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5 thoughts on “John Biggs”
There is more in the Forum that goes into more “intellectual” ideas on constructive alignment, although it’s still just the tip of the iceberg. I hope we keep packing information like this into those Forum threads so don’t be a stranger to the Forum and help us align our instruction with more than just itself. The foundational, theoretical underpinnings of constructive alignment are rock solid.
Again, my views on curriculum are not as mainstream, perhaps because so many educators do not know what curriculum and assessment truly mean. Note that any broad descriptions of curriculum across content areas are almost impossible to test, particularly theories that don’t tie people to textbooks (research dollars) but focus on kids.
But don’t be turned off. I pitch this to math, ELA, SS/Scinece teachers when I drop in on those vertical alignment meetings and they get it. It’s the truth of ”seeing is believing.” They know we have to meet kids where they are when they have never studied US History or Ali’s number system is different or Juan’s never seen a computer in his life and has no idea what the internet is. Meet kids where they are isn’t a curriculum as much as a moral imperative. This is true of any content area, but the need for child-focused curriculum (although Blaine Ray didn’t use this term) brought rise to TPRS and we are leading the way in this reform because there is nothing like early language learning to put a spotlight on the need to simply communicate with and reach out to kids as a curricular approach.
Seen it. Did it but not as I would have liked. My beginning teacher supervisor wanted the above for every unit. Ok we did a “unit” or story. In the bigger scheme claires s & s plus our authentic assessments aligns with our instruction. Its easier to get it visually but lets not get lost in the formula, in assessments we have to mention words like appropriate, if they’re not ready on there.
Claire if you think the above is not mainstream, it is in California for beginning teachers. We all get these formulas explicitly in the classroom with professors, it’s when we get to the classroom when things change.
That is so encouraging that you have such a strong background, but how sad that classrooms aren’t also changing. I suspect it has everything to do with the pressure of high-stakes testing and the need to “cover” content for standardized tests.
Its so many things Claire. Teachers are bullied. Old veteran teachers teach the way they have been taught when they went to school or had to change because of admin. Some have changed due to a new trend in education. Newbies are being trained like they are teaching History or science and are caught in the headlights like a deer in the road. Some simply do not have access to our approach and feel like there are no options.
Goodnews! The director of new teachers in my district is going to talk to my principal to have a student teacher come to my class in the fall or spring. I happen to know a teacher who was struggling this year teaching without a credential. She went to French immersion camp with me and 5 other teachers. So it’s possible that I will train someone who wants to be trained in TPRS. Usually this opportunity is reserved for teachers with more than 3 years experience but my evaluations met most if not all expectations so in golden. I cant wait.