By Jacqueline Louie
Personalized learning helps students understand they are loved and cared for, says Bill Tomiak, executive director at Clear Water Academy. “We really believe our best ability to serve and to help children in their educational formation is to be able to give that one-on-one attention with smaller class sizes,” Tomiak says. “There’s an expectation that teachers get to know the students and their families very well.”
Clear Water Academy is a private Catholic school in Calgary that focuses on forming students’ intellectual, human, spiritual and apostolic capacities. Small class sizes allow teachers to work with students individually, to help them achieve their potential.
Teachers know what is going on with students not just academically, they also know their strengths, likes and dislikes, Tomiak adds.
Because of this, teachers can determine when a child might need differentiated learning — whether it’s to work on bolstering their strengths or in an area where they might need a little bit of improvement.
“We really focus on forming the whole person,”says Tomiack.
Personalized learning is an important factor at Edison School in Okotoks, a K to12 private school celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Focused on academics, Edison School has about 12 students per class.
“One of the things that is very important to us is children’s self-confidence. When they receive personalized learning, when they need it, it enhances that self-confidence,” says headmistress Beth Chernoff.
An example of personalized learning is the schools Singapore math program for students from kindergarten through Grade 9.
“It is a more inclusive curriculum because of the way the math is taught. It’s a math program that more children can be successful in,” Chernoff explains. “It’s also quite accelerated. It keeps those really good mathematicians busy at the same time as satisfying the needs of the mainstream math student, because it uses higher level thinking skills and problem solving. It is really pushing that deep thinking skill.”
This personalized philosophy is also instrumental at Rundle College Academy, an independent school for children with learning disabilities grades 4 to 12.
“Rundle College Academy believes that all students are capable of learning. They might not be meeting their potentials. But our job is to get them to that potential,” says principal Jason Rogers.
Rundle Academy focuses on individualized instruction with small class sizes. On average, in grades 4 to 6, the school has six students per class; at the junior high level, there are eight students per class; and in senior high, there are 10 students per class.
Rundle College Academy accommodates students with a broad range of learning disabilities in reading, writing, math, working memory or processing speed.
As well, a number of students have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Often there will be one or more diagnoses present in the same students, who range from average to above average to gifted intelligence.
“Because we have small class sizes, we don’t modify the curriculum,” Rogers says. “What Rundle College Academy does is make a multitude of accommodations to help students approach the curriculum -— accommodations that allow them to be successful.
“We start with who the student is as an individual learner. What we take into account, is their strengths and weaknesses.”
The school considers students’ learning preferences, whether they like to work on their own or in pairs or groups and whether they prefer to take in information in an audio, visual, verbal, kinesthetic or auditory way.
Rundle College Academy tailors the program to each student in an individual program plan (IPP), developed in consultation with teachers and parents, which the school uses to guide instructional practices throughout the year.
“With small class sizes, we expect teachers are going to differentiate their instruction for every class,” Rogers says. “It allows teachers to focus on the individual students in that classroom.
With six, eight or 10 students in a class, he says you are able to really get to know who those students are as learners and develop good relationships with them.
A large part of having success in a school like this is the development of trusting relationships, where students are willing to take chances in front of their peers and to take chances in front of their teachers, says Rogers. “We really want them to be engaged, interactive learners during lessons — so they will answer multiple questions in every class. There is no opportunity not to be involved.”
In the elementary years at Rundle College Academy, it’s mostly about teaching students who they are as learners. As students move to the junior high years it’s about having them start to understand what works best for them, and presenting them with multiple opportunities to explore different learning modalities.
In senior high school, students become advocates for their own learning abilities and styles. This means when they leave high school they will be able to advocate for themselves in the wider world for whatever learning style suits them best, whether it’s as a student at a post-secondary educational institution, or out in the working world, Rogers says.