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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 21^st century, the opaqueness of teaching must become more transparent.  It is only through a clear lens that teaching, and learning, will become visible.