Week 3: Task 1 - Aligning Pedagogy with Curriculum

As a current teacher, I have had some experience in using the standards designated by the state to guide my pedagogy.  I believe the standards are extremely helpful in that they keep me focused during my lesson planning, providing me with a clear goal for what I want my students to take in terms of content from my lessons, units, etc. By having an end point in mind, I am able to work backwards and really think creatively about how I am going to get my students to that point intellectually while also keeping them motivated and engaged in the classroom.

  Often I hear teachers complain that the standards are limiting and force teachers to teach the same material year after year.  While the content across years does not change significantly (a criticism of mine that I will save for another time!), teaching should change substantially as each year educators have a new set of unique students. By being reflective, trying new ideas, implement new technologies, and improving their own pedagogy over time, the teacher does not have to sacrifice creativity and engaging, student-driven activities in the name of following a set of state standards.

After watching the "Hydrology" video with the teacher from Catalina High School and upon reflecting how I personally feel about the state standards that I am required to use in my lesson planning, I immediately thought of the constructivist theory of learning promoted by John Dewey.  In his famous 1902 work, The Child and the Curriculum, Dewey likens the curriculum to a finished map, and equates the learning process of the child to a mapmaker's arduous journey of trekking through and taking notes on a new, unexplored territory.  Although the map is well organized, structures, and will help others to better navigate their way Dewey warns that "the map is not a substitute for a personal experience".   I agree with Dewey in that although we may have facts or a body of knowledge (i.e. a curriculum, a set of standards) it is the process of exploring, engaging with, and uncovering that body of knowledge that helps students make deep connection.

  At the Catalina school, although the teacher is required to teach Geology, nothing in the standards says that he must have students sit in a classroom and copy notes in a traditional fashion.  Rather, this teacher has students activitely engage with the content in ways that are meaningful to them because they are actually dealing with actual issues that are a part of their lives and their school.   By having students partake in real, meaningful activities, not only is the teacher showing the students that he has high standards and believes that the kids are capable, but he is also following the guidelines and standards set by the state to which he must ascribe.  Students are excited about their own learning and about getting involved in their own communities.

I would love to teach science in Catalina High School and the video has sparked new ideas in my head about how I can implement some of the teaching styles that this teacher uses into my own classroom.  What was most refreshing about this school is that it seems to value making connections between content areas and stresses how disciplines are interrelated, for example geology, mathematics, data analysis, etc.  No content area exists in a box seperate from the rest of the world's knowledge, yet we teach it as if it is so.  In order to prepare students to be more equipped for the world they will be living in, it is essential that they make connections and link information to other information.

Personally, I find the standards helpful in that they keep me guided and on track as a practitioner. It is a way for me to be sure that the activities and components to my lesson are aligned with the underlying big idea I am trying to teach.  My issue arises with the excessive testing that is not only mandated by the state but also seems to plague my district.  Testing students via a traditional, chapter test is only one way of assessing their knowledge and only certain students skilled at taking these types of tests are able to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding.