Get Your Students Hired
Curriculum seems to be one of those forever evolving things that never seems to be as perfect as it can be. However using what I learned in this chapter about horizontal and vertical alignment will help me ensure that my class content is relevant to each of the course learning objectives are. Additionally, goal setting is incredibly important for the same reason that Course learning outcomes are. without them the plan becomes unclear.
I like that they are giving us links to websites that we can come back to later so that we can use them in our classrooms.
Blooms Triangle and its applications for furthering and helping students understand as well as helping me understand different ways to help students and the various ways students learn as well as the process
Im new to Teaching, steel industry for 25+ years, which doesn't touch these topics. It's a learning triangle for me too!
Although it doesn't directly apply to me, it's still an interesting concept that would keep things organized and relevant. It really makes no sense to teach concepts that don't fit with the purpose or lead to the next step.
We're in the process of integrating some "life skills" courses into our CTE program, so this was helpful in that regard.
The plan is important but not every minute of the plan needs to be outlined. You need to allow for some flexibility as different groups of students will need need more or less time in certain areas.
Instruction and assessment in the CTE classroom needs to be rigorous. Assessing students in their work-based learning experiences in a relevant way is imperative to student learning and success.
There was a lot of valuable information/resources in this module. I liked the idea of using a rubric to assess workplace skills and the importance of teaching those skills early in the school year. The Career Prepped Whitepaper was pretty eye opening and helped me understand some of the key differences in the new vs. the old work paradigm. I especially loved the quote by Alvin Toffler that talks about the illiterate of the 21st century being those who cannot learn, relearn and unlearn.
Curriculum alignment, Blooms Taxonomy important for cognitive as well as affective skills. Setting expectations with a planned out lesson is very important. Monitoring the students progress qand meeting with students to go over strengths and weaknesses so they know what to work on going forward.
I was familiar with Bloom's Taxonomy but not with the other two diagrams shared. I will be using those as I design lessons, to ensure that my students are engaging at the appropriate level for their psychomotor and affective domains as well as their cognitive domains.
I like that students can see what the learning outcomes are for a given course or even a given lesson. They know, from the beginning, how everything ties together, both vertically and horizontally.
I like the idea around alignment as it ensures students will have all the domains of knowledge needed for the workplace.
Planning out a curriculum for your students based on your framework is important because it keeps you flowing smoothly and if you flow smoothly, the students have less time for disruptions. Plus it helps with evaluations.
Not only do we need to connect with the student we need to help them connect with their own interests. They may want to study drafting but don't want to do it as a career. That's ok, but as instructors we can help students find their passion and aim it toward a goal that aligns with their desired skills. We can help them set goals and realistic expectations to best utilize their education.
One of the first things I realized as new teacher was that I need to have a plan that fostered student engagement. When things are thrown together with little planning, there is less student engagement and I always saw an increase in behavior issues. I also Like the idea of focusing on employability. We talk about things like being on time and dressing appropriately, but it open doesn't get tied to employability, rather these are the rules, you must follow them - not why this is important. Showing students the rubric would bring awareness to to different things employers are looking for in an employee and how they rate in comparison to others.
Some reason I never thought of it, 'begin with the end'. It makes sense as to what outcomes you want the students to learn or gain when developing a lesson plan.
Very interesting regarding curriculum mapping and setting up the learning according to the learners abilities and needs while at the same time using tools to help with the interaction and assessing the learning of the student. I find that the information on the rubrics to be very valuable as it is a method that I am using, the information helped to clarify some questions I had.
My understanding of instructional alignment is where the goals, objectives, teaching methods, and outcomes align with the students' needs and abilities and with the standards of the profession(s) that are related to the coursework.
Planning is important for curriculum development. Every second of a class does not need to be planned, however I personally like to have a flexible plan of how the course is laid out for students.
Planning is one of the most critical parts when teaching a course. It keeps you prepared and confident in what you are teaching.