Teaching or Learning Focus

I recently talked with several  teachers. They had wonderful techniques to present a concept. However, after they taught the concept, they did not know how to monitor, diagnose, and give feedback.They did not record what they observed about the students’ learning. They did not think about what possible learning problems the students might display in order to begin to think of where the learners were and what was needed to help move the students forward. They did not have already prepared materials to help the students as part of the scaffolding feedback of moving the students forward.

Do you focus more on teaching a concept or more on helping the students to move forward in their learning after your initial teaching?

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Gladly would the teacher help the students to learn

Chaucer wrote “Gladly would he learn and gladly teach.” I would like to change that to “Gladly would he/she learn and gladly help students to learn.” Unfortunately some teachers think of teaching as presenting information and then testing on that info. In the formative assessment process, the focus is on helping the students to learn.

Glick wrote :”It is not what the teacher does but what he gets the students to do that results in learning” Our focus should be not on what the teacher does but on what the teacher helps the students to do. The teacher’s “best” lecture is not good if it does not help students to do something to learn the standard. Teachers should teach less and have students learn and do more in the class. The more students do in the class, the more teachers can observe them, diagnose them, and offer formative feedback to help the students so that the students can improve drastically in their learning.

Do you focus on teaching or learning?

Giving Students’ learning Choices Through Technology

I like to rent Redbox movies, those red kiosco in grocery stores and McDonalds. I can preview the available titles from the comfort of my home; I can take my time to decide which movie I want. I can even rent the movie online so that it is ready for me when I get to the store. I can return it to any Redbox.

I wonder what school would be like if we could have more options and choices available to students. Sure all students have to learn the same basic standards. How much choice do we give the students in how they go about doing it? Do we provide lectures, demonstrations, guided instructions, interactive activities, group activities, and self-tests in various digital formats for them? By using technology we can have many different forms of learning the standard available to the students. What, if instead of lock stepping the class in terms of the students’ learning, we freed up the class to make their own choices? They can select in what order or format to see/hear/experience the learning.

We can start small with podcasts, emovies, and interactive Power Points as we build up our library. Imagine if a department (all English teachers in 9th grade) worked together to create these resources. Then we as teachers could really be guides on the side instead of the sage on the stage. We can spend time in providing formative feedback to students in one-on-one and small groups instead of being infront of the room “teaching”. When students experience a learning gap, we can refer them to a specific technology application that focuses on that learning gap. We can give more help to those who need one-on-one feedback.

Let’s use technology to help us better guide students in their learning.

Checking for Understanding Instead of Lecturing

We feel so good as we lecture. We know that we have prepared well. We know that we have good examples and visuals. We have interesting stories. We feel that the students are basking in our teaching. However, we do not know if the students are learning the goal. They may be able to parrot back to us the major points but can they paraphrase these points in their own words? Can they identify examples of it? Can they apply the learning in a mini-example? We can stop every 5-10 minutes and make sure that they can demonstrate their learning through the use of various technology. Each time we will raise the bar of what we want them to learn in terms of the higher level thinking skills for the learning. Each time we will have them demonstrate that can reach that new level. Then we can really feel good about their learning!