of the discipline? For social studies, a
primary concept could be that history
is an interpretative process, not just the
study of past events.
n Does the content require analysis?
This is where the teacher can build in
personalized rigor. If students are to
translate isolated, fragmented informa-
tion into personally meaningful knowl-
edge, they must engage in higher-order
thinking. Too often, the teacher does all
the analysis and presents the results to
students.
n Does it have the potential to engage
students? The concept needn’t incorpo-
rate ready-made student interest. Teach-
ers can increase its relevance by framing
essential questions in deliberately pro-
vocative ways. A colleague of ours is
fond of asking his economics students,
When is trash not trash?
The challenge of personalizing learning is growing as classrooms become
more culturally diverse. Students across
many cultures will recognize primary
concepts that have enduring value as
worthy of their attention, whereas they
may find many topics culturally bound
or irrelevant. The Italian Renaissance as
a topic may or may not have personal
connections for students. If, however,
we ask, What makes a renaissance? we
are teaching at a conceptual level. We
can draw on varied content (such as
writing from Elizabethan England or the
Harlem Renaissance) that may be more
personally meaningful for students.
By teaching concepts that are inviting
to students from many backgrounds,
we throw lifelines to students confronting units that may be light years away
from their immediate concerns. I think
of Helaine, a 13-year-old student at the
international school in Dar es Salaam.
She had been raised in a remote Ugan-dan village (and spoke only her tribal
language, not even the official language
of Kiswahili). She had for years been a
refugee in her own country, hiding from
the horrors of Uganda’s civil war. When
she came to our school, Helaine refused
to make eye contact. Reviewing dates
PHOTO COURTESY OF OCHAN KUSUMA-POWELL
Workshop participants in Beijing explore what can and can’t be personalized in assessments.
and battles of the American Revolution
didn’t capture Helaine’s attention, but
exploring the concept sources of human
conflict made lessons meaningful for her.
Guiding students to seek overarching
concepts can also spark a student’s
unexpected interest. Bonnie had been a
responsible student in an 8th grade class
in an international school in Malaysia,
but she had shown no hint of a pas-
sion for economics. But when Bonnie’s
advanced placement American history
teacher assigned the class to compare
the Federalist Papers and the New Deal,
Bonnie made connections. She broke
out of the bus line and ran over to ask
her headmaster (who was supposed to
know everything), “Did FDR read Ham-
ilton’s Federalist Papers? I mean, there’s
so many similarities between Hamilton’s
economic plan for the new nation and
the New Deal. . . . Maybe it’s not so
much about economics as it is under-
standing human nature.”
teachers in international schools is how
to personalize learning when school
policies explicitly prohibit teachers from
modifying the curriculum. This con-
fusion gets to the heart of what can and
can’t be personalized in a standards-
based curriculum.
What Not to Personalize
We frequently conduct special needs
audits in international schools. One
question we often hear as we work with
Learning Outcomes
Some aspects of every curriculum are
nonnegotiable. For example, every
student should be able to write a well-organized expository essay before he
or she leaves high school. Other non-negotiables include the skills involved
in literacy, numeracy, and critical
thinking. And if a student is enrolled
in a course that culminates in an external examination, such as an advanced
placement course, teachers should
under no circumstances jeopardize the
student’s success on the exam by skipping required content.
As a general rule, don’t personalize
the desired learning outcomes. These
outcomes are our instructional goals
and are linked closely to learning standards and grade-level benchmarks.
Every student deserves the richness and
