Lucie Nguyen's Personalized Learning Portfolio

Learner Agency

In a personalized learning environment, students are encouraged to make decisions about their own learning. Students recognize their strengths and areas of growth and use this to plan pathways of learning. Dr. Jack Martin states that "agency is the capability of individual human beings to make choices and to act on those choices in ways that make a difference in their lives." To maximize student success and engagement, educators can intentionally and purposefully facilitate learner agency by building learning experiences based on modalities, interests, and backgrounds. In order to advocate for student needs, relationships must be placed at the forefront of all decisions. Fostering positive relationships help teachers support learners because they know how to best guide students based on their needs, individual talents, and interest. This work is important to support mastery of academic knowledge and skills. As students begin to develop these skills, they can advocate and influence their own learning environment, experiences, and outcomes. From Developing the Expert Learner through the Stages of Personalized Learning, McClaskey (2016) states that "learners need to develop the capacity to shape and manage their learning without over-reliance on the direction and control of others." As students strengthen their executive functioning skills, they are able to rely less on the teacher and take ownership of their learning experiences. The teacher acts as the facilitator providing learners with flexibility in content, process, and product to grow.

The Four Components of “Student Agency"

Jennifer Poon from Center for Innovation in Education shares the four components of “student agency." She believes it is critical to assist kids in developing these abilities by giving them options or open-ended opportunities to choose methods and techniques for achieving a goal. Educators can also foster initiative by providing motivating and engaging learning environments.

Poon also shares, "By providing students autonomy over “time, task, technique, and team” as they tackle learning objectives; or by making learning social through group work or community-based projects, educators can help students develop a sense of voice, ownership, and self-determination."

Explore Research-Based Strategies to Support Learner Agency

Learning Menus/Choice Boards

A learning menu or a choice board personalizes the learning process for students by providing students with a menu of learning activities to choose from based on a specific topic, unit, or concept.

Educators can provide learning menus to differentiate how the content is accessed by students (video, readings, and audio), the learning process (based on backgrounds and interests), and the product (evidence or artifacts of learning). It is a versatile strategy that empowers students to make decisions about their education and ultimately individualizes learning for all students. To design a learning menu, educators need to determine the learning goal. Each portion of the menu will include an activity that is aligned to the learning goal. Choice boards support learner agency because it provides students with several opportunities to explore and pursue paths of inquiry, as well as engage in meaningful and challenging tasks.

Interactive Learning Menus (Choice Boards) Using Google Docs

Project Based Learning

Project Based Learning is a framework of teaching and learning where students engage in authentic and meaningful application of academic knowledge and skills. Students are investigating a solution to a challenge, problem, or concern. It provides students with opportunities to collaborate, reflect, and apply critical thinking skills.

Project Based Learning can foster inquiry and curiosity, provide students with choice, and equip students with problem solving strategies to be self-motivated learners. To design project based learning opportunities, teachers will need to connect learning to real-world experiences. Every project should revolve around a real-world scenario, challenge, or problem. Throughout the project, teachers can co-plan with students to confer, provide feedback, and support students in meaningful reflections. Project Based Learning supports learner agency because it creates authentic learning experiences for students to reach mastery of the standards.

Project-Based Learning: Benefits, Examples, and Resources | PowerSchool 

What is Project Based Learning? — Magnify Learning

Simple Machine Project

Student Led Conferences

A student led conference is a form of conferencing where the student leads the conference with families and presents a portfolio or display of work that represents their progress of learning. This version of conferencing shifts the responsibility to the student and the teacher acts as a facilitator.

In a student-led conference, it is important to provide students with adequate time to reflect on their learning, organize their artifacts, and prepare a method to share their progress with parents. This supports learner agency because it provides students with a voice in their education. Students are continuously setting and reflecting on their academic and social goals. Teachers can help students prepare for the conference by providing guidance or self-reflection questions to guide the process.

Student-Led Conferences: Resources for Educators

Environmental Changes to Support Learner Agency

Flexible Student Grouping

In a personalized learning environment, it is essential to create a flexible or innovative learning environment that supports learner agency. In my classroom, I can form intentional, flexible student groups by analyzing student work and data on a specific learning target. This allows me to tailor and personalize learning to the needs of each group. Teachers can also provide feedback and scaffold learning for various groups of students to facilitate responsive teaching. This environmental shift promotes learner agency by providing the teacher with background information on each student, allowing them to deliver enriched learning experiences that cater to their learning needs, talents, and interests.

From Why Flexible Learning Environments? , the research affirms this, as well: “Using data to frequently adapt student grouping strategies to student needs is a key aspect of personalization; it is yet another way that instructors can be responsive to student needs and allow students to take various paths through content.”

Flexible Physical Space

It is critical to develop a flexible or creative learning environment that promotes learner agency in a personalized learning environment. The physical learning space can be adapted to provide students with choice. In my classroom, I provide flexible seating options and arrangements in order to promote collaboration, engagement, and motivation. Aside from desks and standard chairs, I provide space for students to make choices about their seating. My classroom has wobble chairs, rolling chairs, stools, lap desks, clipboards, milk crate chairs, cushions, and yoga mats. I also have low standing tables, standing desks, and small tables too. By providing students with flexibility in seating and table arrangements, they are able to make decisions about their learning preferences and advocate for their needs. This also allows students to engage with peers and engage all learners.

Sixth-grade math teacher Kris Munden sums it up this way: “In a traditional classroom with four walls, you’re restricted by those four walls. But here we don’t just have four walls, we have a bunch of walls that can open and close, so we can make the space fit what we need, rather than the space dictating what we can do.”

Redesigned Curriculum

Choice boards, project-based learning, and student led conferences are research-based strategies that can support executive function in the classroom. In the next few sections, I will redesign my curriculum to incorporate the strategies. A brief description is included to share how I implemented the strategy and how it supports learner agency in my classroom.

Choice Board Artifacts

This is an example of a choice board that I used in reading as review. Students had the opportunity to refine and practice their nonfiction skills. By Friday, they completed the summative assessment. This provides students with several opportunities to engage in meaningful and challenging tasks.

This is an example of a choice board that I used in mathematics. Students complete an assigned task before they can practice their skills. They are given choices for skills to review and how to respond. It is catered to different learning needs in the classroom.

In this choice board, students are introduced to technical texts. The choice board provided multiple modalities and allows students a choice in the process of learning. Each task is meaningful because it supports specific learning needs and allows students to engage in different ways.

This is a nonfiction choice board that includes strategies that students can use to apply one skill. Each choice prompts students with a graphic organizer to support their work. Students can choose which strategy will help them master the skill.

Project Based Learning Artifacts

In each of the projects below, students are investigating a solution to a challenge, problem, or concern. The learning provides students with opportunities to collaborate, reflect, and apply critical thinking skills. Students are applying academic knowledge and skills to collaborate and create a solution. This supports learner agency because students are engaging in authentic learning experiences to reach mastery of the standards.

Simple Machine Project

Nguyen PF Project: Requirements

Genius Hour Artifacts

Genius Hour is an enrichment project based learning that I recently implemented in my classroom. Students brainstormed and completed the project contract. We will be working on it once a week and students will complete the progress tracker to notify me of their developments.

This supports learner agency because students decide their learning topic, brainstorm an engaging question, participate in research, and create a product to share with audiences. Students will be reflecting and co-planning with me to share progress.

What is Genius Hour

Digital Brainstorm Sheets