Personalizing Learning for English Learners
BY JEFF L. DILLON/School Administrator, February 2017

Superintendent Jeff Dillon, left, watches a 2nd-grade English learner at Wilder Elementary School in Wilder, Idaho, complete a lesson on his iPad. (Photo courtesy of Wilder School District)

In our rural community in western Idaho, schooling is really about culture. Our driving motivation is to create a school system in which parents desire to send their children to our schools — even if they had another choice.
To create an education system that attracts families, you need to be great at educating children. The ability to create a dynamic learning system is based on the ability to meet the individual needs of every student.

The Wilder School District serves an agriculturally rich farming community that harvests hops, sugar beets, onions, wheat, corn, mint, hay and, yes, potatoes. The school district educates 500 students in K-12, 100 percent of whom receive a free breakfast and lunch. Eighty percent are nonwhite, 30 percent are English language learners and 30 percent of the students will relocate at some point during the school year for economic reasons. Even so, our high school graduation rate exceeds the state average, ranging annually between 87 percent and 100 percent with four of five continuing in some form of postsecondary education. That places us 30 percent above the state average.

With our demographics, we must maneuver around many obstacles to meet the needs of students. By adding new programs to meet these challenges, we created a different challenge for teachers. Teachers became inundated with preparation and planning to differentiate the multiple grade levels within their classrooms. We clearly needed to personalize learning for every student, especially for the English language learners.

Four Elements
We consider four areas to be non-negotiables for successful implementation of personalized learning for English learners in a rural school community.

First, professional development is the strength of who we are and what we do. Our professional development is a two-hour weekly event that is differentiated and personalized for each teacher.

Developing effective teachers is how we address the diversity of our ELLs. This training provides the daily instructional skills to engage students and facilitate learning. English learners are supported with in-depth vocabulary context that is enriched between peers and text. Skilled at understanding the cultural background of the ELL, teachers can match student learning styles to their individual learning needs, producing a student-owned learning environment.

Second, we use a serving tray approach to curriculum. Instead of purchasing a one-size-fits-all program for English learners, we invest in programs based on personalized learning needs. This serving tray of curriculum puts flexibility back into the hands of the teacher.

One such area is our StoryMaker™ animation studio. English learners have an option through the curriculum to animate a story from a topic of their interest. The student is assigned to write a script for the chosen story. After several revisions with peers and staff, the student will create a story board matching the script to the characters’ movements. When the script and movements have been approved, students complete a “table read,” where each character reads the script as it would sound in final animation. This process engages ELLs in writing, editing and revising, and verbally articulating the story with appropriate character voice. The final component gives students experience in the animation studio after which the story is published.

Third, we create synergy around personalized learning. Students, staff, administration and trustees are asked to comment on personalized learning. We address the identified problems but never let them subsume the positive results of student ownership of learning.

The latter is fully evident in our literacy work in K-5. In the first quarter of the year, English learners receive exponentially greater access to mastery-based leveled books. On average, each ELL student reads 70 books and listens to another 120 books being read to them.

Free to Explore
Finally, we give teachers the freedom to make mistakes. We use the golf term “mulligans” to talk about what was tried and just didn’t go as planned. Teacher skills are validated by the trust they are given to make professional decisions about student learning needs. This tolerance for do-overs does not reduce rigor, but instead has increased rigor and confidence.

This approach is especially helpful when we work with our ELLs. They are given freedom to explore and this sometimes will produce errors in their verbal and written expression. We consider the mistake a tool for reflection and an opportunity for professional growth. As with adults, it increases rigor and confidence.


Jeff Dillon is superintendent and K-5 principal in the Wilder School District in Wilder, Idaho. E-mail: jdillon@wilderschools.org. Twitter: @JeffJdillon