Quote for Unit Six:

Teachers face many challenges in the classroom today. But here's some good news as a result of research conducted during the past several decades, we now know much more about the way people think and learn. As a future teacher, you'll have an opportunity to use these new insights to understand learning from the perspective of the learner, which is essential to effective teaching. New research perspectives on learning, along with the development of new educational technologies, have the potential to transform classrooms in exciting new ways.

Gabler and Schroeder, Engaged Minds: Constructivist Methods for the Secondary Classroom (2003), p. 10.

The focus of this Unit Six is to return to Unit Two and reinforce some of the ideas we considered way back in January! What are our responsibilities for teaching learning strategies to the adolescents in our future classrooms. How do we begin to get a REAL world sense of what teaching is like....how we implement our teaching plans so that they have the greatest likelihood of being effective.

The BIG IDEA for this unit is.... We are equally responsible for teaching learning strategies as well as our content.

The Guiding Questions for Unit Six are....

What's best...to be a sage on the stage? or a guide on the side?

What are the ways to promote literacy across all content areas?

How do we create meaningful, active learning experiences that ENGAGE curiosity, challenge students with high attainable expectations, and ensure the success of diverse learners?

The "formative" goals of this unit include 1) practicing how to design a complex lesson that engages your peers with 2) research-based instructional strategies that promote literacy learning. After the lesson is complete, 3) you will invite feedback on your teaching effectiveness from your peers in a seminar setting.

IN ADDITION....

With just one month to the end of the semester....It will be best if you begin to prepare for the Final Examination now! See an overview of the Final Exam which will include an Instructional Design Handbook OR Concept Map that exhibits what you have learned in the Block about teaching adolescents in your content area. You will participate in an exit interview with a professional educator during exam week.