Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades: A Guide for Classroom Teachers and School Leaders

Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades shows how teachers in grades 5–8 can leverage the use of personalized learning plans (PLPs) to increase student agency and engagement, helping youth to establish learning goals aligned with their interests and assess their own learning—particularly around essential skills that cut across disciplines.
 
Drawing on their research and work with fifty schools in Vermont, where PLPs are used statewide, the authors show how personalized learning aligns with effective middle grades practice and provide in-depth examples of how educators have implemented PLPs in a wide range of schools representing different demographics and grade configurations. They also highlight five critical roles for teachers in personalized learning environments—as empowerer, scaffolder, scout, assessor, and community builder—and illustrate how teachers can adapt the PLP process for their own unique contexts.
 
Grounded in experience and full of engaging examples, artifacts, and tools, the book builds on the emerging field of personalized learning and connects it with the developmental needs of middle schoolers to provide a unique and valuable resource for individual classroom teachers, teacher teams, school leaders, teacher‐educators, and others.

Penny A. Bishop is Professor of Middle Level Education at the University of Vermont, where she conducts research on schooling for young adolescents and teaches future middle grades educators. She is co-author of several books and more than fifty articles on effective middle grades practice. Dr. Bishop has served as principal investigator on numerous grants, including as founding director of the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education, bringing over $13 million dollars to Vermont schools to improve the learning and lives of middle grades students. A former middle school teacher, Dr. Bishop has served as chair of the American Educational Research Association’s special interest group on Middle Level Education Research; as chair of the Association for Middle Level Education’s Research Advisory Board; and as a Sir Ian Axford Public Policy Fellow to the New Zealand Ministry of Education, providing research on schooling policies for young adolescents in that country. She is the recipient of The John H. Lounsbury Award for Distinguished Achievement in Middle Level Education, the highest award given by the AMLE.

John M. Downes is director of the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education at the University of Vermont. Since joining UVM, Dr. Downes has led the development the Institute’s model of collaborative school change and teacher-directed professional development, which has now served middle grades faculties in more than sixty schools. He has led several grants and evaluations, published more than twenty articles and chapters, and delivered dozens of state and national presentations on topics including technology integration, young adolescents’ post-secondary aspirations, teachers and students partnering in school change and professional development, and their experiences as they shift to personalized learning environments. His fifteen years at the university builds upon ten years in a middle school helping its teachers and leaders design and implement more engaging learning for students with technology, curriculum integration, teaming, and collaborative teacher learning.

Katy Farber is professional development coordinator at the University of Vermont’s Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education. She currently conducts research about adolescent education and partners with schools to help them personalize learning, engage students, and participate in action research. She is the author of three books about education: Why Great Teachers Quit and How We Can Stop the Exodus (Corwin Press, 2010); Change the World with Service Learning (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011); Real and Relevant: A Guide to Service and Project- Based Learning, 2nd edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017); and several chapters and articles. Recent publications can be found in Current Issues in Middle Level Education; Exploring the Impact of the Dissertation in Practice; and The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education. Dr. Farber was a classroom teacher for seventeen years and regularly presents at state and national conferences.