The Road to Proficiency
This document (1) identifies the four main teaching activities; and then (2) identifies the knowledge elements needed and used in these four activities. Please go herefirst, and then come back to Part I and follow the route from Part I to Part III.
Part I. How Human Beings Construct And Organize Knowledge Good Teachers are Applied Logicians.
Part II. Using Principles Of Knowledge [Part I] And More Ideas To
Design Curriculum [What To Teach] And Instruction [How To Teach]
“Crank it, Loretta!”
Part III. Destination---Four Teaching Activities. Now it all comes together.
These four activities are connected. 1 is used to do 2; 1 and 2 are used to do 3; and 4 is the context in which you do 1-3.
Much of the knowledge in your curriculum is in textbooks that your school and district want you to use. Skilled teachers know how to:
a. Improve textbooks with
supplements, glossaries,
outlines, big ideas, and guided
notes.
b. Divide the materials into units
(sequences of lessons on a
topic).
c. Identify exactly what they want
students to learn in each unit
(objectives).
d. Divide each unit into a logical
sequence of lessons.
e. Plan exactly how to
communicate TO students
(instruction formats), and how
to help students THEMSELVES to
get and apply knowledge.
f. Find out if students are learning
(assessment, progress
monitoring).
g. Help student to organize all
they’ve learned (strategic
integration). / 2. Evaluating, improving, and teaching from programs.
With textbooks, YOU have to select and organize their content into lessons. However, programs are curriculum materialsalready organized into a sequence of lessons. Programs might be for teaching beginning reading, math, spelling, remedial reading, and writing (tool skills). Programs usually tell you exactly how to communicate knowledge to students (instruct); how to correct errors; how to assess progress; and what to do if some students aren’t learning well (remediation). Many programs are poorly designed. For instance, they don’t use enough examples of math problems to solve; don’t work on fluency (going fast) or generalization (new examples); don’t provide enough review (to build retention of knowledge); don’t tell you the errors students are likely to make, and how to correct errors. Some programs are pretty well designed, but you have to make them better. And a few programs are very well-designed, but can be improved for certain students. Skilled teachers don’t just USE programs they are given. They carefully examine how the programs are designed; they find the strong and weak FEATURES; they decide if the programs are good enough to use at all; and then they use knowledge of good design to make pretty good or very good programs more effective for all students. You will learn how to do this! / 3. Planning, teaching, and evaluating a semester or a year-long curriculum.
In elementary schools and special education classes, the curriculum is many subjects (knowledge systems). In secondary schools, the curriculum is usually one subject. Either way, you need to know:
1. What your state curriculum, district curriculum,
scientific research, and subject matter experts
say your students should learn (curriculum
objectives, or standards).
2. What your students should DO at the end
(final objectives) that shows whether they
learned.
3. What exactly to teach in each subject of the
curriculum that will enable student to meet the
objectives.
4. What textbooks, programs, and
supplemental materials contain the knowledge
students need to learn.
5. How to organize the knowledge in textbooks,
programs, and supplements into a logical
sequence of units and lessons within units.
6. Exactly how to help your students acquire the
knowledge during each lesson (instruction).
7. How to find out if your students are learning
(assessment, progress monitoring), and how to
improve curriculum, materials, and instruction if
students are not learning easily or quickly
enough (remediation via error correction, part
firming, reteaching, or intensive instruction). / 4. Planning and running the class as a social group.
You can have the best curriculum, textbooks, and programs, but that’s not enough. You need students to respect and trust you, are energized and want to learn, take part, try hard, and know how to learn (e.g., know inductive and deductive reasoning; know how to develop and evaluate concept definitions; discover and apply rules; develop and evaluate theories, descriptions, solutions, and arguments (routines). So, you need to know how to turn a number of individuals into a team or “learning community,” who are fluent (accurate and fast) at doing the class business (getting ready to learn, doing and handing in assignments, taking notes). Please go back to Part I and follow the route.
Let’s add some examples to the route.
Reality
Constructing Knowledge Applying (Generalizing)/testing and Improving
using Inductive Reasoning. Knowledge through Deductive Reasoning.
“I see instances where “Whenever C happens, Y happens. [Rule]
ABC is followed by XYZ An instance of C just happened. [Fact]
AC is followed by WGY Therefore, Y will happen. [Conclusion from fact
LMC is followed by TRDY in light of the rule]
BJUC isfollowed by HWSY
I (infer, conclude, generalize)
that whenever C happens, Y
happens.” [rule]
Develop
Four Kinds of Knowledge
Concepts: Facts: Rule-relationships/ Cognitive Routines:
1. Sensory Individual things have propositions: Sequences of steps that
2. Higher-order features, communi- Connections among produce known outcomes.
Classes of things that cated with declarative classes (concepts). Solving equations; using
share certain features statements. “Boston 1. Categorical a list of facts to describe;
revealed by examples (subject) is the capital (All, some, nothing) using a diagram to explain;
and specified by of Massachusetts in one class is inside using a set of rules to
definitions. (predicate) (is a member of) explain; sounding out
another class. words.
X
Some A is (inside) X.
No A is (inside) X
All A is (inside) X.
2. Causal, hypothetical,
Functional rules/connections.
Change in examples of
one class (ocean temp.)
cause or merely predict
change in examples of
another class (atmos-
pheric CO2.
As ocean temperature rises (change in X),
the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere rises
(change in Y).
Routines for Acquiring, Generalizing, Fluently using, and Retaining Knowledge:
a. Explicit, systematic, focused instruction---for tool skills, complex knowledge, needed fast
b. Inquiry and independent learning via projects and discussions, but still rests on tool skills and essential pre-skills taught explicitly.
Knowledge Represented, Stored, and Communicated in the form of Language [most effectively and efficiently with simple declarative statements of subject…predicate]but also in media such as sculpture, music, dance, painting.
Knowledge Systems: Personal and Shared Stock of Knowledge
A. Tools Skills for Acquiring, Using, Improving, and B. Content/Subject Matter Needed to
Communicating Conduct and Reproduce Society, and for
Enjoyment
1. Language: especially simple declarative statements 1. Sciences
2. Reasoning 2. History
3. Reading 3. Literature
4. Math 4. Medicine
5. Procedures, formats, or routines for acquiring, 5. Law
generalizing, fluently using, integrating, and 6. Arts
retaining knowledge7. Religion and Philosophy
8. Farming, plumbing, building, etc.
Stored or available in textbooks, programs, art, internet, your own brain, etc.
State curriculum District/school curriculum Research and Expert Opinion Your own expertise
If you are skilled at Parts I, II, and III above---(1) designing curricula; (2) designing instruction; (3) planning instruction and teaching daily lessons from textbooks and other materials, such as internet documents; (4)evaluating, improving, and teaching from programs---you will develop and provide technically proficient (logical) curricula and instruction.
1.Curriculum and instruction for elementary 2. Curriculum and instruction for secondary
grades. grades. Usually one knowledge system is
Several knowledge systems; each is taught during taught during daily lessons.
lessons and all are integrated. Each follows a
scope and sequence.
Curriculum for one subject/knowledge system on elementary level, or one course on secondary level
American History
Unit 1 Settlement Unit 2 Colonial Period Unit 3 Revolution
Lessons/ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ……
days
Tasks in T1 Frame instruction: what we’ll learn; what students will do (objectives, assessment)
lessons T2 Concepts: colony, political system, monarchy, political interests,…. (Assess, firm up, reteach)
[Several T3 Big idea: integrates concepts into a model of social development. (Assess, firm up, reteach)
minutes] T4 Map: facts about cities, agriculture, demographics. (Assess, firm up, reteach)
T5 More concepts: middle class, commerce, frontier… (Assess, firm up, reteach)
T6 Review, assess, firm-up or reteach all Tasks; introduce next lesson.