Entry 4

Q. Have you adopted Farrel's backwards planning model as a teacher in planning lessons? Does it help align written curriculum, taught curriculum and assessment? Why and why not? Think about the indicators that matter most to you - how do you plan to evaluate the classroom culture and teaching effectiveness in the future?

    I have grown up in a culture where teachers were told not to "teach to the test." Now, as a fairly new teacher and yet a 'baby boomer" I am instructed to do just that. I inwardly rebelled because I felt I was just giving my students facts to regurgitate back without much regard to actual learning. It wasn't until recently that I started to look at this from a different perspective. By allowing students to know what will be on the test is giving them a 'heads-up' for what's to come. I have always let my students know the objective to the lesson and the standard(s) we will be covering before the start of the actual lesson. Now, allowing them access to what the questions will be gives me the freedom to create lessons that lead to those questions. 

It does help align written curriculum because you already know the end result! Creating lessons that align with the test helps with knowing what technology will be used to guide your students along the road to success. Students feel confident when they know that the teacher is on their side and that the test isn't going to be a "crap-shoot" or a guessing game. The teacher's goal is to help the student succeed at learning and helping them to become a confident, critical thinking citizen.

When evaluating the classroom culture, I would want to see how the teacher involves everyone in activities. I would also like to see how blended the instruction is as it pertains to being sensitive to diverse backgrounds and cultures. I think it is important to have a positive atmosphere where different perspectives are taken in and valued. I would like to see artifacts on the classroom walls that come from the students, not just posters of clever sayings from the teacher.