This module has helped me
think about using standards, CFQs, or formative assessment in the following
ways...
I am learning so much! I didn’t realize how much work goes into being a
teacher. I knew that teachers had approved texts, and I guess I thought they
just based what they taught on those texts. I didn’t realize how much planning
must be done to ensure students are taught the right things. I had of course
heard of standards, but I didn’t think about how the lesson plans would reflect
those standards. It is clear that not only is there a lot of work required to
make sure the state required standards are taught, but also to ensure that
students are engaged and interested in learning as well. We’ve all had those
teachers who stand in front of the class and lecture, expecting you to mindlessly
take notes and somehow regurgitate enough facts on the multiple choice or essay
test to pass. In addition, we all know how hard it can be to stay awake and
take legible notes during those lectures, much less have enough interest to
study for a test!
That is not the type of teacher I want to be. I want to be a teacher
students want to listen to. I want to engage their interest and spark a love of
learning. At the same time, I want them to learn not only the required
standards, but things they can use in real life. I have a 13 year old son who
is in the 8th grade this year. I’ve discussed some of this with him,
and he keeps asking why he isn’t learning useful things in school, such as how
to write checks and balance a checking account. To be honest, he may never need
to write a check. It isn’t something I do often in this day of electronic
everything. However, I’m sure I can find a way to incorporate useful, day-to-day
things like this in my math classes someday.
That leads me to the usefulness of curriculum framing questions. I like
the idea of an essential question that guides your classes for the year. I
really like the one I came up with for my unit plan, “How can a knowledge of
math help us have fun in the real world?” That’s the basis of the kind of math
teacher I want to be. Alongside the standards, I want to show my students that
math is necessary, that math has real world applications, and that math can be
fun! I see curriculum framing questions as an outline, much like one you would
use to write a well-organized paper. A teacher uses them to focus in on the
details of planning the unit. The essential question is the main idea of the
class, what you use to get your students thinking about your subject. The unit
questions focus on one unit at a time. They bring an awareness of the unit idea
to the students; get them thinking about what they might be learning during the
unit. The content questions pull in the details, the bottom line of the unit. They
tell the students, “This is what you need to know; what you need to learn. If
you can answer these questions, then you’re getting the hang of it and learning
something new.” And that’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it?
It isn’t enough to teach the standards, you have to be able to prove
that your students are learning them. I’ve always thought tests and graded
projects were the only types of assessment. I never realized that my teachers
were likely paying attention all along the way to be sure we were learning what
we should. I had a light bulb moment reading about formative assessment. It
seems a little sneaky, to be honest, though in a good way! There are so many
ways to assess the students’ learning. I like the idea of having students keep
journals during a project, much like we’re doing here. That gives students a
place to talk about what they’re learning, and the teacher can read it to
verify that the students are on track. Math is a bit different. There typically
isn’t a lot of writing in math. I will need to use other methods as well to be
sure students are learning. Another idea I like is that of exit slips, where a
student may have to answer a few problems before leaving class for the day.
That would give me a sense of whether the students understood the day’s lesson,
allowing me to decide if we should work further on that concept the next day or
move on.
I am eager to continue on this journey of learning to be a teacher and how to develop a unit plan.
