EDUC 400 Journal - Week Four:* When reading the book chapter, what attitudes and skills of a responsive teacher resonated with you? * What do you feel are the important aspects to consider when writing learning objectives? * What has been enlightening to you so far in this course?
The attitudes and skills that resonated most with me were to accept responsibility for learner success and to build awareness of what works for each learner. As a tutor, I already feel extremely responsible for each student that I give help to; if he or she didn't improve or at least learn something from our time together, I feel that I didn't do my job. Also, I think we should all take time to get to know our students' learning styles and try to incorporate that into our tutoring to make them feel comfortable and noticed so that they can learn.
I think that an educator should take learning styles, abilities, CSOs, the literature, and time into consideration when making learning objectives.
I feel that the most enlightening activity during this class has been the procedure to make learning objectives and the many factors one should take into consideration.
Though looking through the many CSOs for each subject is quite daunting, especially for social studies classes, it does make the many things to teacher seem more doable. In addition, I think that learning objectives should be made to hold the highest expectations for the students rather than to make objectives that can easily be met by all students.
How important are the curriculum standards and learning objectives to lesson plans? Is the required textbook an influence on your lessons? Is it alright to teach topics that do not fit into the CSOs simply to engage the students? What else should I take into consideration when making learning objectives?
Sara,
ReplyDeleteI liked the way you emphasized the idea that a teacher must "build an awareness of what works for each learner." I definitely agree. Since every student is different, teachers need to find a variety of ways to connect to individual learners. Sometimes this seems like a daunting task...how can we, as teachers, remember exactly what works for each student? I suppose this ability comes from a keen sense of awareness in the classroom and also from experience. I liked how the textbook recommended keeping a notebook page dedicated to each student in the class. As the semester progresses, the teacher can write helpful notes addressing the learning styles of each individual student.
At the end of your post, you raised some interesting questions about curriculum standards and learning objectives. I have some of the exact same questions. In particular, are teachers allowed to branch away from the CSOs? If they do, will there be enough time to cover the necessary material?
In response to your question about textbooks, I believe that many effective teachers just use the textbook as a supplemental material. While the text does have many good themes and lessons, it should not be taught cover-to-cover. Instead, I feel that the structure of the class should be guided in part by the class interests.
Good questions! Lesson planning can be a daunting task, especially when the state requires you to include CSO's. With a little creativity and imagination, I have found that most any lesson can be adapted to fit CSO's. That will come with experience for you. It is perfectly fine and even recommended that you vary from the text at times. You can xerox interesting articles, do internet searches, allow students to present material, all kinds of things that vary the routine and keep the students actively involved. If they are not actively involved, very little learning will take place.
ReplyDeleteI like the way you ended up with more questions than you started with. That is always a good sign! The CSOs are guides for our work as teachers. Creative teachers can tie almost any lesson to a CSO. The focus on each student and multiple approaches to learning is well said and difficult to do, particularly for teachers who teach 180 different students each day. How do you know that your objective actually links to the lesson and to the eventual assessment? This is way trickier than we initially think.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this is the best Blog conversation that I have read today. Nice job ladies.