According to Pintrich and Zusho (2002), self-regulated learning is an active constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behaviour, which is guided and constrained by their goals and the contextual features of the environment. The MYP Personal Project provides a great opportunity for students to develop self-regulation and metacognition which prepares them not only for the DP study but also lifelong learning.

In the context of the MYP personal project, self-regulated learners exercise their agency; set personal learning goals to acquire knowledge and skills; demonstrate their consolidation of their learning through making a product. Throughout the personal project making process, students identify and practice strategies to develop their approaches to learning skills and make strategic steps to achieve their personal project goals. In the process of completing their personal project, they monitor their engagement, reflect on what worked and what did not work, and make adjustment of their actions accordingly. In order to achieve the desired outcomes, students will need to identify what approaches to learning (ATL) skills is needed and what a new learning strategy is effective to help them achieve their goals. I think this is where students can benefit greatly from the supervisor's guidance. We should not assume that MYP Year 5 students have all the necessary skills and learning strategies. The conversation about what skills might help you (the student) in achieving the learning goal(s) and product goal(s) must be deliberate. Although they are MYP Year 5 students, it doesn't mean all their subject teachers have explicitly taught them ATL skills and provided them with specific strategies to develop particular ATL skills.  

In the new MYP personal project guide (2021), students select the most appropriate ATL skills for each stage of their project. Previously, students were required to demonstrate specific ATL skills specified by the MYP at each stage of the process. I believe this new change will further empower students to monitor and control cognition, motivation and behavior in order to achieve their personal project goal. In the student-supervisor meetings, it's is important to ask students in each stage about what skills they would like to apply or practice in order to reach their goal. Help them to visualize what it looks like when they demonstrate the skill and what example might be included. Even better, guide students to elaborate what IB learner profile attribute they will be demonstrating by applying a specific ATL skills.   

Here are some examples of how ATL skills might be applied in different stages of completing the personal project: 

In the planning phase: 

In the process of making the product: 

Here is the poster that I have created to support the student-supervisor conversation. Click the image to download the PDF version.

• Pintrich, P. R., & Zusho, A. (2002). The development of academic self-regulation: The role of cognitive and motivational factors. In A. Wigfield & J. S. Eccles (Eds.), Development of achievement motivation (pp. 249– 284). San Diego, CA: Academic.

Through the feedback action research I conducted and my observation on how students have engaged with the online learning resulting from the pandemic, I have developed a growing interest in self-directed learning. Self-directed learning is particularly emphasized and implemented via the MYP Personal Project and Community Project. What is self-directed learning? Based on what I have read, self-directed learning is that individual learners determine their goals, take responsibility and choose their own learning strategies and resources to make plans and initiate action in order to reach their desired outcomes. Through self-directed learning, learners increase knowledge, skills, personal growth, and reflect on the outcome of the learning process. According to Knowles (1975) cited by Boyel et al (2014), self-directed learning comprises eight elements: "(a) it is a process (b) that is initiated by the individual, (c) which may or may not involve the help of others, (d) to identify their learning needs, (e) develop learning goals from these needs, (f) find the necessary resources to attain these goals, (g) select and implement the proper learning strategies to meet their goals, and (h) determine how to measure learning outcomes." 

These elements are clearly included in the MYP Projects, Personal Project and Community Project. To help students complete the self-directed MYP Personal Project, I think it is important to rethink the roles and responsibilities of students and supervisors. Students need supportive adults who show an interest in what they want to; how they want to do it; why the project is important to them personally, socially, emotionally and academically, and guide them through their struggles of completing the personal project. Although MYP Year 5 students are responsible in completing their own personal project, they will need guidance and coaching to help them succeed. Before students can become self-directed, self-planned, and self-initiated, they must equip with skills and strategies so that their learning is lifelong and sustainable. I review the definition of apprenticeship in education found on Wikipedia. ​

We replaced the timetable and ran a special programme called IDEAS Project in the school year of 2019-2020 during online learning period. It aimed to create learning experience and support students in developing self-directed projects. A list of choices was provided and students signed up for an option of their preference and collaborate with a partner or a team to complete the self-directed project. 

We were very excited about the end result. 83% of the students who signed up for the IDEAS Project and the completion rate was about 86%. Based on this data and feedback from teachers and students, we will continue to run IDEAS Project in an effort to create a culminating experience for our students. I also do think this paves the way for MYP personal project and DP Community, Activity, Service (CAS) learning. Some of the students shared that this was just what they needed after they completed endless summative assessment and finally had a chance to do something fun in their choices with their friends. We also shared with our students how their creativity and perseverance has inspired others. Check out our story in "Redesigning School: Six Key Pillars From Six of the Most Innovative Schools and Programs" written by Kyle Wanger. 

Here is the list of student-directed project choices for our students to choose from this year (2020-2021). People sometimes ask why we give a list of options rather than just have students do their own inquiry projects. We ask our students. They actually prefer to have a list of open-ended projects. Many students share they work better when there is a 'challenge' presented to them. Of course, for students who want to do anything that is not on the list, the Wonder Day project serves for this purpose. Don't forget to check out our KIS IDEAS 2020 Trello Board.   

When I was designing the options for self-directed projects, I cam across some websites that provide useful toolkits and inspirations to help students see what the project might look like, sound like, and feel like. These websites are listed below in case you are interested in finding out more. 

• DoSomething.org: Many inspiration community action projects advocated by young people. These projects are achievable and students can relate to many of the project ideas. Service learning does not require students to save the world. Encouraging students to observe issues or problems in their immediate community not only help with their identify formation but also build the relationships with the community.   
• Biz Kid$: Great lessons and resources are provided to teach students how to create a product for fundraising. Many young entrepreneurs are features in the website and their actions and stories are inspiring. Going through the process of organizing a fundraising requires students to practice and develop their organization skills, communication skills and affective skills. Meanwhile, it also help students to develop financial literacy.   
• Wonder Day project: I am a big fan of John Spencer. Our students have been doing Wonder Day Projects since 2018. Students enjoy this so much as it gives freedom but yet provides the structure to conduct their inquiry. 

Our team also wants to encourage students to unplug from technology a bit in the last week of school. Therefore, we have put together some activities for students as the morning energizers. Students can choose any activity from the tic-tac-toe menu or of course, do something they like (or even sleep in a little bit!)

The idea of differentiation has been discussed and explored widely among schools and educators. It is an area of development for my school as recommended by our accreditation organizations. Before diving deeper into how we can provide differentiated instructions, it is worth mentioning some common misconceptions about differentiation observed by Carol Tomlinson and Marcia Imbeau as below: 
​
Differentiation is

• new; 
• for a particular category of students (for example, special education, English learners, gifted education); 
• something extra that teachers have to do in addition to their "normal" plans; 
• oppositional to content standards; 
• a way to "mollycoddle" students; 
• a particular set of instructional strategies; 
• extreme teaching - something only an occasional teacher can be expected to do; 
• something teachers already do. 

I had these misconceptions before. When I was a young teacher first learning about differentiation, I also thought that differentiation requires teachers to implement a particular set of strategies for each student. I usually obtained many different instructional ideas from workshops about this topic, but I did not always know how to use them with my students effectively. As the authors pointed out in the book, Managing a Differentiated Classroom, "Differentiation is a way of thinking about the classroom, not a specified set of tools." I also heard many teachers say that "We are already doing differentiation." It's important to point out that although teachers might use some intervention in responding to different students' needs, the approaches used are not always proactive and/or intentional. 

After reading Differentiated Instruction Made Practical: Engaging the Extremes through Classroom Routines, I developed a greater understanding of what differentiated instruction is and is not. The authors proposed the ALL-ED (All Learners Learning Every Day) theoretical framework specifying four steps to implement differentiated instructions in this book. 


Step One: Identify OSCAR 
First, teachers need to identify lesson Objectives, Starting position, Criteria, Action pattern, and Reflections to determine any necessary adjustments to the instruction.  


Step Two: Look and Listen
Then teachers need to get to know their students and their learning profiles by gathering student responses to implement individual and group learning routines. 


Step Three: CARR Check
in this stage, teachers give formative assessment to check understanding and analyze data to determine how they can further support students. To help teachers use CARR Check, guiding questions are provided for teachers to reflect on the four elements based on the formative assessment data collected: 

• Clarity: Is this task clear to all students? Are the words understandable by all students? Are students expected to understand the vocabulary that may be vague, have multiple meanings or are in unfamiliar contexts?
• Access: Could all students complete the task independently and feel capable?
• Rigor: How much effort is required of different students? What would students find complex?
• Relevance: Would all students find this task important, interesting, valuable, and/or useful?​

Step Four: SHOp Adjustments 
Finally, teachers use their formative assessment data to guide their instructional decision-making and provide options according. They might need to adjust Structures for tasks, Help and provide Options to respond to perceived learner needs. (I am unsure what the 'p' stands for.) 

This is a very nicely put together evidence-based framework that is easy to follow. I particularly appreciated the concept that all learners learn every day. I rethink why we need to differentiate and how differentiated instruction can benefit all students. I had an a-ha moment. When teachers differentiate according to students' interests, readiness, and learning profiles, we try to increase their motivation, academic growth and efficacy. This makes differentiation so much easy to understand. I begin to think about how this ALL-ED framework can be integrated with the IB programmes and what instructional ideas might support teachers in implementing differentiated instructions.

Here is the model I came up with: Differentiation is when everyone LEARNS. 

• L: Look for patterns of need and create a safe and inclusive environment
• E: Establish purposeful and relevant curriculum and assessment mapping 
• A: Analyze assessment data throughout to inform instruction decisions 
• R: Refer to learning objectives and provide targeted and actionable feedback
• N: Nurture self-regulated learning behaviors and assist students in setting goals 
• S: Structure lessons that promote thinking and stretches students  

There are five classroom elements that teachers can differentiate or modify: content, process, products, affect and environment. We consider students' interests, readiness, and learning profile when differentiating any elements. Before teachers differentiate their class, we first need to consider affect (How students link thoughts and feeling in the classroom) and learning environment (the way the classroom feels and functions) as Maslow always first! Using the MYP language, I identify content as the written curriculum; the process is the taught curriculum; the product is the assessed curriculum. 

After synthesizing information from High Impact Teaching Strategies and cross-reference the 250+ Influences on Student Achievement, I identified some key strategies that teachers can use to differentiate content, process and product. I hope this model is easy to follow and helpful to teachers who want to implement differentiated instruction. 

You can click the image below to download the PDF file. ​

• Bondie, Rhonda, and Akane Zusho. Differentiated Instruction Made Practical: Engaging the Extremes through Classroom Routines. Routledge, 2018.
• Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Managing a Differentiated Classroom - a Practical Guide, Scholastic Inc., 2011, pp. 10–11.
• State of Victoria. “High Impact Teaching Strategies.” State of Victoria (Department of Education and Training), June 2017, revised and updated October 2020.
• “250+ Influences on Student Achievement.” Visible Learning Limited Partnership and Cognition Education Group , Nov. 2017.

In my previous post, "OREO Online Learning Guidelines", I put together a list of tools our teachers have used to facilitate learning. I intentionally did not introduce any new toolS to avoid adding cognitive load in our initial implementation of asynchronous remote learning. Entering the second implementation of remote learning, we are implementing synchronous learning (with a combination of asynchronous learning). Students will engage with various collaborative and interactive learning engagements in the synchronous remote learning model. They might also receive instant messages and emails. It's not uncommon that we often see students (and adults) have many tabs and/or windows open in their web browser. I learned about the term 'collaborative overload in the article entitled, Tips for Avoiding Collaborative Overload. Put simply, it refers to "the burnout that results from reliance on emails, meetings and other collaborative technology tools that have limited our ability to get stuff done." I am sure this sounds familiar to many of us. 

We want to leverage tech tools for content delivery, discussion, interaction, collaboration, differentiation, and personalized learning. However, we also need to be mindful of how different platforms and digital tools for collaboration can overwhelm and confuse learners. Intentional planning, having a clear process and routines can help students avoid ‘collaborative overload’. When learners do not want to open one more tab or window or launch one more app on their computer, they might feel overwhelmed with communication and collaboration. Here are some tools that our teachers have used with students previously. I organize these digital tools based on the purpose of learning. Of course, you can always move them between categories. It all depends on the intention!

I also included some ideas for virtual icebreakers. Learning is not transactional. Instead, it's social and relational. We need to think about the purpose and maximize the time spent together virtually. Instead of jumping right into the content and instruction delivery, we welcome students and invite them to learn at the beginning of the lesson. However, asking students to share any experiences or ideas voluntarily is less effective and it does not include everyone. This is true whether being online or on campus. Relationship building requires thought, and we need to do some prep work. Thus, having some "online icebreakers" might be helpful to support teachers as their reference.  ​

When delivering online instruction, an idea is also to "streamline" the learning process and materials. What I mean is to organize all learning material in sequential order and avoid opening different tabs or windows if possible. For example, Google Slide is a tool to streamline the content and instruction and then I can use Peardeck to engage students. This way, I don't need to send students to other websites. 
​
Another great tool that supports digital teaching is ClassroomScreen. It's exactly as it described on its website, "All the classroom tools at your fingertips". Students can follow the instruction in one space rather than jumping between web pages. 

If you are a ManageBac school, I will encourage schools and teachers to explore the Stream & Resources function. It appears to me that many schools use ManageBac, but they are not really aware of the functions and only use ManageBac for recording unit plans. I have made this Stream Function tutorial for our teachers. Hopefully, this will be helpful and encourage teachers to use ManageBac more as a teaching and learning tool, not just a record-keeping tool. Isn't it exhausting to use multiple platforms to teach and record lesson plans? Most importantly, it is crucial to keep all information, resources, and student assessment work in the database to support teachers who will teach the unit next year and further refine and develop the curriculum.  ​

Click the image to download the poster in PDF file if you want. 

Note: The screenshot of ClassroomScreen is used with permission.