3... 2... 1... Blastoff Into Planning

Almost a Teacher!

Get ready to rocket into the third week of the semester with me as #psuaged22 takes off into the realm of planning. This week our readings revolved around the topics of the Backward Design and Significant Learning. Before exploring those topics however, I want to touch on Rosenshine and Furst's characteristics of effective teachers. Last week in class we focused on the following five characteristics.

1. Business-Like Behavior
   
2. Enthusiasm
3. Clarity
4. Opportunity to Learn Criterion Material
5. Variability

These topics have helped me to focus in on a picture of who I want to be as an educator while exploring how to plan lessons that allow me to reach that goal. Keeping these characteristics in mind, below I will identify three relevant connections to my Student Teaching Internship, two connections to other courses in my #TeachAg! journey, and a Triangulated Connection. 

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Thinking about lesson planning for my Student Teaching Internship, I have been worried about forgetting what I have written in my plans while teaching and having to rely heavily on the plan to make it through the lesson. Our reading from Methods of Teaching Agriculture however, spoke directly to this concern in three ways. 

• It was highlighted that the act of writing out a plan forces us to get familiar with the material and have a better understanding of the subject matter. Thinking through a subject allows an educator to teach with more authority and clarity, which will ultimately help me to achieve my goal of being an effective educator.
• Another fantastic piece of wisdom I found in this reading was that teachers do not teacher information for information's sake. Here I found a lot of what I have been learning so far come full circle. It is essential that we always remember our 'why' when presenting information. If we cannot confidently articulate how what we are teaching is relevant to our students needs while we are planning for Student Teaching, that information should be cut out of our lessons.
• Finally, Methods of Teaching Agriculture made it clear that planning allows for flexibility and spontaneity while teaching. I realize that it is unrealistic to expect not to make mistakes while I am Student Teaching at Cumberland Valley High School in the spring. However, if I plan so that my goal or end product is always in sight, I will be able to refocus myself and my learners so that those mistakes do not completely throw me off balance in the classroom.

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While I am not usually one to do things backwards, I thought Understanding By Design Framework explained an important concept that I have seen utilized in courses along my #TeachAg! journey. 

• After taking quite a few Agricultural and Extension Education (AEE) courses, I started to notice the use of Backward Design in the form of objectives. I cannot remember a time in college when a professor shared learning objectives with the class before diving into material other than my AEE courses. Seeing the use or lack of use when it comes to objectives however, have opened my eyes to how important it is to identify the desired results of a lesson before taking off into a topic.
• Testing has never been one of my favorite college experiences. Many professors hand you an exam expecting you to regurgitate as much information as possible from the past few lessons. The majority of the questions on exams like these almost feel like a sneak attack where not a lot of emphasis was put on the subject in a lecture. I really appreciate that Backwards Design challenges educators to plan assessments before constructing lesson plans. If some of my college professors would have done this, I feel that their lectures would have focused more on what I needed to know for an exam, thus focusing my learning.

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Key Components to Integrated Course Design

Like many things, Significant Learning comes full circle (well, full triangle I suppose) with Dr. L. Dee Fink's Key Components of Integrated Course Design. Fink explains that Learning Goals, Teaching and Learning Activities, and Feedback and Assessment all hold equal weight when it comes to designing a course for Significant Learning. As I look to a future filled with lesson planning, I appreciated this reading as it provides me with better ways to organize my lessons in order to help my students learn. However, I found myself getting stuck in a lot of the concepts presented in this reading and overwhelmed by the idea of planning for Significant Learning. To look past the lesson planning meteors and see the sun of Significant Learning, I found a video on the topic explaining that Significant Learning is less about asking students questions about different topics covered in a lesson and more about helping those students to answer significant questions like "Who am I?" and "What is my purpose?" utilizing the vehicle of education. Interested in watching this helpful resource? Check out the citation below!

"Significant Learning." YouTube. uploaded by Tedx Talks, 14 March 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zos6lhaehfo.

"Taylor"ed with love,