Identifying lesson topics

The lesson topics that teachers should address in their instruction are usually predetermined by the state in the form of curriculum planning guidelines or pacing guides. English I has a pacing guide that says what should be covered in what amount of time. I usually don't like pacing guides because they either a)do not line up with the test (in other words, what they are taught and what they are assessed on are not congruent) or b) has you focus on one goal at a time, so you are teaching goal 1 in January and never talking about it again until the week before the test in June. I think goals should be addressed daily in small ways so that progress is gradual. Like in a 90 minute period, you devote 15 minutes to each goal. Or maybe you address goals daily. Monday is goal 1, Tuesday is goal 2, etc. Then when you get to the end of the year, you aren't having to remind students about something they forgot a long time ago. BUT the pacing guide does tell you what to teach and when usually, which is a big help as far as doing what you are supposed to do. I just think it is more beneficial in subjects where there is no EOC or the EOC and curriculum are somewhat congruent.

Meeting the needs of all students

An instructor should rely on a curriculum map to guide their planning of student learning. A curriculum map usually addresses what students have learned previously and what they will learn in the future. This allows a teacher to design their lessons so that they can bridge past and future learning in a meaningful way that both engages prior learning and prepares them for future learning.

Instructional Cycle

There are three stages to the instructional cycle: setting goals, determining the process to meet those goals, and testing whether or not the goals were met.

Instructors set goals according to the standards of their state or their own personal goals for their students. Then they plan their lessons, gather materials, and determine how these goals will be pursued. Finally, after the lessons have been taught, they assess their learners to see if the goals were met.

Components of good assessments

A good assessment will compare a student's current knowledge to past knowledge, compare a student's knowledge to that of his peers, and compare a student's knowledge to that of a predetermined goal. All standardized assessment results will include something from the student's past, such as their 8th grade reading scores compared to their 9th grade reading scores. There will be something in the results that say where the student compares to other students, such as their reading ability is in the 80th percentile. Then, there will be something that talks about whether or not the student met objectives pre-determined by the state, such as a student being able to divide fractions at 85% proficiency.

Adapting instruction

If teachers did not adapt instruction to fit the needs of their students they would only teach information that is of interest to teachers. They would also only present information in their native learning style. Why would an audio learner adapt instruction to meet the needs of a visual learner if the audio learner has no concept of learning visually? An audio learner expects all students to adapt their learning styles to that of an audio learner.

Also, it is the responsibility of an instructor to at least attempt to get all learners to perform at the best of their ability. What if a student is deaf? What if a student is blind? What if a student possesses some kind of tactile disability that keeps them from developing proper spatial awareness? If instruction is not differentiated, those students will never learn anything because no one will ever teach them anything in the sole medium required for them to recieve new information.

Information-Processing Model

The information-processing model is that students recieve information, connect the new knowledge with what they already know, and then apply it. A great example of this model that humans utilize whether they know it or not is by breaking down new information into its simplest terms. For example, you will never hear a grade school soccer coach explain how to shoot a ball by saying something like, "place your plant foot directly adjacent to the ball and strike the ball utilizing the instep of your striking foot." He says' "put your left foot beside the ball, and kick the ball with the top of your right foot." Kids know what "beside the ball" and "top of the foot" is (prior knowledge). When they recieve the correct way to kick the ball, they connect it with their prior knowledge and then apply it accordingly.

Learning Characteristics

Before a teacher begins instruction of students, a teacher should assess his students to determine their current grade level (for example their reading level) and the the kind of learner his students are (visual, auditory, tactile). We use an accelerated reading program at our high school, one of the few high schools in the state to do so. Most of my ninth grade students are on a 5-6 grade reading level and are visual and tactile learners. In order to take advantage of the situation, I mainly use graphic organizers and foldables for their assignments and keep lecture to a minimum. Some assignments can be converted to a tactile format easily, such as providing cutouts of sentences with certain types of errors and have the students categorize the sentences according to those errors by physically placing them under categories with their hands instead of just writing or saying "this is the error."

Content Standards

Content standards and benchmarks are objectives and goals for students to accomplish throughout their course work as determined by the state. For example, goal 6 in teh NCSCOS for English I concerns being able to apply  conventions of grammar. The content standard is that all students will be taught grammar conventions. The benchmark is that all students will be able to apply grammar conventions with a certain level of proficiency. An example would be "all students will apply grammar conventions with 85% efficiency."

Formative Assesment utilizing technology

My school has Smart Boards in every room. Our formative assessment coordinator got us class sets of remotes (affectionately called "the clickers") that we use to take assessments in class. Sometimes we use this online tool called Classscapes which gives us scores on our EOC objectives so that we can better focus our classroom instruction. We can also create our own assessments. I have created assessments using our EOC coaching books. The students read the passage (I teach English I) and use the clickers to enter in their answers. The software tells me who gets the questions correct or incorrect. It gives me statistical breakdowns on individuals and classes.

I used it last week to give a final. The computer graded everything for me and I imported their scores into NCwise. I literally had all of my finals graded and entered into the gradebook in 3 mintues. It was pretty cool.

GROUP COLLABORATION AND PROBLEM-SOLVING

I think everyone was having a difficult week this week, especially the follks that started a new semester this past week at their jobs.

The cool thing about a wiki is that it allows folks to add whatever they want and collaborate in a more direct, condensed way than in person. I was thinking about group work when I was in college. We would usually all meet up at IHOP or Denny's or the library and usually end up talking about everything BUT the project for five hours. Then there would be a few ideas tossed out and someone would type up the report. and present to the class.

With a wiki there is more ideas and less everything else.  The problem with that is that it does cut down on the social aspect of group work (which our topic, connectivism, emphasizes). The lack of social interaction can make the topic seem like it exists in a vacuum rather than in the real world. One of the interesting ideas of connectivism is that knowledge is not an island. If knowledge doesn't connect with other knowledge or doesn't have real world applications, it's like it doesn't exist. Like food you can't eat. Food you can't eat isn't food.