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Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I hope you're having a wonderful day today. Today we're going to look at instructional development and management. And for today's lesson, I've chosen a quote by Jack Welch, which states, "Management is all about managing in the short term, while developing the plans for the long term."
And that's really what we want to look at as we look at both developing some of those instructional models as well as looking at management within the classroom. Now, by the end of today's lesson, you will be able to review a number of different suggestions for instructional development and classroom management within competency-based classrooms.
First what I'd like to do is go ahead and look at CBE and the elements of instructional development. So for teachers who really want to implement the competency-based approach, there are a lot of changes that you want to consider. And what we're going to look at is both those changes within developing instruction as well as how to manage that technology-rich environment.
When we talk about developing instruction, one wonderful way of approaching sort of some of that instructional design within a competency-based classroom is to focus in on some of the five essential questions that we associate with the work of Rick DuFour. We're often familiar with having essential questions that the students answer themselves, but teachers should also be asking themselves some of those essential questions when developing their instructional plans for the class or the unit or each even individual lesson so that you're really looking at, am I reaching all of these students?
The first major question you should ask yourself is, what do students need to know and be able to do by the end of a particular measure of time? So what you do here is you're really going to want to look at those state standards and the various standards that you have within your own individual content area and make sure you are developing competencies and learning targets that focus in on those standards, that make up those standards.
Then it's a wonderful idea to really list the ideas, the knowledge and the skills that you want to require your students to meet, and then map all of that out as you are doing that curriculum mapping to help ensure that you have that nice, solid, clear path going from those standards that you want students to achieve by the end all the way up into how you are instructing them so that students are able to really demonstrate that they have mastered a certain competency.
The next major question you want to ask yourself is, how will I help get them there? This is where you look at really selecting those appropriate learning activities and the various ways that you are going to include instruction within your class. Remember that technology is here to support you. So you can implement this in small group settings or even in that one-to-one learning environment so that you can use the technology to personalize the learning to each individual student's strengths as well as their areas of need.
The next essential question to ask yourself is, how will I know if they are there? This is a wonderful excuse for you to use that consistent and frequent formative assessments. This is a hallmark of competency-based education, and it really allows you to measure that student as they're working through. It also allows the students to take ownership over how they are doing and gives real-time results. Technology can help with that immediate feedback so that teachers and students are really able to look and say in a split second, here's what I know. Here's where I need to go.
The next essential question to ask yourself is, what will I do if they're not there? When looking at your instructional development, you want to make sure you consider different pathways for that learning. The more ways that you have and the variety that you use in terms of materials, tools, the way in which you instruct, the better the chances are that you are giving students the opportunity to show that. It also offers you the opportunity to really consider the ways in which you could differentiate or adapt your instruction so that it can meet the needs of each individual learner as they're moving through the material.
Finally, you want to ask yourself, what will I do if they're already there? It's kind of that beautiful moment where the teacher realizes, hey, I'm not needed in this particular way anymore. And having an answer for the ways in which you can develop opportunities to keep students engaged in that learning, to dig deeper into their learning, and to move on to the next element once they've demonstrated that learning is only going to help your instruction.
Next, I'd like to take a look at the way in which you can infuse some good classroom management tools within a competency-based education environment. First and foremost, it's important to remember that CBE approaches really work best where students can work on different content areas. Typically, that can be facilitated by multiple teachers coming together to do kind of collaborative classes, but also make sure that you are using the technology devices at your disposal in the classroom.
Students who can access all of those different resources online are really going to help meet those. In fact, one part of that management when you are using those different digital resources to help broaden and expand your student engagement is going to be remembering to teach students to be good digital citizens. This is going to help alleviate some of the concerns that teachers get when they're introducing a lot of technology into the classroom. Are my students going to use it for good or for evil? Well, here you're assuring that students are using that technology to help better their education as good digital citizens.
Also, teachers are going to help make sure that students are really aware of those appropriate use rules. Those are going to change depending on your school's rules, your district rules, as well as even some classroom rules that you can develop with those students in order to really make sure that they are using that technology appropriately.
Another major element of classroom management within competency-based education is focusing in on those small group or one-to-one sessions. This is done far more often than those sort of full classroom instructions. What this means is that you as a teacher are going to want to consider, how am I going to manage many different groups at one time throughout the course of the day?
This is not as scary as it sounds. You have to give up just a little bit of control in order to gain more control. So sometimes competency-based education classrooms look a little chaotic. But that's OK. Good learning doesn't necessarily look like rows of quiet students looking up at the board. In fact, sometimes that's a really good sign of not a whole lot of learning going on.
Also, when we look at the idea of focusing in on those small groups, you want to pay attention to developing areas of the classroom so that students have kind of their set routines of what they're doing in each particular area so that they're able to really focus in on learning in each individual moment.
Additionally, CBE and good classroom management helps when you are preparing the students and preparing yourself for some of those major changes that are going to happen. When we talk about preparing students, what we're really looking at there are preparing them for different levels of competency, focusing in on different ways in which we are going to be learning and the way in which they are going to be assessed on that learning, sometimes in just one summative assessment but more often than not in many formative assessments, and preparing yourself as the teacher for the idea that you will have to give up some of the former elements of control as well as really help those students in different ways.
Now, when we focus in on those elements, you really want to make sure that you are reminding students that all of these activities are differentiated and you are giving out those multiple assessments to really help move those students forward. When we're looking at traditional classrooms, much of the good classroom management involves communicating those expectations to students. And the same goes for competency-based education. The more you encourage yourself to make it clear to them what you are asking them to do, the more likely you are to have that student buy-in.
Now that we've reached the end of the lesson, you are able to review some of those suggestions for instructional development as well as good classroom management within competency-based classrooms. I want you to take just a moment for reflection. Think about your own classroom management style. What elements could fit nicely within the various management suggestions in a competency-based education environment?
For more information on how to apply what you've learned in this video, please view the additional resources section that accompanies the video presentation. The additional resources section includes hyperlinks that are very useful for applications of the course material, and it also has a brief description of each resource. That's all we have for right now. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
(00:00-00:27) Intro
(00:28-00:40) Objectives
(00:41-04:45) CBE & Instructional Development
(04:46-08:56) CBE & Classroom Management
(08:57-09:50) Review & Reflection
How Student Centered Is Your Classroom?
This Edutopia article provides teachers with guiding questions to consider when creating a student-centered classroom. The questions and tips provide a framework for establishing instructional management in a CBE classroom.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/how-student-centered-your-classroom-rebecca-alber