Want to individualize learning without overwhelm? Try this self-paced approach.

How can you meet the needs of every learner in your classroom while keeping your workload manageable?

In this article + episode of the Truth for Teachers podcast, I spoke with Rob Barnett, a former high school math teacher and co-founder of the Modern Classrooms Project. Modern Classrooms has empowered 80,000+ educators in 180+ countries to meet every learner’s needs.

Before that, he taught math, computer science, English, social studies, and law, from the middle school to university levels, at public and private schools in the U.S. and abroad. He is the author of Meet Every Learner’s Needs: Redesigning Instruction So All Learners Can Succeed, and he hopes his children will learn in Modern Classrooms someday! Listen in as Rob and I discuss how self-paced learning can help teachers individualize instruction in a way that’s beneficial for kids AND manageable for the teacher.

In our conversation, Rob shares how self-paced learning can transform your teaching and create a more personalized, effective, and sustainable experience for both you and your students.

We dive into the Modern Classrooms approach, breaking it down into actionable steps that any teacher can take—whether you’re ready to fully embrace self-paced learning or just want to try one small change tomorrow. From recording simple instructional videos to using mastery checks, Rob shares what works, why it works, and how to adapt it for your students’ needs.

You’ll discover:

• How to get started with self-paced learning by taking small, manageable steps.
• The three core components of a modern classroom lesson: warmups, instructional videos, and mastery-based assessments.
• Practical strategies for motivating students, including how to encourage those content with “the minimum” to push themselves further.
• How to use mastery checks as quick, actionable assessments that inform your next steps without creating a data overload.
• Ideas for creating collaborative group work that ensures all students are engaged and appropriately challenged.
• Tips for addressing chronic absenteeism and ensuring all students can succeed, no matter their attendance.
• How schools can support teachers in implementing self-paced learning by providing time, autonomy, and collaboration opportunities.
• Why relationships are at the heart of any successful approach to personalized learning.

Whether you’re looking for ways to individualize learning, reduce stress, or build stronger connections with your students, this episode is packed with inspiration and practical ideas you can use right away.

Listen to episode 331 below,
or subscribe in your podcast app

Sponsored by Rocket PD

ANGELA: Your new book is called Meet Every Learner’s Needs: Redesigning Instruction So All Learners Can Succeed. And in the beginning, you explained that you never set out to redesign instruction, but your students weren’t learning.

And you were miserable as a teacher because you were working all the time. And you were frustrated that there were kids that you still couldn’t reach.

Tell us about that.

ROB: Thank you. It’s true. And I certainly never thought I would be writing a book either, but here I am.

About 10 years ago, I was teaching at a big public high school in Washington, DC, and I was struggling every day. In my class, I had some students who were on grade level or ahead.

They wanted a challenge. They needed a challenge. And then I had students with gaps in their learning, sometimes several years behind. They needed more support. They felt lost. And I also had students who weren’t there at all due to chronic absenteeism. I was standing at the board, trying to give my one lesson per day, and realized I couldn’t meet all of these learners’ needs. My advanced students were bored. My students with learning gaps were lost. My chronically absent students were missing out altogether. And I felt like a failure when I went home because, no matter how hard I worked or how good the lesson was, it wouldn’t work for everyone when some students weren’t there or weren’t prepared for the content.

I had to find a different way. What I did, in short, was stop teaching one lesson to all my students at the same time every day. I digitized my direct instruction by recording very simple videos of myself.

I would give those to my students to watch in class or at home. So I spent class time sitting down with them, getting to know them, building relationships. And then I would require that they actually mastered lesson one before they moved to lesson two. I could sit down with a student and say, “Show me you understand this before you move on”.

That was so much more fun for me as a teacher. I got to work closely with young people and build relationships. My students felt more relaxed. They felt more comfortable. It really worked.

I ended up sharing that with a colleague, Kareem Farah. He and I started a nonprofit to share this with teachers. Now we’ve shared this with thousands of teachers all over the world. And we have a whole instructional model that I’m sure we’ll talk about. But it started with me just trying to find simple strategies to address that challenge of teaching that was really getting me down, which is that different learners have different needs, and we need ways to meet them all.

Why teaching to the middle doesn’t work

You’re identifying something really crucial here. Your advanced learners weren’t being challenged, and your below-grade-level kids were being completely left behind. Often, in those situations, the default response is to try to teach to the middle. That’s something you address in your book—this idea that teaching to the middle can somehow replace individualizing instruction, or that it becomes our default mode when planning lessons. Can you explain the problems with teaching to the middle and what you found that works better?

When you’re delivering one lesson per day to all the students in your room, you don’t really have a choice but to teach to the middle. If you’re teaching to your advanced learners, a lot of your class will be totally lost. But if you teach to students who need to fill in gaps, the students who are ready for your lesson will be completely bored.

You try to find somewhere in between, but that doesn’t really serve anyone. Your job as a teacher is to challenge advanced students and support the ones who are behind. So how do you do that? I realized I needed to stop delivering the same lesson to every learner every day. I needed to ensure that advanced learners could move on quickly while struggling learners had the time they needed to achieve mastery. They’re capable of it—they just need more time.

That’s why I started recording videos and sitting down with students in class. This allowed different learners to work on different lessons simultaneously at their own pace, building mastery and confidence. It also helped them develop the self-esteem that comes with learning. When you’re just teaching to the middle, it’s hard to do that.

From a teacher’s perspective, it’s also incredibly frustrating. You’re standing at the board, explaining something, knowing that some students are bored and others are lost. It’s so stressful. I wanted to move to a place where I could sit down with my students, get to know them, support them, and make sure they were all appropriately challenged and supported every day.

Creating Flexible, individualized instruction

So the idea is that you’re creating these short, informal videos for students to watch, and then you’re providing more support or more challenges based on their needs. Is that right?

Exactly right. For short periods—two or three days at a time, not for the whole year—everyone in the class moves at their own pace. I outline tasks that every student must do, which I call the “must-dos.” Then there are “should-dos” and “aspire-to-dos” for advanced students. During this time, students learn at their own pace but can work with classmates who are moving at similar speeds.

I’m not standing at the front of the room anymore. Instead, students work together in groups on similar lessons while I sit with them, answer questions, and ensure everyone is appropriately challenged. This lets me figure out who needs what and provide individualized support.

Sometimes people think that technology makes learning impersonal and individual. I haven’t found that to be the case. My videos are five to ten minutes long. Students watch them, close their computers, and collaborate with classmates or me. It’s a very collaborative and human process, much more so than standing at the front of the room ever was for me or my students.

So the videos are sort of designed for the middle, but what you’re doing afterward is what provides the accommodations, right?

Exactly. Often, when teachers talk about differentiation, we think about it in terms of content—advanced students get harder content, and struggling students get easier content. I never felt that was fair. I believe every student should have the opportunity to master challenging content.

If I give advanced students hard problems and struggling students easy ones, the struggling students never get the chance to develop a sophisticated understanding. It didn’t feel equitable to me.

In my classroom and in Modern Classrooms, differentiation happens more in terms of how long students take to work on certain things. Advanced students move quickly, while struggling students have more time and support.

I might spend more time with a learner who has gaps, while the student who loves math or reading can take off on their own. For chronically absent students, this approach is a godsend. They don’t come to class feeling like, “Oh no, I missed Monday and Tuesday, and now I’m totally lost.” Instead, they feel like they can pick up where they left off. Their classmates can help them catch up, and I can help them catch up.

This model allows every student the time and support they need to reach a high level of understanding.

That’s a really important piece, especially with chronic absenteeism on the rise. This model really addresses that. After students watch the video, they can meet with classmates who are working on the same material.

I’d like to talk a little about group work and collaboration. Often, we have students who don’t pull their weight, or one student takes over and leaves others out. There are all kinds of issues that come up when humans work together in a group. What advice do you have to make sure every learner is having their needs met and getting to participate?

That’s a great question, and it definitely rings true from my experience as both a teacher and a student. I think the best group work happens when students are working on a problem where they’re all appropriately challenged and engaged.

If I just give everyone the same group project and say, “Go for it,” the advanced students might take over and do everything, while the students with learning gaps disengage because they don’t feel like they can contribute. I’ve been part of groups like that myself.

On the other hand, if students are moving at their own paces and we create groups of students who are at the same place in their understanding, it’s much more natural for them to work together. They can support each other in a way that’s productive and engaging.

When every student is appropriately challenged, collaboration improves. If you just assign a group project to the whole class without considering their readiness, you won’t get the same level of engagement. Some students will get it, and others won’t, which makes it hard to collaborate effectively.

I also want to mention chronic absenteeism from a teacher workload perspective. Before I started teaching this way, I had to stay after school to help chronically absent students catch up. Sometimes they couldn’t stay after school, which made it even harder. That was a big burden on me.

With this model, it’s much easier to help chronically absent students. When they return to class, they can pick up where they left off. They can access the material outside of class, too. This made it so much easier for me to support those students without burning out.

18 manageable ways to differentiate when kids have gaps in their learning

Supporting students in self-paced learning

I also want to talk about self-paced learning. A lot of kids struggle with it, and in your book, you discuss strategies like setting deadlines and creating supports so students aren’t just left to manage their time completely on their own. What strategies have you found useful to help kids succeed in self-paced learning?

This is another concept that sometimes gets a negative reaction. People hear “self-paced learning” and think it means letting students go on their own from day one and checking back at the end of the year. That’s not what I mean. Too much freedom doesn’t work well for students.

What I recommend is giving students some freedom and autonomy within reasonable bounds. For example, you might say, “For the next two days or the next week, you’ll move at your own pace.” Then, after that interval, the whole class starts fresh on something new.

This approach does a couple of important things. First, it gives students manageable benchmarks—like having two or three lessons to complete on their own—which feels achievable. Second, it keeps the class generally working on the same material. One student might be a lesson ahead and can help another student who’s a lesson behind. Everyone is within the same interval of two to ten lessons, depending on the class.

Within each interval, I encourage teachers to prioritize. In a self-paced classroom, some students will progress faster because of their preparation, attendance, or other factors. You have to ask: What are the essentials that every student must do? What are the optional tasks—things students should do but aren’t absolutely necessary? And what are the aspire-to-do activities—the exciting extensions that advanced students can tackle to push themselves even further?

When I had a self-paced interval, I’d set it for about a week. I’d say, “Here are the two lessons everyone must master. Here’s a lesson that’s really good to do if you get there. And if you really get into it, here’s an interesting extension activity at the end.” That created a nice balance between freedom and structure for students.

Did you ever have kids who were like, “Okay, I did the requirements. I did the must-do. I don’t really want to do the rest of this. Can I just stop there?”

Yes, of course. That’s how people are, and I think it’s understandable. When that happened, I found motivation often came from relationships. I would talk to the student and say, “Look, you did the minimum. Are you the kind of person who does the minimum, or are you the kind of person who goes farther, who learns more, and challenges themselves?”

When students are challenged in a friendly, appropriate way, they often want to succeed. They want to excel. So while I did encounter students who were okay doing just the minimum, I found that once I built relationships with them, I could usually push them to go a little farther.

 

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Grading and assessing individualized learning

Tell me how the grading and assessment piece works. If some students are doing additional assignments or working at a different pace, how can teachers use formative assessments or ongoing feedback to figure out the next steps and inform personalization without feeling buried under data?

Data can be so overwhelming, and part of that is the type of data we collect and the insights it generates. When I was teaching one lesson to all my students every day, I’d give an exit ticket at the end of class. I could predict the outcome—some students would get it, and some wouldn’t. But then what? I had the next lesson to teach the next day. The data wasn’t actionable.

Then we’d get to the test, and I’d have all this data at once, but again, I couldn’t really do much with it because I had to move on to the next unit.

In a Modern Classroom, we encourage teachers to give what we call a “mastery check” at the end of each lesson. It’s just one or two short problems, like an exit ticket, but students only take it when they’re ready. One student might take it at the start of class, and another might take it at the end.

When I review the mastery check, I immediately decide whether a student is ready to move on. If a student hasn’t mastered the content, I sit with them and help them review. If they’ve mastered it, they move on. It’s a small piece of data that’s actionable and gives clear next steps: either revise and try again or proceed to the next lesson.

I carry a clipboard around the room that shows which students have mastered which lessons. This helps me figure out who might need help and who can help others. It’s not overwhelming data—it’s just one or two questions per lesson, but it’s actionable and informs my decisions.

I always encourage teachers to focus on collecting small, actionable pieces of data. Tons of data might seem nice, but it’s not helpful if it doesn’t guide your next steps. Collect one or two pieces of information per lesson and use those to determine seating, grouping, and activities for the day. A self-paced, mastery-based environment thrives on that kind of data.

How many assignments are you giving a formal grade to each week?

That depends on the teacher and the school district. Some schools require you to grade everything. Some teachers think they have to grade everything. For me, I only graded the mastery checks at the end of each lesson and the unit-end assessments, like projects or tests.

This kept my grading workload manageable and showed students what I really cared about. I didn’t care whether they completed 100 homework problems or three—or even none. What mattered to me was whether they understood the content. Homework and videos were practice and preparation for the mastery checks.

By focusing on understanding, I wasn’t overwhelmed by trying to grade every single thing students worked on each day.

Using incentives to inspire mastery

There’s a chapter in your book about inspiring students to excel and using incentives to push all learners toward mastery. I really liked that because so much advice assumes students should develop internal motivation and that using rewards or incentives is somehow “cheating.” But that doesn’t fit with what we know about how humans work. We don’t do things unless there’s something in it for us, unless it meets a need. I’d love to hear what you’ve discovered about incentives and helping students push themselves toward mastery.

It’s a combination. We want students to develop an internal satisfaction in learning, but incentives can be helpful. In my class, I used mastery checks, and when students passed one, I wanted them to feel proud and experience the self-esteem that comes with learning.

I also wanted them to see a tangible benefit—whether that was the grade or something else. For example, some teachers have an “ahead-of-pace” area in their classroom. If you’re ahead of the suggested pace, you can sit there, use your phone, or access other perks. Some teachers use badges, like “Angela mastered Lesson 3—she’s the genius of the day. Ask her for help!”

You could also email parents or coaches with data, saying, “Your child did great today, and here’s the evidence to show it.” Those small rewards are meaningful to students. They help them see that if they work hard, they can succeed.

Relationships, small perks, and recognition all contribute to helping students feel capable. But the most important thing is giving each student an appropriately challenging lesson and the support they need to succeed every day.

In a traditional setting, if a student misses Monday and Tuesday, they’re likely to struggle to catch up. In a modern classroom, they have the chance to succeed—with both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards supporting them along the way.

Small actionable steps to move toward more personalized learning in your classroom

What are some small practical steps that teachers can take to individualize learning without creating an unmanageable workload?

I’m so glad you asked this because when teachers hear about our model, they sometimes think, “Oh my gosh, this is so complex! I can’t do this.” And it’s true that we present this model as a comprehensive approach to teaching. But when I was doing this in my classroom, it really came down to small steps each day that made my life—and my students’ lives—easier.

One small thing you can do is record an instructional video. You don’t need a professional recording studio for this. Just open a Zoom call, hit record, explain your lesson, stop the recording, and share it with your students. Yes, it takes time initially, but once you’ve created that video, you don’t need to repeat yourself a hundred times. Students can rewatch it, pause it, or even watch it at home with their parents. It becomes a resource that lasts as long as you teach, freeing up your time in class to sit with learners and support them.

Another small step is to create a simple chart on a clipboard. Use it to track when each student masters each lesson. This doesn’t need to be a fancy data dashboard—it can be just a piece of paper. But it gives you valuable, actionable information about your students.

In the book, I emphasized these small, simple things because when you start doing them consistently, they build on each other. One day, you’ll look at your classroom and think, “Wow, this is amazing. Look at what’s happening here!”

Let’s say I record one quick lesson. Instead of teaching it tomorrow, I have my kids watch it. What else do I do? How do I prepare them for that? What do I have them do afterward? How would I begin trying this?

These were exactly the kinds of questions I wrestled with as a teacher. In general, I think of a modern classroom lesson as having three parts.

First, I wouldn’t start class by saying, “Come in and get on your computer.” I’d always start with some kind of whole-class warmup to build community and get students engaged. Then I’d explain that their direct instruction is on a video. They can watch it in class or at home, pause it, and take notes. This part is usually done individually.

After watching the video, students should close their screens and do some kind of practice together to apply what they’ve learned. In a math class, that might mean solving problems. In a social studies class, it could be analyzing a historical document. In a Spanish class, it might mean practicing vocabulary with a partner.

Most of the class time should be spent on this collaborative practice. Then, the last part is an individual mastery check. This ensures that each student has the chance to prove their understanding when they’re ready, and you can determine their next steps.

So, if you’re starting this tomorrow, I’d suggest recording whatever you’d normally share from the board as a video today. In class, begin with a warmup, let students watch the video, and then give them a meaningful activity to apply what they’ve learned together. Finally, create a way for each student to show you when they’re ready that they really understand. Do this enough times, and you’ll start to create a self-paced classroom where students can achieve mastery every day.

How has your thinking about Modern Classrooms changed since you first started?

One thing that’s changed for me is something I’ve mentioned here: taking small steps toward better lessons. When Kareem and I started the Modern Classrooms Project, we had this big, grand vision for how instruction should look. We imagined all the elements a great modern classroom should include.

I’m still motivated by that vision, but in writing the book, I realized that when I started as a teacher, I didn’t have that grand vision.

I was just doing small things every day to feel a little happier and to support my students.

And everything that has come after that is a result of having taken those small steps. Whereas I used to pitch modern classrooms as, “This is the solution—just do all these things and your class will be great,” now I think of it much more as, “Here are some simple things you can do that will make each day better.”

If you can make Monday better, then Tuesday a little better, and Wednesday a little better after that, pretty soon you’ll reach a place where you’re really happy with your classroom.

It’s great to have a comprehensive model, but what’s really valuable about modern classrooms—and what the book helped me see—is that it’s just a series of small steps that lead to a much larger outcome.

It’s interesting you said that, because that’s exactly the impression I had while reading the book. You don’t have to use the whole model to implement what’s in the book. There are lots of actionable, practical things and examples that a teacher could try right away.

There are so many things in the book that could slowly shift the way you teach over time, rather than requiring a big overhaul. If that was your goal, it definitely came through, because that’s how I felt as a reader.

Well, thank you. And look, if you’re listening to this, you don’t have to do anything I say. You might think my ideas are terrible! But I hope there’s one thing here that helps you use your data better, or use technology better, or maybe develop a better relationship with that chronically absent student.

It’s really just a collection of techniques. They worked for me, and they’ve worked for other teachers. I hope some of them will work for your listeners, too.

3 practices to give you more one-on-one time with students

I want to close with a takeaway truth. What’s something you wish every teacher understood about meeting every learner’s needs?

I think what I would say is that you should do what you think is best for you and your students. What works for me may not work for you—or it may work a little differently. Every student has different needs, and every teacher has different needs, strengths, and personalities.

What I’ve learned from my teaching and from speaking with teachers all over the world is that if an approach like this is going to work, you have to make it your own. You need to try it, experience success with it, struggle with it, and adapt it into something that really works for you.

If you listen to this and think, “This won’t work for me,” you’re right. If you listen to this and think, “This will work great,” you’re also right. The key is to take this and make it your own, embracing what makes you unique as a person and as a teacher. If you do that—whether you use my methods or something totally different—you and your students will succeed.

Thank you so much, Rob. This was wonderful.

Thank you. And I know I said this before our call, but I’m a huge fan of what you do. I’ve been in the 40-Hour Teacher Workweek. I’ve taken your AI course. I love how you’re helping teachers be more effective and sustainable. So thank you—it’s been an honor.