Progressive Education Series presents customized content, in a one topic per presentation format. It is ideal for use in Professional Learning Communities and in Teacher Education Programs, and Workshops. This presentation is titled, "Allowing the Space and Time for Students' Voice" It is focused on harnessing the strength of the first five minutes of a class to learn about the learners. Please feel free to contact the author for addition help and support.

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Focus:
Personalized
Learning

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Dr. Renuka Rajasekaran
PhD (Chemistry); PhD (Education); PhD (Educational Leadership)
Educator, Luella High School, Locust Grove, GA – 30248
Renuka.Rajasekaran@henry.k12.ga.us
The encouragement of the following educator leaders is gratefully acknowledged:
Dr. Dennis Carpenter, Superintendent, Hickman Mills C1 School District, Kansas
City, MO 64138.
Dr. Pulliam Davis, Superintendent, Greene County Schools, Greensboro, GA –
30248.
Mr. Gabrielle Burnette, Principal, Sharp Learning Center, Covington, GA – 30248.
Mr. Jerry D. Smith Jr., Principal, Luella High School, Locust Grove, GA – 30248.
Content in this Presentation
Section 1: Help Personalizing the Learning for them
Section 2: The Voice Over
Section 3: Voices Unspoken
Section 4: Capitalizing on the Golden Time
Section 5: Student Voice is a Product of Teacher’s
Active Listening and Student Empowerment
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Of the numerous changes that have taken place
in the educational scenario, a noteworthy
revolutionary idea is the Personalized Learning
for the learners.
Identify their individual
capacities
Figure 1. Teacher’s Primary Tasks in Providing Personalized Learning Scheme for the Students
We are in an unprecedented time in the world of
education. What were once considered
unimportant are given their due place and the
pivotal position of learners is exalted and
restored to its prime position.
“Personalized learning is instruction that offers
pedagogy, curriculum, and learning
environments to meet the individual student’s
needs. The experience is tailored to learning
preferences and the specific interests of different
learners. In a personalized learning environment,
the learning objectives and content, as well as
the method and pace, may all vary.
Personalization also encompasses differentiated
instruction that supports student progress based
on subject matter mastery.”
(Dream Box Learning, undated)[1].
Personalized learning is intended to facilitate the
academic success of each student by first
determining the learning needs, interests, and
aspirations of individual students, and then
providing learning experiences that are
customized—to a greater or lesser extent—for
each student. To accomplish this goal, schools,
teachers, guidance counselors, and other
educational specialists may employ a wide
variety of educational methods, from intentionally
cultivating strong and trusting student-adult
relationships to modifying assignments and
instructional strategies in the classroom to
entirely redesigning the ways in which students
are grouped and taught in a school [2]. Among
others, the role of the teacher is the most
important (Figure 1).
Identify appropriate
strategies to cater to their
needs
Identify the differences in their
learning preferences
Identify appropriate strategies
to cater to their needs
Identify
appropriate
assessments to
gauge their level of
mastery
Identify their educational
goals and college and career
options
Identify their
curricular needs
Section 1. Help Personalizing the Learning for Them
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Identify appropriate strategies
to understand their struggles
and successes in their learning
journey

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One of the most important premises on which
personalized learning operates is providing the
learners the opportunity for “ voice and choice” in
the learning process. Ensuring voice and choice for
students enables democracy in learning making
the educational process equitable to all.
It is fundamental that the teacher has to have the
choices in place for the students. But do choices
really matter first? Like this question, there are
many questions that a teacher needs to answer
before embarking on the voice and choice (Figure
2).
What happens when there are
choices but no voice?
Vice or Choice – which comes first?
What happens when there are
many voices but no choices?
Do all learners voice?
Section 2. The Voice Over
Which is more effective – formal
or informal avenues for voice?
Can a learner’s silence be taken
as acceptance of what choice is
offered?
What are some formal and
informal avenues for students’
voice in the classroom?
How do you know that what choice a student
voiced for is really the correct choice for that
student?
Figure 2. There are many questions that a teacher need to answer before embarking on the voice and choice component of personalized learning.
Are there reasons why
children do not voice
when they need to?
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Why do some students do
not voice even if you ask
them repeatedly to voice?

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Exceptional students might
find it difficult to accept a
task that is way different
from others.
Figure 3. It is important for the teacher to ascertain which students in her/his class belong to each of these categories.
English Language
learners may not
speak for the fear of
making mistakes in
English.
Many students, especially those
from vulnerable domestic and
socioeconomic conditions have
come to accept that many of their
rights are to be ignored as a part of
the daily routine and, therefore,
would never articulate about
anything.
Some students often feel more
comfortable being championed
by other than speaking up for
themselves.
Some students have very short span
of attention and they do not take
note that they have several choices
and do not care to participate.
Some students will feel
intimidated if the
teacher chooses to talk
to them in less formal or
informal settings.
Section 3. Voices Unspoken
Some students like to
be given extended
time for the choice to
be voiced out by
them.
In personalized learning classrooms, the
learning environment is learner-driven
with the teacher serving as a facilitator in
learning. Henceforth, the teacher makes
multiple options possible for mastering the
same content and provides multiple
modalities to demonstrate the mastery of
learning. However, “choice” s more than a
menu. Unless and until the choices are
reached and consumed by the students, the
choices do not serve the intended purpose.
So the primary focus in a personalized
learning environment is to make the
choices accessible to all and empower
students to voice out on their choices.
However, this cannot be realized unless
until the teacher knows the different
hierarchies of heterogeneity existing in the
learners (Figure 3).
Students face physical,
emotional,
psychological, social,
and/or mental stress
that make it difficult for
them to voice their
choices.
Some students do not
want to come forward
to choose because they
need more one-on-one
help to enable their
decision on the choice.
Some students are so loyal to their friends and
will like to take up the same task as his/her
friend irrespective of the fact it is harder or very
easier task for them.
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One of the best time slots in a classroom to get to
know your students’ voices is the beginning of
the class period. If this time is effectively
capitalized on, the teacher can bring about
magical results in the learners. This time helps in
feeling the pulse of the students who come into
your classroom. Several additional factors like
sickness, mood, attitude, etc. the students bring
to the classroom can also be discerned. During
this time, the teacher has to actively listen to
student conversations, and quickly infer how the
class setting for the day is and how he/she could
commence the call to learning and plan for the
challenges of that setting for that period.
As students enter into your
classroom, they all come from a
variety of settings with various
levels of mental alertness or
tiredness, they are not truly ready
for another serious learning session
immediately.
Therefore, at the beginning of
the class period, students would
not begin with the Warm-up or
Bell ringer already displayed on
the projector or board but
would prefer to talk. Let them
talk ; do not intervene. It is at
this time of the classroom the
students feel empowered and
talk autonomously. Their talking
need not be interrupted at least
for a few minutes.
Section 4. Capitalizing on the Golden Time
From what they talk about the Warm-up or
the Bell Ringer, you can quickly understand
how far the class is prepared for the
learning tasks of the present class.
Make note of the topics they
talk about. It could be about the
football game of that evening or
about the test of next period for
another subject, etc.
This exercise will also help you to understand
how effectively should you go over the Warm-
up and check for background knowledge etc.
Then begin the second round of walking;
now look at each student’s face; when
you look at them, they will start to make
little expressions they make about the
Warm-up on the board.
Figure 4. Initial five minutes of the class is the golden time for a teacher to get to know the students in every class
Listen to the
conversations. Walk
around and listen to even
the minutest conversation
that is going on and
silently take the roll.
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Well begun is half done. Our students
though they are the same per semester,
each day, they are different and come
into your classroom with varied levels of
readiness. It is important for us to
understand who our students are every
day. This will help us the teachers to
aptly adapt the design and deliver the
content with no furor.
A little extra start time is okay as it
saves a great deal of time in enabling
students’ mastery of the learning
content.
Section 5. Student Voice is a Product of Teacher’s
Active Listening and Student Empowerment
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Voice is what people say when they talk wholeheartedly.
Voice can be understood as a metaphor of human development as talking is a gift
of the nature only to human beings. Voice is also a powerful psychological tool for
developing self-confidence.
When it comes to “voice, students should be given the due space and time as a
fellow human being, irrespective of their age. To give to a fellow human being, an
opportunity to voice depends on someone actively listening to the voicer and
ensuring that he/she is being heard. Voice is truly a symbol of empowerment of
those being heard. A classroom is a miniature society; there can be many nuances
of voice; there can be many challenges to voicing.
However, the classroom revolves around that single person, namely the teacher,
whose pedagogy should model active listening consistently. Active listening by the
teacher is the key for the successful realization of choice and voice of students in
a personalized learning environment. Capacitating student voice needs to become
an integral component of the daily routine of the classroom, in every period.
Figure 5. Active listening is a deliberate activity: Picture Courtesy for the listening dog:
https://www.phase2technology.com/blog/active-listening-a-real-life-jedi-mind-trick/

8. REFERENCES
[1] Dream Box Learning; http://www.dreambox.com/personalized-learning
[2] The Glossary of Educational Reforms;
http://edglossary.org/personalized-learning/
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