Things that make you go, “hmmm?”

407 Blog 2

Things that make you go, “hmmm?”

During this reading of chapters one and two, I particularly liked the comment that we as teachers should not be getting students “ready” to be life learns, but we should rather have them practicing as life learners right now.  I liked this statement because it is true, we are all learning as we go along each day.  Whether it is within academic content areas or social contexts, we are always learning.  We are constantly making mistakes or realizing connections in many different fashions, remembering that information and storing it for later use. 

Knowing that we are always learning and knowing that we want to encourage and improve life-long learning for students, - Is covering specific content mandated by district-wide curriculum the best approach to teaching?  And how are we as teachers supposed to present students with lessons and experiences that will align them with modern standards that are more conceptual rather than content based?  The expectation to teach content that is measured by a state or national assessment coupled with the initiative to teach abstract analytical skills seems to be quite a polarizing conundrum.  As a future teacher, I am having trouble understanding where this blurred line will actually rest when it comes to exactly what and how I will teach.    

I really liked the fast food lesson mentioned in the first chapter.  It seems like there could be a lot of room for differentiation, student led learning, and deep thinking by the students.  The problem is, how is such a lesson going to cover material that students will be assessed on in state assessments?  The chapter does mention that part of the unit included mandated biology content that will most likely be part of a state assessment, and the unit certainly allows for social studies and English content to be covered as well.  But I have difficulty believing it will include enough content to allow students to perform well on standardized tests.

I am not claiming that there is not an answer to this problem.  In fact, I believe the questions asked and discussions we have about teaming and differentiation are leading teachers in the right direction.  But I think for the moment, high-stakes standardized tests and set curriculums hinder this progression.