Understanding and applying standards

I was able to get a great deal of insight through use of unpacking the standards. I view it as the big picture for your class and as educators it is our role to help bring this down to manageable proportions in the classroom. The use of the standards helped to appreciated the expectation we should have in our lessons with students. It is similar with the idea of; 'Failing to plan is planning to fail'. It helped me to understand the need to set out realistic goals for each component and to better use activities that would help the students in my class.

The idea of backwards mapping was something new for me to look at in my planning. We start out looking at where we want to be from the very beginning. That we can look at the outcome from the outset is something that can only better prepare a teacher to see the goal through. I believe that we can list the goal with the students and of the steps that are to be taken to get there. This process helped me to look at the perspective from the student. What is it that I would like to do with this language point if I were the student? What ways could I use to better contextualise the language points for them? How could I include aspects from their lives in my planning and delivery of the lessons needs to reach the learning goal for the unit of study?

These questions were framed in my mind through use of the backwards mapping idea and this is something I will take forward in my planning with my co-teachers for the classes we are teaching together. It allowed for a wider view of the pitfalls to avoid when planning the lessons. It kept me focused on the goal all the while I was planning the lessons. It is a useful perspective to take in class planning because as stated before our view was always on getting to the outcome within the time period. Perhaps there may be times when an additional lesson is needed for reflection on what was taught and how we could accommodate this in our initial planning.

At the same time we have to balance the needs of the school in ensuring that all students get through the textbook within the time given. This may place some pressure on the idea of having a review component in the lesson framework. I do think from this unit that common core standards are needed in planning. There needs to be a set of guiding general ideas to help the teacher reach the outcome needed for the student. Through use of these principles, new practices could be tried in class that are to have the intention of better preparing students to use the language in a real life scenario.