Parent Note about Conferences

The following blurb was sent out to parents in the KCN about parent conferences.  The intent was to get them thinking about how education may have shifted since they were in the classroom, and we thought we'd share it with you so you saw what they were seeing!

Over the course of the last three years, Kaneland has been embarking on a journey towards providing more personalized learning for our students.  As a community member and parent you may be wondering how can you support this process or what does personalized learning mean for me child.  We hope this article can share some guidance on this process. The article is based on a publication from the Institute for Personalized Learning based out of Southern Wisconsin.  Kaneland has been a partnership district with the Institute for two years.  We are excited to continue the process of personalizing and hope you will commit to be a partner in this educational process.  

What Does Personalized Learning Mean for Students?
To put it simply, personalized learning means that each student will have his/her learning needs met. Personalized learning classrooms may look and feel different for today’s students than they did when their parents were in school, but students are likely to understand the changes.  Students are excited about personalized learning for these reasons:

• Students have more say in their learning.
• The individual needs of each student are met, so each student is successful.
• Students have a clear understanding of their learning goals and know how to achieve them.
• Students get to make choices about how they “show what they know.”
• Students get the support they need when they are challenged by a concept.
• Students get the encouragement they need when they are ready to move forward.

How Can Families and Communities Support Personalized Learning?
There are many ways that families and communities can support personalized learning, and each family support structure may look very different based on the needs of the student.
Families can change the way they talk about learning with their kids. For example, parents are engaging their children in conversations about what they are curious about, how they like to learn best, what their interests are, how they have learned from a recent failure, and so on. In other words, the emphasis should be on the process of learning and not just the end grade.

Families can connect and support self-reflection based on the learner profile of their child.  Taking time in the evening to reflect on the process of learning from that day and how that best meets or does not meet their profile can be beneficial for students.  Parents can model the reflection and advocacy process for their child, as well as give opportunities at home to practice that advocacy and decision making.  provide ownership of household tasks and decisions to your child and support them along that process.  The goal in personalized learning is to have the student become the driver of learning through reflection and advocacy.   

Question to ask your child?

• What decisions did you make during learning today?
• How might you advocate for your learning needs?
• Describe your learner profile?  
• What type of learning environment do you work best in?  Why do you think that meets your needs?
• What goals do you have for this month of learning?
• What are your long term goals in learning and life?

The key take away is that the family conversation is about the process of learning not the end grade or result.