Sep 23 2009
Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment: Where’s the Instruction Discussion?
Most articles I see lately deal with assessment or curriculum. I agree that having a curriculum that clearly identifies what students are expected to know and be able and to do at the completion of each course or grade level is essential. I also agree that assessments should be planned prior to instruction and assessment data should be analyzed by teaching teams and used to drive instruction. However, what happened to recognizing the importance instruction?
I believe a common lesson plan or schema model should be used throughout a school for instruction. The lesson model should create a common language for discussion of instruction and best practice of presenting information. The lesson schema will aid understanding of instruction for ESL students and the spectrum of mild to moderate special needs learners. Solid instruction includes: 1/objective 2/access prior knowledge 3/present new information 4/application 5/closure. Those five steps might have variations in terms of what each section is labeled in a district or school, but the basic lesson steps should hold form for cooperative learning to inquiry to direct instruction. The only variation would be in the amount of time allotted for each phase of the lesson.
Creating learning outcomes based on clear and compelling curriculum targets should be commonplace practice in highly functioning schools. However, just as needed is a shared lesson plan format for creating a common language and understanding of instructional strategies that will help students retain and apply information for long periods of time. Even when the curriculum is established and the assessment outcomes are determined in advance of instruction, engaging instruction based a clear lesson schema might be the single biggest ingredient to ensuring student achievement throughout the school.
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I agree with the idea of giving the students something they can use for a lifetime. Clear curriculum objectives and organized plan schemas are very useful and must give the students a guide to repeat and practice a learned skill.
Dr. Dereck Rhoads, you are a genius.
I like to think that not only is the nomenclature of the schema flexible, but that student and teacher roles can be interchanged as well. Students can occasionally be responsible for new instruction, and teachers are never exempt from the application portion if we truly call ourselves “life-long learners.”
Like I said–a genius.
I agree that it is imperative to have aligned assessments in addition to well planned lessons, but certainly the key to success in student learning is having instruction which engages students in the classroom. The lessons which tap into a variety of learning styles in addition to providing students with the opportunity to explore their own areas of interest (while having a common assessment topic) are sure to be the most engaging/interesting for students… all the while getting the best quality finished products for teachers, from students.
It does seem like instruction has taken a backseat to assessment and curriculum. To truly engage learners, the outlined lesson schema is essential. You can cite all the curriculum standards you want and design outstanding assessments, but when the learner doesn’t connect to prior knowledge, or misses any step of the lesson schema, the learning process has been interrupted.
Not sure about the “genius” part, but since it came from you Joe, it has to be true!
Excellent comments! A viable curriculum and excellent assessments are essential, but as Stephanie and Chris alluded, if the instruction is not clear, students will probably be learning “in spite of us” rather than “because of us”!