Personalized Learning: Enabling Student Voice and Choice Through Projects (Transcript)

Student: If you invest in us, we’re asking for $25,000 with 16 percent equity.

Advisor: I’m going to propose that you sell your baskets for maybe like $40, and I’m prepared to give you $50,000.

Chae: The whole focus of personalized learning is the students see the relevance of what it is that they’re doing. And so the outcome is students are engaged. They’re enjoying the learning process. They’re working collaboratively with others. They’re able to share what it is that they’ve learned and have their own successes.

Chae: Here at Nashville Big Picture High School, we offer rigor, we offer relevance, we offer relationships, and all of it is centered around students and their personalized learning.

Gary: Who would be the ideal target for somebody who’s trying to recruit for a group like this.

Student: Really, it’s just anyone who has like a gap in their life that they need to fill.

Gary: Oh, man, that’s a killer statement.

Gary: I think the essence of personalized learning is understanding where the students is and where they want to go. We use a lot of project work in class. And with the project work, I try to give them voice and choice. Give them a menu of options that they can research. Also a menu of options that they can choose to show learning.

Gary: The last group that we’ll hear from today will be Naomi, Brianna, and Nicole. And they are going to inform us on what exactly the Black Lives movement is and what it’s about.

Nicole: In Mr. Gary’s class, we have U.S. history, and what we do is learn about different things that is going on in the world, either from the past, or what’s going on today.

Nicole: Eric Garner, he died; he was standing out after eight. New York police officer put him in a chokehold, and his last words were, “I can’t breathe.”

Nicole: So my project was Black Lives Matter, and I chose that because I’m kind of passionate about that. I’m passionate about black rights.

Student: Black Lives Matter was created in 2012 after Trevon Martin’s murder.

Gary: It puts them in the role of being the expert, and they’re able to share with students about something that they’ve researched, and it gives them a sense of confidence because they have that role in front of the room, and they’re sharing that information.

Gary: You guys, good job! We’ll pick up on Friday morning.

Chae: When it comes to personalizing our learning, we do have some commonality, so that when we do have projects, we also have to look at content and what standards are. But student voice is key. So it’s students-centered because a lot of the ways of, “How did you learn it?” some of that comes from the students’ voice.

Derick: And right now I want to go around with everybody and talk to you about your product — see where you are. I’m going to ask you about your equations that we worked on last class. The better you feel about your product, the better it will be.

Derick: We have started a project called Shark Tank. It’s just like the TV show.

Derick: You’ll present your product, we’ll give you feedback and say, “I’m gonna invest in your company,” or, “I’m not going to invest in your company.”

Derick: What I wanted to do was give the students opportunity to create their own business. It could be real, it could be imaginary, but to create a business that they have a product.

Student: It’s going to be like solar panels on a iPhone case that charges up the phone.

Derick: What is your product going to sell for?

Student: Okay, they’re going to sell for $4.99 plus tax.

Derick: $4.99?

Student: Mm hm, plus tax. And it’s going to come up to five dollars and nine cents.

Derick: So that’s all you need for the campaign to get started, to get people to buy it.

Dan: It had to have a marketing piece, they had to make a promo, print a logo that promotes your brand. You could have a jingle, and if you have a jingle, you can just sing it, or you know, or like [Dan and Student sing].

Dan: How do you like to learn math? What are you good at? Do you like music? Let’s sing a song about quadratic functions. You like to draw? Let’s draw a graph, and let’s paint a picture. We’re covering the same standards, but it looks different.

Dan: This a video?

Chris: Part of the product.

Dan: Oh, that’s right, you got the cranium.

Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Chris: Personalized education, it’s really the same thing, but you get more of what you’re interested in, so that’s good, because you like also get an insight to what you want to do.

Student: Hello, everyone. This is Impulse Products, and we would like to present Arctic Impulse.

Derick: They did all this research, they got in groups of three or four, and then presented their project.

Student: This is how we created, and this is where we usually distribute across the U.S.

Derick: Me and my advisors, we were the Sharks, we were sitting on the side. At the end of the project, they would throw out some investment numbers, just like Shark Tank, they give a dollar amount, usually, and they give an equity amount.

Student: Our investment, we were going to ask for 10 percent of equity for $100,000.

Derick: I’ll give you $75,000 cash, but I want 17 percent equity.

Gary: I’m going to give you $100,00 for 20 percent equity in the company. [laughter] Money talks. I need to know right now, though. I need to know either you’re in or you’re not.

Class: Seven, six, five–

Student: Mr. Derick.

Derick: Yeah! Whoo! [clapping]

Derick: I never seen these kids get excited about a math project. Everybody got involved! Even the kids that were not good in math. They were getting involved. They were doing quadratic functions. They were doing all these things. I would be silly, as a teacher, not to give them that opportunity to be creative and get excited about a math project.

Student: I learned how to market my business, and make new investments.

Chae: When you’re able to make it relevant to a student, it helps them to want to do it, and not just do it because that’s what’s expected. Student voice is key. Hear it, learn it, ask for it. What is it that will help you do better. How can we help you improve? What do you need from us?

Gary: I’m in for $50,000, and just to make it sweet, let’s keep it at 15 percent. [applause]

Derick: All right! I feel ya!

Schools That Work

Nashville Big Picture High School