choose to put each one into one of three boxes - Miss Gentil, Miss Gentil and us or we do. At the bottom there was a large space for the children to write down anything they wish they had more choice with in the classroom. 

Although no two groups thought exactly the same, there were some general trends that came through. Children wanted more choice with when they did activities throughout the day, to be able to be more involved with the planning of school trips, the opportunity to have a snack when they were hungry or to take a quick brain break when needed. Back in the campfire space we reflected on how we could make these changes a reality. We spent time negotiating e.g. that if they were hungry they could have a fruit break, not just open bags of chips in the classroom. I'm aware that not all children bring fruit to school so have considered how we can ensure that this is available to all children. This will probably result in me purchasing whatever fruit is on special e.g. apples, pears or bananas and bringing them into school. In one workshop at It's a Learners' World we were challenged to consider why you would make a child wait until morning tea to eat if they're hungry halfway through a block and can no longer concentrate on their learning? The only reason I could come up with was because that's the way we've always done it. Something that came up a lot during the conference. During our class discussions we have also integrated our four school values - community, excellence, inquiry and respect in a lot. I feel that it's important the children realise that it's not a free for all, more that they're beginning to be given more ownership of their learning.

At the end of the first week I shared with Room 2 what I thought the individual learning plans may look like. I shared what my weekly timetable may look like, a blank copy of the student timetable and the check list of weekly activities that would need to be completed. We've since renamed the check list a smorgasbord and the timetable a menu. The smorgasbord contains the list of whole class activities for the week, group workshops and independent activities. On the right hand side there is also a list of choices for if they complete all their independent activities, as well as a list of splash sessions. These are optional activities that the children can choose to opt in or out of. I purposely left introducing these until the end of week 3 as felt that if I had done it at the start of the term it would have been information overload for my year 4 class. The initial reactions to individual learning plans were very mixed. Some children couldn't wait to start planning, while I received the looks of a stunned mullet from others. The children also had lots of questions. I shared with them that this was all new learning to me as well and that we would be learning together as we went along. After a lot of discussion we decided that we would spend the following Monday morning planning for the week together. 

Monday morning of week 2 soon rolled around. After fitness we met in our campfire space. Each child was given a copy of the student menu. This was blank, apart from the whole class activities that were already blocked in e.g. P.E, the introduction of our new inquiry unit, assembly etc. Everyone also picked up a copy of the smorgasbord. Copies of my timetable could be found scattered around the room. We recapped on our Friday discussion and then everyone dispersed to begin planning out their week. I had also broken the planning process down into step by step instructions and this was displayed on the interactive whiteboard e.g. find out when your group workshops are and block these in first, then block in your independent activities. 

Our school day is split into three, hour and a half blocks. This made it very easy to split the timetable up into half hour blocks. The times for each block were written in too (photos to come). The problem with having blocks like this is that a lot of the children in my class still aren't confident with telling time. I'll come to this later though. This first day of planning did take up a decent part of the day, but I'm hoping that as the children become more efficient with their planning that it won't take quite so long. 

So what are the positives that have come out of this so far? What challenges have we faced and where to next? 


Positive outcomes so far

• Seeing children begin to take more ownership for their learning. 
• A huge improvement in students' organisation skills, time management and the ability to manage their own learning. 
• Class reflections on what is going well and how we can continue to make improvements. 
• Children supporting each other with their weekly planning. The past two weeks we have done this first thing on a Friday morning. The children have shared that they'd like to be able to choose when they plan so as of week four one of their independent activities is to plan for the following week. 
• Surprisingly more of a work/life balance over the weekend as a result of having to be organised for the following week earlier to enable the children to be successful with their planning. 
• I've found that so far my role has stayed the same, but the children are shifting to a more personalised learning experience. 
• A genuine lift in engagement with certain students. 
• The timetables are displayed on the back classroom wall so their learning is visible and easily accessible. 

Challenges I've come across and questions

• I'm still running guided reading sessions and maths groups every day as I normally would. Is this typically what happens when running this type of programme or should I be running workshops tailored to individual/group needs as the week progresses? I'm just aware that there still needs to be coverage of literacy and numeracy. What's the most effective way to go about this?
• Finding time to conference one on one with 29 students without dropping guided reading or group maths sessions. 
• Working out what the best way to track individual children is. There are activities such as writing, maths practise etc where the children have a way to demonstrate that they've completed their learning. With other activities e.g. listening to reading, basic facts practise on the iPads etc I wouldn't honestly know if they had completed these activities or just ticked the box on the smorgasbord. Is there a way around this or is this where a level of trust with your students comes in? 
• After three weeks it's still taking most children an hour or just over to plan for the following week. My bright sparks have got it down to close to half an hour. Is this roughly what you would expect or are there ways I can make the planning process more efficient? 
• A lot of children found the time slots challenging. They didn't know how many activities to put into each slot or when they were meant to change from one activity to the next. We now have a timer on the board and when it has finished one of the children will shake the shaker and start the timer again. This has helped things to run a lot more smoothly. The children now simply put one activity into one box. If there are two shorter activities e.g. listening to reading and basic facts practise then I group these together on the smorgasbord so that the children know to place them in one box. The time slots and blocks are a rough guide. They don't have to swap activities as soon as the shaker goes, it's simply a reminder that a half hour slot is up. The more they reflect on their own learning, the better they're understanding this. 

Where to next

• I still have a long way to go before the learning is truly personalised, but hopefully we are working towards the children becoming more independent learners. 
• To find time to conference with individual children in greater depth, rather than a quick check of their work for the week. 
• To spend some more time running group or class workshops around reflection. 
• To get the rest of the individual blogs up and running so that the children can post video or written reflections to them. 

If anyone has any suggestions, feedback or bright ideas I would love to hear them. This really is a beginning of a new journey for me, but has been a great way to learn alongside my students. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences with us at It's a Learners' World. I came away feeling completely inspired. 

Individual Learning Plans

Over the past two and a half years I've run Adventure Learning in my classroom. Adventure Learning is based on the concept of Google's 20% Time. A blog link with my journey so far can be found on the right hand side. Adventure Learning is completely student driven, students develop their creative and critical thinking skills, ability to work collaboratively and self manage. They learn how to effectively come up with innovative ideas, ask meaningful questions, plan, create, reflect and share. All skills that are important attributes of a lifelong learner. We're often told that we're preparing our students for jobs that don't even exist yet. I am constantly asking myself how I can ensure that I'm preparing my students for their future in the best possible way? How can I effectively provide students with the same autonomy in their day to day learning, that they're given during Adventure Learning? 

Over the past term I've been doing a lot of research around individual learning plans. The real gems are hidden in the blogs of teachers that have trialed individual learning plans in their own classrooms. I've also had a number of professional discussions with these teachers via email and Twitter. 

As I continued to read, questions started to spark in my mind e.g. why do all children have to learn the same thing at the same time? Some learners learn best in the morning, some learn better in the afternoon. How can I cater for this? How is precious learning time often wasted in the classroom? Do we need to spend time on the mat introducing the next lesson after each break? What do the students truly have ownership of when it comes to their learning? 

I think if teachers were to answer these questions honestly they'd find some surprises. I know I did when reflecting on some of them. When reflecting I often try to imagine what it would be like to be an 8 year old learner in my own classroom. For me, it puts things into perspective. 



So what do I expect individual learning plans might look like in our classroom?

I have a idea of what it might look like, but intend on co-constructing this new type of learning with my students over the first couple of weeks in Term 3. I'm hoping that by doing this I will get more buy in from my students and that they will feel as though they have more ownership. Here is a rough breakdown of what the individual learning plans might look like and how they may work. Please note that I only plan to run this programme from Monday to Thursday as we do Adventure Learning on a Friday.


Individual Learning Plans

I plan to allocate time on a Friday afternoon for the children to construct their timetable for the following week. Their timetable will be made up of class activities, workshops, independent learning time, splash sessions, lunch time activities and a student learning conference time. These will then be displayed on the classroom wall. Each child will also be given a photocopy to put into their book. For some children activities such as Spring into Maths and the Friends for Life Programme will also be part of their weekly timetable. Each student will also have a list of activities they must complete within the week. This list and their weekly timetable will help to make up their individual learning plan. 


Class Activities 

I'm well aware that there will still be some activities that we will need to do together as a whole class e.g. school assembly, P.E, art workshops and syndicate club afternoons. There will also be times when I need the whole class together for a writing workshop or for inquiry. These sessions will make up our class activities. 


Workshops

Workshops will consist of group meetings that each student must attend during the week e.g. guided reading, maths etc. These will all be listed on my weekly timetable so the students know which ones they need to slot into their own timetable. Initially I will run these workshops, but as the term progresses I plan to provide more opportunities for students to be the 'expert'. 


Splash Sessions

These will be mini lessons based on the students' current learning needs e.g. how to write using paragraphs. The splash sessions will be optional and therefore students will be able to choose to opt in or out when planning their timetable for the following week. 


Independent Activities 

These will be individualised to best meet the needs of each student. The independent activities must be completed within the weekly time frame. 


Student learning conferences, reflections and student accountability

At some stage throughout the week each student will be expected to post a reflection of their week's learning onto their blog. I plan on spending some considerable time modelling and scaffolding Room 2 through this. Students will also block themselves in for a conference time once a week. The purpose of this is to check their books/blog and to provide them with individual feedback. It also provides an opportunity for each student to speak with me one on one and discuss any challenges or concerns they may be having, as well as to set new learning goals when needed. Having a weekly student conference and the expectation that a blog reflection is completed also ensures that students are accountable for their learning. 


Things to give further consideration to... 

• How to ensure that students have ownership of this change in their learning?
• Do we need a timetable for laptops, iPads, iPods to ensure that these are available for students when needed?
• Creating a classroom notice board for timetables etc. 
• What activities need to be class activities?
• What should be included in the list of activities that must be completed within the week?
• How to decide when class activities should take place e.g. P.E, library time? Use a Google Form to gain student voice around this topic?
• How can I best scaffold and support my students with such a huge shift in thinking?
• The students have regular input into how our classroom environment is set up and already sit where they need to for different activities. However; I think it will be important to reflect on this again at the start of Term 3. Are we happy with our current learning spaces? Do they meet the needs of the learners in Room 2? This is something that I feel the students need to decide, not me. 

I'm not exactly sure how the first day of Term 3 will look, but I imagine that it will start off something like this... 

Thank you to all of the teachers that have shared ideas with me via email and Twitter. I really do appreciate it. Off to 'It's a Learners' World' next week so am looking forward to connecting with other teachers and coming away with some fresh ideas about individual learning plans, student voice and personalised learning.