Student-Directed Personalized Learning

Vergennes Union High School has long been recognized regionally for progress in school transformation, especially for our development of Proficiency-Based Graduation Requirements (PBGR), a portfolio system piloted by the Class of 2016. As originally envisioned, our PBGR portfolio would honor long-term, holistic, real-world projects driven by student interests, rather than merely a checklist of competencies and teacher-designed activities in the classroom. As with many schools, such experiences are already offered to some VUHS students through special programs, but the vision of all VUHS graduates completing similar work has yet to be realized: finding time in the schedule for universal, student-selected, project-based learning remains a challenge. A few proposals, such as special days or weeks designated for school-wide independent projects, have proven unwieldy especially for students lacking intrinsic motivation; other solutions, narrowly tied to existing classroom structures, too teacher-centric.

This project is intended to address some of the key issues facing Vermont schools at this important juncture: specifically how, when, and where we will support and assess truly student-directed personalized learning. We propose to build within our schedule a flexible system of “workshop” classes to support independent student projects, whether in school or outside, across all areas of learning, staffed by teachers with relevant expertise and passion for mentoring independent work. Some workshops would likely reflect familiar themes such as Science Inquiry; others would cover non-traditional interdisciplinary topics such as Leadership Development or Community Issues. As a 2016 Fellow, I will facilitate design of this system by exploring possible revisions to our schedule, researching best practices for workshop classes around New England, identifying local resources and opportunities for real-world student projects, and leading the initial cadre of collaborating teachers in our joint professional development activities.