Making Teaching and Learning Visible
In the advent of the new
Common Core standards and the soon to be released standards in science and
social studies, we are beginning to have a more clear picture of the learning
outcomes expected of students nationwide.
However, these standards are often only as good as the paper they are
written on if we can’t see how they come alive in the classroom. For example, this is one of the Common Core
Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies:
“Cite specific textual
evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting
insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a
whole.”
What does this standard really
mean? If we polled ten teachers, would
they all have the same interpretation?
Many might see the words primary and secondary sources and immediately
think they are meeting this standard because they use these sources in their
classroom. Some might think that because
they use various texts and ask students to cite evidence from the text that
they are meeting the standard. This
opaqueness is one of the issues facing educators, and therefore student
learning outcomes, today.
How can we really see standards in action and therefore know not only
what should be taught, but if students learned? First, have conversations. One of the biggest problems we have is that
we rarely talk about the specifics of teaching and learning. What does it look like? How do we know when we see it? Second, visit other classrooms. Teaching is very isolating and rarely gives
us the opportunity to see what everyone else does. The past three years, I managed a Teaching American
History Grant. This gave me tremendous
opportunity to see other classrooms and made me a better teacher because of
it. Third, use technology tools such as
Twitter to connect with other educators around the world to have these
conversations. Finally, use tools such
as the Teaching Channel (www.teachingchannel.org)
and Eduvision (https://aea111.eduvision.tv/default.aspx)
to see teaching, and learning, in
action.
In order for us to
move out of the industrial age of teaching and into the 21st
century, the opaqueness of teaching must become more transparent. It is only through a clear lens that
teaching, and learning, will become visible.
