Instructional Alignment | Origin: EC102
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Your First Year as a CTE Teacher (Part 2) --> Instructional Alignment
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
I agree that a plan is important. You do not need every minute planned out, but you need a plan on what your going to cover.
I appreciate the clarification between goals, objectives and outcomes; and the outline of teaching and assessing appropriate workplace skills: accountability, interpersonal skills, self-direction/self-management, technology etiquette, and personal/ethical behavior (so important). I'll pay more attention to the curriculum being aligned horizontally.
The most important part of a lesson is the plan, bringing that plan to life helps the students learn. Having the employable skills is important.
Planning things out for alignment helps keep everyone on track for success and eliminates unnecessary tasks. I see the need for vertical alignment but like to see the synthesis of horizontal alignment throughout disciplines.
I learned that our classes need to be set up not only to align with our compencies but with the industry standards aswell. We need to align our curriculum with all of our eductional partners teaching the same materials. This horizontal allignment will ensure we are meeting standards across the educational system.
I have always preached employability skills, but I have not been super great at assessing them. These rubric examples are great!
Reply to Emily Esau's post: I really enjoyed these as well.
I am familiar with Bloom's taxonomy, but I have not seen the psychomotor domain equivalent. This may be helpful for improving my communication with students in my lab classes.
It is very important for the student to know the objectives for learning in a class. It is also for a student to plan their own learning objectives for themselves.
I found this module very interesting. I liked the part about teaching employability skills to students and more clearly defining objectives and how to align assessment with your objectives.
It is important to understand the differences between goals, objectives, and outcomes. It is also good to learn about alignment, especially when considering dual credit programs.
I do think it is important to always have a plan and be prepared. If I don't feel prepared then I can not demonstrate it with confidence. But I feel I need to keep in mind everyone has different learning styles.
Having resources like Bloom's taxonomy, helps me ensure that my lesson plans are building on one another and progressing the students to higher levels of learning.
What I gathered from this first module are that course standards and objectives should promote personalized goals to encourage creative thinking and problem solving. With the information both vertically and horizontally aligned, students will not run the risk of repetitive information, but engage in the advancement of that knowledge. I've always tried to incorporate professional / workplace discussions and experiences into my art courses by inviting those professionals into the classroom. Students have positively responded with those interactions. It was also great to hear about Bloom's taxonomy.
I tend to find myself focusing on reminding my students of some of the expectations that they may encounter once they are out in a job scenario. Listening through this section, I was drawn to the point that some students may have never been exposed or taught about how to behave in a classroom setting, much less a job! I'm going to keep this in mind and change my thought process a bit from "reminding" to "informing/teaching" when it comes to these principles.
In my program, we have a course dedicated to Professional Development and Protocol, which includes lots of soft skills/employability skills. The idea of finding ways to incorporate those skills throughout any course is one that is interesting to me and could be valuable to my students.
It is important to ensure your curriculum aligns with what your competencies are with accrediation, as well as what the college expects. In addition, I think students need to own the curriculum and understand the madness behind it. At times, I feel my students are just going with the flow and really do not understand why they do what they do or why I make them do something. I also want to incorporate appropriate behaviors that will allow them to be good employees. I teach a dual-credit class right now that we focus a lot on soft skills. I like to incorporate this into other classes. As a new Instructor (1 year) and a new Program Coordinator, I sometimes feel lost on what I need to ensure my students are learning. I am hoping that I walk-away with goals that will allow me to be a better Instructor and make sure my students are succesful.
Karen Sharber
I have learned what I have known all along is that students need to be motivated. They need to be accountable and involved in making their own goals. I can't do it for them. They have to want it for themselves. As they say, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him or her drink! I can be very motivated as the instructor but until the student wants to get involved and care, nothing really happens.
In addition, I will utilize the importance of having students inform me of their goal or goals for the semester. So, that we can work together to accomplish those goals!
I'm grateful that our curriculum is separated by lecture and labs. this gives me a great way to separate the cognitive and the hands on portions of learning. they can be introduced to new tools in lecture and then putting them to use in the labs. Also I like the idea of scoring soft skills and employability. the rubrics for this are interesting. I have to find a way to incorporate this. I have told my students many times, If an employer calls me their first two questions are. Will they show up and on time? they never ask how their grades are!!
