Module 2 Reflection

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 8^th 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.