3 Personalized Learning Articles You Should Read Right Now

In these three articles, discover how Distinctive Schools embraced Personalized Learning and piloted a new learning model in one of its campuses, before spreading it across the entire network. The transition to personalized learning impacted our schools, as well as our habits as teachers and learners. Likewise, the degree of innovation involved touched every area of our network and schools, from instructional practices to operations to routines.

Read the articles below to:

• Understand what is personalized learning at Distinctive Schools.
  
• Learn how schools can benefit from the lessons of early innovators when planning and scaling a personalized learning model.
  
• Discover how the role of technology could help scale personalized learning.
  

Scaling Personalized Learning at Distinctive Schools: Going Slow to Go Fast
Featured on EdWeek.org
By Jin-Soo Huh, Executive Director of Personalized Learning at Distinctive Schools

Jin-Soo Huh, Executive Director of Personalized Learning at Distinctive Schools (DS), shares one of DS network schools’ story as they piloted personalized learning at their campus. The piloted model incorporated elements, such as multi-grade classroom and flexible learning spaces, and after the pilot, the other schools in the network were able to adopt personalized learning in their classrooms as well. However, rolling out a network-wide learning model doesn’t happen overnight, because it is important to honor the unique characteristics of the students, classrooms, and various schools. Read the article to learn more!

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Personalized Learning Is a Mindset Not a Prescribed Model
Featured on EdWeek.org
By Jennifer Ferrari, Chief Schools Officer, and Jin-Soo Huh, Executive Director of Personalized Learning, at Distinctive Schools

In this article, Jennifer Ferrari and Jin-Soo Huh share Distinctive Schools’ journey into personalized learning in the 2013-2014 school year, which led to two schools in the network to become Next Generation Learning Challenges Breakthrough schools - Chicago International Charter  School (CICS) West Belden in 2015 and CICS Irving Park in 2016.

Discover how Distinctive Schools transformed student learning and, along the way, realized that personalized learning was not a destination but, instead, a journey and mindset.

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Getting To Know You: Lerner Profiles for Personalization
Featured on EdWeek.org
By Amanda Avallone, Content Manager for Next Generation Learning Challenges

This article addresses how the landscape of education is transforming, and that more and more schools are replacing traditional classrooms with personalized, student-centered learning experiences. For example, schools are considering:

• What is a learner profile?
• How can the information in a learner profile support deep, authentic, and more personalized learning?
• What educators in the Next Generation Learning Challenges community utilized learner profiles to help students chart unique pathways to success?​​

To help answer some of the above questions, the article features  Chicago International Charter School (CICS) West Belden and focuses on how the school captures students’ interests, strengths, learning environment preferences, and thinking/learning styles.