Three ways LanSchool can make personalized learning possible

Keeping students engaged while learning from home is no easy feat, which is why so many teachers modified their teaching styles to fit the needs and limitations of the virtual classroom. For almost half of teachers (46%), the most successful approach proved to be personalized learning, or adapting lessons to fit the needs of individual students. 

Now that students are returning to hybrid or fully in-person learning, many teachers may shy away from continuing personalized learning, due to rigid curricula and the already-enormous number of demands.  

Fortunately, personalized learning doesn’t have to mean creating an entirely new curriculum for each kid. Incorporating small amounts of personalization can make a world of difference to a students’ understanding. Here are three ways LanSchool can help personalize lessons. 

1. Enable shy students to interact digitally 

Speaking up in class is a skill all students should develop, but many need a track record of successful interactions before they feel comfortable putting themselves on the spot in front of their classmates. Whether a student is shy, not a native English speaker, or simply unconfident in what they have to say, they will often feel more comfortable raising their hand or speaking to you discreetly. 

LanSchool’s Raise Hand feature is useful for indicating when a student has a question or a comment. But when combined with the Messaging function, it can unleash opportunities for personalizing almost any lesson. 

Instead of calling on students to answer questions or solve problems while moving through the lecture, ask students to raise their hands digitally and submit their answers using digital messages. Teachers can then call on the students who got the correct answer, and even call out some of the incorrect answers without anyone knowing who submitted them. 

This approach is particularly useful at the beginning of a school year, when students are still getting acquainted, but can also be used periodically throughout the year to reinforce confidence and participation among less-vocal students.

2. Maintain visibility into student progression 

It’s not always obvious what an individual student needs, especially at the beginning of a new school year. Having real-time oversight into what each student is doing on their device can be a great way to get to know which students speed through assignments and which struggle to stay focused or understand the instructions. 

LanSchool’s Screen Monitoring feature gives educators complete visibility into what students are doing on their devices so you can see how they’re each progressing or where they’ve become derailed. 

Teachers have told LanSchool that the best approach is to tell students up front that their screens are being monitored. Rather than using this visibility as a tool to call students out on bad behavior, it’s more effective to use it as a tool for understanding how each student approaches assignments and their common pitfalls. 

In fact, for the first few weeks of school, teachers may want to use Screen Monitoring simply as a way of getting to know your students’ learning styles so lessons can be better personalized moving forward. 

3. Assign additional tasks or reading to students who need it. 

When a student routinely completes in-class assignments faster than others, it can lead to boredom and, sometimes, distraction of other students. On the other hand, students who find it challenging to get through in-class assignments may fall behind and become discouraged over time. 

LanSchool’s Messaging feature helps address these challenges by meeting students where they are with discreet and tailored intervention. 

For faster workers, Messaging can be used to send additional reading or extra credit opportunities while allowing the other students to finish the lesson. For students who are struggling, teachers can send additional resources or support, or just gently redirect them as they work. 

Personalization Doesn’t Have to Be Time Consuming 

While educators may not have time to create a custom learning experience for every student, finding small ways to meet students where they are in a lesson is a worthwhile investment of time. 

Using LanSchool to get to know students’ patterns and commit to thoughtfully directing them toward the information or analytical processes they need to grow – teachers may soon find more engaged and successful students across all skill levels. 

Want to see these features in action? Take a look at the LanSchool feature video series: 

Raise Hand 

Messaging 

Screen Monitoring