"Great Teaching Means Letting Go" was a very interesting read. This was my first year teaching in high school and I noticed that students tend to not think for themselves. They always seem to need those prompts and reminders for everything that they do. I have found that some school districts want teachers to constantly be teaching (lecturing) during class time. Who wants to be lectured all the time? I agree that of course teachers are suppose to be instructing some but there does have to be some time where the students have to "figure things out" on their own. Every morning I have a bell ringer for the students to complete right away. There have been times where there are no specific directions or prompts and they have to figure out what to do on their own. The majority of them cannot do it. They are constantly asking questions. I respond to them by saying "figure it out, it is self explanatory". I feel like some of the things I give are obvious in their directions, but it is not to them. It is almost like they need someone to hold their hands. Rubrics are very helpful when grading and to give a road map for students to follow. I do however think that rubrics can be a hindrance if used too much. When you have an overuse of rubrics students rely on them and do not use any creativity or thinking on their own. The do not think outside of the box and lack problem solving skills. Parents are also guilty of creating this dilemma. Teachers and parents need to learn to back off some and let the kids figure it out even if it means failing sometimes.
In Chris Lehmann's video he points out that summative assessments are used too much. With formative assessments students get to demonstrate knowledge a little at a time as they go. Formative assessments can be used very creatively and frequently. I believe it is a better way of demonstrating knowledge and learning. Too much focus is put on teaching to pass the test, such as the Georgia Milestones or an SLO. Then it becomes nothing but memorization which the student will likely forget when they walk out the door. Formative assessments allow the student to use inquiry learning strategies that Chris's video focuses on. There is a definitive connection between allowing the students to form their own questions and come up with the solutions and great teaching. Simply lecturing students and providing them with the answers does not equal complete understanding of the subject. Applying, demonstrating, and practicing knowledge in the classroom allows for the students to develop the skills needed to be successful. Instructional Technology gives teachers an abundance of tools and resources to promote this type of learning.
I completely agree with you that applying, demonstrating, and practicing knowledge allows for students to develop the skills needed to be successful. All of the projects in the Instructional Technology program have really helped me learn about technology and being successful with web tools. It's a vastly different experience for me to give you a definition of blogging as opposed to me blogging online with you. The classes I enjoy the most and learned the most from were the ones I had hands on activities and/or practice to learn about the concepts.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with your post and I also enjoyed the readings and videos this week. I definitely think there is way too much focus given to high stakes testing in schools. I'll never forget several years ago having an administrator tell me "If it is not explicitly stated in the standards, do not teach it!" He was convinced that the only thing that mattered in the classroom was student's test scores. Now years later that has become the norm in most public schools. I hope to see some of the kinds of teaching and assessment strategies mentioned in our readings/videos become more popular with school districts in the near future.
ReplyDeleteAs the webinar brought out, we tend to put kids in situations that we ourselves would not want to be. There's a whole discussion that we could have on lecturing, but the bottom line is that we are in the 21st century, and we have to adapt to the way our students live. Their attention spans are not as long as some of ours were when we were in school. Most blogs that I have read mention standardized testing. This beast needs to be tamed. I liked the fact that Lehmann said that we cannot wait on the Department of Education or anyone else. They are going to continue to do things in a political manner. We can, however, change the way that we teach in our classrooms and in our school districts.
ReplyDeleteI have students that also need to be prompted or given reminders for certain tasks. I have noticed that many of them need prompts and reminders for confirmation. They know the material, they just need the okay from the teacher to know that they are on the correct path, but again when will the confirmation stop. Teachers must let their students know to trust their instincts, think critically, and stay focused on important material that they will need to utilize for later. It's okay for them to struggle and can be good for them as well!
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