Ch. 4: Designing Instruction to Improve Teaching and Learning

Through this chapter, we were exposed to the
challenges of a curriculum. How should it be set up? What do we want to
accomplish? And, how can we accomplish it for all learners? Jackson and Davis
stress that our main goal is to ensure that every student achieves success. As
middle school teachers our vision of a “successful” 15 year-old student is (a)
intellectually reflective, (b) caring, (c) healthy, (d) ethical, (e) a good
citizen and (f) en route to a lifetime of meaningful work. Educators are placed
in the school system as the heartbeat of the students—they are responsible for
the teaching and the learning process. Sometimes the teachers become the
students of the students to make the process full circle and rewarding. The
three things to make learning successful when integrated together are
curriculum, assessment methods, and students as well as the instruction. The
instruction is the meat and potatoes of the classroom and includes the tools,
strategies, lessons, and activities. This setup is much like the backwards
design we used in practicum. The curriculum is what is being accomplished all
together, the assessment is a way to have students demonstrate what was accomplished,
and the students needs, interests and concerns must mesh to make learning
successful. I disagreed with the equity and excellence section greatly because
I grew up in a tracked school. I hated how the upper levels and lower levels
had different projects from each other and choice was eliminated. I believe
that if all schools were untracked than students would have a greater chance to
become stronger and show their full potential. Tracking, I feel, is a way to
pull the weaker students down and push the higher achievers up at the same
time. Don’t we want to push everyone to success? I enjoyed reading about the
two models, WHERE and differentiated instruction and I feel both of these would
boost student achievement and overall success. When a student is engaged he/she
would be more likely to do their best and give effort to their work. Through
both of these instruction methods, choice is the key. This chapter also focused
on reading and learning how to read. I found it heartbreaking how many young
adolescents actually couldn’t read. I know in my classes, strategies will be
sought out but I loved the idea of libraries in the classroom with books on
content in all reading levels. When I was in middle school we had reading buddies
at the elementary school, where we’d go over once a week and read to a first
grader. I felt that this was beneficial to both the middle school student and
the first grader. I think this “buddy reading” should be implemented in all
districts so that reading is still the focus but not priority.