Teaching, Planning, and Assessment

1. Teaching, Planning, and Assessment Chapter 5

2. Instruction 1890-2000 • Monitorial method…ability to teach large numbers of students through the use of student/teachers • Graded system…from the Prussians, kids of the same age or at the same academic levels were taught together (Horace Mann observed this method)…adopted in America by the 1890s

3. Most of my classroom experiences were • 20-30 chairs facing the front, teacher talking most of the time • Pods of kids at tables working together • Open areas, rearranged depending on the activity • Multi-age, multi-ability

4. Research by Strong, Silver, and Robinson • Instructionally engaging curriculum, includes four goals • Success…the need for mastery • Curiosity…the need for understanding • Originality…the need for self-expression • Satisfying relationships…the need for involvement

5. 250 135 My greatest school need is • Success • Curiosity • Originality • Satisfying relationships

6. Culturally Relevant Teaching • When the curriculum content is related to the students’ background • “…in culturally relevant teaching, the contributions and perspectives of the groups that a teacher uses should depict each group as it depicts itself and show those aspects of the group’s culture that are important to them.”

7. Culturally Responsive Teaching • Classroom climate focused rather than curriculum focused • The climate influences: • The private world of the student • The “esprit de corps” of the class • The sense of purpose and relevance to group and individual goals and activities • The ability to look at problems objectively • Student/teacher and student/student rapport

8. Four conditions Necessary for Culturally Responsive Teaching • Establish inclusion • Develop positive attitude • Enhance meaning • Engender competence

9. Student involvement, Leadership, and Engagement • All students need to see the link between routine drill-and-practice and more complex work. • Students need to tinker with real-world problems, and to construct knowledge. • The basics should not be an end in themselves but a means to an end. • Teachers need to nurture a strong self-image by allowing students to develop an internal locus of control, and awareness of strengths and weaknesses. • Self-esteem is enhanced when students accomplish something thought to be impossible, beyond them.

10. Gender-Responsive Classrooms • Connect math, science, technology to the “real world” • Choose metaphors carefully that encompass females’ life experiences • Foster ‘true’ collaboration • Encourage girls to act as ‘experts’ • Give girls the opportunity to be in control of technology • Capitalize on students’ verbal strengths

11. Gender-responsive classrooms • Experiment with testing and evaluation…girls less often think in linear right/wrong categories • Give frequent feedback and keep expectation high. Girls tend to need more encouragement than boys.

12. 250 0 Generally speaking I agree that girls need more encouragement than boys • Yes • No

13. Planning • Those teachers who view lesson planning as an essential framework for practically all classroom instruction • Those teachers who find lesson plans as too time consuming and following one as too constraining. They plan, but the plans stay in their heads. • Those who see planning as mechanical and void of any real teacher input. They often tend to go by the text. • Those who believe lesson plans are for beginning teachers

14. Levels of Planning • Long-Range…getting other stake holders involved (parents, community members etc.), looking at the big picture • Medium-Range…unit plans, a set of learning objectives, activities, experiences, materials, and resources concerned with a topic or problem • Short-Range…one to ten school days

15. Planning for Education that is Multicultural and Social Reconstructionist • Multiple Perspectives • Instructional Strategies • Language Diversity • Grouping Students • Visuals • Role Models • Home and Community Relations • Practice of Democracy • Analysis of Social Inequality • Encouraging Social Action

16. Assessment of Instruction • Authentic Assessment…the process of gathering evidence and documenting a student’s learning and growth in an authentic context • Portfolio Assessment…a purposeful collection of student work that exhibits the student’s efforts, progress, and achievements in one or more areas • Exhibition Assessment…presentation of results of learning in a particular area