After reading these chapters, I feel as though I got some
insight in relation to the question posed in class on why everything we discuss
and read when it comes to effective teaching isn’t being truly portrayed in the
classrooms we observe. The question has many answers. My first reactionary
answer was that teachers simply fall back on the more traditional ways of teaching
because that is what they are most familiar with. The more progressive ways are
also a bit more difficult to enact because it demands more student centered and
learning centered instruction, and much less teacher-centered. Now that could
be part of the answer, but I am beginning to realize that there is a lot more
to it than that.
I do
not think enough teachers are asking the meaningful questions that relate to
the standards, the ones that are deeply rooted in backwards design and in
chapter 10. I mean, there is a reason why it is in this relatively new textbook
on teaching, as backwards design is a new idea that is being created as a
result of the heavy emphasis on the implementation of Common Core. I think we
are focused too much on standards and not enough on what those standards represent.
The ending of chapter 10, the part where the teacher put her essential
questions on one side and the standards those correlated with portray an important
aspect to standards. If you think about that exercise in reverse, standards
could be turned into questions. I think that is what I don’t see when I come
back from observing classrooms. It is not the teacher’s fault all of the time,
as this job is very demanding and sometimes we forget just what we really want
our students to get out of the days lesson. We are so pressured into trying to
implement standards that we leave out those inquiry questions, the ones that
students really do engage with and want to answer, have fun answering, and stay
with them long after any dull lecture focused on a skill the Common Core says
me must teach.
The
book club is one way that standards and fun, engaging lessons can be combined harmoniously
to feed both the common core and the student’s engagement needs. What I like
the most about this is if the teacher can do it correctly, the students
probably don’t even feel like they are being assessed. Just sitting down with a
pen and clipboard with the book club, contributing if necessary, and making the
environment community based will give everyone, including common core, what
they want. This chapter also got me thinking about how I am always going to
have to SHOW the effectiveness of every lesson I teach, through data collecting
and assessment practices. I know I am going to need to do a lot of assessment,
but it finally hit home that every lesson I teach should be backed up with data
that can tell administrators and colleagues exactly how and why this lesson
worked or didn’t work. It will also show me what I need to do to modify or
enhance. Assessment of even a fun,
community centered unit like a book club NEEDS to be assessed to show its
effectiveness so that others can see why it should be utilized in classrooms,
and not used to give a grade to a student.
Ryan, you're totally onto something here. We want our kids to achieve higher level thinking but are we ourselves there with these standards? Teachers are so focused on the standards and meeting them but hey let's see how we can creatively meet them. Let's make learning meaningful and applicable. I believe it was last week's reading that had a focus on making connections for kids now. These activities would totally do that. I know we have so much to remember when we are teachers but this is one of those things that I hope I'll take with me. Make the standards meaningful to me so I can then make it meaningful for them.
ReplyDeleteIn high school when we filled out our portfolio pieces, we checked off as many standards as we could. We even made cases for extra standards to be applied, just to complete them. I think even worse than the emphasis put on standards is how often teachers push them to the side (at least in my high school). Like our administrative panel explained, we have to sell our lessons (even the ones we don't like!). I had a bunch of teachers who didn't care about standards and would make it seem like a chore. This of course led the students to not care about the standards. We might not agree with Common Core, but we need to still treat it with respect in the classroom, because its here and our students need to meet the requirements! I'm not saying we shouldn't advocate for better policies and programs, but we need to remember that bashing Common Core in the classroom will only hurt our students.
ReplyDeleteRyan, I also flagged the backward mapping during my reading. I planned a hypothetical interdisciplinary unit in another class using backward planning, and until this reading (of D+Z and your post!), I hadn't thought of using it for smaller lessons. I really enjoy these blogs because I often find there are things that seems so obvious no one says it out loud and personally, I need to hear them out loud! This technique can back up any activity, if it's a two day lesson or a two week project.
ReplyDeleteI like what your post and the comments are saying about the standards. Our classrooms need to have some kind of functioning relationship with them. Implementing them without creativity or critical thinking is poor practice. Just brushing them aside while we complain about them to our students is poor practice. This is a problem I don't have a good solution for, but should probably keep thinking about. The more I learn about the common core, the more it upsets me. How can I take some of the big ideas I agree with, and implement the individual standards creatively and usefully? I think back mapping can be one strategy that could help.