I'm most likely going to be teaching a middle school class in the fall - a course I have not taught before. Based on what I have been learning the past few years (and have been teaching to our faculty) about the importance of active, engaged learning, I'm looking forward to seeing how I can put that into practice in the classroom. In a way, I'll be able to use the class as somewhat of an educational lab - to try out things to help students become more engaged and successful in their studies.
One aspect of this is the design of the curriculum for the course. (I'm not going to say which course, because this would apply to any course we might teach.) What is the typical way a teacher approaches a new course? She is given a textbook and any supplementary materials, and then goes about working page-by-page through that book. The textbook becomes the curriculum - whatever is in the book is taught, the way the book presents it, and whatever is not in the book is not taught even if it might be helpful.
Instead, I think we need to do what Stephen Covey advocated: begin with the end in mind. Set out your goals, the ends you want to achieve, and then work backwards from that. So with a course, instead of starting with the textbook, think about what you want the students to take away from the class at the end. What big ideas, what main concepts, do you hope the students will have learned by the end of the course? Then plan backwards to see what you need to do for the students to achieve those goals.
Let me give an example. Say I were going to be teaching world geography. I look over my school's geography standards for middle school and see this one: Knows the factors that influence patterns of rural-urban migration (e.g., urban commuting, effects of technology on transportation, communication and people's mobility, barriers that impede the flow of people, goods, and ideas). Being in the Atlanta area, I decide I want to focus on the "urban commuting" aspect, since most of our students have parents who commute from the suburbs where we are into the city of Atlanta for work. I want students, at the end of the course, to understand how this process of commuting influences the location of subdivisions (near major commuting arteries like highways and rail).
Now I think, "How can students demonstrate to me that they understand that?" The easiest way would be to say, "I will give them a test on which they will have to recall three ways commuting influences subdivision location." Notice the word "recall" - that indicates they will be told those three factors in class, and on the test they will have to remember what they were told in class. But let's be honest here: does anyone think the students will still remember those three factors a week after they take the test? Don't they just spend the night before the test (or even the morning of the test) cramming those three factors into their brains long enough for them to get through the test? So at the end of the course, have they really met that objective?
What's a better way to demonstrate that they understand this concept? Here's one way: "Given a map of a fictional city, showing major highways, rail lines, natural features like parks, and other information, students will be able to sketch where new subdivisions would likely be constructed to accommodate a given population growth, and can write an explanation of their conclusions." I think that, if students can do this, they will have demonstrated their understanding of the concept, and that it will likely stay with them longer than just the end of the unit.
Next I think, "How can I teach the students so they will be able to do that task?" That opens up a lot of possibilities. I could bring in a city planner to talk to them. I could have them examine growth patterns in several major cities. There are many other ways I could accomplish that, including (but not limited to) having them read relevant portions of their textbook.
Notice what I have done here. I didn't start with the textbook or with some good activities, and then work toward the assessment/demonstration of learning. I started at the end: what I want the students to know and be able to do. Then I worked backward from that until I got to the specific activities I would use. As a result, my instructional strategies are more likely to be aligned to those specific learning outcomes, and are more likely to result in long-term retention of the material.
This is just a quick overview. For more information, look up the resources on "Understanding By Design" or "Backward Design," especially the book Understanding by Design, by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (Pearson, 2005). But I believe that, if teachers would follow this process, they would be able to design lessons which will not only be more interesting to students than just going through the textbook, but which will result in more long-term retention and understanding of the content.
One aspect of this is the design of the curriculum for the course. (I'm not going to say which course, because this would apply to any course we might teach.) What is the typical way a teacher approaches a new course? She is given a textbook and any supplementary materials, and then goes about working page-by-page through that book. The textbook becomes the curriculum - whatever is in the book is taught, the way the book presents it, and whatever is not in the book is not taught even if it might be helpful.
Instead, I think we need to do what Stephen Covey advocated: begin with the end in mind. Set out your goals, the ends you want to achieve, and then work backwards from that. So with a course, instead of starting with the textbook, think about what you want the students to take away from the class at the end. What big ideas, what main concepts, do you hope the students will have learned by the end of the course? Then plan backwards to see what you need to do for the students to achieve those goals.
Let me give an example. Say I were going to be teaching world geography. I look over my school's geography standards for middle school and see this one: Knows the factors that influence patterns of rural-urban migration (e.g., urban commuting, effects of technology on transportation, communication and people's mobility, barriers that impede the flow of people, goods, and ideas). Being in the Atlanta area, I decide I want to focus on the "urban commuting" aspect, since most of our students have parents who commute from the suburbs where we are into the city of Atlanta for work. I want students, at the end of the course, to understand how this process of commuting influences the location of subdivisions (near major commuting arteries like highways and rail).
Now I think, "How can students demonstrate to me that they understand that?" The easiest way would be to say, "I will give them a test on which they will have to recall three ways commuting influences subdivision location." Notice the word "recall" - that indicates they will be told those three factors in class, and on the test they will have to remember what they were told in class. But let's be honest here: does anyone think the students will still remember those three factors a week after they take the test? Don't they just spend the night before the test (or even the morning of the test) cramming those three factors into their brains long enough for them to get through the test? So at the end of the course, have they really met that objective?
What's a better way to demonstrate that they understand this concept? Here's one way: "Given a map of a fictional city, showing major highways, rail lines, natural features like parks, and other information, students will be able to sketch where new subdivisions would likely be constructed to accommodate a given population growth, and can write an explanation of their conclusions." I think that, if students can do this, they will have demonstrated their understanding of the concept, and that it will likely stay with them longer than just the end of the unit.
Next I think, "How can I teach the students so they will be able to do that task?" That opens up a lot of possibilities. I could bring in a city planner to talk to them. I could have them examine growth patterns in several major cities. There are many other ways I could accomplish that, including (but not limited to) having them read relevant portions of their textbook.
Notice what I have done here. I didn't start with the textbook or with some good activities, and then work toward the assessment/demonstration of learning. I started at the end: what I want the students to know and be able to do. Then I worked backward from that until I got to the specific activities I would use. As a result, my instructional strategies are more likely to be aligned to those specific learning outcomes, and are more likely to result in long-term retention of the material.
This is just a quick overview. For more information, look up the resources on "Understanding By Design" or "Backward Design," especially the book Understanding by Design, by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (Pearson, 2005). But I believe that, if teachers would follow this process, they would be able to design lessons which will not only be more interesting to students than just going through the textbook, but which will result in more long-term retention and understanding of the content.