Where Great Teaching Begins

Rachel BeechCI 843

Spring 2012

My Selected Text

Where Great Teaching Begins: Planning for Student Thinking and Learning

 Anne R. Reeves

Chapter 1

• We learn what it means to be a teacher based on our understanding from our growing process through the educational system. We knew how teachers act and thought we knew what they did when we were away from the classroom.

• Teachers should move beyond lesson planning and into deep instructional design that focuses on demonstrated student learning.

• All activities should be student focused and learning centered.

• The purpose of lessons should be to create lasting student learning. A bonus to deep instructional design is more effective time management.

Chapter 1 Continued

• "Determining what and how students will learn and how they will demonstrate their learning are not extra steps to be added but necessary steps that cannot be skipped (Reeves, 2011)."

• When teachers shift to focus on student learning and its outcomes, they engage in smarter planning time.

• "Preparing students for their futures should be at the heart of every teacher's classroom work (Reeves, 2011)."

• It is essential to know where instruction is going in the long term before beginning to plan for short term lessons.

• We should always ask ourselves what we want the students to learn from each lesson.

Chapter 2-Objectives as the Foundation for Learning-Focused Instruction

• "Instructional objectives are statements of what students will know and be able to do at the end of the lesson or unit of instruction. They describe the learning outcomes for students that the lesson is designed to produce (Reeves, 2011)."

• Objectives help determine whether lesson activities are appropriate for outcome of the lesson.

• "Better to establish standards-based learning outcomes first and then look for ways to make that learning interesting, feasible, and manageable (Reeves, 2011)."

• When writing objectives, make sure they focus on what the students should gain from the lesson rather than describing the activities that will be completed during the lesson.

Chapter 2 Continued

• Objectives describe achievement rather than the practice/activities the students do to obtain the knowledge.

• 3 types of goals exist: Cognitive, Affective, and Psychomotor

• "Affective goals (goals that emphasize a feeling or emotion) are essential to raising healthy young people, just as they are essential to the creation and perpetuation of a civil society (Reeves, 2011)."

• Affective and Cognitive goals reinforce each other because it is easier to learn (cognitive) more when we enjoy or are interested in the topic (affective).

 

Chapter 3-A Closer Look at the Language of Objectives• Objectives should be student and learning-centered. • Objectives should highlight what the student should

be able to do after the lesson is completed.• "Great teachers pay close attention to their students'

intellectual activity (Reeves, 2011)."•  Every great objective highlights two things that

students should do including both an internal (intellectual) and an external (physical) action.

•  Bloom's Taxonomy provides appropriate verbs and ensures that verbs from higher level thinking categories includes all the categories before it.

Chapter 3 Continued

• "All true instructional objectives describe a thinking process (Reeves, 2011)."

• "Clear instructional objectives state what the learner is expected to do both intellectually and as a physical demonstration of that intellectual work (Reeves, 2011)."

• Objectives can described anything from ten minute lessons to year long unit lessons.

Chapter 4: Two Special Cases When Creating Objectives: Read and Write• Using the verb READ is too vague to use in objectives. The

word does not describe exactly what we want the students to gain from reading a particular text.

• "In your objective, state what students will know and be able to do as a result of reading, watching, or listening...When the purpose of the assignmnt is for students to tak in new content, reading, watching, or listening are learning activities, not outcomes (Reeves, 2011)."

• "Writing is a useful way for students to learn;through writing, studnts can record progress, opinions, and experiences and explore ideas. Writing is also a natural form of assessment; suited for demonstrating all kinds of knowledge in a wide variety of formats (Reeves, 2011)."

Chapter 4 Continued

• Using the objective verb WRITE does not tell the instructor exactly what we want to student to convey in their writing.

• When the product of a lesson should be a writing assignment, the objective should highlight the purpose behind the student's writings.

• Formal writing includes three major parts and each should have their own objective: doing the research, learning the topic, and drafting/editing the student work.

•  

Chapter 5: Checking the Validity of Objectives• To check the validity of objectives, each should be

checked to make sure its student-centered, thinking-centered, and describes student outcome.

• All objectives should be the following:o Clear and Specifico Focused on Student Thinkingo Student Mastery can be showno Outcomes can be measuredo Aligned with state and national standards

 

Chapter 6: Creating InstructionalObjectives

Before making instructional objectives, the teacher needs the following:

1.   knowledge of curriculum2.   knowledge of lesson content3.   knowledge of students4.   knowledge of the power of objectives

 When determining what you would like the students to know, you can begin by thinking of the end product, by choosing a focus on a subtopic before narrowing the objective, by selecting powerful details first, or by selecting an activity and determining its purpose in the lesson. As you plan, continue to look back on the standards that should be met.

Chapter 6: Creating Instructional Objectives, ContinuedAfter determining the content to be taught, teachers must:• Choose the depth and breadth of learning.

Remember to include higher level thinking process into your objective.

• Express your objective in clear, precise language. • Sometimes it is helpful to to generate objectives

straight from the academic standards the teacher is trying to meet. Doing this allows the focus to be on the important content rather than the activities themselves.

• "This work will reward you by giving you clarity and confidence about what you will be teaching and how you will be teaching it (Reeves, 2011)."

Chapter 7: Developing Assessments• "Assessment is the process and product of determining

whether students have learned what they were expected to learn from the instruction (Reeves, 2011)."

• There are different types of assessment. Assessments can include diagnostic, formation, summative, program assessments, and standards assessments.

• Diagnostic assessment is used before the new concept is taught to help the teacher determine the students' prior knowledge.

• Formative assessment is used while the course of the new content is taught to identify which students are understanding the new material and which students will need more support. Formative assessment helps the teacher determine the next step in the learning process.

Chapter 7 Continued• Summative assessment is used at the completion of

the new lessons to determine how well the students learned. It is often used to help determine final grades in a subject area. While summative assessment is not usually used to guide further instruction in the content area, as the content lessons are usually already completed, it can help the teacher decide upon different methods of instruction next time they are asked to teach the content.

• Standards assessments are used to determine how well the students met a specific state standard.

• Program assessments are used to determine how well the students achieved the goals of a specific educational program.

Chapter 7 Continued• Student performance can be gathered using

traditional assessments (such as tests), performance assessments (applying the content to real world applications within the classroom), and authentic assessments (asking the students to handle real world situations outside of the classroom).

• To create useful assessment pieces, a teacher should work from their objectives, be wary of incomplete assessment descriptions, close gaps between the assessment and the objective, and create a way to assess every objective written.

• "If we don't measure student mastery of the objective, it doesn't matter what the objective says or even whether it's there (Reeves, 2011)."

Chapter 8: Checklists and Rubrics"A checklist is a tool students can use to make sure they have met all the requirements of an assignment that will be assessed (Reeves, 2011)."• When creating checklists, make sure to create a place

for constructive feedback and positive comments.• A grading checklist includes an area for the teacher to

assign a grade to each assessment piece. Some checklists also include a graded weight for each task.

 "A rubric is a specialized type of checklist. Like other checklists, it tells student what a completed assignment or finished product should include, but it also contains information about how the teacher will determine a student's score, grade, or level of mastery (Reeves, 2011)."

Chapter 8 Continued• When giving a student any grading piece, be aware

of all the possible outcomes/situations when adding the grade value.

• An analytic rubric shows all the elements of a given assignment, whereas a holistic rubric focuses on the whole product or performance. The use of either depends on each assessment situation.

• A benefit of using rubrics is that it allows the teacher to grade fairly. It also forces the teacher to examine each component without focusing on either one great or less than great feature.

Chapter 9: Designing Learning Objectives"Learning activities are the public face of instruction, a visible performance of learning and teaching (Reeves, 2011)."• When creating learning activities, keep in mind the

natural way students learn. • When creating the learning activities for the specific

instructional objectives, Bloom's taxonomy can help make a connection to what the students should know and how they will go about learning the content.

Chapter 9 Continued

When creating lessons, follow these steps:1.Plan how to start students' thinking.2.Plan how to provide access to new information3.Plan how to help students connect new

information to established learning4.Plan how to monitor student performance and

give feedback5.Plan for closure

To help lessons be more successful, rely on the students to do as much of the work as possible and keep them active. Use as many of ways of learning as possible to help engage all students.

Chapter 10: Creating Plans for Learning"A teacher must do everything possible to provide each student with a full experience of the ideas in the lesson (Reeves, 2011)." Regardless of the format or wording of a lesson plan, every lesson plan should focus on what the students should learn and how they will show their learning.Reeves (2011) recommends following Madeline Hunter's Seven Elements for lesson plans, which includes the following: determining the access students have to new information, modeling new thinking, checking for understanding, guiding student practice, providing independent practice, communicating the objective, and starting a lesson with an anticipatory set.   

Chapter 10 Continued• Teachers should consider the questions they will be

asking students before asking them. The teacher can use topical or guided questions.

• At the forefront of every lesson plan should be the instructional objectives that define the content and purpose for the lesson. It is helpful to link lesson plans to other plans that may have a direct impact on each other.

References

Reeves, A. R. (2011). Instructional design: Who and what is it for? In Where great teaching begins: Planning for student thinking and learning.