On this particular day, students arrive, take out their iPads, and use ChatGPT, an AI tool, to create and solve two word problems related to scaling a graph.

“The practice is very important in math, but I’ve realized that I have let go of the reins in ways that allow students to decide how they receive their instruction,” said Gee.

Persell Middle School math teachers have embraced personalized learning, an approach that encourages student ownership of learning. While often associated with reading and writing, these strategies are proving just as effective in math.

“My philosophy has always been that every student is able to learn,” said Mark Fellows, a 7th- and 8th-grade math teacher. “The most important part is that they are engaged in the learning. Usually, students that are engaged will learn.”

Persell Middle School math teacher David Gee helps students in his 7th grade math class with an assignment. Gee has been one of several JPS teachers to participate in the first cohort of teachers piloting personalized learning strategies.

Gee and Fellows were among the first Jamestown Public Schools teachers to pilot personalized learning on a large scale with consultant Education Elements last year. The approach emphasizes reflection and goal setting, targeted instruction, flexible path and pace, and collaboration and creativity.

The impact has been immediate, noted Principal Traci Thompson.

“Throughout our school, we’ve seen an increase in student engagement,” she said. “Students are taking ownership of their work and working with our staff to not only set those goals, but get a sense of how they want to get there.”

Gee and Fellows focus on “flexible path and pace” and “targeted instruction.” One effective tool has been “choice boards,” which allow students to select how they complete their work.

“When it comes to their classwork, they have choices which range from paper and pencil to online practice with games or instructed practice, or sometimes a create piece or ‘use your own words’ piece to explain or show understanding,” Fellows said.

“I have also been focusing on targeted instruction, making sure that the students get much better at specific content,” Gee added.

That sense of ownership is key to retention, said Jeff Kresge, a JPS instructional coach.

“If I feel like I had some say in my education, if I was able to choose the things that work for me, I’m going to remember that,” he said. “When we think back to a lesson that we had growing up, we think about the moment in which we learned it. If we can make that commonplace across Jamestown Public Schools, our kids are going to come out with such a rich education and a memory of ‘Oh yeah, I remember that one particular thing because it hit me right where I was.’ That’s what we’re trying to do here.”

Thompson emphasized that these strategies aren’t new but are now being implemented with more intentionality.

“We already have some of these teaching strategies and practices in our building; it’s just about making them more intentional now,” she said.

The shift has led to greater student engagement and confidence.

“Letting students choose what they want to do has helped with engagement and the students’ willingness to complete the work,” said Fellows. “Again, the students are more engaged, and they tend to learn more. Also, the choice allows students to work at their level. Some students are able to push themselves farther, and other students are able to receive more help if needed on the basics.”

“It’s actually quite funny to watch students that otherwise didn’t care to participate feel like, with the power of choice, they will work at practicing–just because they got to choose,” Gee said. “The changes to some of their confidence are that with the ownership of choice, they seem to feel more capable. They know that when they make a certain choice, they are responsible for making their gains on their own if they don’t choose to work with me.”

Both veteran educators, Gee and Fellows have found value in the experience.

“It’s been a good refresher to what good teaching looks like,” Fellows said. “Sometimes it is nice to be reminded of all the different strategies and engage with other teachers in different disciplines to see how they use some of the different strategies than me and how I might incorporate them into the math classroom.”

Gee, initially skeptical, was won over by the results.

“When I first went into Cohort 1 and they discussed making changes, I thought, ‘Here we go again trying to change the world,'” he admitted. “What I found was that by making small changes, such as giving students choice, it was actually really easy to make big changes in their abilities.”