Julie Johnson has been teaching for over fifteen years and
she’s never had problems getting her students to do their assignments.
How does she do it?
When we met Julie fifteen years ago as a kindergarten teacher she said,
"When I begin each new lesson, I decide exactly what it is I want
my students to know or be able to do. Then I tell my students
what they will be learning and how they will show me they have learned
it.
“Next I show them how to do it. We practice together (guided
practice). Then they practice on their own (independent practice).
“And then I test them the same way we practice. In other
words, how they will be tested. This way we all know exactly what
we are learning and how we will know when and if we have learned it.
“In my class, test is not a bad word. It is something my
students look forward to. It is their chance to show me what they
have learned. They can't wait for their turn to be tested because
after all the instruction and practice, the test is the easiest part,
at least that's what my students tell me.
“They beg me to test them. They even stand in line waiting
for their turn to show me what they have learned.”
What is Julie Johnson doing to cause her students to beg her
to show her what they have learned?
- She decides what she wants her students
to learn.
- She shows them what they are to learn.
- They practice or do the assignment on what
they are to learn.
- They are tested on what they know they are
to learn.
As Julie says, “There are no secrets as to what is expected of
them. When I do this they all succeed.”
If students know what they are to learn,
you increase the chances that the
students will learn.
It’s like flying into a strange city, renting a car, and driving
to your destination without a map. How do you know when you’ve
arrived? Wouldn’t you have felt more confident in your journey
knowing the address, having a MapQuest® map in your hand, or renting
a car with navigation system so a voice is coaching you along the way
to your destination? Please review Chapter 22 in The
First Days of School so we can guide you through the process
of helping students to learn.
Boredom Is a Good Sign
“I’m bored.”
A student who is bored is not a bad or lazy student. Rather,
consider it a sign that the student wants to do something stimulating,
exciting, and challenging.
It’s no different with an adult who says the program on television
is boring, the food is boring, or the relationship is boring.
Adults are always looking for a better program, better restaurant, and
better relationship.
All students know why they are in school. They
come to school to learn. They know there will be assignments.
And learning and assignments take work. The reason many students
do not do their work or their assignments is not because they are unwilling
or lazy but because they have no idea what the assignment is.
For instance, the ineffective teacher will say:
I have them read Chapter seven.
I have them do questions five to eleven.
I have them watch this video.
I tell them to write this paper.
I give them this worksheet to complete.
These are all meaningless assignments. The students see no purpose,
no meaning, and no value to what they are to do. What does “read
Chapter seven” mean? What’s the purpose of “watching
the video”? So, why do it! Thus, they have every right
to say, “I’m bored!”
Also, notice how the teacher keeps saying, “I, I, and I.”
The teacher orders the students to do things— meaningless things.
People of all ages rebel against doing things that are meaningless.
Since the students can’t rebel against this kind of clueless
teaching or they will be sent to the office for insubordination, it’s
simpler for them to say, “I’m bored.” “Bored”
is a safe word to use. People can hide behind the word.
It’s a socially accepted part of today’s jargon.
Do not take the word “bored” as an effrontery. Rather,
understand that the students want to work. They just want to know
the meaning or the purpose of the work. That’s what is meant
by “I’m bored.”
People get more things done when
they see where they are going
and what they are doing.
Take a look again at what Julie Johnson was doing. Julie’s key
sentence is, “This way we all know exactly what
we are learning and how we will know when and if we have
learned it.”
The teacher knows what she is teaching.
The students know what they are learning.
Both the teacher and the students are moving towards the same
goal. That’s when you get learning.
Teach With the End in Mind
Julie Johnson teaches with the end in mind.
She said, “When I begin each new lesson, I decide exactly what
it is I want my students to know or be able to do.”
Effective teachers keep asking the same basic question, “What
do I want them to achieve?”
Everyone needs to have a common understanding of what skill or knowledge
the students is to master.
The role of a teacher is not to cover. Covering
a chapter or a topic is meaningless. Worse yet, the teacher does
not even know what skill or knowledge student is to master.
Therefore, stop asking the following dead end questions:
What am I going to
cover tomorrow?
What video am I going to show?
What worksheet am I going
to give them?
What activity am I going to
do?
The teacher who “covers” only thinks about getting across
the lesson, not how best the student can learn the lesson. They
look for activities that are “fun,” “cute,”
or will “bring the class alive.” They do not consider that
these activities do not teach to any objective or standard. They
are preoccupied with what activities students will get through.
The danger is in the word “I.” The teacher is doing all
the work. The students are not responsible; they just come to
school wondering what the teacher will do next. They have no idea
what they are to learn. The teacher just covers.
The role of a teacher is to uncover. The effective
teacher uncovers the lesson by telling the students up front what the
students are to accomplish. Julie says, “Then I tell my
students what they will be learning and how they will show me that they
have learned it. Next I show them how to do it. We practice
together. Then they practice on their own.”
Start asking the following destination oriented question:
What is it the students are
to learn, achieve, or accomplish?
You can assess or evaluate effectively what the students have done
when both parties know what the students are responsible for performing
or learning.
Instead of thinking of what the teacher will
go over,
focus on what the students will be able to do as a result of the lesson.
To do this, tell the students at the beginning of the assignment what
they are responsible for learning, achieving, or performing.
The role of a teacher is not to cover. The role of a teacher
is to uncover!
Teaching to Standards
Julie Johnson is teaching third grade now, but is using the same effective
strategies to deliver the instruction and get the same student achievement
results. This is because she focuses on teaching for learning
and mastery.
To do this she begins with the state standards.
Do not be alarmed by standards, because standards do not deprive
you of creativity. For instance, all cities have standards
for construction. When buying a home you would want to know that
your home was built to code, which means that the standards for construction
have been met. However, builders and homeowners can creatively
build the home in any fashion, provided it meets specified standards.
Likewise, in the classroom, teachers can creatively construct their
lessons, provided the lessons’ objectives are in line with the
state standards. That’s common sense.
Using the Minnesota State Standards in Math, Julie aligned the standards
with her district’s adopted Math textbook.
This gave her the ability to decide which math concepts needed to be
taught first and which concepts not to teach at all. She determined
which chapters she would use and not use. That is, the textbook
was not the curriculum, the concepts that she aligned to the state standards
were her curriculum.
She didn’t “cover” the textbook. She taught
to a curriculum, a curriculum focused on student learning.
| In fact, the guidelines that accompany the Minnesota State Standards
are specifically stated: |
Teachers must develop and enrich
students’ knowledge of mathematics
beyond what is outlined in this document. |
Mastery of each concept is expected but the document does not identify
when those concepts are introduced and reinforced.
Standards are good because they give you a base point from
which to start your class lessons. You have to begin
somewhere, so what better place to start than to use the state standards.
And, you must use the state standards. You are not in private
business; you are an employee of the school district (see page 22 in
The First Days of School).
Julie began by designing the layout of the whole school year.
She decided which standards needed to be taught all year long, such
as Mathematical Reasoning.
| This is one of the Minnesota Grade Three standards: |
Apply skills of mathematical representation, communication,
and reasoning throughout the content strands.
|
With each concept she teaches, her students need to learn how to communicate
and how to evaluate and express how they are thinking when solving a
problem. On almost every worksheet accompanying her math textbook,
the students are asked to explain their answers in words.
Since the Minnesota Comprehensive Test is mainly multiple choice, the
students must be able to READ the questions by themselves. Thus,
being able to READ the vocabulary and understand it becomes important
to teach, along with the math.
There are also four writing questions where the students have to draw
a graph or chart, or express their thinking using words. These
skills must also be taught and practiced as each concept is taught.
Students do not automatically know how to do this.
To assist with the reading and writing, Julie has her students bring
a notebook at the beginning of each school year to use as their Math
Journal. In the back of their Math Journals, the students write
down all of the vocabulary words that are taught with each concept.
They review these words every day.
In the front of their Math Journals, the students write numbers
in order. She has them organize each page into four rows
of 25, so that each page has 100 numbers. As they complete each
page, they show it to her and she puts a small star at the bottom when
it has been done correctly.
Julie says she is amazed at how many children have difficulty with
numbering, but this activity helps her identify those students who need
help understanding number sense.
The students work in their journals at the beginning of each math lesson.
Some students enjoy it so much they even take their journals home to
work on. One student filled two or three notebooks and was up
to 20,000, but most are lucky if they reach 5,000 by the end of the
school year.
| This is another Minnesota Math Standard in Geometry: |
Classify shapes by specified attributes.
Identify simple shapes within complex shapes.
|
| |
| These are the lesson objectives that are aligned to the state
standards: |
- Identify, describe, and classify two-dimensional shapes according
to number
and length of sides and kinds of angles.
- Identify common two- and three- dimensional shapes that are
components of
more complex shapes.
|
Julie gives the students vocabulary cards with all of the words to
label the different shapes and other vocabulary words that relate to
geometry. These cut out cards are kept in an envelope in their
“stay-at-school-folders.” At the beginning of each math
lesson, the students set the cards out on their desks.
This procedure minimizes transition time and helps everyone,
teacher and students, start the lesson right away.
| This is how Julie uses the cards. She says, |
- I teach them what each word card
is and what it looks like.
- I hold up models of a shape and they
hold up the card that identifies the models. We do this for
a few days or until I see they know them well.
- I hold up something that is real world
and they match the shape.
- I have them find something in the classroom to match
to their word cards.
|
As we use these cards, we also discuss the number of sides, faces,
angles, etc. I work on things like flips, turns, slides, congruency,
lines of symmetry, parallel lines, and angles (right, greater than,
or lesser than).
Julie continually assesses her students using the book’s quizzes
and tests, which work well for her because they best match how the students
will be assessed on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments.
The Future of Standards
We have just returned from a technology conference and witnessed how
technology is used to access and track the progress of students as they
master district and state standards. This practice isn’t
just happening in one district, it is becoming norm as exit testing
is required for students to progress from grade level to the next or
receive a diploma.
At the click of a button (or two!) a student’s level of mastery
of standards can be revealed. Students can be identified and helped
before they fall through the cracks and are lost forever.
While many claim that teaching has been reduced to teaching to the
test, we contend that that is not the case. This is teaching
to an objective.
The tests are used to assess for attainment of the objectives
or concepts. Teaching is the HOW you transmit and relate
that information to your students so they CAN succeed on the test.
The HOW is boiled down to what steps are you the teacher going to take
to make sure the students all achieve or master the objective.
| How deep are you going to teach that concept so the students realize
the objective? In the case of Julie Johnson’s geometry lessons
about shapes, do you |
- just work on the vocabulary so they know the concept?
- ask the students to draw the shapes so they comprehend the
meaning?
- have students identify that shape as it appears in objects
in the classroom?
- give students objects and ask them to sort them into groups
that are and are not the shape?
- ask the students to create a picture using the outline of
the shape?
- discuss with the students the advantages and disadvantages
of using a specific shape in the design of something common
to them?
|
A good teacher does items 1 and 2 to “teach” the concept,
a better teacher includes questions 3 and 4 in the lesson plans, and
the exceptional teacher teaches to all 6 questions so the students have
a rich experience while learning the concept.
District and State Standards guide the development of information for
students. They don’t dictate how you are to teach.
That is your mission, your quest—to unlock the potential for learning
in each student and uncover the promise of achievement for all.
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