Hi Ben,
First, a little background. On Thursday, 15 November, I was in a district workshop focusing on Professional Learning Communities. As part of the push toward PLCs, the district is asking that we develop a common language and a common set of practices. There is also a great deal of talk about “best practices”. According to the presenter, “studies show” that putting the daily objectives on the board and reviewing them at the end of the period “boosts student achievement”. My district requires them to be in the form of “Students will be able to [thinking skill] [content] by “, e.g. “Students will be able to narrate [thinking skill] the story of ‘Poor Anne’ [content] by using a Flow Map “.
Today I was speaking with our French teacher. She has been speaking with former students and her own daughter about their experiences in college. The students tell her that college classes are nothing like high school classes – no daily objectives, no Cornell Notes, no Thinking Maps, etc. There are no daily reminders of projects and due dates. In other words, a great burden of self actuation is placed on university students.
Now, in light of this, my question is: In the pursuit of higher achievement (as measured by academic testing) are we actually doing a disservice to our students? By carefully pre-packaging their instruction, are we robbing them of the flexibility and creativity they will need to negotiate life? If college is such a change and shock to them, what about the things that follow college? After all, life does not come pre-packaged. I am genuinely concerned that we are training future generations of people who will be unable to think outside the box because the box(es) will be all they have ever known – guided thinking in the guise of academic support.
Am I off base here? Or should there be a place for randomness in the school day? A time when students aren’t told what will happen next? A time when processing proceeds at its own pace? A time when the learning objectives aren’t the end-all an be-all of instruction? Or am I just too lazy to do the prep?
Robert