Customized "Dining"

On a recent episode of a morning talk show, a host was rating different kinds of pizza when he made an observation that caught my attention. The host claimed that the reason why so many people identify pizza as their favorite food is because of its customization. He stated that people probably like pizza, in part, because  they can personalize it to meet their tastes. My first thought was, "Hey, that is just like the customized classroom! Students tend to prefer it because it is personalized."

I saw this play out in my customized classroom this year. As the school year progressed, I observed varying levels of engagement. More personalized learning tasks led to greater levels of student engagement. Less personalized learning tasks led to lesser levels of student engagement. While this observation wasn't always present (due to other factors in play for students), it did apply most of the time.

Some students made this connection as well. One young man told me that he prefered the, "...way we do things." Another student, amid a conversation about being able to choose the content of the moment,  said with relief, "I like that." In an end of year survey, 97% of my students rated "our" approach (meaning the "customized" version of a standards based approach) as being Very Effective or Somewhat Effective. (I was actually surprised by this result, given the questioning/counterculture nature of young adolescents.) When asked to identify the unit of study that resulted in the Least Learning, the majority selections were units from before the customized approach was fully implemented. While there was a measure of customization in play during that phase, students were still working on the same tasks at the same time.

Now, before you award me the Golden Apple Award for Teacher Perfection, the pizza-classroom connection does raise some red flags for me. While my class has a higher level of customization than most traditional classrooms, there are still so many areas that I have been unable (or perhaps unwilling) to personalize. I'm interested to see the growth of two new features that will be fully implemented in the fall. The first is the Personal Learning Profile.  The second is the Personal Research Project. (To learn more about these, see prior entries.) These two undertakings may open the door to more intensive customization. We'll see.

Regardless of where we are on the customization continuum, there is always room for more personalization in pursuit of the educational experience that is as engaging and enjoyable as a delicious slice of pizza! Like the students who I work with each year, this program isn't done cooking yet.