Reclaiming Personalized Learning: A Pedagogy for Restoring Equity and Humanity in Our Classrooms

Put the person back in personalization with a touch of humanity.

It’s a paradox: technology to individualize curriculum has made classrooms less personal. Let’s instead trust educators to make learning personal by supporting student agency, self-awareness, and the intimate personal connections found in authentic learning experiences.

In the second edition of this groundbreaking book―newly streamlined, and updated with insights from the pandemic―Paul France presents a vision of humanized personalization that rejects the corporate mindset and instead holds equity and inclusion at its center. France leverages over a decade of experience as a National Board Certified Teacher, education consultant, and education technology developer, sharing the following:

• Practical guidance on designing inclusive learning environments for diverse groups
• Sustainable applications for humanized personalization in curriculum design, assessment, and instruction
• Real-life stories from the author’s experience on both sides of the personalization debate
• A multitude of classroom tools, adaptable to a variety of instructional contexts

Nobody understands the need for humanizing education better than teachers. While educators across the country have learned that inundating students with personalized learning technologies is not the way to go, many don’t know how to personalize learning without them. The time to humanize personalized learning and our classrooms is now―and this book will give you a place to start.

Paul Emerich France is a National Board Certified Teacher, Reading Specialist, and author of five books on teaching, including Reclaiming Personalized Learning: A Pedagogy for Restoring Equity and Humanity in our Classrooms and Make Teaching Sustainable: Six Shifts Teachers Want and Students Need. He is also the author of Educational Leadership’s monthly column, “Make Teaching Sustainable.” France has authored well over 40 articles and blogs for various publications, including EdSurge, Edutopia, the International Literacy Association, and The Learning Professional.

Paul spent ten years as an elementary school teacher, working with students in grades transitional kindergarten through fifth grade. He has experience in both public and independent schools, and now serves as a consultant and coach, working with teachers to both humanize their teaching and make it more sustainable, finding practices that benefit students, meanwhile helping teachers find sustainability in their workloads. In 2023, he founded Make Teaching Sustainable, an organization committed to helping schools find sustainable practices. Paul also hosts the Make Teaching Sustainable podcast, which can be found on all major streaming platforms.

You can reach out to Paul by visiting http://www.maketeachingsustainable.org, emailing him at paul@maketeachingsustainable.org, or by following him on Instagram and Twitter at @sustainteaching.