Chapter 5b
This section of chapter 5 talks about curriculum and goal setting for students and teachers. When reading this I thought about Dr. Kuester reminding future teachers that objectives have to be measurable. How will we help a student achieve their goals? One of the special education teachers at my school, asked me to take a look at a goal she had written on a student that I work with. It was funny because before I knew it I asked her how was she going to help him reach his goal. I want to keep this saying or thought in my mind when and while I am writing Goals and Objectives. If I can answer how I am going to help achieve a students goal, then I will be on the right track in helping my students succeed. The section that talks about censorships of textbooks is also a reminder that if in doubt about a book crossing a line, then don't have it as a choice to read for students. There are a lot of good reads that you don't think of as being biased toward a person's religion, sex, cultural etc. As the saying goes be careful for nothing.
Chapter 5c
This section mentioned about taxonomy and how a good way to look for connected learning is to keep a daily log or journal. I think this is a great idea. Most of the teachers I work with do not keep journals or daily logs on students day to day learning. The do however kept standardized test scores and daily grades, but they do not kept in depth journals. When I receive my classroom I think it would be beneficial to keep a log on various notes, brainstorming records/techniques, visual maps etc. on my students. Most teachers do it mentally, but to actually have some type of system in keeping this kind of material would be awesome. Character development should be a required subject or lesson taught at all levels of education. This topic is so important and needed in the times we are living in today. A lot of the times teachers only teach Character development when students are not showing each other respect, or bullying one another. Morning meetings would be a great time to discuss this topic with students of all ages.
I love your example of how you automatically thought of creating measurable objectives when a teacher told you her goal for a student. Having an overall goal is necessary, but in order to move students forward, we need actual instructional objectives that will lead toward achieving that goal. When thinking about using banned or censored books in the classroom, for example, we need to ensure we have a solid goal to serve as a rationale for why students would benefit from reading a certain novel. At the same time, we also need to include individual objectives to show what exactly students will be focusing on when they read.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tracy:)
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI also think that it is important to have the students to keep a log or journal that makes educational and personal connections!!
Please share these thoughts in class this evening!