Happy New Year everyone!
Since this is my first post of the new year, I thought I’d share a wonderful tool that has really made a difference in how I approach my personal learning.
Last summer, I began watching some personal curriculum videos on YouTube. As a long-time teacher and academic, I think these videos are doing a great public service by showing people that we need to take responsibility for our own learning. Just because we don’t learn something in school doesn’t mean that we can’t learn it. With all of the resources available today, we don’t need to be on a university campus to study literature, history, philosophy, languages, or any other subject.
In July, I created my very own personal curriculum about the Victorian era, and, more specifically, about the early writings of my main man Charles Dickens. If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you are zero percent surprised right now. These are interests I’ve had for years, as many of you know, but by reading and researching with specific intentions, I’ve been able to focus on the aspects I find particularly interesting.
If you’re not familiar with the concept of a personal curriculum, it’s a self-designed learning plan built around your passions, goals, and questions. What I love about the self-created curriculum is that it’s not about earning grades, trying to please your teacher or professor, and it’s definitely not about crossing items off a checklist. A personal curriculum is about building a long-term relationship with the subject matter that fuels your imagination in your own way in your own time. Here’s a personal curriculum video from Ruby Granger, though there are many others if you’re interested in learning more about it.
What subjects excite you? Really, anything goes as far as what topics you choose. Whether like me you’re diving into Dickens, or if Gothic architecture floats your boat, or you want to learn how to write a novel, or you want to learn Latin or Greek, or anything else, the process is the same. This is a choose your own path adventure. You decide what you want to learn and then let your curiosity lead you.
If you’re interested in creating your own personal curriculum, here are some ideas for how to get started.
Start With a Question, Not a Goal
I made this mistake when I began putting my personal curriculum together. I began with the goal of writing publishable works of literary criticism. Once I started, however, I realized that I needed to begin with a broader overview before I could hone in on what I wanted to write about. I knew that I wanted to learn more about the early writings of Charles Dickens, but in order to put those early writings into context I needed to understand the early nineteenth century he was born into as well as the Victorian era where he blossomed as an author.
As an academic with a PhD, I’m well aware that scholarly research begins with a research question. But even before we can create our research questions, we need to decide what we want to study.
If you need some help getting started, here are a few questions to answer.
What do I want to understand more deeply?
What fascinates me?
What topics keep appearing in my creative work?
What would I study if time and grades didn’t matter?
If I could spend my time reading and researching one topic, what would that topic be?
If you’re ready to create a personal curriculum, here are some tips.
Gather Your Materials Like a Scholar
Once you’ve decided what you want to study, you’ll need to gather your materials. One of the joys of designing your own curriculum is the freedom to curate your own sources. There’s some pretty cool stuff out there. Think broadly and inclusively. There are so many wonderful places to find fascinating tidbits of information.
1. Books: foundational texts, primary sources, and secondary sources
For my study of the early works of Charles Dickens and the early nineteenth century in England, I’ve been pulling together some wonderful books–some biographies and some literary criticism, as well as Dickens’s early sketches and novels. Since I’m also looking into the history and culture of the early nineteenth century, I’ve included a few history books about that time.
2. Essays and articles
Although it isn’t necessary to belong to a university library, it can be extremely helpful to have access to online databases that are only available through university libraries. Many university libraries are available to the public for a fee. Check your nearest university and ask a librarian if the public can purchase a library card. If you can afford it, I believe you’ll find university library access worth your while. You can also use Google Scholar. While the free PDFs on Google Scholar tend to be older, they can be quite useful.
There are so many places to find fascinating information these days.
- Documentaries or lectures
- Podcasts, blogs, videos, or interviews
- Museum visits, field trips, archives
- Films, music, visual art
- Fictional works that explore your theme or topic
- Allow yourself a mix of the scholarly and the serendipitous. A well-rounded curriculum includes both the texts everyone tells you to read as well as the strange little odds and ends you stumble across by accident and can’t stop thinking about. There’s a reason it’s called the rabbit hole of research.
Create Phases Instead of Deadlines
I’m glad I completed my PhD, but I’m also glad that I no longer have to answer to anyone else’s timeline. A personal curriculum should be fun, something you do in your own time in your own way. Researching and learning on your own should never feel like homework and it should not be stressful. Rather than rigid timelines, I’ve found it best to divide my learning into phases.
Phase 1: Foundations. This is where I’m building core knowledge. During this phase I read a number of biographies about Dickens as well as his early works. I’ve also read a lot about the social, economic, and political history of England from 1812 (when Dickens was born) through 1870 (when he died). I can’t stress enough how having the historical knowledge of what was happening around Dickens has given me a deeper appreciation for his writing.
Phase 2: Exploration. This is where we branching out and start making connections with what we’ve learned. As I said above, understanding the history of nineteenth century England has helped me understand Dickens’s writing. I’ve been making a lot of connections between what was happening in society and how Dickens expressed that in his books.
Phase 3: Synthesis. This is always my favorite part of the learning process. This is where I reflect on what I’ve learned and then apply it by writing something new. In synthesis, we integrate information from various sources to come up with our own ideas.
Here’s a great example from Lumin Learning: “Synthesis differs from analysis, which involves breaking something down into its parts to examine them closely. For example, analyzing a pizza means identifying its ingredients, while synthesizing means taking those ingredients and creating something new, like a calzone.”
Phase 4: Mastery. You may choose to do some deeper research by digging into advanced texts that focus more intensely on your topic. You may also choose to create a long-term project, although this isn’t necessary. At some point, I do hope to have some publishable papers, but I’m also an academic and that’s what academics do. You do you. The joy of a personal curriculum is that you’re learning for learning’s sake. You don’t have to do anything with the information if you don’t want to.
Annotate and Keep a Learning Journal
One thing I’ve been doing is keeping a learning journal. When I’m reading, particularly nonfiction like biographies or literary criticism, I’ve been annotating as I read. Here is what I had to say about annotating. I’ve also been keeping a learning journal. I don’t write down all of my annotations into my learning journal; I only write down what matches my area of focus. I find that my learning becomes transformative when I document my discoveries. If you’d like to keep a journal, remember that it doesn’t need to be formal—it can be a notebook, a digital file, or voice memos recorded on your walk. My notes go into a handy-dandy composition book that I bought for three dollars.
If you’re not sure what to write into your learning notebook, you might write down:
1. Important notes and quotes that strike you (don’t forget to add the title of where you found your notes along with the page number; it makes it much easier to find the source again later on)
2. Questions that arise
3. Areas where you feel confused or curious
4. Text to self/text/or world connections
5. How your understanding of your topic changes or deepens over time
6. Anything else that strikes you. Remember, this is your learning notebook. You can add whatever thoughts, ideas, or questions occur to you. There is no right way to do this.
Let Your Curiosity Deviate From the Plan
This is what happened when I began researching nineteenth-century England instead of only the early works of Dickens. My curiosity prompted me to change my original plan. One of the joys of a personal curriculum is flexibility. You can change your mind about what you want to study at any time. If a new book grabs your attention, read it. If a related idea sparks your curiosity, explore it. If you want to pause for a week to think instead of reading, go for it. Some of my best insights came from when I followed an unexpected path to somewhere fascinating.
Look for Ways to Apply What You Learn
As a long-time teacher, I know that application is an important part of the learning process. Depending on your interests, you might choose to write a reflective essay or a blog post or newsletter, you might sketch the features you’ve studied, or write a story (fiction or nonfiction) inspired by your research. You could even create a reading guide or an annotated bibliography. The sky is the limit for how you can creatively express your newfound knowledge. When you can share what you know, in whatever form that works for you, that is when your learning becomes a part of you.
You don’t need to attend university to study the great subjects. Many professors post their syllabi online, so if you’re interested in a specific professor or subject, look to see what’s out there. If you’d love to study English literature the way they do at Oxford, there are online reading lists to guide you. You can even take distance courses from universities like Oxford and Yale. You don’t have the pressure of being an official student, but you can still learn something that fascinates you in an online classroom setting. We have so many opportunities available to us today. Take advantage of them.
There is something grounding about treating your interests with the seriousness they deserve. For me, somewhere along the way, my curriculum became more than a plan–it became a self-portrait of what fascinates me. Still, it’s important to remember that a personal curriculum isn’t about assignments or due dates. It’s about honoring our curiosity, deepening our knowledge, and giving ourselves permission to learn with intention and joy. Your curriculum might last a month or a year or a lifetime. You might stick with your original plan or you might spiral in new directions. That’s what being a lifelong learner should be.
