Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Concise and to the point: Framing and evaluating the task


Reading chapter 2 gave me a flashback to my first college English class or I think it was a Literature class.  After receiving or first or second papers, my professor held a class solely on "eliminating unnecessary words. While I was good at writing, I would often follow similar padding tactics on papers if I was rushing or uninterested in the topic.  It was usually because they only assessed my knowledge of the subject and nothing more.  After my professor talked to us about being more efficient with our writing, it gave me a better approach and understanding as to how to express my thoughts.  My second flashback was of an assignment I was given to create a lesson plan utilizing the 3rd and 4th levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.  I created a draft of the plan, discussed it with my professor and while he thought it was good and interactive it only satisfied the 1st and 2nd levels.  I was a bit of a challenge to create a thorough 20 min lesson that would give the students knowledge and comprehension of the material but also ask them to apply and analyze the information they received.  Teachers often get lazy and don’t put the effort into creating thorough lessons either after years of teaching, just in general and or they simply don’t realize they aren’t including those higher levels or learning.  I wish this simplification of the process was taught more and or better taught as early as middle school so many enter high school and college with better preparation and also with more confidence.  Granted my content area is physical education and rarely assign lengthy written assignments, like was discussed in the reading from last week I feel once students have a better understanding of how to express their thoughts and words on paper, they are better at expressing themselves verbally as it is connected.  It’s a skill that benefits all content areas.

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree that most teachers focus solely on low level assessments. Most classes that I have taken, even in college, had tests that were purely spit-back. I don't remember ever having an assignment where I was challenged to answer higher level questions. All I was required to do was memorize my notes and I was guaranteed a good grade.

    ReplyDelete