Tuesday Teaching Point October 15

Tuesday Teaching Point

October 15, 2013

·       Equitable Access to Rigorous, Standards-based Instruction

·       Results-focused Professional Learning and Collaboration

·       Strong Partnerships with Families and Community

·       A Culturally-Responsive Organization

Teaching Point:

Standards do not stand alone and neither should a proposed learning objective in any class. In your planning you will align learning goals so that they scaffold, or build upon one another leading to a bigger idea. Making sense of a broader concept is critical to setting the context for smaller, but still the very important learning objectives.

For example, I write this weekly Instructional Letter because I want my teachers to be on point in everything they teach, every day. My Big Idea is that the most effective teachers are on point!

Picture a school of fish. Imagine that each fish is a “Learning Objective”. Are all of your fish swimming the same way? Are you clear where the fish are headed? Are your students clear where they are headed? Are you teaching a lesson that is not aligned with the rest of the fish?

My learning goals for you are that you: 1) focus your lessons, 2)understand your standards, and 3) know how to check-in with your students frequently to ensure they are learning what you want them to learn. If you can learn to do all of this effectively, your teaching will be focused and on point. That’s my Big Idea.

Teaching Standard:

In the Dimension of Purpose under Standards, a guiding question says, “How does the standard and learning target relate to the ongoing work of the classroom? What about the broader ideals of the classroom like problem-solving or citizenship?” These too, are big ideas. I’m asking, how are your standards and objectives connected to something larger? Where is your “school of fish” headed?

Teaching Assessment:

This graphic shows an interesting relationship between Standards and Assessment. I think the first line in each box says it all. “What should students know?” and, “How do we know what students know?” This shows how one builds upon the other in a perpetual cycle. Do you have anything to say after looking at this?

How do you assess your students to the standards you have identified for your class? Next time I stop in class please share with me the highest leverage formative assessment that you use frequently. I look forward to seeing what you have to share. And how that assessment is connected to the most current learning objective posted in your room.

Professional Collaboration and Learning:

This Friday at PCT we will cover two topics to prep us for ongoing professional development and collaboration in following times throughout the year. First, we will discuss our Advisory planning model and how to develop what is taught in our new upper/lower grade level model. Secondly, we will see a protocol and exemplar for looking at student work. Student work, you will see, will give us an incredible opportunity to look deeply into what our students are learning in our own classes. This is an excellent tool to examine our own practice and how it connects directly to student work. Have a great week.

Your Instructional Leader,

Mike