What I Ask You To Do Is Imprtant

     Chapter six of Fulfilling The Promise is very similar to chapter four in that chapter four was all about taking what we know about responding to student needs and applying it in the classroom and chapter six is taking the characteristics of great curriculum and instruction and using it in the classroom.  Chapter six contains so many good ideas and examples that one to two posts is not enough to cover it.  This chapter will be broken down into three posts.  The first will cover how we as teachers provide work for the students that is important, focused, and engaging.  The second two posts will break down work that is demanding and scaffolded.

     If we can provide lessons that are focused on what is important in a way that engages the students we have a much better chance of getting students to the ultimate goal of enduring knowledge, skill, and ability.  The text gives several strategies that are very helpful in ensuring that teacher instruction meets the characteristics of good curriculum and instruction in the important, focused, and engaging departments.

Focus Student Products on Problems and Issues in Their World
Students have a much better chance of understanding the importance of a lesson if what they will produce or learn is focused on a problem or issue that is applicable to the world they live in.  When the lessons we teach are relevant to the events or problems students see and hear about every day the lessons become more than classroom rambles full of random information.  The lessons become tools in which are students can have an influence on the world.  They can see the importance of learning and make connections directly to the things that matter most to them.  To use an example, knowing that 2+2=4 is an important piece of knowledge, but it becomes much more important if a student is a great baker and wants to double a cookie recipe that calls for 2 cups of flour.  Good curriculum and instruction allows students to see the importance of learning.

Use Meaningful Audiences
     Students will make more effort when the products of their new learning can be displayed to the people that matter to them.  Teachers matter to students but if they know they are going to display what they have learned to others outside the classroom the effort on learning becomes more intense.  I made a comparison to a basketball team.  Teams practice hard and work hard to impress their coach, but practice takes on an entire new dynamic because students know they will be performing, what they have learned, in front of family and community.  Practicing in a closed gym with only a coach would soon lose it's novelty if the players did not know that at some point they would be displaying their skills for a much bigger audience.  Students will work harder and with more purpose once they know that their learning will be displayed outside the classroom.  Quality work by students should be shown to parents, grandparents, school administration, and younger students.

What I Learn Can Be Used in the World
     It is important that students understand that what we are teaching them will assist them in dealing with the world they live in.  The knowledge they learn will help them make sense of what they see and the abilities and skills will allow them to make changes to what they see.  If I am want students to learn that they do effect their world, why not show them the effects in our classroom and make it real.  Lessons should not be to be abstract information with vague applications, but rather real world situations where what the student learns applies immediately to an event that is concrete.  We, as a class, may not be able to change the world right now, but if we learn the skills and abilities needed we will change the world at some point.

Provide Choices
One of the characteristics of what a student needs is power.  By giving the student choices they become empowered in their own learning.  When a student has choices on a how they learn the learning will become much more personal, because they chose how the learned.  They have the power to say I will learn this because it is my choice and I want to.  Now you can not be teaching a lesson on fractions and give students the choice of learning about fractions or space travel.  The choices must be centered around the knowledge, skill, or ability they must learn, but how they learn should have options.  An example of this is in this very class.  I know a student went into Dr. Peterson and made a request to do a project that was not on the learning menu.  Dr. Peterson and the student discussed the project and decided that it accomplished the learning goals so it became a choice for all students.  As a teacher, I do not what is the best way for every student to learn, so I must have choices that allow each student to learn in the way that is best for them.

Find New Ways to Explore Topics
     Their is more than one way to skin a cat.  I know that we do not skin cats, but what I am trying to say is that there is more than one way to provide quality learning for our students.  Above, I talked about  how choices help students learn, but to provide the choices it may take extra work on my part.  I need to think outside the box and find different ways to get the information to my students.  I am not a musical dance type person, but I will have students who are and learn best when music is applied.  I will have to get out of my comfort zone and teach using dance and music to assist my students.  We must teach in ways that are not the best method for us, but the best method for student learning.