As we are coming to the end or our education foundations block here at UW-Whitewater, I have started to think more and more about how I want to teach when I do become an educator. In our educational psychology class the other day, we were talking about different ways in which we could design our lesson plans of our future students. The main way we discussed about in class, is the concept of Backward design.Basically, how backward design works, is that teachers make long term goals for their students ahead or time, and then they decide on what best ways would motivate the students to attain these goals, as well as what sorts of ways a teacher could assess if these goals have been attained or not.
I really liked the example that Grant Wiggins gave to help show how Backward Design should work. He mentioned how many schools value creative and critical thinking, and have it listed in their education plans. However, he says that most all schools in america do not do a good job at teaching students how to think creatively and critically. The reasoning that he gives for this, is because the way education is set up right now, students can get A’s in every single one of there classes, but yet still not have these skills that we want them to have, such as creative and critical thinking skills.Wiggins says that, in order to teach the student what we really want them to learn, we need to: set up long term goals for our students, make the material engaging to the students, and to assess whether or not our students attained the the goals that we wanted them to attain.Going off of what Wiggins is talking about, I would like to give a run-through of an example lesson plan that I could possibly use in the future for my students.
Attached above is a rough draft of a lesson plan that I could conduct with my student in the future. Thinking through what sorts of things I wanted to integrate into my lesson plan, really helped me think through ways in which I want to conduct my classroom when I do eventually become an educator. the main goals that I am going to have for my students during each school year, is for them to develop better knowledge of mathematical principles, and how to apply them into the real world. For ways in which I conduct my lesson in class, I was thinking of possibly integrating a flipped classroom method. A good example of this would be a really good math resource that I have used in the past: Patrickjmt.
All of Patrickjmt’s videos are setup like this, and I have found many of his videos to be helpful in dealing with difficult mathematical concepts that I have been learning in my classes. How I am thinking of integrating this into my classroom, is by having my students watch supplemental videos of me going through a lesson, and then we can take the time in class to discuss the material addressed in the videos, as well as answer any questions about the material. I feel that flipped classrooms really make the learning more engaging for students, allows them a bit more freedom to go trough the material at a pace that they want to, and these videos give students something to refer back to if they forgot how to do something, as well as if they want to study a bit more for a test or something like that. Now as far as assessing the goals that I have for my students, there are many ways in which I was thinking of doing this. I could have my students do some sort of project that helps them apply the principles that we have been learning in class, which will then show me if they have attained this goal that I have for my students. I could have a simulation, or some sort of game that I conduct throughout a semester with my students to assess where they are. Lastly I could just go the traditional route of having my students take summative assessments also.
As I think about it, there are so many ways in which I could teach my classroom in the future. I feel that it is very good that we, as future educators, are thinking through ways in which we want to conduct our classrooms in the future, so that when we do eventually become an educator, we will be able to help our students attain these goals that we set for our students.
I agree Preston, but I think that a great way to make our students more critical thinkers is to give them questions related to the topic that doesn’t have a definitive answer. This way, students can come up with answers that can cause more questions. By doing this, you create this thread of thought that constantly thinks of both positives and negatives so students are always thinking. Another term for this is critically thinking because you not only think about it from one perspective.